Queen Fabiola in Hospital for Lung Problems; Jan. 2009

[MAfan]

Belgians declare Queen dead
Belgians declare Queen dead - Telegraph

When I read the title of your post, my heart has started...

 

[chaimae]

Belgians declare Queen dead
Belgians declare Queen dead - Telegraph

ohhh my godness when i red the title i started to cray i hope a speed recovery for the queen ,

 

[MAfan]

You're not the only one...

 

[lucien]

HM King Albert II visited his sister-in-law today.

The Palace does not give names of any other Members of the Royal Family who visited Queen Fabiola.

No new communique concerning the condition of Queen Fabiola has been released today,yet.

 

[zinzen]

I hope that Queen Fabiola will soon recover

 

[BMC]

You have stated this perfectly.

Thank you. I realize that given her age and the seriousness of her illness the odds of recovery are not in her favor, so should it be her time to go I would not want her to suffer in any way.

But you never know....with all the love & prayers going out to her, she just might make it. Let's hope so!

 

[Elspeth]

When I read the title of your post, my heart has started...

I've edited that post to hopefully make it clear that the statement was a mistake.

 

[Enrique]

I Hope She gets well soon

 

[pamk]

She has always looked so frail - hopefully, she can make a full recovery.

 

[sgl]

Have there been any updates on her condition? I have tried to search, but have not had any luck. My thoughts and prayers are with her.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

Queen Fabiola has looked so increasingly frail in the past few years I have been living in dread of hearing something like this, but I am not surprised.

Jumping the gun on the death announcement and interviewing Belgians in the street about it is TACKY beyond belief.

I am praying for her recovery, but if it's not meant to be-a peaceful and painless transition from this life to her much loved and much missed Baudouin.

 

[Lady Marmalade]

I truly hope she gets well soon. I have always admired her dignified manner.

 

[SASSY]

I can NOT believe they would make a mistake like that!

I noticed how frail she was at the wedding in December. She has had a very full life and I find her fascinating. I believe it's in Gods hands.

 

[lucien]

Till now Flanders has shown little to no respect at all towards Queen Fabiola being ill and at Intensive Care.
The comments in the papers are such that several papers,ao,"Het Belang van Limburg",have to censor their
websites according to Royalblog.......


http://www.royalblog.nl/

Courtesy HJA.

 

[BMC]

Till now Flanders has shown little to no respect at all towards Queen Fabiola being ill and at Intensive Care.
The comments in the papers are such that several papers,ao,"Het Belang van Limburg",have to censor their
websites according to Royalblog.......


http://www.royalblog.nl/

Courtesy HJA.

Now that is just disgusting. It's fine if someone does not support the monarchy, or even wants to abolish it. But to show so little respect for someone who tried to serve her adopted country, that is just wrong.

 

[LadyLeana]

As far as I know, there hasn't been an update on her condition since 21st.

Mathilde & Philippe also have visited her, according to a newspaper article I read earlier today.

It's a disgrace how people write about the poor woman. She gave up her life to become queen of this stupid country, only to find out that, apparently, people don't appreciate it she outlives her husband by 15 years. How shortlived the human memory is...

However, it isn't only the Flemish press who is tacky...
The Walloon newspaper "La Libre Belgique", normally very belgicistic & royalist, used a tasteless advert on Google and other websites, heading the Queen was dead, with (in very small letters beneath it) that vrt and GVA declared this wrongly on their websites. So for anyone who doesn't read the small letters (most people), this was quite the shock.

They later removed the advert, and said it was indeed rather tasteless and "unfortunate".

 

[sgl]

I don't understand why the media has to be so cruel. It is one thing to be anti-monarchy, but it is another to make light of this poor woman's situation. How would these reporters feel if this was their grandmother, mother, sister, wife, etc? I doubt very much that they would find it appropriate to see people being rude toward their loved one.

There was a well-known religious leader in the US who passed away recently. Many people disliked him vehemently (myself included), but when he passed, we didn't have rude, disrespectful reports about him either. The press just covered the story without making comments. Why can't the Belgian press do the same? After all, monarchy or not, this woman has a family that loves her. Regardless of what her family happens to do for a living, the press needs to remember that they are human beings who are worried about their loved one.

