Holiday Residence in Mozambique for the Prince of Orange and Family: 2008-2012

[lucien]

Originally Posted by Marengo

I am sorry lucien, but although I agree with your view on the present prime minister, I don't think the prince is blameless at all. On the contrairy, I find it somewhat odd that we all blame the prime minister for something the prince wants. I am sure the prince has been cautioned, warned etc. and still he goes ahead... even trying to undermine his own security! The prime minister could be more forcefull indeed, but what do you expect from somebody who took his scrapbook of pictures of the RF (from his childhood) to his first visit to prince Bernhard sr.

The debate in the 2nd chamber started interesting enough, I applaud mrs. Spier of the CDA for staying calm (but I only saw the first hour). The alcoholic MP of the PVV was terrribly annoying. The damage to the monarchy isn't all that dramatic though, even the SP (populist left, former Mao-ist and anti-monarchy party) emphasized the importance of the monarchy to so many countrymen and how valuable the institute is.

What the wishes of the Prince are is subject to the PM and the Government as is written in our Constitution,
as a history major you should know that.

The PM is responsible at all times for the actions,or the lack thereoff,by the Monarch and the Members of His/Her House,
the government is responsible at all times to those in line to the Throne.
(In our case HM,and all Royal Highnesses except Friso and Mabel as they didn't ask the consent of Parliament)

Everytime and always matters that have some difficulty are discussed at the Palace and THERE ALONE and many a PM has put his foot down over this that or another thing and we never heard/knew about at all.They,TRH,do feel the tensions in some parts of dutch society regarding their home in Mozambique but they still believe in the ideals they stood and stand for regarding the project.

It is not the right time at the present market,but I think they will eventually sell the property there.

[Duke of Marmalade]

Originally Posted by lucien

What utter nonsense.Your Grace must have had a misinformed day and didn't get to a full translation of facts while it is all about facts,one fact being paramount.We have a hugely/dangerously incompetent PM as HE is the one to blame,he should act while at the Palace.Alexander isn't a spoiled rotten kid at all,and I for one won't accept any of that nonsense by anyone,either here or anywhere else,regardless whom.

But remains,that I too want him to cut that project out of his mind immediatly.He has no business in being involved with the corrupt lot down there.Maybe his intentions where good,and I have no reason to doubt that,nor did the Government as they OK-yed it all,but now THEY act as spoiled kids loosing their toy while there's still plenty to play,ie,work with.

I think we can agree that this project has been doomed from the start and that the PM should have told off WA from the very beginning.

What is the point of having a holiday home in Mozambique? No offence but this country has a lot of baggage I don't even want to start writing about. It is not reasonable at all for a future Head of State to spend holidays or do investments there. If the main motivation is humanitarian, well, there are other ways to help or make a difference. It is so damaging that it got to this point at all and they should get out of it now, otherwise the agony will only continue and cause even more damage.

[Marengo]

Apparently one of the neighbours of Willem-Alexander in Mozambique will be Friedrich Christian ‘Mick’ Flick. He is the grandson of a convicted Nazi industrialist. I suppose he is related to Maya Flick, the sister of Gloria von Thurn u. Taxis.

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by Marengo

Apparently one of the neighbours of Willem-Alexander in Mozambique will be Friedrich Christian ‘Mick’ Flick. He is the grandson of a convicted Nazi industrialist. I suppose he is related to Maya Flick, the sister of Gloria von Thurn u. Taxis.

It's her former husband

[Duke of Marmalade]

Originally Posted by Marengo

Apparently one of the neighbours of Willem-Alexander in Mozambique will be Friedrich Christian ‘Mick’ Flick. He is the grandson of a convicted Nazi industrialist. I suppose he is related to Maya Flick, the sister of Gloria von Thurn u. Taxis.

