Thursday, December 26, 2013

About Christmas Speeches and New Year's Interviews

Photo: Christian Aschman / CGD
Last night the Grand Duke's traditional Christmas speech was delivered right into his subjects living rooms - or wherever their TVs are situated - when it was broadcasted by RTL. In case you'd like to watch it, it's best to have a look at Wort whose servicey journalists have even come up with English subtitles. In his speech, Grand Duke Henri looked back on fading 2013 and ahead at the challenges that Luxembourg and its citizens will face in the coming year. In relation to his family, the Grand Duke thanked Luxembourgers for their kind wishes in relation to this year's wedding of Prince Félix and Princess Claire and wished them a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year "in the name of the Grand Duchess, Grand Duke Jean, Prince Guillaume and Princess Stéphanie as well as the whole family". Humble me can only agree with the Grand Duke and wish you the very same; I hope you all had lovely holidays and all the best for the coming year!

Meanwhile, the New Year came a little early in the Principality this year as 1 FL TV broadcasted a New Year's interview with Hereditary Prince Alois a day before Christmas Eve. During the 40 minutes long interview the Hereditary Prince talks about the past year and the political and financial challenges lying ahead for Liechtenstein. In addition, he gave another interview to a new economic journal entitled 'Who's Who' in which Hereditary Prince Alois talks all kinds of economic and financial stuff, and if those aren't enough interview for you, Radio Liechtenstein will broadcast yet another New Year's interview with the Prince Hans-Adam II on January 1.


Source: 1 FL TV, Radio Liechtenstein, Wort

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for sticking up for the unnamed "son of Marie Astrid and his wife"; I think they get a lot of negative comment for no good reason. Also it would have been somewhat silly for them to have attended this particular event when they have a newborn at home and are doubtless extremely busy!

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  2. From what I learned in Business School, Internet
    Entrepreneurship -- from just Social Media Marketing -- has definitely come a
    long way. Congratulations to those who was presented with the award and those
    who were nominated as well. I'm sure the all were worthy of being considered
    for the title.

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  3. I am not a fan of Katie's either as I do not like the way she is voicing some of her opinions and not accepting people with differing opinions but I do feel like a lot of people are criticising her (and Imre) for the criticising's sake. No matter what she does or what she doesn't do, they will always find a fault with it.

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  4. I think this is interesting. I do not think that Archduchess Kathleen is "not accepting" of people who disagree with her stance on abortion and contraception. I just think she is vocal about her views. I don't think any of us knows about her level of acceptance of others. It is likely that she is quite accepting of people with different views, even if she disagrees with them. I am so confused by the assumption that if a person is against abortion, they are somehow intolerant of everyone else. I think Archduchess Kathleen is brave to speak her mind on the matters about which she is passionate, even if the issue is one that is very emotionally charged in our culture.

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  5. What I think of her is not an assumption of her being pro-life but based on interviews I have seen and read of her and from conversation with people I know who have met her. Personally, I'm rather pro-life myself but I don't not feel that I have the right to judge a woman or girl who has been raped for example and decides to have an abortion. I do not think that any woman makes this decision lightly. Katie, as well as her husband, can argue about these matters at the drop of a needle and become rather matter of factly. From what I am told, she isn't very accepting of other opinions during discussions. I think the fact that she corrected a teacher "who was trying to tell the class that the Spanish Inquisition was one of the worst atrocities of the second millennium" is a good example of that. She also gave an interview to Fox News about wanting Notre Dame removed from the list of Catholic universities for having President Obama giving a commencement speech. Asked in an interview whether it wouldn't be better to have an intellectual debate on his stance on abortion and the stance of the Catholic church, Katie answered that the university should not give Obama the platform to speak about his views. Katie has every right to speak her mind, but so has everyone else and she does not seem to be accepting of that. She seems to see everything in black (bad) or white (good) but the world isn't as easy as that.

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