Goodness, Gracious, Barbados

The West Indian country of Barbados became a republic on Tuesday, having spent its first 55 years of independence as a realm of the British Commonwealth with the queen of Great Britain as their head of state and represented by a governor general.  The move to republicanism has been seen as a way of dissociating Barbados with the legacy of slavery - when it was a British colony, the British apparently carried out a slave system on the island for the sugar trade that was more brutal than the slave system in the American South - and most Barbadians are descended from slaves. There was an apology and regret about slavery and its legacy from Prince Charles, who attended and spoke at the ceremony for the new Barbadian government.  But another reason the Barbadians wanted to be a republic was because of national pride and a greater desire for self-determination.  Having a foreign monarch as a head of state can get in the way of all that.  

Dame Sandra Mason, the country's governor general, became the first president of Baraboss, and one of the new republic's first acts was to declare Barbados' own Robyn Rihanna Fenty, known professionally by her middle name, as a national hero.

Rihanna? A Barbadian national hero?  I've heard her sing.  In a country with a population half the size of that of Wyoming, I guess they can't do better.

At least Barbados knows when to let go of the mother country and assume full responsibility for its affairs of state.  Australia and Canada remain realms of the Commonwealth, each recognizing Queen Elizabeth II as their sovereign and each having governors general of their own.

Which isn't really necessary when Australia and Canada have national heroes such as, respectively, Courtney Barnett and Joni Mitchell.

The Return of the House of Windsor

Just so you know, CNN finally aired the last two episodes of "The Windsors," the miniseries covering the lives of the British royal family in the last one hundred years or so, featuring Queen Elizabeth II (below), this past Labor Day weekend, six months late and having been interminably postponed due to COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter. If you missed it, at least the series is now available on On Demand in its entirety. 

And the final two episodes of the second season of "Race For the White House" are airing later this month.  After that, a slew of new CNN documentaries, about John Lewis and First Ladies, are set to air.

Please note that any of these broadcasts may be delayed yet again if more serious news breaks at the most inconvenient times.  Because while things seem to have settled down (and thanks to COVID-19, how could things ever settle down completely before the pandemic ends?), any one of these planned broadcasts could be pre-empted at any moment due to the instability of the times.  Don't forget the ongoing hurricane threat, either.  Heck, CNN once pre-empted a documentary about the Eagles (which I still haven't seen) to cover a blizzard  I happened to be living through that night.  I wanted to see a CNN documentary to take my mind off the weather!

Oh yeah, "The Windsors."  Well, the fifth episode was heartbreaking, as it covered the dissolution of Charles and Diana's marriage and how the pres turned against Diana in the months and weeks leading up to her fatal car crash, a crash the paparazzi might have caused.  The sixth and final episode was more heartening, showing what fine young men William and Harry turned out to be.  When this queen leaves the scene, it will be interesting to see how the monarchy evolves in the brief period that will be known as the Carolean era (which I assume is what the reign of the future King Charles III will be called), as well as how it evolves when William is on the throne.  The failure to account for King Edward VII, the first monarch of the current royal family, was perplexing - the producers apparently decided that the story began when Edward's son, George V, changed the family name to Windsor from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha - because Edward had a number of character traits that emerged in his descendants.  But overall, it's a good documentary.  Again, the entire six-part series is on On Demand, so watch it.  I highly recommend it.