Maya is his ex-wife. Mick Flick is high society in London, art collector and "patron", somebody most royals would like to be seen with. He's a frequent visitor of Salzburg and mingles with Caroline, EA, Begum Inaara, A class business people etc. His current wife Corinne is from a german business dynasty, Müller-Vivil ... what I want to say is that Flick would be suitable neighbourhood for WA, society-wise

However, the family is super-rich but also associated to the Nazi era, his grandfather Friedrich founded the business empire and Nazi party, a convicted war criminal. His uncle Friedrich Karl "FK" was involved in business scandals and both men refused to pay compensation for forced labour during war. Mick Flick finally agreed to pay compensation into a fonds.

[Patra]

The scandals and bad business dealings associated with the Moxambique Deal seem to unfold all the time. Will it really be worth it to WA & Maxima in the end? Only time will tell, I guess...

[lucien]

I fail to see what a Nazi past of a grandfather has to do with it all except some might think it a juicy story.
Non-story in my view,except it might be an eyecatcher,albeit a poor one at that.
How very superficial and hypelike nonsense.So what?Mick isn´t to blame,and there are more people walking
around with butter on their heads as we say here.

I would start to be upset if Berlusconi was to purchase property there,
thank goodness he isn´t,at least not that I am aware of.Yet.Till then,
nothing rocks me except I find the whole thing not worth the trouble down there.

Africa,OK.But then find something in Tanzania,the old country where the late Prince Claus grew up and loved so much.
Purchase the old estate held by his grandparents.Now that I really would applaud.

[Patra]

What and excellent idea Lucien, I think purchasing the grandparents estate would get much support of the Dutch people...

[Marengo]

From our blog:

Three Spokesmen for Building Project of Prince of Orange

The image of the much troubled building project of the holiday house of the prince of Orange and his wife in Mozambique will be dealt with by professionals. In The Netherlands there has been a lot of commotion about the project on the Machangulo peninsula in Mozambique. There were various claims of corruption, embazzlement, intimidation and violance against locals which already caused the prince to start a foundation that deals with the project.

After the criticism of the last weeks the project it has been decided that apart from the Government Information Service (RVD), three other spokesmen will be involved with the information about the project from now on. As newspaper ‘Telegraaf‘ reports, the communications advisor Frans van der Grint of the renowed PR agency Hill & Knowlton, has been appointed as spokesman for the Machangulo Trust Office. The Trust office was created this summer to represent the business interests of the Prince in the Machangulo project. “Given the great interest and the many questions from the media, the Machangulo Trust Office thought it was wise to appoint a new communications adviser” commented Van der Grint.

Apart from the foundation, the building project also hired a PR agent for the project in Mozambique. They are busy in hiring another one in The Netherlands too. The Dutch PR agent will be dealing with the Dutch press. The RVD emphasizes that they will be the only ones talking on behalf of the prince of Orange and his wife.
In the mean time, political magazine HP/De Tijd immidiately criticized the choice for the PR firm Hill & Knowlton. In an article in their online edition they list some remarkable earlier assignments of the firm. In 1954 they placed an advertisement in 400 US newspapers, claiming that smoking is not lethal. The article also lists other examples.

The discussion about the holiday house of the prince and princess has been dragging on since July 2008 now. The public debate in The Netherlands has turned against the project and one negative article after another appears in the Dutch press. It remains to be seen if these spokesmen can change the present mood among the public and the press.

[lucien]

I am not in favour of this whole Mozambique caboodle project,never have been,allthough I respected their choice at first.

I frown on the costs of these PR boys,but they are payed for privately so that is none of my business.Me thinks the other
participants in the project whom all opted for privacy,have seen that gone out of the window,to their heartfelt dismay.
The Argentinian director of the whole project might have some sleepless nights on how to handle this
whole unfavorable and unlucky turning sour luxury estate thing.

Critizing as HP-De Tijd does.Really,you got to be joking.They have a nerve,and besides,dishing up that they proclaimed
smoking didn´t do any harm.in 1954?4th of january 1954!?The whole world was different in 1954 and everybody smoked,
everybody!!Ask your mum.
Too rediculous for words to come up with such a lame criticism by HP,
not the countries favorite magazine anyway so they love to brew up a storm when there is none trying to catch a crowd.