 

[kirstie]

It's a disgrace how people write about the poor woman. She gave up her life to become queen of this stupid country, only to find out that, apparently, people don't appreciate it she outlives her husband by 15 years. How shortlived the human memory is...

Sorry, but I have to respond to this quote!
First of all, may I say that as Flanders is one of the wealthiest regions in the world, I can reassure you that we are not stupid ...
I find it very weird that our country always seem to be put in a bad light in the papers and on fora

Second of all, I would like to say that you're overreacting. Queen Fabiola is very much loved. Problem is that our country is divided.
The main reason for this is ... money. You have to understand that every year lots of money goes from Flanders to Wallonië. So Flanders finances a great deal of the monarchy, when it comes to it...
When papers then write (correct!) stories about Prince Laurent getting hunderd thousands of euros every year to preform 5 official tasks, perhaps then you can understand why people are not enthousiastic anymore. We are not immune for the financial crisis. It think when it was announced that their dotation was adapted to the inflation, many were not amused. Why? you see, because of the political problems, the adaption to inflation for the working class was not yet reached...
I can understand that people who lost lots of money because of the crisis, and whoms salary was not adapted yet, had negative feelings towards the royal house (I know that it's not the Royals fault, and that the King refused the inflation adaption, but it's yet something more to the pile...)

And it is not only Laurent! You have to keep in mind, that we had to finance 2 Queens for years, and worst part, Liliane did nothing for our country. Funny thing is, that that woman stole a great amount in Laken, in fact everything was gone when they moved out. The people were furious when she sold off (well her childern) all that stuff over her death
And that is just a piece of the iceberg.

But I can reassure you that nobody wants her dead, and that the papers were only trying to sell more papers with those ridicious covers! The VRT has 'a ready story' for when Fabiola dies, but every newsstation has also a story in line for Queen Elizabeth ... It was just an accident, and it was only on their website. They did not broadcast that!

Last thing I wanted to add ... Flanders is currenlty in great shock, after the murder of babies in Dendermonde, and I think that's probably the reason why so little people in Flanders are thinking about Fabiola right now!

But, surely ... no hard feeling, just wanted to clear things up.

 

[LadyLeana]

Sorry, but I have to respond to this quote!
First of all, may I say that as Flanders is one of the wealthiest regions in the world, I can reassure you that we are not stupid ...
I find it very weird that our country always seem to be put in a bad light in the papers and on fora

I know, I live here too. I agree I was a bit to harsh on this country, but the media here can just make me so mad with their ever biased reports, so my sincerest apologies to my country of birth...

But I don't know if you followed Lucien's link to that blog where they quoted some of the reactions to the poor woman's health on websites of papers. You would be disgusted, as I was. Calling Fabiola a Spanish vulture, and not even jokingly, that sets my blood boiling. Hence the (a little too) fierce reaction.
That is alwo why I said "memory seems to be shortlived".

And I agree it is very unfortunate our country seems to be always in the media in the wrong way. There are many good things happening here as well. Only good things are not half as newsworthy as the bad stuff. So that would explain.

Second of all, I would like to say that you're overreacting. Queen Fabiola is very much loved. Problem is that our country is divided.
The main reason for this is ... money. You have to understand that every year lots of money goes from Flanders to Wallonië. So Flanders finances a great deal of the monarchy, when it comes to it...
When papers then write (correct!) stories about Prince Laurent getting hunderd thousands of euros every year to preform 5 official tasks, perhaps then you can understand why people are not enthousiastic anymore. We are not immune for the financial crisis. It think when it was announced that their dotation was adapted to the inflation, many were not amused. Why? you see, because of the political problems, the adaption to inflation for the working class was not yet reached...
I can understand that people who lost lots of money because of the crisis, and whoms salary was not adapted yet, had negative feelings towards the royal house (I know that it's not the Royals fault, and that the King refused the inflation adaption, but it's yet something more to the pile...)

And it is not only Laurent! You have to keep in mind, that we had to finance 2 Queens for years, and worst part, Liliane did nothing for our country. Funny thing is, that that woman stole a great amount in Laken, in fact everything was gone when they moved out. The people were furious when she sold off (well her childern) all that stuff over her death
And that is just a piece of the iceberg.

