Birth of a future King

I had planned to right on something entirely different in this post, but given what happened this week, there is only one topic that I really find appropriate to discuss this week and that of course refers to what is now the world's most famous newborn, His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge the eldest son of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. First and foremost let me begin be sending my heartiest congratulations to the Duke and Duchess on the birth of their child, words cannot express how glad it is to see that she had a safe delivery, both mother and child are doing well and most happily of all it's a Boy which is exactly as I had predicted in an earlier post (see http://jamaicatory.blogspot.com/2012/12/royal-baby-and-succession-rules_4.html) .

                                  

While the world seems to celebrating the royal birth I'm sure there are still many whom are fuming that they did not get their wish after all they were praying that she would have a girl just so they could prove a point, hoping to toss out the old rules of succession in order to facilitate their notion of equal primogeniture but now fate has decided to give them a slap in the face they must feel like idiots to know that all their meddling and politicking was for nothing, serves them right, for my part I couldn't be more pleased  and feel no qualms about gloating, well done to the new Cambridge family.

                         
Of course one would have thought that by now politicians would have learnt their lesson about meddling in the monarchy but unfortunately this is not so, just two days after the birth of Prince George, some MPs in our local parliament while congratulating the royal family on their new addition also used the same occasion to reiterate their pro-republican stance by saying that Jamaica should become a republic at least by the time George becomes king, something that might very well not happen until the late 21st century,  while all this going on, Scottish separatist did not even bother with the courtesy of congratulating the Duke and Duchess but rather made clear in no uncertain terms that if their plans to have Scotland leave the United Kingdom should succeed (which I doubt) then they will see to it that young Prince George never becomes King of Scots, even now the birth of the royal prince is still used as a front by politicians to put forward their agenda, it's disgusting that the birth of a newborn is once again used as a political football to for advance one's own mantra, it's like the equal primogeniture debate all over again even while he was still in  the womb, the arrival of the royal baby was used as a tool by politicians in a sorry attempt to make a name for himself, first equal primogeniture and now this, when will these people get it through their heads, lay off the royal family I'm sure that national leaders in Commonwealth realms have more pressing matters at this time.
                                                
With the exception of the UK, no other Parliament in the Commonwealth have passed the succession to the Crown bill in their own parliament although they all promised to do so in time for the arrival of the newborn royal when they met in Perth in 2011, although some have started to the debate, the birth of a son rather than a daughter has surely meant that these plans are now stalled, as are plans to remove the ban on Catholics (or persons married to a Catholic) from ever ascending the throne, a real victory in my opinion, only late last week some pundits were even question whether or not the line of succession would be split between the realms if all of them could not get their act together in time, but with all that speculating and everything else that has been going on, turns out there is no longer any need for it.

                                   
The birth of Prince George now means that the male line of succession is well secure for at least three generations, a feat that had not been accomplished since the time of Queen Victoria, well done to Duke and Duchess, I'm truly glad for the new addition to their family, seeing that newborn being presented to the whole world for the first time nestled  in the loving arms of his parents was a truly beautiful sight to behold, it only goes to show that my instincts were correct all along and I'm glad that things turned out the way it did.

Citizenship oath challenge

The audacity of some people never ceases to amaze me, once again the issue of the oath of allegiance rears its ugly head in Canadian politics as persons wishing to become citizens of Canada refuse to take the oath of allegiance to the Crown. They are claiming that being forced to take the oath is a violation to their rights to freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and other kinds of rights as such they demand that it be changed to suit their own liking before they can take the oath. Of course if someone were looking at it from that point of view then they would be forced to agree especially since they are trying to make this into a human rights issue, after all these people should have the rights to express themselves however they want should they not? Why should they be forced to take an oath that they don’t sincerely mean?

But hang on a second not so fast, let’s take a step back and examine a couple of facts, first and foremost nobody is forcing them to take on Canadian citizenship, they can wail all they want about human rights but the truth of the matter is that Canadian citizenship is NOT a right unless you were born with it. It is they who wish to take on this citizenship and as such must do whatever is required to get it if they really want it. The attitude displayed by these people shows how undeserving of the privileges of citizenship they are, how are they  going to convince anyone that they are truly loyal when they won’t even pledge allegiance to the realm and its sovereign?

Secondly many of them claim that they will not take the oath because they do not like the monarchy (either the Commonwealth Monarchy or just Monarchy on a whole), fair enough everybody was born free and has a right to his or her opinion, but if they hate the monarchy so much, why bother move to Canada, which is part of the Queen’s domain? There were plenty of republics to choose from where they could migrate to, in fact there are more republics than monarchies in the world where swearing an oath to the crown is not necessary, why not migrate there? Canada for one shares a very long border with the United States, if they hate monarchy so much, how come they didn't end up in America instead they would have been right at home there.

