Those Multicultural European Royals

King Carl Gustaf of Sweden gave his annual Christmas address to the nation yesterday. Our Swedish correspondent LN did not have a high opinion of the speech, and has translated some excerpts from it to illustrate its PC Multicultural flavor:

There must be a way to live side by side in mutual esteem for our differences. This vision we should try to keep alive.

[…]

That is what it looks like in Sweden today and in many places of this globalized world. It is one new Sweden. Young people with roots in other cultures put Sweden on the map in musical styles, in the field of sports, with business ideas that were not there when I was younger. Through all the centuries Sweden has been developed through immigration. The Walloons, who in the 1600s built up many of our iron mills and thereby laid down our early industry, are an example. Another is the inflow of artistic talents from above all France in the 1700s.

[…]

To welcome changes and to let the mixture of cultures and experiences enrich our lives and our social community is our only road ahead.

Zonka read the same speech and gave a Danish opinion on it (via email):
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If you read the speech, it is kind of pathetic. The Swedish king was never a genius with words, and this is a series of PC platitudes, one after another, without any bite or without having a real opinion on anything.

Most of all it sounds like a speech made by a person who is so isolated from daily life, a person who only hears what his bureaucrats tells him, to the extent that he reminds me of Marie Antoinette when she uttered the words “let them eat cake”, unlinked from reality.

And, yes, the speech is very much in the Multicultural vein. It talks about how we can learn so much from these immigrants, like we did from the Walloons in the 1600s and others throughout time. And that he met some enthusiastic youth, when he visited some of the places where there have been trouble, and that these youngsters were ready to take responsibility for themselves and others in sports clubs etc. And that he now wants to build a fund to help such initiatives.

And then he goes into the Climate Change debate, and how Sweden has a responsibility to lead the way out of this man-made mess, yadda, yadda, yadda….

This should be a warning about how some people who are living completely isolated from reality and only get their news through the media or filtered through bureaucrats who have been trained to perfection in the art of PC. In all other respects this speech is a waste of time and effort; it’s a masterpiece of saying nothing in a lot of words.

In a parallel development, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands also gave a PC Multicultural Christmas speech. H. Numan, our expatriate Dutch correspondent, sends this report:

Queen Beatrix gave her annual Christmas sermon. It wasn’t well received.

She spoke about the usual: let’s integrate, let’s work on understanding one another. She said in a barely-veiled way that politicians such as Geert Wilders aren’t good for society.

Also, it sounds somewhat hypocritical ranting about people’s egoism, if one earns tax-free 8 million euros per year, with free housing, free board and a free transportation.

The Dutch papers and blogs are full of comments from not-so-happy Dutch people about this speech. Not one or two, but literally hundreds of very appropriate remarks.

What most people objected to is the singularity of the queen’s speech. “we” should be translated into “them”, them being the Mohammedans who simply refuse to integrate.

A further juicy detail:

Wilders (the barely veiled victim) announced that he will ask questions in parliament, and if necessary propose a change to the constitution, in which the queen will be relegated to purely ceremonial duties.

He holds the opinion that the queen should not give political speeches. As the queen is above the law, she cannot be held responsible, but since the prime minister (who is responsible) didn’t make this speech, he cannot be held responsible either.

Since King Carl Gustaf and Queen Beatrix gave such similar speeches, there’s only one possible explanation: both subscribe to the Royal European Speech Service_TM, “catering exclusively to the monarchs of Europe since 1949”.

It’s now an online service, and can supply a major speech for any occasion. Just get your major domo to download it for you in the native language of your country’s peasantry.

OK, I admit it: I made all this up. Still, it might be true.

And I can tell you one other thing: Queen Margrethe does not subscribe to this service.