re: "Quick Takes, June 16, 2011"

MikeM. at Confederate Yankee ("Because liberalism is a persistent vegetative state.") shares some quick takes.

Money quote(s):

"ITEM: He Did WHAT?! Remember, gentle readers, the war over the Falkland Islands? You remember that Argentina seized the British Islands in 1982 and the Brits, plucky critters that they are, seized them back? Since taking office, one of the foremost elements of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy has been egregiously insulting our allies, and none more stupidly and regularly than the British. Last June, he backed an Argentinian call for “negotiations” over the islands (read: for forcing the British to give them to Argentina). And now, fresh from his latest diplomatic debacle of insulting the Queen with a clumsy toast, he has again backed a similar resolution. Oh yes, Argentina is more and more allying itself with our declared enemies in the region, so it’s a cinch that Mr. Obama would support them. Go here for the story."

&

"ITEM: Louis Renault Award, Smart Diplomacy Division. I was shocked, shocked! when I discovered that Mr. Obama and the State Department were—how should I put it? Naïve? Foolish? Abysmally stupid?—in their approach to Egypt and their assumption that everything would be just fine, because after all, the Muslim Brotherhood are really just a bunch of moderates who long for democracy. Right. Not so much. Go here to the Washington Post, which speaks of the current and ongoing battle for the future of Egyptian culture. Will Egypt continue to be a reasonably secular democracy or an Islamic theocracy with all that implies? “There is going to be a battle between two visions for Egypt,” the article quotes. Indeed. And the Islamists are heavy favorites as they will have no hesitation in murdering anyone who disagrees with them. Smart diplomacy indeed."

JO - The Commonwealth at 60: Who should be its next head?

Jamaica Observer

The Commonwealth at 60: Who should be its next head?

SIR RONALD SANDERS

Sunday, May 03, 2009


THE modern Commonwealth - a voluntary group of 53 nations - celebrated 60 years of existence on April 28. For all but four years, Queen Elizabeth II has been the head of the Commonwealth. Now, as the Commonwealth looks to the future, it also has to anticipate the need for a new head.


SIR RONALD SANDERS


The Queen turned 83 years old just seven days before the modern Commonwealth's 60th anniversary. Her father, George VI, was the British king in 1949 when what was then an eight-nation grouping looked set to break up over the desire by India to become a republic. Up to that point Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan and Ceylon (later Sri Lanka) had a common head of state - the British Crown. India, which had become independent in 1947, decided that it wished to become a republic with its own head of state. In what was a remarkable demonstration not only of good sense, but also a desire to keep the Commonwealth together, the Indian government affirmed India's desire "to continue full membership of the Commonwealth and accepted the King as the symbol of the free association of its independent member nations and as such the head of the Commonwealth".

Read the whole article here.

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Responses to: ronaldsanders29@hotmail.com

Sir Ronald Sanders is a consultant and former Caribbean diplomat.

JG - ABSURDITIES - Balancing political and economic rights

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Gleaner

ABSURDITIES - Balancing political and economic rights

published: Sunday June 29, 2008

Robert Buddan, Contributor

Bruce Golding says it is a constitutional absurdity that a Commonwealth citizen can vote and be elected to the Jamaican Parliament after spending only a year in Jamaica, while a Jamaican citizen who lives overseas and is a citizen of another country cannot be elected here.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"A foreigner, Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth can, and is encouraged to invest, that is, buy and own any amount of prime agricultural land and mineral resources, beachfront property and assets of all kinds which most Jamaicans cannot afford to own, but at the same time those same Jamaicans can constitutionally vote and be elected to the country's Parliament and become prime minister.

In other words, one has to be a Jamaican citizen to be prime minister but anyone can own Jamaica."

"Is it really the right to sit in Parliament that it should be talking about, or the right as citizens to come first in economic opportunities?

It was not absurd when the parliamentary committee with representatives from the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP) considering the Jamaican independence constitution agreed to allow Jamaicans the right to enjoy dual citizenship and all the economic, social, civil and political rights of Jamaicans even if they were born or lived abroad and chose to have dual citizenship, a magnanimous gesture, except only for the proviso that they would not be allowed to serve in sensitive offices of the state."

&

"We still have not resolved the absurdity of having a Queen of England as our monarch, who has refused to apologise for enslaving us and who requires us to have a visa to come and visit her country."

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Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email: robert.buddan@uwimona.edu.jm.

re: "Protocol"

Lex at Neptunus Lex ("The unbearable lightness of Lex. Enjoy!") compares and contrasts.

Money quote(s):

"I’m a little less excited about Michelle Obama’s “undue” familiarity with the British monarch, than I am the president’s unnecessary obeisance to the House of Saud."

&

"(A)re there no professional bureaucrats left at the State Department to prevent the first family from embarrassing the country?

It’s almost like the leadership at State wants them to stumble."

(Emphasis in original. - CAA.)

re: "Smart power: Obama gets the queen . an iPod"

Allahpundit at Hot Air ("get your fill") comments on the Queen's gift.

Money quote(s):

"(N)othing says “special relationship” like a gadget you can buy in every mall in the western world."

&

"Seriously, none of this merits a firing or three in the protocol office?"

re: "Dishonoring the honours"

EURSOC is none too pleased at Sen. Kennedy's honorary knighthood.

Money quote(s):

"(T)he Queen will be expected to honour a man who supported the filth who murdered her husband's uncle, Lord Mountbatten; who attempted to murder her government, though succeeded in killing several government ministers; who murdered thousands of British subjects in their attempt to destroy her United Kingdom?"