The Prince and the coal miner's great-great-great-great-granddaughter

Front page, 17 Nov 2010 issue of The Times, shows the blue engagement ring, his late mother's.

[Foreword:  We first read about the-prince-and-the-commoner story in the 27th November 2010 issue of El Mercurio, published in Santiago, Chile as Los Middleton de las minas de carbon a Buckingham [The Middletons. From the coal  mines to Buckingham].  The original in English was written by Andrew Norfolk for 19th November issue of The Press of The Times with the title Amazing journey from pit to palace. 

Clipped from the front page of the Saturday (Sabado), 27 Nov2010, issue of El Mercurio.

The feature page of the cover story, The Middletons/From the coal mines to Buckingham.

We clipped several rich illustrations from El Mercurio's follow-up stories and are spread out in this article. Our captions/notes are translations of the newspaper's Spanish text.]
 

As of this writing, it's 26 days to the "wedding of the decade", as one newspaper puts it, when Prince William takes Catherine 'Kate' Middleton to be his wife, "till death do [they] part." 

It's a Cinderella 2011 story, the second-in-line to the British crown marrying a coal miner's great-great-great-great-granddaughter on 29th April 2011!  This could have been unthinkable even in fairly recent times, a would-be-king bringing a commoner into the royal household, a stuff for mushy movies and dime novels. 

From the feature story of 02 April 2011 of ,El Mercurio.  Wedding details shown include the route to the reception from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace; the blue sapphire engagement ring studded with 14 diamonds; the Rolls Royce Phantom VI that Kate will ride to the church; the State Landau 1902 that the newly weds will take from the Abbey to the reception; the main altar where the couple will exchange vows; St Edward's Chapel where the bride and groom will sign the marriage certificate; assigned seating places of the royal family, VIPs and other invited guests. 1,900 people have been invited, and about 2-billion are estimated to watch the live TV coverage.  Five carriages drawn by 18 horses will bring the newlyweds, the royal family and the sponsors to Buckingham.  The newlyweds will be greeted by 21 cannon shots from Fort Amherst.  The British press estimates that the Royal Wedding will cost about $80-million.

 

Kate's ancestors on her maternal side, 27-year-old James Harrison and the generations after  him, toiled underground for wages in the coal mines owned by the family of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon who married into the royal family and would later become Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Prince William's great-grandmother.

Clipping from 23 Mar 2011 issue of El Mercurio showing the carriage and Rolls Royce.  Princess Diana rode in this carriage during her wedding to  Prince Charles.

James Harrison moved to the collieries when these opened in 1821.  It was Thomas Harrison, Kate's great-grandfather, born 1904, who would dare move out from the coal shafts and seek for fortune away from the mining town.

From the 27 Nov 2010 issue of El Mercurio:  The royal weddings of Queen Isabel and the Duke of Edinburgh (20 Nov 1947); Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson (07 Jul 1986); and Prince Charles and Diana (29 Jul 1981).  Also shown are the portrait of Princess Diana and her wedding dresses.

Kate proceeds from Thomas's daughter Dorothy (born 1935) and granddaughter Carole (born 1955)--women who worked hard to improve their social standing.   Carole worked with the British Airways where she met Michael Middleton.  Kate's parents got married in 1980, brought forth Kate in 1982, and launched their children's party business in 1987.

From the 27 Nov 2010 issue of El Mercurio.   Three pictures of Kate Middleton, one taken in an official event, another at a disco, and the third at Buckingham.  Middle photo shows her parents Michael and Carole Middleton.  Bottom right photo shows the prince's parents.

The world of course knows that the prince and the collier's great-great-great-great-granddaughter met at St Andrews University, were into a relationship for seven years, got engaged while on holiday in Kenya in October 2010, and their wedding date formally announced on 16 November 2010.

This is the 28 March 2011 front page of Red i of Chicago.

London is in frenzy these days.  We surmise that hotel rooms have already been pre-booked soon after the wedding announcement.  We can be certain that there is an increasing demand of whatever astute businessmen can think of as souvenir items like the usual caps, t-shirts, key chains, decals, etcetera.  There's The Royal Wedding William & Kate website that features "all the latest news, gossip, trivia" and where one can buy online "china, merchandise, souvenirs, memorabilia ..." and also a running days-hours-minutes-seconds countdown.

Clipping from the front page of the 17 Nov 2010 issue of Express of The Washington Post.

The Royal Mail has already announced that a commerative stamp of the royal wedding is to be launched on April 21 featuring the couple's official engagement pictures.

In this age of instant news, two billion viewers worldwide are estimated to watch the live TV coverage of William&Kate's wedding at the Westminster Abbey.  

We of course do not belong to the lucky 1,900 persons who have been invited to the royal wedding.

Clipping from the front page of the 06 December 2010 issue of My Paper of Singapore.

New lands for the FIFA World Cup; vuvuzelas in Russia, 2018 and Qatar, 2022

It also happened that England was snowbound on the day it lost its bid to host the World Cup in 2018.  The idiom "under the weather" is indeed apt. 

Despite their strong presence in Zurich, Prime Minister David Cameron, Prince William and former football captain David Beckham did not fire up enthusiasm among the 22 members of the FIFA governing body, which gave England only two votes. 

On the other hand, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin canceled initial plans to be there before the secret voting.  Despite his absence, Russia won the bid, reason for him to fly to Zurich to receive the award.  "If you don't take risks, you don't drink champagne," he's reported to have quoted this Russian saying.

Football fans may expect Russia to build stadiums in 13 host cities from Kaliningrad in the west to Yekaterinburg in the east at a cost estimated at around $10 billion. 

Beckham could only cry for England's bitter disappointment. The other losers were Holland-Belgium and Spain-Portugal. 

US President Obama, on the other hand, accused FIFA for making a "wrong decision" when the hosting of World Cup 2022 went to Qatar.  The US, Australia, South Korea and Japan bid for the site.

"We go to new lands" was how FIFA president Sepp Blatter explained the choices. 

Qatar is an interesting issue. It has never qualified for the World Cup finals. It's in the Middle East, and there's the risk from desert heat. FIFA must have strongly believed that Qatar can deliver its "commitment to  

to spend $42.9 billion on infrastructure upgrades and $4 billion to build nine stadiums and renovate three others [and all of them] will have a state-of-the art cooling system that will keep temperatures at about 27 degrees Celsius (81 F)."

Recommended reading on the operational risk assessment and selection of Russia and Qatar as hosts:  "FIFA overlooks risks in picking Russia and Qatar" (04 December 2010) by Stephen Wilson, AP Sports Writer, accessible from My Star online  at http://football.thestar.com.my/story.asp?file=/2010/12/4/football_latest/20101204072455&sec=football_latest

We found this front page cartoon, which came out before the FIFA selection event, very amusing.  It derives its humor from the Wikileaks, insinuating that Julian Assange could possibly do some mining in the rich field of intrigues, accusations and suspicions in international sports organizations, and in this instance, the FIFA.  Who knows if there were also "unclassified", "classified" and "secret" cables that were exchanged in the selection of Olympic, World Cup and other international sports events?