Royal couple’s philanthropy overshadowed by whining

While Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been involved in philanthropy, their reflex for ongoing pettiness guarantees the causes they help are overshadowed by their whining. They would do well to draw some inspiration from the Queen.

WHEN you contemplate what Meghan Markle and Prince Harry could bring to this world, then witness what they are actually delivering, you can only shake your head in wonder.

If there is a human emblem for the age of self absorption it has to be Markle, who has been the recipient of so many of life’s great gifts – from her birth in the wealthy nation of the United States, to her natural beauty, to her good health, to her education at Hollywood’s exclusive Little Red Schoolhouse, to her lucrative acting career, to her entry, via marriage, to the British royal family, to her present life in a Montecito mansion.

Amid all this privilege, earned and unearned, Markle has succumbed to the siren call of victimhood, portraying both herself and her husband, himself the product of nearly 1000 years of elitism encapsulated by the British nobility, as casualties of variously racism and oppression.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle leave after a service of thanksgiving for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul's Cathedral in London in June. . (Photo by Matt Dunham - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

To be so tone deaf to her own reality that she would publicly recall a tale of a South African actor likening her marriage into the British royal family to the freeing of Nelson Mandela is another signpost suggesting she has travelled too far down the road towards a form of grandiose narcissism.

As Nelson Mandela’s grandson Zwelivelile pointed out this week, his grandfather’s 1990 release from 30 years imprisonment was a defining moment in 350 years of colonialism which was itself the precursor to 60 years of the cruel injustice of apartheid. Riding in an Ascot Landau Coach in an elaborate marriage ceremony costing more than 30 million British pounds, then being publicly embraced by a British royal family still globally recognised as a symbol of aristocratic elitism, is as far removed from a historic landmark in the fight against injustice as a carnival is from a solemn ceremony at a shrine of remembrance.

Markle and her husband live an unusual life. But the constraints they do endure are imposed by the fame that has also delivered them a fortune.

The working classes, and even much of the middle classes, of both countries the couple has inhabited would be fascinated and perhaps deeply envious of the privilege the pair enjoys.

In Markle’s case her position in life is due to a combination of hard work and discipline in her career, as well as romantic serendipity.

What she is not is some victim of the powerful forces of a harsh, external universe over which she has no control, whether those forces (in her view) are manifested in racism, sexism, the alleged insensitivities of her in-laws or hostile media commentary.

Markle has an extraordinary platform and audience to address a whole range of injustices which bedevil the world.

While she and Prince Harry have been involved in philanthropic pursuits, their reflex for ongoing pettiness guarantees the good causes they wish to help are overshadowed by their whining.

The couple would do well to draw some inspiration from the Prince’s grandmother who has maintained a dignified calm while devoting herself to duty almost daily for what is now approaching one entire century.

The Queen is also enormously privileged but has clearly accepted, since her earliest years fixing up Land Rovers in the dark days of World War II, that her position carries with it the responsibility of duty and the petty problems she faces are her own.

That’s been obvious from her stoic presence in a church pew at her husband’s funeral last year to the long forgotten, but highly admirable, demeanour she displayed at the funeral of her beloved cousin Lord Mountbatten who was killed off the Irish coast by the Irish Republican Army in 1979.

The refusal to lash out, to seek retribution, to give in to the self- indulgent impulse to go looking for attention and validation is deeply unfashionable. But the Queen remains an enduring example of the dignity which can flow from simply holding one’s own counsel.

Markle and Harry, it seems quite certain now, will not reach that place. Much of the public, both in the US and in Commonwealth countries which still give a nod of recognition to the role of the monarchy, can see now this is a couple who believe perception can trump reality.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by the Editor Kelvin Healey, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778).

Originally published as Royal couple’s philanthropy overshadowed by whining