To err is human, to moo bovine

I love Denmark, it's my country, but I hate Danes. Our royal family, what a royal pain. I mentioned Billed-Bladet before, the royal magazine of the week, they leech off everything remotely related to the royal family, if someone spent a weekend with one of the princes, they will come back 2 years later for a follow-up interview, it's a thick magazine, filled with devotion to chain smoking, stuffed up people, who for the most part, don't even know how to formulate their thoughts, and end up sounding like monkeys on speed, incapable of speaking coherently. I understand the value, they only cost 72.000.000 DKK every year, not a lot, when it is considered how much they bring in, through tourism. But they make the worst role models (they all smoke a lot), they speak French in private (the Queen's husband is French, and his Danish is terrible), our two main princes (the crown prince and his brother), pretty much care for themselves and none else, the crown prince and his wife Mary, is turning into something along the lines of Charles and Diana, not that extreme but... My real problem is how much people care for them, here in Denmark we have two big free channels (DR1 and TV2), when the crown prince got married, both stations did a 6 hour coverage, and I expect more of that in the future; Prince Joachim (Frederik's brother) just impregnated his wife (when I wrote this), and the media won't let it rest. Of course I just choose not to care, but how much people care, always scares me. I now have a job as IT support at my school, and this secretary I came to help, had a picture for the royal family, right next to pictures of her children.

Does this look like the ideal family to you? Well it might, but it sure doesn't to me. The queen tries hard, but her paintings are terrible, her dresses are horrible, her hats are a common joke, her handicraft (no matter what or which material) is horrible as well, she just doesn't realise it, as none would speak against the queen, who would want to offend royalty?

But that's the problem, they are just regular people, fucked up by a system that still reveres them; the royal family used to have privileges, but since the 5th of June 1849, all of that has disappeared (or slowly waned away); and they just can't handle it, a lot of celebrities struggle with it, but that didn't start until they got famous, and they can hide away; a member of the royal family is in the spotlight from birth, and there is no hiding.

These people aren't descendants from god, chosen by god or anything like that, they aren't better people, they are all the same fallible creatures as the rest of us, and I for one wouldn't want that; I would like my normal life, so I'm not envious, but that doesn't mean that they should waste their birthright, the Queens father and grandfather were immensely popular.
Her grandfather would ride unprotected through the streets of Copenhagen his entire life, even during the German occupation, and became a symbol of the Danish resistance to the occupation. He was also the last king to contain and air of superiority that belonged to the family.
Her father, the sailor king, chose the navy instead of the army, and achieved great popularity as a king of the people, amongst other things, due to his naval career and lifestyle (he rose to the rank of rear admiral), he was tattooed, something that brought it more into mainstream.
Although not a result of his rule, Denmark saw the biggest boom in the economy ever during his reign (in the 60's), Denmark became a welfare state, something was done about equality of the sexes; summed up, during his time as king, Denmark opened up to change and became the country it is today, a modern welfare nation.

So what can be expected of our heir apparant?
I don't know, he tries to appear normal, attending rock concerts and travelling to the Olympics, and he certainly speaks like a commoner (not very nice). On the other hand, his campaign to be accepted into the IOC, is nothing short of embarrassing. This incredibly corrupt and elitist place of gathering, shouldn't be anything of interest to a "contemporary" king; he would never ride through the streets, but what tagging along with his wife? She always seems to know what she is doing, going to Africa to raise awareness for landmines, being the protector of a many organisations etc., and he doesn't do much, apart from the Olympics he is rarely in the common media, so what?

Biographies have been written of course, and I greatly expect him to step forward once he is king, but when will that be? He is 40 years old, and his 68 year old mother is showing no sign of slowing down, unless she is killed by lung cancer (she smokes like a 19th century factory), she could last for a while, as her mother died at the age of 90. If she snuffs it in 10 or 20 years, he will be accordingly 50 or 60, not only a high age to take the throne, but he will be old(ish); will he really be able to leave his mark?

Only time will tell, and now this rant is long enough...