We’re at the moment ‘mourning’ the loss of life of Queen Elizabeth II and will likely be doing so till September 19, however the truth that in actuality, life has been completely unimpacted for the common Jamaican. It appears many have been expressing their unhappiness with their ordinary social actions and others with their trustworthy and mandated attendance at work every day. What a mournful week it has been.

The Queen, I’m certain, meant quite a bit to many individuals, particularly the British, a few of whom have reported that they’ve missed sleep and have been heartbroken. That’s simply not the Jamaican actuality, nevertheless, and albeit, a lot of all of the protocol and etiquette appears a bit hole.

It’s awkward sufficient having a queen or king at the present time. However now we’re pretending to mourn? And why for 12 days? Clearly in follow, hardly any Jamaican is mourning, so what precisely necessitated this ceremonious gesture? Simply the opposite day, it appeared there was some form of hurry (possibly that was ceremonious too) for us to have the Queen eliminated as Head of State. So, how mournful are we? Simply one other try at maintaining appearances, I suppose.

We’re fairly hesitant to confess that the actions of the royal household simply don’t appear related. Their household drama lacks relevance and so do the ceremonies they preside over and the images they take.

I discover just one factor to nonetheless be related. Will any of the plundered wealth that has been used to beef up Britain’s reserves, and that of the royal household, be returned? Ever?

Paradoxically, this appears to be the one factor some British would love for us to neglect. To distract from the one related concern, we’re bombarded with all types of completely unsolicited titbits of household drama about this Prince and that Prince and the query of which of their wives is extra interesting.

CLEVER TRICK

The opposite intelligent trick now appears to be the argument that by some means as a result of the Queen has died, out of the blue, you might be destined for hell should you converse a phrase that implicates her and her beloved household within the crimes of the previous. Right here is one more empty ceremonious custom that simply doesn’t matter. Historical past is historical past and though the Queen is now useless, historical past lives on. Historical past doesn’t change between the purpose of loss of life of the implicated particular person and their burial. There may be nothing disrespectful about citing historical past. Completely nothing.

Quite the opposite, Jamaicans shouldn’t get caught within the lure of being silenced primarily based on the foolish notion that there’s some type of ready interval that should lapse earlier than the vital discussions can resume. Stated discussions are lengthy overdue and people who don’t wish to have them will attempt something to delay them into perpetuity.

For context, there’s a lot that should be mentioned brazenly, concerning the wealth of the monarchy and the place it got here from. The Queen could have died however her wealth has merely been shifted to the now reigning King Charles III.

The British monarchy actively earns income from non-public property which has been handed down via the centuries, in addition to crown jewels, a lot of which have been dug up from overseas lands in the course of the colonisation period.

The Imperial State crown, which the Queen used to put on on particular events, for instance, bears 2,868 diamonds in addition to different valuable stones and is incalculably useful. A chunk of the most important diamond ever mined, the Nice Star of Africa, sits on the entrance of the crown. The diamond was initially discovered within the Transvaal province of South Africa in 1905. The Sovereign’s sceptre additionally has a giant piece of this huge diamond on the high of it.

MONEY FROM TAXPAYERS

What we additionally know is that the monarchy will get cash from British taxpayers yearly, as nicely, in tidy sums. Final 12 months’s sovereign grant amounted to over £86 million. Nevertheless, this requires some context.

In 1760, when King George III discovered that the rental earnings from the big expanses of land he owned was not sufficient to cowl his bills and the money owed he had racked up, he brokered a take care of the British Parliament for him to show over the earnings from his lands, yearly, for the remainder of his life, in trade for a hard and fast annual grant and debt forgiveness. This association continues to today with every successive monarch ‘voluntarily’ turning over the proceeds of the Crown Property to the British authorities. In trade, the reigning monarch receives the sovereign grant, the worth of which is now 25 per cent of the earnings generated by the Crown Property.

This is only one instance of how the monarchy is and has been a monetary asset to the British authorities. Some estimates put the monarchy’s whole annual contribution to Britain’s public purse at £2.5 billion. So, the monarchy’s wealth instantly impacts the wealth of Britain. When individuals ask why in the present day’s British authorities would owe Africans something in reparations, it’s important to surprise in the event that they know any of this.

All this historical past turns into extra related now than ever earlier than. There is no such thing as a want to attend any size of time to have the vital dialogue of whether or not reparative justice will ever be forthcoming. That’s, in spite of everything, what actually issues amid all of the pageantry and protocol of the present proceedings.

Kristen Gyles is a free-thinking public affairs opinionator. E mail suggestions to [email protected].