Jambo

All Heads of Mission in London representing countries with which the United Kingdom has normal diplomatic relations” have been invited.

These include: Prince Mohamed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, the crown prince of Bahrain, the Syrian ambassador representing Bashar al-Assad (update below), the Belarusian ambassador (representing Alexander Lukashenko), the Burmese ambassador (representing Than Shwe), Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco, the ambassador of Equatorial Guinea (representing Teodoro Obiang Nguema), King Mswati III of Swaziland, and Gabriel Machinga, Robert Mugabe’s ambassador from Zimbabwe..

Are Prince William and Kate Middleton are sending the following message with their list of guests: You can disappear protestors Bahrain, kill democracy activists Syria, starve your people Zimbabwe, allow modern slavery and the total subjection of women Saudi Arabia, and you will be embraced by the British kingdom in all its grandeur at its most significant event in recent history?

Human rights are no longer something that should be on the table in such remarkably public “private” affairs—human rights is the table, and ruthless dictators should not be invited to sit at it. And until that reality comes to pass and despots live in a world of complete isolation, we will continue to see millions of innocent people suffer without their most fundamental freedoms while the world turns away to watch, say, lavish royal weddings.