Ruling an empire was as much a matter of deploying symbols as that of force. In ruling us as part of their Empire – “on which the sun never sets” – the Brits held up their Monarch as the symbol of the benevolent father or mother figure that cared for us and our fortunes. So it was, when they decided to abolish slavery because that would open up shipping their manufactured goods to a wider market and rake in more profits – after facing rebellions that sapped their energies – folks in our dear Mudland bought plantations with their first earnings they’d scrimped and scraped together. They named the first purchase “Victoria” – after the rotund Queen who sat on the British throne!!
They were convinced it was the Queen who’d given them their freedom in her beneficence!! In fact, before and after slavery, leaders would routinely dispatch letters to the Queen or King in England asking them to intercede on their behalf. Their working premise being the Monarch “didn’t know what her agents were doing down in the colonies” – and she’d fix matters once she knew!! The two institutions that dominated the freed folks – the church and the school – both exalted the Monarch. The latter was head of the Church of England and the schools had their wards open their day by having them lustily belting out “God save the Queen/King”!!
The Monarch’s birthday was celebrated in the colonies and typically, we natives would be given the day off as a holiday and – in the 20th century at least – gifts like cups and mugs with the Monarch’s pic were handed out. That’s where the term “mug shot” came from?!! Your Eyewitness remembers his parents treasuring the cups they’d been given in school at Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953. As the colonies were gradually granted independence, those that didn’t explicitly to become “Republics” kept the Monarch as their “head of state”. Even those that didn’t, became members of the “Commonwealth” where the role was retained.
Many of the colonies in the Caribbean – which were the first to be colonized – were the last to dump the Queen as their head of state. Barbados – colonized in 1655 – in fact boasted about being “Little England” and only became a republic last year. Jamaica colonized the same year has only NOW introduced legislation to make the change!! St Kitts the FIRST British colony from 1624 has still hasn’t made the move!! They have the company of the Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Saint Lucia. Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
That’s right…Ralph Gonzalves, – socialist bosom buddy of Mad Maduro who puts them ahead of us– still retains King Charles as his monarch!!
Parting is such sweet sorrow??
…Venezuelan gamesmanship
Your Eyewitness is a realist who emphasises “there are no permanent enemies or permanent friends – just permanent interests”! We see this playing out with the Yanks, us and Venezuela. The Yanks’ interest at this time is oil – which spins the wheels of industry. No matter what they say about “renewables”, just like the Yanks bet everything after WWII on controlling Middle Eastern oil , they’ll do the same in our hemisphere to control the Venezuelan 300Billion barrels sloshing around under their soil!!
While our 11-18 billion barrels is a bird in the hand, the Yanks crave the Venezuelan much bigger bird in the bush. So we watch their “hold me; loose me” moves. Lame-duck Biden’s latest move to “de-recognise” Mad Maduro in favour of opposition Leader Gonzalez is a gambit that’s already slowed down oil production that was inching towards 1 million bpd.
Will Trump ratchet up oil sanctions? Your Eyewitness thinks not. In fact he may match deporting Venezuelans with taking in more oil!!
…Judiciary
By now – we should appreciate the pivotal role the Judiciary plays in smoothing out our fractious politics. Your Eyewitness hopes that said politics won’t overwhelm good sense in the present impasse in appointing the four new Court of Appeal judges.
