Thursday 8th December, 2022
King Charles III is known for his affability, which has won him many admirers across the globe. But some people do not seem well disposed towards him. Well, it takes all sorts to make a world. Within the first few weeks of his accession and months ahead of his coronation, he seems to have realised how uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. He has already come under two egg attacks; the second one occurred in Luton, on Tuesday. An egg thrown by a youth flew by him, but his walkabout continued, according to media reports. The King is said to have a predilection for going among the people.
By no stretch of the imagination could the egg attacks at issue be considered a sign of public disapproval of the reign of King Charles III, which has not yet begun in earnest. Instead, they seem to be symptomatic of an odd trend that is catching on. The King is lucky that he has had to duck only eggs. In 2008, the then US President George W. Bush had a pair of leather oxfords whizzing past him, at an Iraqi press briefing.
Nobody will approve of the practice of throwing eggs, or any other objects for that matter, at anyone by way of protest, which could be registered in a more civilised manner. But something that the first egg thrower said in Yorkshire, last month, is of significance. “This country was built on the blood of slaves,” he shouted as he threw eggs at the King. Supposing his reference was to Britain’s past sins against its colonies, one can say that better ways are available for the present-day British public, who must be feeling pricks of conscience, when they enjoy the fruits of colonialism and neo-colonialism, to make amends. They could urge their leaders to return the wealth plundered from the British colonies, and make substantial financial reparation to the victim nations. One may argue that the UK has granted tangible development and humanitarian assistance to its former colonies since they became independent. But much more needs to be done by way of atonement, and throwing eggs at the current monarch is certainly not the way to set about it.
Perhaps, the ruthless western colonialists’ sins against this country pale into insignificance in comparison to the grave crimes our ‘patriotic’ leaders have perpetrated during the past several decades; they include mass murders and the plunder of national wealth.
UNICEF’s Sri Lanka Appeal could be considered an indictment of the incumbent regime, which is heaping unbearable economic burdens on the public. It has said: “An acute economic crisis since early 2022 has caused severe food insecurity in Sri Lanka … An estimated 6.2 million people (28 per cent of the population) are moderately acute food insecure, while 66,000 people are severely acute food insecure. Two in five households (41.8 per cent) spend more than 75 per cent of their expenditures on purchasing food, leaving little to spend on health and education. Many families have exhausted their savings and are struggling due to crippling inflation.” This, we believe, is the truth although the government has come out with some cock-and-bull arguments to challenge it. People usually do not believe anything in this country unless it is officially denied!
Our potentates who consider themselves to be the reincarnations of native warrior kings and even foreign megalomaniacs like Hitler, and obviously are a few eggs short of a dozen, are lucky that eggs are too expensive here to be wasted. So, they can rest assured that they will have no eggs flying at their nuts, but they had better watch out for hard objects; the resentment of the public knows no bounds, as sure as eggs. They should consider what they suffered at the hands of angry protesters, a few moons ago, as just a foretaste of what is to come. Unless they stop lining their pockets at the expense of the country, refrain from testing the patience of the irate public, apply themselves earnestly to cleaning up the economic mess of their own making, and respect the people’s franchise by holding the Local Government polls, perhaps, they will have to brace for far worse things than mere egg attacks.