People didn´t care if it was healthy or not,there was no awareness like there is these days on everything and anything,they smoked like they got out of bed in the morning too,a thing that came natural almost.Let alone that smoking was condemmed as it is today.Ofcourse it is not healthy,it doesn´t improve health,but in these days no-one really cared,they puffed happily ever after.The commercials in the cinema´s like the Peter Stuyvesant one is still on my lenses,or the Marlboro man one,or the very fifties Dame Blanche.It was a different day and age alltogether,in no way compareble to this spoiled rotten present world at all.

The fifties,the aftermath of WWII and the Cold War,the milkman and vegetable man came by your door with horse and carriage,there was a steep and deep divide between the protestant and the catholic part of the nation,one didn´t trust the other but upheld a status quo.
Unbelieveble when you think of it all now,but that is how it was.Everything was só enormously different.Tabacco was used all over not hampered by any of todays hypelike idiocies.The tabacco industry was huge and mighty,very mighty and they only tought of selling.No-one ever would have even thought to come forward with a health related claim.

Besides,I always believe people have their own responsibilities towards their health and everything else.It has become too easy to blame others for their own conduct these days,cry babies all over the screen,DSB comes to mind.

PR boys,trained to talk way besides the thruth,lie even,if need be and it sells,in that they do not differ from any lawyer,
especially not the one of the opponent.This firm tho,has a recent history in mean as the article in HP shows,the fake story
on the nurse in the Kuwaity/Iraq war in the nineties,information withheld on London Airport,that sort of thing has me way
more frawning and shrugging my shoulders in a`what a lying plebs it all is` sort of way.

I do wholeheartedly appeal to the families and real and honest friends of the Prince and Princess to tell them
out of this project,ASAP,this is smelly now but it will be a big stink in the end.

And there is something else coming up that has me worried.Mozambique is a poor country,very poor.So it saw many of its people go to South Africa for work,hundreds of thousands of men and women make a living there while sending money home.That is under real danger as south africa sees an uncalled for hate campaign against any foreigners at present,especially workers from neighbouring countries.A bloody hate and there have been over 60 murders on foreigners already from Johannisburg to Cape Town and Durban and the countryside.This has brought about a huge line of refugees towards Mozambique,a number so big the country can hardly deal with that poor as it still is.

South Africa,that country isn´t the same,it is going downhill faster then Rhodesia-Zimbabwe and no Mandela to stop it,the poor man is too old.

Anyway,with this constant stream of refugees now entering,how favorable will this splash of wealth,this `island of luxury` be seen in the very same country in the very near future?One doesn´t want,or wish,to be involved with this sort of thing,criticism might even grow louder with that splash of luxury here and deep poverty `200 yards` away from it,the contrast is way too strong.Get away from there,it is trouble,now and even more ahead.

[Marengo]

Yesterday, the leader of the social liberals (D66), Alexander Pechtold, was a guest in the political discussion programme Buitenhof. He made an appeal to the prince to stop his involvement in this project, as there is only more trouble to be expected. He also said that the prime minister should act and force the prince to stop.

Last friday newspaper NRC Handelsblad had another article about the project, this time asking questions about the chairman of the foundation that the prime minister started for the project, and trying to link the project to the evasion of taxes. A MP for the green left party labelled the project as a wasp nest, which IMHO is the right description.

[lucien]

It is highly questionable or a Second Chamber of our parliament,or politics on itself at all,should be interfearing with this too much,as also hja of Royalblog states in an entry,a project in a befriended nation.I think not as they have better things to do I am sure.But it is always easy to score over the back of an Orange.And damn cheap.As for the leftists?These cry-babies never had nor will have any saying in anything for a long time to come nor had for a long time,and the times they did,made a mess out of short-lived governments.So much for the leftists and their importance.None.Let alone as a solid block against the ultra right populist junk hairdo and his followers.If they want/wish to mean something,then they should organise there instead of blabbering on a penny elsewhere,as that is what it is.

