Megan and Harry’s tour of Colombia shows that the monarchy has not quite finished leeching resources from the global south.
On May 19, 2018, the fifth in line to the British throne married a Hollywood starlet in a celebration estimated to have cost the British taxpayer USD$45 million. The marriage was later blighted by controversy when the couple decided to take a step back from their roles as senior royals in 2020.
Amidst claims of the hounding of the couple by the British press, the two relocated to Los Angeles. However, the couple did not leave the palace for a life of destitution. Four years later the blessed union has turned out to be quite the commercial enterprise: They’ve signed deals with Netflix, Penguin and Spotify worth a reported USD$160 million, some of which has gone to charity. According to The Times, Prince Harry also received millions this year from his Royal trust fund.
This August, the couple visited Colombia as representatives of their charity, the Archwell Foundation. The visit cost the Colombian government USD$58,000, according to figures released by the Vice President’s office.
Given that the charity reported USD$11 million in assets in 2022, it feels grossly unfair that they let the Colombian government foot the nearly $60,000 bill. Especially given that Unicef data shows this is a nation with some of the most extreme poverty in Latin America.
What was spent
Figures released by the Vice President’s office show that the entire trip cost Colombia COP$240,000,000 (USD$58,000). In recent years Colombia has dedicated millions of dollars each year to tourism. As such, the spending fits with the government policy of spending to attract world media attention. Vice President Márquez herself stated the trip would draw an international audience to Colombia’s cultural offerings. In this sense, the tour was certainly a success – but at what true cost?
In a feat of remarkable generosity, the multimillionaires did pay for their own flights. Even so, before the couple had even set foot in Colombia, USD$3,000 had already been spent on logistics.
The most expensive day occurred in Cartagena where over COP$88,000,000 (USD$20,000) was spent. That included over COP$13,000,000 (USD$3,000) for food alone. A further COP$29,443,570 (USD$7,000) was spent on food alone on their first day of the tour in Bogotá.
Why the Sussexes are not simply entitled to Colombia’s money
There is something a little too “let them eat cake” in spending thousands of dollars in one day on wining and dining quasi-royals, while indigenous children die of starvation. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 54 children under the age of 5 died in La Guajira last year because of malnutrition and lack of drinkable water. The majority were Indigenous Wayuu.
This year, the World Food Programme reported that over 13 million Colombians struggle with moderate or severe food insecurity. The report says half of Colombian households face marginal food security, which means they’re worried food will run out before they can buy more.
These figures make the USD$7,000 forked out for the Sussex’s catering needs in a single day a heinous insult to the Colombian households facing food scarcity.
The couple later announced they’d donated new drumming sets to the Escuela Tambores de Cabildo in Cartagena. They also said they’d supported children in San Basilio de Palenque and helped to expand the socio-emotional Gym program at Colegio La Giralda. Music has great healing qualities. However, giving a few drumming kits in one school is unlikely to aid a region experiencing such a deeply systemic issue such as sexual exploitation. The Sussex’ hollow gestures are like using a thimble to remove water from a sinking ship.
El País recently published a story entitled: “Life is hell for the poor in Cartagena, where sexual exploitation starts in childhood.” The article points out that vulnerable families allow and even encourage the sale of children’s bodies. In that context, offering a set of drums in exchange for a USD$58,000 vacation demonstrates a distressing level of entitlement.
If this figure has you pining for the guillotine you are not alone. Obscene spending in the face of abject poverty is part and parcel of today’s neoliberalist wasteland. What’s more galling though is our acceptance of such behaviour.
It would be a mistake to view the Sussexes in isolation. Indignation must be constructive, it must be an impetus to examine what sort of political climate allows scroungers posing as philanthropists to get USD$58,000 handouts to tour a country where children starve to death.
So what are the wider implications of the Sussex’s tour of Colombia, and what does it tell us about inequality and “philanthropy” ?
Why shouldn’t we roll out the red carpet for the Sussexs?
Given that the Sussexes are hardly strapped for cash, one might ask: Why would they accept such luxury at the expense of a struggling nation? The answer: Because they can. The Sussex tour is a reflection of an attitude of entitlement from the global north.
It appears that the Sussexes are a product of a post-colonial status quo that continues to allow huge amounts of wealth to be transferred from developing nations to the global north.
The couple released a statement about their trip titled: “Showing up, doing good in Colombia”. This is an eerie reminder that people like the Sussexs are convinced they are true philanthropists. What’s worse is that a lot of the time they have also convinced us.
The Sussexes also attended a panel titled: “Afro-women and Power”. I cannot be alone in feeling deeply uncomfortable at seeing Prince Harry discussing how to empower Afro-descendent women in Colombia. Harry is the third in line to the British crown, one of history’s most brutal empires. The women featured on the panel are themselves the descendants of those enslaved by the Spaniards. It should not be polemic to feel disgust at this flagrant tone deafness.
Photo ops are not a substitute for real change
However, like the rest of the trip, this incident is merely a symptom of the global trend of politics of the aesthetic, promoting photo ops and press releases over tangible change. The media frenzy created by the Sussex’s presence in Colombia shifts attention from real issues.
For example, the couple pushed their mission to raise awareness around cyberbullying among children. Cyberbullying is an important issue. But in a country plagued by conflict, sexual exploitation and inequality, the precedence assigned to cyberbullying is questionable.
The pomp and ceremony of speeches and panel discussions create the illusion of action, letting those in power off the hook from their responsibility to address real issues. The Sussexes donating drum sets in Cartagena, a region with a thriving child sex trafficking industry is a perfect example of this phenomenon.
We all have a lot to learn from the Sussexes. They remind us that even if the monarchy no longer has the divine right to rule, we still do not live in a society of equals. Quasi-philanthropists like the Sussex teach us that colonialism has not been eradicated; it has simply shapeshifted and called itself charity.
In Colombia, only one in three people have acceptable levels of food consumption. The USD$58,000 spent on the Sussex time in Colombia demonstrates the unsettling truth about inequality and poverty: It is not an absence of food, but rather the absence of a desire to share it.