The Royal baby, Great Britain, Common Wealth, USA and the world at large

At the corner of a very busy street there happens to be a wide kerb which serves as the sun-break patch for members who stay in a very large apartment building. Different groups spoke different languages; Vietnamese, French, Japanese, German, Bengal, Bhutan, Chinese, English, Spanish, Portuguese and a sprinkling of African dialects. The reason for this gathering and murmurs was a topic whose events were happening in St. Mary’s Hospital in London in another country on another continent far away from the Americas. On July 22^nd 2013, an 8 pound (lbs) happily bouncing baby boy was born to Prince William Duke of Cambridge and Catherine Middleton Duchess of Cambridge. The baby boy was named George Alexander Louis on July 24^th 2013.

It is said all sorts of names were put forward by royalty followers both in Britain and outside of it. Alexandra, Charlotte, George and James were ranked so high. There was an expectation of either a boy or girl. No one thought of twins or triplets! But anyway it has been settled and the title of the baby is His Royal Highness (HRH) George Alexander Louis, Duke of Cambridge.

HRH, the newly born is third in line and waiting for the crown. There is a popular saying doing the rounds: the baby makes three. This is a symbol of blessing. And in Great Britain, a Christian land this lends itself the Trinitarian attribute. In it lie godliness, kindness, mercy, blessedness and promise.

I had to get to the library, to get to my very liked haunt on the 3^rd floor in a very quiet well-lit corner, with windows the size of a table-tennis table. I would have told the group about how all children born on this day in Uganda will get to be given names like; Georgina or George. I also didn’t share with them that I come from a smaller Kingdom nation in Africa with a similar arrangement to that of the British crown. I did not tell them that the naming of the royal child in Buganda is so different. In Buganda, the royal child is given Christian, cultural and gender-related names. Like the British we also name after a past long gone relative. Unlike the British, our culture does not reveal a royal child until that child is around a year or two years old.

The world is watching in anticipation. What happens in Great Britain has its reverberation felt at all corners of the world. The message to all of us is that: we are living in a hopeful world with possibilities and opportunities.