Word: henri
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...account for an almost 40% increase in demand in the past three years. The challenge for Rosenberg and other criollo growers now is to make the plantations viable enterprises. Yet modernity hasn't quite arrived at the Monterosa hacienda, set in the tropical forest of the Henri Pittier National Park. Workers here are drying cacao much the same way they have for 250 years...
...Christianization" of Europe amongst the central tenants of his papacy. Unlike the Pope, though, the Luxembourg monarch must face the realities of democracy. Aware that it would be the first time since 1912 that a Duke or Duchess of Luxembourg has defied the will of the elected government, Henri called on Parliament to change the Constitution to strip him of the power to approve laws. On Thursday, the Luxembourg Parliament voted overwhelmingly to approve the measure, which will become law on a second reading in the coming days. In the future, the reigning Duke or Duchess will only sign decrees...
...Since the Duke's annuncement, throne-watchers in Luxembourg have wondered why their head of state would take such a rigid stand on principle. Some speculate that the religious hardline is driven by the Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, Henri's wife and the mother of his five children. The Cuban-born daughter of Spanish aristocrats, the Grand Duchess has made her staunchly traditional Catholicism evident, and is believed to be very influential in her husband's public decisions...
...Henri wants to avoid popular dissent around his reign, which may help explain his decision to cede political authority in order to hold on to the Duke's role as symbol of national unity. Michel Pauly, a professor of transnational Luxembourg history at the University of Luxembourg, says stripping the Duke of any legislative authority is the "natural democratic evolution" of the country, and predicts that Luxembourg will eventually go down the path of the purely ceremonial monarchy in place in countries such as Sweden and Denmark...
...More importantly, Pauly says, is Henri's ongoing trouble with "public relations," since taking over from his well-liked father in October 2000, including his attempt to sell the family's forests to the state for a massive profit. "Henri doesn't have full popular legitimacy," says Pauly. "He has to find a new way to legitimate his role." Achieving such broad consent may not be helped by a hard line on bioethics in a country where fewer than 10 percent still attend church regularly. Getting out of the way, however, may just do the trick...