African Monarchs! No wonder!

No wonder Africa is such a mess when they are still worshipping 18 year old monarchs......

www.cnn.com...

Wow! This line caught my attention:

The high school student -- whose full name is Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV -- rules over about 2 million people in the largely impoverished Tooro kingdom.

For his coming of age, his subjects gave him a spear -- a symbol of his role as their protector. His mother, Queen Best Kemigisa, gave him a Mercedes Benz.

So the best his subjects could afford to get him was a spear, but his mother buys him a Mercedes!? I think that is the reason why things aren't as good as they could be in this part of Africa. I'm not saying that he is a bad king, only that there must be better ways to use money, be you a king or peasant.

Originally posted by Zosynspiracy
No wonder Africa is such a mess when they are still worshipping 18 year old monarchs......

www.cnn.com...

Interesting, two anti-monarchy threads on the go.

If you seriously think this is anything to do with 'monarchy' then you're seriously confused. There's plenty of places in Africa that aren't run by monarchy and are completely screwed.

I've just had to stomach a year of Americans (understandably) complaining about their economy with bail-outs and various other scams. I'm not aware of America having a 'monarchy' unless there's a secret, self-hating hankering for George the III merchandise that I'm not aware of.

I'm a socialist politically, I'm hardly a monarchist. The truth of this is that people at the top, whether it's a monarchy, republic or whatever, tend to cream the top off for themselves whilst the little guy gets shafted. If you only see this in monarchies, then you're really on the wrong site.

If you read the whole article is says the Ugana central government only keeps the king for the culture side of things he doesnt deal with political side of things.

What about the monarchies that exist in European nations, and they do have power and influence, regardless of what the claim is.

Corruption is everywhere, not just Africa.

reply to post by Merriman Weir


How interesting that there is this avowed trend amongst aspiring socialists to promote the virtues of monarchy?

It is hardly ideal to award by birth, the amassment of untold wealth and resources, that monarchs then use as leverage against the very citizens that they are supposedly divinely empowered to protect, consider and rule.

It creates a class distinction as well, where the monarchs of the world, most of whom, if not all of whom have gained their lands and wealth and titles, through theft, murder and violence, enjoy an elevated social distinction, for emulating the behavior, that if displayed in one of common birth, as being criminal, and punishable as such.

Eventually the bell tolls for all.

People are waking up to the truth and that is what it is.

Thanks.

reply to post by Zosynspiracy


You know every monarchy has had very young kings and queens, right?

reply to post by sonoflibra


You, you, you rant-killer! How dare you?!

Originally posted by fleetlord
So the best his subjects could afford to get him was a spear, but his mother buys him a Mercedes!? I think that is the reason why things aren't as good as they could be in this part of Africa. I'm not saying that he is a bad king, only that there must be better ways to use money, be you a king or peasant.

Well, this probably is a huge problem, but I don't think it's a case of "the best they could get him." It sounds like the spear was thoroughly symbolic. Plus, he's the king; it'd be pretty awful for his subjects to be giving him huge gifts. He should be there for them, not them for him.

Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler
reply to post by Merriman Weir

 

How interesting that there is this avowed trend amongst aspiring socialists to promote the virtues of monarchy?

I'm not sure what you mean by 'avowed trend amongst aspiring socialists' actually means. Do you?

Where is this trend, exactly? Aspiring? Well, after almost 25 years of voting at local and national level with almost as many years of marches and protests under my belt and at 18 months of arguing from a pro-socialist stance on here, I think my days of 'aspiring' are long over.

It is hardly ideal to award by birth, the amassment of untold wealth and resources, that monarchs then use as leverage against the very citizens that they are supposedly divinely empowered to protect, consider and rule.

It creates a class distinction as well, where the monarchs of the world, most of whom, if not all of whom have gained their lands and wealth and titles, through theft, murder and violence, enjoy an elevated social distinction, for emulating the behavior, that if displayed in one of common birth, as being criminal, and punishable as such.

Eventually the bell tolls for all.

People are waking up to the truth and that is what it is.

Thanks.

No it's not ideal - far from it. However, the monarchy are what they are: pretty much removed from the day-to-day lives of everyone living in Britain and they cost everyone living in Britain something like 60-odd pence a year. It's the bourgeoisie middle-classes that's the real problem. They're the demographic that have the biggest negative impact on my life and the lives of the vast majority of the country. They're the ones that actually shafting the proles and the lumpen proles. They're the ones that fill the Houses of Parliament and create and define laws and policies.

Thanks for the lesson in the class system in Britain too. It must have escaped me going to grammar school in the 1970s and 1980s where all my 'masters' wore capes and mortar boards and I had to wear a cap and shorts; where I was caned regularly because of my working class diction and accent; where Latin and Classical studies and enrolment into the cadet forces were all compulsory. Thanks. What was I thinking?

Hawaiians born in Kenya as well.

In my humble opinion.