As a matter of fact, a dotation is not a salary. The children of King Albert are by law prohibited from working. So they get a pecuniary compensation, called the dotation. People tend to forget that. But for discussions of the dotation, I would like to refer you to this thread. Also, please try to keep the community struggle out of here, as we do not allow political discussions not connected to royals.

And Lilian was a bitter woman, who would have made a beautiful representative for Belgium, but hardly a queen of the Belgians. She was embittered for being so unappreciated, and for never becoming Queen of the Belgians in the first place. From her point of view, it was only normal she would give everything to her own children and not back to the country.

But I can reassure you that nobody wants her dead, and that the papers were only trying to sell more papers with those ridicious covers! The VRT has 'a ready story' for when Fabiola dies, but every newsstation has also a story in line for Queen Elizabeth ... It was just an accident, and it was only on their website. They did not broadcast that!

That sensationalism is exactly what most of us are protesting against. I am sure everyone on this forum understands by now that the Belgian press (whichever region they are from) are not representing the thoughts of most people. They are just sensational. And I agree that VRT & GVA's little mistake was just that, an unfortunate mistake. But I would think that when you prepare a death announcement of someone who is still very much alive, you would be double careful not to make it public.
And LLB's advert was just tacky.

Last thing I wanted to add ... Flanders is currenlty in great shock, after the murder of babies in Dendermonde, and I think that's probably the reason why so little people in Flanders are thinking about Fabiola right now!

But, surely ... no hard feeling, just wanted to clear things up.

Of course, the whole world is in shock over these murders. But the fact that some of us want to know something about the Queen's health does not put what happened in Dendermonde in the margins/shadows. These are just two completely different things.

No hard feelings indeed

 

[Marengo]

I am afraid that verbal abuse goes hand in hand with anonimous websites where you can leave comments on newsitems. Esp. the newspapers of lesser quality are troubled by this, like the site of Het Laatste Nieuws. They now have a new policy that people have to become a member in order to post, which helped slightly. Not only the Flemmish newspapers suffer from this thing, ut the anonimity of internet brings up the worst in people everywhere, I remember some abusive stuff people wrote on the Dutch Telegraaf site when Ingrid Betancourt was rescued, which made me contact the webmaster (who deleted the comments).

 

[Empress]

It is not unusual for major media outlets to have B roll and a story ready to go for deaths of major world players. The Pope, The US President, Queen Elizabeth, The British Prime Minister, Kofi Annan, etc. This allows them to go immediately to "press" when something happens.

This is a terribly unfortunate thing to have happened, though. Imagine reading about your family members death, when you thought that they were very much alive, only to find out that they are alive...

 

[Royal Fan]

when it happens how large will the Service be a State Event ect hope its still far off!

 

[sgl]

Have any more updates been released regarding Queen Fabiola's condition?

 

[lucien]

Have any more updates been released regarding Queen Fabiola's condition?

Yes,HM condition is the same.Short statement I know,but there isn't more than just this.
No change,HM is still at the intensive care unit and stabile.

 

[Menarue]

Unfortunately this doesn´t sound good. I can only hope that she will be better soon.

 

[BMC]

Unfortunately this doesn´t sound good. I can only hope that she will be better soon.

But on the other hand, her condition is not deteriorating. I'm trying to look on the positive side here, I know she is very ill.

 

[Paty]

The Royal House has an special enrtry about Queen Fabiola condition

27/01/2009
La Reine Fabiola

Etat de santé de la Reine Fabiola

L’état de santé de la Reine Fabiola reste sérieux et stable. Le traitement est plus long que prévu. Le séjour au service des soins intensifs est prolongé.

It said that her condition continues being serious and stable. The treatment is longer of the expected. She will stay in unit of intensive care some more time.

Monarchie - Bienvenue

 

[lucien]

News Summary Royalblog.nl: Queen Fabiola remains in intensive care

courtesy Royalblog.

 

[Royal Fan]

My Prayers are with her!

 

[sgl]

Thank you, Lucien and Paty. It sounds like she is receiving excellent care. I really hope that she is comfortable and not in any pain. My prayers are with her and her family.