This photograph by Alison Jackson,
one of a series shot using lookalikes
(obviously), others depicting other
"Royals" looking on disapprovingly,
raises some interesting questions not
only about all that "camera never
lies" stuff, (any good photographer
knows it's incapable of otherwise) but
the possible implications the depicted
happy family scene may have had. Bearing in mind that this lady's
eldest son would have eventually become the "King" and "Head of
the Church of England", and her youngest, no doubt, raised in the
Muslim faith like his father. Consider this against a wider context of
the other Christian countries of Western Europe ("Christendom", as
they used to call it in the days of the "Crusades"), finding it necessary to create a clear, encompassing and well
defined boundary between itself and the Islamic world, let's say, (glancing at a map), across the former Yugoslavia,,,
in an attempt at "unification", a single currency, etc. In its coverage of that conflict, with constant use of phrases
such as "ethnic cleansing", the British media have certainly been keen to promote the concept that "racial purity"
might be more than a myth, (less keen to describe the effects and acceleration of this process by NATO's
involvement). It would surely have viewed this child as representing something of a blemish upon the very
personification of this "clean", "white", "purity". Moreover, to a ruling elite or nobility whose power rests upon a
hierarchical belief system, then living biological proof of no more than a single "race" at the very pinnacle of the
supposedly "God Given right to reign", this child may very well have been seen, as the "right honourable member
of parliament" Enoch Powell described in his famous "Rivers of Blood" speech of 1968, (referring to "a generation
of half-castes") as "harbinger(s) of the apocalypse".
There's a certain irony, not only in that the couple had intended to live together in the Paris apartments once occupied by Edward VIII & Wallace Simpson (now owned by the Fayed family), but that in today's multicultural Britain,
(where, aside the inherent contradictions of any country claiming to be a modern, equalitarian, democracy, while maintaining an archaic regime of hereditary monarchy and aristocracy, the very same "class" and economic systems, particularly since the "Invitation {for labour} to the Commonwealth" in the 1950s, has placed significant numbers of immigrant communities along-side the indigenous, low income, "common" people.
Consequently it is currently estimated that at least 80% of those described as "mixed race or heritage" are less than 10 years of age) already accused of being "out of touch" with its "subjects", (the British people are not citizens and have no constitution) perhaps a little colour in that "royal" family tree may have been the only thing that could have ensured their position in to the 21st century.
I'll leave it to the conspiracy theorists to debate whether that car-crash was a case of 'abortion by mass murder', which, given that they have way more material to work with than with the Kennedys, I think they will be for many years to come.
Does anyone else remember seeing those other pictures of the real happy couple, taken while holidaying on the Fyed's yacht in the South of France, and thinking that for a 3 times a week gym going international fashion icon, she sure was carrying a few extra pounds around the midriff!?
I guess we can only ever surmise what a difference if any a child of such mixed heritage may have made.
31/08/2000 On this, the 3rd anniversary of the untimely death of one of the world's
most respected, adored, and perhaps only sincere forces for peace and change.
Since, as they say "a picture is worth a thousand words", and this particular one,
probably a great deal more, I shall keep this brief.
sAb wHo
(Sabu is an artist/agent provocateur living in the UK)
THERE'Z ONLY:..
Also by Sabu:
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