Well! At least there is some international happy news! The British empire has a new reason to rejoice, Prince Harry and his wife, Princess Meghan (nee Markle) have welcomed another addition to their family, and what sheer luck! The second one is a girl, while the first one was a boy! How delighted the royal family must be feeling these days. The new prince, named Archie, now has a sister that they have named Lilibet Diana, and need you guess after whom she is being named?
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For us royal watchers, this is very interesting news, not only because the British royal family now is a real model of decorum, with everyone behaving as royals are expected to. And Lilibet is, no doubt, derived from grandma Elizabeth, which should please the latter no end. I don’t know from whom they got the name of Brother Archie, but surely not from the Comic character. First a prince, and then a princess. If the former Meghan Markle did not exactly delight the Queen when Harry chose her, she must have gotten over any doubts about Harry’s choice now.
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Of course the news about the royal baby brought back to the minds of people, not only the British, but probably worldwide, the memories of the beautiful Princess Diana, who was the idol of her generation. Not only was she beautiful, always well groomed, gifted with not only beauty of face and figure, but also a delightful personality. I admitted I was among those who mourned when she died at a very young age, and also at the height of her beauty and figure, but also with a graciousness and charm that anyone could feel even just through her pictures and TV appearances.
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Wherever she is now, she must be delighted with her new granddaughter, as well, of course, as with her grandson. I heard a report saying that had she not been killed in that accident, she would have been 60 already. And I bet she would have been the most beautiful and young-looking 60 of England, were she still around. The new baby, is said to be nicknamed “Lili”, and I am sure her “yaya”, or nursemaids will sing her to sleep with the famous old song “Hi Lilli, Hi Lilli Hi Lo”!
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But as we talk about those privileged children of royalty, we also remember the underprivileged ones of such places as India, where the pandemic has reportedly left behind no less than 577 children completely orphaned by the COVID scourge. Who will take care of those poor little tykes? Do they have enough orphanages, or families willing to adopt them and rear them? Does the World Health Organization agencies have that can take them in hold until homes are found for them? We may be grumbling about our miseries at times, but we need only to think of the plight of other countries to be grateful for our own conditions.
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And as if the pandemic has not been wreaking disaster on the lives of Indian people, the country was also hit recently by a monstrous cyclone that disrupted the campaigns for vaccinations and testing of people, especially the poor. And yet some countries still find time to get into wars, like Israel and Palestine that are still engaged in a continuing conflict until now. The last report on TV said that 2,500 Palestinians have lost their homes and the mortalities have reached more than 200 as of last count.
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By the way, I haven’t been doing much more than just watching TV lately from my “solitary confinement quarters” but I wonder why I haven’t come across reports about our country from the international media. Is this proof of the saying that “No news is good news”? Indeed, I guess it is because I watch mostly CNN and BBC where more exciting items are reported. Ah, but national reports seem to focus on vaccines arriving, or statistics on COVID infections, and the rare recoveries.
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Meanwhile, I would like to ask our readers to remember to pray for our kababayans who have been stricken by this virus and who are now either in hospitals or being treated at home. I am not mentioning names, of course, but let us generalize, because I am sure our readers also know most of those now in hospitals, or on home care. Most of all, let us pray to the Good Lord to remove this virus from the face of the earth and grant our people protection from it. Amen.*
