We just posted this
status report to law_pundit at Twitter:
Talk about ! in with 11 of the
These photos show one advantage of monarchies over elected representation: continuity of leadership. The politicians come and go, but Kings and Queens endure!
Long live the Queen!
Not being a British subject, we nevertheless mean that sincerely.
Here is our take on royalty and monarchy as a model for the Baltic nations, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
When the Baltic nations obtained their independence from the USSR (Soviet Union) some 20 years ago, I suggested to some powerful people in Latvia then that they unite the Baltic States politically, since they compose a "regional unity" (see Antonius Piip wrote in
The Baltic States as a Regional Unity,
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 168, American Policy in the Pacific (Jul., 1933), pp. 171-177, published by
Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the
American Academy of Political and Social Science (the article is at JSTOR)).
My idea was to establish one political entity from the three Baltic States and call it the
Baltic Union, a political commonwealth whose unity would make the Baltic nations much more powerful in defending their own vested interests in this competitively dangerous world.
At the same time, my solution would also have called for each nation to establish its own "elected"
monarchy, whose business would not be to run the nation's political affairs, but rather to act as the symbolic standard bearer for their own particular nation, using the United Kingdom as an example. One Baltic Union. Three Baltic Kingdoms.
In this manner, each of the Baltic States, i.e. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, would retain their individuality and sovereignty in their own elected monarch, but they would merge their political systems for their mutual economic (i.e. financial), social and military benefit.
Unfortunately, my sensible ideas fell on deaf ears. Most politicians in the Baltic States have, unfortunately, had no better idea about the future of their countries and peoples than but to follow the same exact mistakes that have been made in the Baltic region for centuries. Everyone wants to "run things", but few know how. Where in the entire Baltic region has anyone developed any NEW ideas about how to take a different path than the unsuccessful paths already taken in history? You have the same old demagogues now that you had before. Nothing has changed. Incompetent leadership prevails everywhere and it is no surprise to see the financial difficulty in which these nations currently find themselves.
I also suggested at the time of independence, for example, that the Baltic nations were - and still are - in the enviable position of ultimately banning private combustion vehicles from their cities and roads. Given the sparse population of the Baltic, there is no need for gasoline driven vehicles, except for trucks (lorries) and gasoline-driven equipment. Riga, for example, has become traffic congested beyond all description - for no sane reason. NO ONE needs all these cars in Riga. No one. Indeed, one reason that the Baltic nations have such economic problems is precisely because a gasoline-motor-centered economy was imposed upon them in circumstances where it was idiotic to do so. How much of the current Baltic deficit is accounted for by purchases of motor vehicles that no one really needs?
The Baltic States - as the Baltic Union - could adopt a time plan for supplanting motor vehicles by electrical vehicles in the private sector. There are very few main roads in these countries. Switching to electric vehicles would not be a burden. There are also only a handful of larger cities, all of which would be much better places without vehicles having gasoline engines.
Rather than following other blind leaders blindly, my dear friends in the Baltic, why, for a change, not think ahead and be the pioneers instead???? If you continue to act like once oppressed peoples, you are still oppressed. Move forward - the past can not be changed.