                           

There’s a common saying “when in Rome do as the Romans do”, it’s only common courtesy that they either take the oath for find somewhere else that will take them, their actions are akin to guest coming into a home and insisting that the host conform to their instructions not realizing that the house is not theirs to order around in the first place in other words it’s just plain rude. They entered Canada and saw the system operating a particular way, common courtesy would dictate that they either work with it or leave no one is forcing them to stay in Canada, they are free to leave Canada as they are not citizens and are under no real obligation to stay. But they can’t go around demanding that Canada change its laws and traditions just because they don’t like it. I seriously doubt these people if they had migrated to the United States would ever dare to demand that the US change elements of its citizenship oath. No matter how much of a pacifist a person may be once becoming a naturalized US citizen, they  must swear that they will bear arms for their new country if needs be no matter who the enemy is, I have yet to hear anyone challenge that or any other part of the US citizenship oath, so what makes them think they can do so in Canada?, clearly they don’t respect Canada enough to obey it’s law to the fullest extent.

                     

And while on the matter of law, the notion put forward by those wishing to change the oath is that it is unconstitutional in the first place, this is the most ridiculous argument ever, one lawyer even went as far as to claim that an oath to the Queen violates the  1982 charter of rights and freedom, the very same charter that the Queen herself signed into law and which bears her name and seal, the stupidity of this argument amazes even me,  no wonder the courts in Canada have always thrown out these cases as it is clear that they have no basis in law, only in un-Canadian and unpatriotic sentiment.

                       

Some people have suggested that if they don’t like the monarchy then they should at least say the oath first and once they become citizens they would be in a better position to express their pro-republican sentiment, while anti-monarchism in any form will never ever receive my support especially in the Commonwealth at least even they have the good sense to know that trying to change the system is better done from within than without, regardless of my serious misgivings about that suggestion I can still see the point they are trying to make, which is this: foreigners have absolutely no right to dictate what the law should or should not be, only citizens have that privilege and until they take the oath of allegiance and become citizens of Canada, they really have no business lobbying the courts to turn its back on years of national traditions to suit the whims of a few  who were not even born as citizens in the first place, which begs the question, since these people hate Canada’s monarchist heritage so much why do they even want to be citizens anyway?  And what in the world gives them the right to do what they are doing?

                  

In concluding it is quite clear that those calling for a change to the oath citizenship are already demonstrating that they have no respect for Canada itself yet they want to enjoy citizenship anyway, the courts should deny their request and send them packing, The fact of the matter is these people chose Canada, Canada did not choose them, and so they should either abide by the law or go back to wherever they are coming from.

Bahamas at 40

This post pays tribute to our neighbours and friends in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, a longstanding ally and a third oldest existing Commonwealth realm in the Caribbean (after Jamaica and Barbados), Bahamas celebrates their 40^th anniversary of Independence this week to commemorate that glorious day on July 10, 1973 when they were able to finally stand shoulder to shoulder with the other self-governing nations in the world as an equal. The tale of Bahamian independence is a fascinating one, culminating in that moment when the Prince of Wales arrived in Nassau to hand of The Constitution to the leaders of the new nation and declare that the Bahamas is now a sovereign state by decree of Her Majesty the Queen.

                  

Among those who were responsible for this great occasion included Sir Lynden Pindling, the first Prime Minister, Sir Milo Butler, the First Governor-General, other distinguished leaders  the likes of Sir Roland Symonette,   Sir Clement Maynard, Mr. Paul Adderly , Sir Kendal Isaacs, Mr. Norman Solomon, Sir Orville Turnquest and Sir Arthur Hanna, both of whom are former Governors-General and of course the present Governor-General Sir Arthur Foulkes also counts himself among the list of founding fathers who framed the constitution of 1973.

                 

The Independence Story of the Bahamas is very much similar with independence stories in other Caribbean territories, beginning with the formation of political parties and trade union movements in the struggle of universal suffrage and right to self government and ending in the lowering of the union Jack and the raising of a new national flag, like so many other former colonies of the British Empire the new nation choose to gain it’s independence through a peaceful evolution rather than via violence and even elected to stay in the Commonwealth and remain loyal to the Crown by having the Queen as their head of state.

            

The wheels of the Independence movement really began turning in 1964 when after the collapse of the West Indies Federation and the growing phenomenon of decolonization began spreading across the British Empire like wildfire,the Bahamian elected to have full internal self government with Sir Roland as their first premier, he was later replaced with Sir Lynden Pindling who actually completed the process to have Bahamas become fully independent thus becoming the first Prime Minister .