The reigning King Juan Carlos I of Spain, who was baptized as Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, has turned 70. What was he doing on the eve of his birthday? “There was no pipe and slippers for this grandfather over Christmas,” reports the BBC.
“Instead, just days shy of his 70th birthday, King Juan Carlos paid a surprise New Year’s Eve visit to Spanish soldiers serving at a base in Afghanistan. The visit was typical of a king who has always taken pride in an action-man image. A love of skiing, sailing, karate, fast cars, motorbikes and helicopters figure prominently on the royal CV. Getting old quietly does not.
“How many other reigning monarchs would publicly tell Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez to ‘shut up,’ as Juan Carlos did during last November’s Ibero-American summit in Chile?
” ‘There’s a deep-rooted feeling of gratitude for the king’s role in the transition to democracy,’ explains Charles Powell, a historian and royal biographer. ‘Polls show that he is the individual to whom democratisation is most closely attributed, and the sense of gratitude cuts across class and ideological lines’.”
On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated King according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. He successfully oversaw the transition of Spain to a democratic constitutional monarchy. Polls from 2000 show that he is widely approved of by Spaniards.
Juan Carlos’s titles include that of King of Jerusalem (disputed among others), as successor to the royal family of Naples. He is also a descendant of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom through his grandmother, Victoria Eugenie; of Louis XIV of France through the House of Bourbon; of the Emperor Charles V, who belonged to the Habsburg dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire; of the House of Savoy of Italy; etc. More here…
So what is better — Tradition and Experience….Or Just CHANGE…???
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.