Hereditary Privilege

If you happen to have turned on the news this past week you might have been surprised to see that only one event seems to have happened across the entire globe. The Queen has left the building. In this week's Camino a Ítaca I look at the succession from the perspective of a Canadian who has emmigrated to another country.  You can click over and see the original version in Spanish in el HOY or read the English below. (PDF en castellano abajo)

Last week my fellow Canadians woke up to drastic change. While they dreamed of grizzly bears, ice hockey, extended personal space and maple syrup, something half a world away took place that changed the way their lives were run. Without consultation, discussion or even politely being asked, they woke up to a new head of state. Like waking up to the worst hangover Las Vegas, Ibiza or Magaluf can offer, the people north of the 49^th parallel woke up to King Charles III.

After 70 years on the throne of the United Kingdom, his mother, Queen Elizabeth II had sadly passed away and after a lifetime of waiting in the wings, Charles the Anxious finally had to go to work.

What does the passing of a foreign monarch have to do with a G7 member state you might ask? Why would the death of a Queen across the Atlantic Ocean have anything to do with Canada?

Well, it’s because Elizabeth was their head of state until she passed and when she did, her heir automatically became the King of Canada. True, it’s not only Canada, but also Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Belize and more South Pacific islands than you knew existed.

Many have the idea that this freakish incident of history has something to do with the vaunted Commonwealth, but in fact it doesn’t. Independent countries like India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Malta are also member states of the Commonwealth, but these nations sagaciously choose to elect their heads of state from amongst their own citizens. Yes, citizens, not subjects.

Elizabeth was loved in Canada and remembered for her fortitude during the Second World War. A war in which many Canadians died. My own 76-year-old mother can’t even recall life without her being Queen. Once, when the Queen was going to visit my province of Alberta, an extravagant bathroom was built in the middle of the wilderness for her in the Canadian Rockies in the event she should be indisposed.

Charles is another case.

He has never been forgiven for his treatment of Diana, someone who Canadians, overwhelmingly, did like. His callous behaviour after her death only solidified the image of someone completely out of touch. An image he only went on to worsen by flying around the world in private jets lecturing on the need to be sustainable or telling people they didn’t look ‘British’ because they were brown. The memes of him struggling with pens have only made things worse. Now, he’s the ‘defender of the faith’. Notice the exclusiveness of the definite article.

But all this absurdity really has nothing to do with people or personalities. A King can be better or worse. They can be closet racists, lascivious buffoons, journalist assassins, or well-prepared Canadian-educated technocrats but in the end they are still sovereigns. Unelected heads of state that normally can only be removed by serious civil unrest or worse yet, all-out rebellion.

Countries like Australia, Jamaica, Belize and Antigua and Barbuda had started consultations on constitutional reform and had been planning to truly become independent well before the Queen’s passing and now this will only speed up.

Hangovers can be worthwhile if you had your fun. But if it means seeing Charles’ mug  every time you look at your currency, time to move on.

How About a Round of Monopoly?

Chavez and Griñán

In this week's Camino a Ítaca we look at the pardons that lie around the corner for two prominent Socialist executives who have been charged with serious financial crimes. Click over to read the original version published in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF abajo)

When you open a Monopoly board in different countries, everything at first seems the same. You’ve got the different colored boxes that get more expensive as you go around the board. That is until you look closer and realize that they aren’t the same.

In the American version everyone lusts after Boardwalk and Park Place, but just across the border in Canada these become places like Yonge Street and Jasper Avenue. In France it’s the Champs Elysée and everyone here knows that in the Spanish version that la Castellana and El Prado.

Even the cards that you pick up while you play are similar. One that seems to repeat everywhere is the ‘get out of jail free’ card. It’s so popular that in English it’s now a set phrase you use when you do something wrong but know you have an ace up your sleeve.

The Americans do it often. They were doing it long before President Ford did it when he granted a full and unconditional pardon to Richard Nixon, his predecessor, for any crimes that he might have committed. Bill Clinton pardoned his own brother for drug charges and Trump even tried to pardon himself before being shuffled out of office.

But like Monopoly, it’s not a solely American phenomenon. Most countries have some sort of mechanism like it and usually present it as a form of clemency, even if it isn’t always used for solely humanitarian reasons.

The putrid smell of pardons is in the air once again here in Spain. This time for the 76-year-old ex-president of Andalusia, José Antonio Gríñan. And like the Americans, it’s his own party that has the power to give him the much sought after card.

The reasoning has been heard before. Thanks to the fact that judicial system in Spain makes the movement of glaciers seem fast, it’s been more than a decade since the process began and who knows how long since the crimes were committed. Added to this, he wouldn’t be able to reoffend even if he wanted. Perhaps the only risk he may pose to society is if he joined the tertuliano circuit.

But we’re not talking about an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth here. It would be impossible for him to repay the money, even if he wanted to. Because this case of Robin Hood in reverse might just possibly be the biggest fraud scandal in the history of the European Union. We’re talking about the man in charge of the arbitrary and fraudulent use of up to 700 million euros of public funds. That’s a lot of trips to both the ophthalmologist and dentist.

Even if these factors were considered, there is one essential condition that is missing: repentance. Both the Government and the PSOE have been silent about Griñán's guilt, directly contradicting the Judiciary. This is where the danger lies, their justification of the pardon has nothing to do with his circumstances, but that they believe he did nothing wrong.

https://www.hoy.es/opinion/echamos-partida-20220903083300-nt.html