Remains the fact that I myself oppose this whole caboodle down there,it
is smelly now but a big stink later,too much uncanny and figures not kosher,halal or anything near it involved.

I think that,not yet now,but in the forseeable future,TRH will sell their part in the property there and so bail out of the scam.

[Marengo]

According to yesterday's RTL news, sources around the court say that the Queen had doubts about the Mozambique project from the start. They also say that the prince wanted to go ahead, and he is supposed to have said: 'I am already not allowed to do anything, this I will just do'.

In Dutch: RTL Nieuws.nl - Beatrix zag 'Mozambique' nooit zitten

[lucien]

Originally Posted by Marengo

According to yesterday's RTL news, sources around the court say that the Queen had doubts about the Mozambique project from the start. They also say that the prince wanted to go ahead, and he is supposed to have said: 'I am already not allowed to do anything, this I will just do'.

In Dutch: RTL Nieuws.nl - Beatrix zag 'Mozambique' nooit zitten

A wild claim,not funded nor justified in any which way.Bullocks.

I learned that Mozambique is quite happy with the Machangulo project as it lifts the living standards of the locals
tremendously said their government minister for tourism and the project is really taken off to what it was intended to be.

RTL can claim whatever they like,news,real or fiction,is juicyer when an Orange is involved y nada mas.

[Marengo]

During the press conference in Mexico the queen implied that she approves the villa in Mozambique, as she said that she wanted her son to have a quiet and private place for his holidays, like she has in Tavarnelle. The queen also said that the press should be more correct in their reports.

The prince of Orange told the media that he had sleepless nights about the criticism on the Mozambique project.

[Marengo]

The prince of Orange has had contact with president Armando Guebuza of Mozambique and asked him if the government had any problems with the Machangulo project. He also told the president that any forms of corruption noticed by him will be reported to the authorities immidiately. This was replied by prime minister Jan-Peter Balkenende today in parlament:

Prins had contact met Guebuza - Binnenland - Telegraaf.nl [24 uur actueel, ook mobiel] [binnenland]

[lucien]

It was just announced that the Prince and Princess will sell the villa as soon as it is finished.
They wrote a letter to that effect to the PM.

[susan alicia]

nrc.nl - Binnenland - Prins en prinses verkopen villa in Mozambique

In zijn brief refereert de prins ook aan de economische crisis. „De voortgaande discussie kost een hoeveelheid tijd en energie die juist in deze tijden van crises aan andere zaken moet worden besteed. Dat geldt ook voor ons eigen werk voor en in Nederland.”

excellent letter, I like the fact that he acknowledges that too much time and energy is being spent by the government on this issue while there are more important things to deal with. This case was beginning to look like de Roy van Zuydewijn with Marguerita taking up time of the government. It was irritating.
Also the news that there would be a "no kickback guarantee", there are still kickbacks in Europe, how could anyone guarantee it would not happen in Africa.

[lucien]

"kick backs in europe and kick backs in africa".You miss the point of the "kickbacks".If the heaven plunges down we're all painted blue.

The word to be used is backfire,as in what the Prince states;" any negative publicity concerning Machangulo will be enlarged
to the max and thus the whole project will suffer from the negative publicity each time and again,it will backfire".

As the couple already stated at the end of the State Visit to Mexico;"the constant critisism on the project and the incidents cause sleepless nights"."" With each and every incident concerning the house,it backfires on the entire project" and the Prince and Princess no longer wish to deal with the negativity,they can't and they won't.It is not worth it as it takes up too much time and energy.

Besides the house the couple has more buildingrights on the premises of the project.
Alexander states that the initial goal by the couple,to improve standards for the locals,
will remain to have their attention and involvement even after the sale.As Alexander stated:
"Our participation in the project had grown expectations by the locals,and we would like to live up to that".

I for one have no problem at all with building a house/holiday home in a so-called and largely hyped-up crisis,
but to have it build there,in corruption infested Mozambique,never had my sympathy.

Parliament considers the decision by the Prince and Princess as wise.

[Florencia]

Apparently, the villa is ready to sell.
Article and pics: Google Translate