Brit Rant: The Other Harry - Big TO DO...

[Steve]

This is certainly off-topic, but I feel I have to get this rant of my
chest somewhere, and as I value the opinions of the people here, here
is where I will rant.

Most people know by now that Prince Harry (Windsor, not Potter) went
to a costume party wearing a part of a Nazi Militiary costume. Without
a doubt that was poor taste and bad judgement, but the worldwide media
frenzy has been rediculously out of proportion. The British government
is even getting involved as is the European Union governing body.

This whole incident with Harry's costume is completely overblow. True,
it was a bad choice and he should have been wiser. But he wasn't
goose-stepping down Oxford Street or attending a white supremacy
rally. He was at a PRIVATE party that had a specific context. That
context being a 'fancy dress party' or as we call it here in the USA,
a costume party.

By the way, he wasn't wearing a formal SS uniform or anything. It was
a khaki/tan military-style short-sleeved shirt with a red Nazi
swastika armband, and an ordinary pair of kid-style baggy tan slacks.
The shirt was worn open at collar with first few button unbuttoned and
the long shirt-tails out, and while it couldn't be seen in the photo,
one can assume a pair of sneakers/trainers.

The real crime here is that one of the people at the PRIVATE party
thought more of his own financial gain, than that of Harry's personal
right to privacy.

If we are going to talk about uniforms and what they symbolize, then
perhaps it would have been better, given the party theme of 'Colonials
and Natives', for Harry to have worn a nice crisp Colonial-era British
military uniform. Do you think that would have been a better choice?

Perhaps we should ask the people of India, the many India-heritage
citizens of Britian, and other African and Asian nations what the
British military uniform symbolizes. Perhaps we should ask the people
of India what they think about the countless thousands of Indians who
were mercilessly slaughtered and enslaved by the British Colonial Empire.

Perhaps we should discuss the Opium Wars. Those with a pathetic
knowledge of history would assume that the British were the 'good
guys'. But it was in fact the British and other Europeans that were
promoting and trading Opium, and the Chinese who were trying to stop
that trade.

Britian has far too many attrocities associated with it's own uniform
to be casting stones at Prince Harry for an ill-chosen fancy dress
costume.

In addition, Harry did not wear the costume in a way that showed any
respect to the Nazis or the uniform. It was worn loose, casual, almost
slovenly, and informal. I highly suspect, Harry was simply drawn to
the military look, and the Nazi aspect of it was very secondary to
it's appeal as a costume. That and the simplicity and convenience of
the costume. Who really wants to spend an evening of partying in some
clumsy, bulky, awkward, tedious costume? Prince William wore black
tights and a leopard skin; sound a little airy and a little chilly for
January in Britian.

I think the Royal Families response to Harry's poor choice was in
reasonable proportion to the incident, and now that he has apologied
and been punished, the rest of the world should get a life.

Further, the overblown, hyper-inflated, inflamed response of the media
has nothing to do with Harry's offense, and everything to do with
feeding the fire in order to make money. This response is not about
Harry misjudgement, it's about seizing any excuse to fuel the flames
of commerce. Despite the likely awareness of the media to what
happened, this story would have been back page fair had it not been
for the presents of a photograph that the media could use to
sensationalize the story.

I seriously doubt that the photographer cared one way or another about
Harry's costume. He, or she, was primarily interested in the 10,000
Pound fee that the photograph brought.

I do agree Harry used poor judgement, but the offense of that
misjudgement is nothing to offense of the greedy money fueled media
frenzy that it spawned.

My advice- lighten up.

Steve