Prince Harry Marries His Heartthrob: Congratulations...with some bitters.

Prince Harry, or 'Arry' or Henry, has just married his sweetheart, Meghan Markle, in, as you would expect, a lavish ceremony at Windsor Castle. The show was grand, happy, attended by the high and the mighty and accompanied by the most glittering pomp and ceremony that could be mustered. We on this forum are not immune to some mischief and while we eat and drink and savor this wonderful occasion, we might try some bitters to accompany and flavor our...er...
In case the wine may dull our senses, we should not forget that some of the troubles that had bedeviled the British Monarchy of recent have emanated from marriages. We could start from the abdication of the throne by Edward VIII in order to marry his heartthrob, the American socialite, Wallis Simpson. The whole affair almost engendered a constitutional crisis but love eventually won and the king had to abandon the comforts of the throne for the comforts of the bosom of his mistress. His abdication led to the enthronement of George VI and then the present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, grandmother of our prince.
The present ceremony reminds us of another one, in 1981, Princess Diana getting married to the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, father of our Prince Harry. In ample display was a lot of blushing and laughing and loving. What turned out to be displayed in equal abundance was the confounding ruckus that the marriage, and wedding, had been a bit contrived. Royal blood or half royal blood or things like that. We are glad we are not hearing such things now, Meghan Markle mother's being black, or African-American, according to the latest taxonomy. The only blue blood that has ever been seen is the one poisoned by carbon monoxide. God forbid. You can also see green blood in the horrid alien in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film 'predator'. It wasn't a little turmoil that the indiscretion brought into the monarchy. Nobody can say for certain that the Princess of Wales loved her Prince but it was clear to all, as it later turned out on the pages of the most lurid and obstreperous tabloids that ever suffered to be printed on earth, that Prince Charles actually had his heart locked in Fort-Knox like vaults with that of Camilla, now Duchess of Cornwall. Princess Diana, whom we think is not a princess but just a smart modern girl, was to seek other hearts to lock hers with, an adventure that culminated in a fatal crash in Paris with her lover, Dodi Fayed. Moments before the crash, folks claimed a red vehicle was seen behind her limousine and it wasn't long before Bond-like conspiracy theories surfaced. The controversies are yet to die down. The Queen seemed to have learned some lesson and Prince Andrew, brother to Prince Charles, was certainly given freer hand to choose her bride. The marriage to Sarah Ferguson wasn't all that more successful too and it all ended in divorce. The world is a much more modern, less stable place and there was no way the monarchy was going to secure itself against divorces, love and modern interpretations of marriage.
But not to worry. Marriages or weddings, successful or not, are not what keeps the monarchy going. King Henry VIII launched a torrid rebellion against the Pope in order to divorce his queen, Catherine of Aragon, and marry Anne Boleyne. Whom he then had executed on trumped-up charges in order to marry a third wife. And here we are still celebrating another royal wedding, hundreds of years later. So let's all pour the wine, raise our glasses and holla: 'Congratulations, Prince Arry!'

Muhamadu Buhari, Mahathir Mohamad: The Young Turn to the Old.

Malaysia's case is the clearest indication yet of what corruption does to a nation. For over three decades, starting from the late seventies, the country witnessed unprecedented development: rapid modernization, sustained economic growth and pacy technological advancement. It soon belonged to the elite club of Asian Tigers, alongside Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and North Korea: a group of hitherto poor or stagnant countries that had shed the toga of underdevelopment and almost miraculously had delved into the realm of advancement, helped by able leadership and technological incubation and tendering. They became the envy of the whole world and served as prototypes for other countries that wished to succeed.
Fast track to 2018 and Malaysia's story isn't all that alluring again and the culprit for this downturn is the usual, old suspect: the evil saboteur called corruption. It took less than ten years to undo all that had been achieved over three decades. Allegations of corruption were sufficient, showing how potent a force of destruction this phenomenon can be. National inertia set in instantly, placing on the back foot national enthusiasm, international trust and economic coordination. The Malaysia Development Berhad scandal has refused to die down and former prime minister Najib Razak has just been ordered not to leave the country. So bad and frightening was the situation that the electorate had to rally round ex prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the man under whom the unprecedented development took place in the eighties and nineties. Mohamad is ninety two years now, the oldest head of state on earth, even ahead of the long-reigning Queen Eliabeth of England, and has certainly lost much energy and vigor and for youths of twenty and thirty to have run back to him shows the desperation of the situation at hand. It is easy to underestimate the evil of graft, yet of all the prisms that voters use to view the actions and inactions of their leaders, it is easily the most powerful. The same happened in Nigeria in 2015, when the electorate decided to put their trust in ex head of state, General Muhamadu Buhari, then 72, now75: rejecting outright the then president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, a far younger man. But under Jonathan, corruption reigned supreme, graft and sleaze became almost institutionalized and economic and social collapse was not far away. The two cases are very instructive. Age, vigor, energy and health resonate with the electorate but the very moment graft factors in, they take the back seat. Trust becomes the overriding determinant, both for young and old voters. The old want to protect their savings and the young want to save their future, no pun intended here, and if it is an old and certainly ailing man that will do the job, so be it. At 92, Dr Mohamad is not in the best of health and Buhari had paid several visits to London over his health, even indulging in extended stays to stay well, but bizarre as it sounds, both men might yet win elections again. Without being able to summon the energy to campaign hard. They already had a huge political war chest in their reputation. Choice was no brainer during th 2014 polls once voters remembered Buhari's stern anti-corruption posture in his reign as military head of state and Malaysian voters had little choice in running back to Dr Muhamad. Savings or the future had to be saved.