The Queen is dead but history lives on
WE ARE currently ‘mourning’ the death of Queen Elizabeth II and will be doing so until September 19, notwithstanding the fact that in reality, life has been totally unimpacted for the average Jamaican. It seems many have been expressing their sadness with their usual social activities and others with their faithful and mandated attendance at work each day. What a mournful week it has been.
The Queen, I am sure, meant a lot to many persons, especially the British, some of whom have reported that they have missed sleep and have been heartbroken. That is just not the Jamaican reality, however, and frankly, much of all the protocol and etiquette seems a bit hollow.
It’s awkward enough having a queen or king in this day and age. But now we are pretending to mourn? And why for 12 days? Clearly in practice, hardly any Jamaican is mourning, so what exactly necessitated this ceremonious gesture? Just the other day, it seemed there was some sort of hurry (maybe that was ceremonious too) for us to have the Queen removed as Head of State. So, how mournful are we? Just another attempt at keeping up appearances, I guess.
We are pretty hesitant to admit that the activities of the royal family just don’t seem relevant. Their family drama lacks relevance and so do the ceremonies they preside over and the pictures they take.
I find only one thing to still be relevant. Will any of the plundered wealth that has been used to beef up Britain’s reserves, and that of the royal family, be returned? Ever?
Ironically, this seems to be the one thing some British would love for us to forget. To distract from the only relevant issue, we are bombarded with all kinds of totally unsolicited titbits of family drama about this Prince and that Prince and the question of which of their wives is more appealing.
CLEVER TRICK
The other clever trick now seems to be the argument that somehow because the Queen has died, suddenly, you are destined for hell if you speak a word that implicates her and her beloved family in the crimes of the past. Here is yet another empty ceremonious tradition that just doesn’t matter. History is history and although the Queen is now dead, history lives on. History doesn’t change between the point of death of the implicated individual and their burial. There is nothing disrespectful about citing history. Absolutely nothing.
On the contrary, Jamaicans should not get caught in the trap of being silenced based on the silly notion that there is some kind of waiting period that must lapse before the important discussions can resume. Said discussions are long overdue and those who don’t want to have them will try anything to delay them into perpetuity.
For context, there is a lot that ought to be discussed openly, regarding the wealth of the monarchy and where it came from. The Queen may have died but her wealth has simply been shifted to the now reigning King Charles III.
The British monarchy actively earns revenue from private estate which has been passed down through the centuries, as well as crown jewels, many of which were dug up from foreign lands during the colonisation era.
The Imperial State crown, which the Queen used to wear on special occasions, for example, bears 2,868 diamonds as well as other precious stones and is incalculably valuable. A piece of the largest diamond ever mined, the Great Star of Africa, sits at the front of the crown. The diamond was originally found in the Transvaal province of South Africa in 1905. The Sovereign’s sceptre also has a big piece of this massive diamond at the top of it.
MONEY FROM TAXPAYERS
What we also know is that the monarchy gets money from British taxpayers yearly, as well, in tidy sums. Last year’s sovereign grant amounted to over £86 million. However, this requires some context.
In 1760, when King George III found that the rental profits from the large expanses of land he owned was not enough to cover his expenses and the debts he had racked up, he brokered a deal with the British Parliament for him to turn over the income from his lands, annually, for the rest of his life, in exchange for a fixed annual grant and debt forgiveness. This arrangement continues to this day with each successive monarch ‘voluntarily’ turning over the proceeds of the Crown Estate to the British government. In exchange, the reigning monarch receives the sovereign grant, the value of which is now 25 per cent of the profits generated by the Crown Estate.
This is just one example of how the monarchy is and has been a financial asset to the British government. Some estimates put the monarchy’s total annual contribution to Britain’s public purse at £2.5 billion. So, the monarchy’s wealth directly impacts the wealth of Britain. When people ask why today’s British government would owe Africans anything in reparations, you have to wonder if they know any of this.
All this history becomes more relevant now than ever before. There is no need to wait any length of time to have the important discussion of whether reparative justice will ever be forthcoming. That is, after all, what really matters amid all the pageantry and protocol of the current proceedings.