2mo ago

Belgium’s future queen caught up in Harvard foreign student ban

www.theguardian.com

Princess Elisabeth has completed first year of master’s degree but Trump administration’s crackdown may jeopardise studies

Princess Elisabeth, the 23-year-old future queen of Belgium, has just completed her first year at Harvard University but the ban imposed by Donald Trump’s administration on foreign students studying there could jeopardise her continued attendance.

The US president’s administration revoked Harvard’s ability to enrol international students on Thursday, and is forcing current foreign students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status in the US, while also threatening to expand the crackdown to other colleges.

“Princess Elisabeth has just completed her first year. The impact of [the Trump administration’s] decision will only become clearer in the coming days/weeks. We are currently investigating the situation,” said a spokesperson for the Belgian royal palace, Lore Vandoorne.

140 comments

I'm sure this will work wonders for American soft power on the world stage.
Having a literal fucking queen with fond memories of America from her youth is political influence that money cannot buy. What an idiotic fumble.
- What soft power? We pissed that all away months ago.
  
  Fuck! I'm living in the past.
  
  every day that passes it gets harder and harder to just say “lol sorry” and the world to have the memory of a goldfish and just reply “ahhhh water under the bridge” as soon as a suitcase of money is waved under our collective noses
- Belgian chiming in, people here really have* developed a strong distaste for the US. I'd say 90% of people I know don't care at all for the monarchy, but this is blasted in the news as an example no one is safe from USA's shenanigans.
  Professors and Universities are condemning this, it's such a major step in the wrong direction once again.
  
  people here really have* developed a strong distaste for the US
  And rightly and deservedly so...
  🤷‍♂️ 🙄 🖕
- That's soft power for the country, he doesn't care what happens to the country
  
  Also the effects aren’t immediate so he doesn’t understand nor care about them
If the Trump admin wasn't obviously a fascist dictatorship I might be able to feel good about Belgian royalty being treated the same as anyone else. However, this has nothing to do with traditional American values of an even playing field, because the Trump admin just refuses to recognize any royalty except Trump.
I am anti-monarchy and I don't particularly give a shit that this woman has to change universities or whatever, but quite frankly I'm shocked by the amount of comments here hoping for horrific things to happen to a woman just for being born into a family they don't like.
- It's the toxic cesspool of the anonymous internet. All these communities are the same.
  
  Its just "The Greater Internet Dickhead Theory", if there are no consequences for what you say, dickheads will say anything they can get away with.
  
  But lemmy is in no way anonymous.
- I thought the royals in mainland Europe were generally well-liked? I'm only basing this on the lack of negative attention they get compared to the British royal family.
  
  I'm British so I can't really say, but I think if not more well-liked, they're at least more low key. Britain made its royal family part of its brand, and with that comes a lot more coverage, better or worse.
Someone told me this whole attack on Harvard is all because Harvard rejected Baron trump and while I haven’t looked into it that would make so much sense
- Trump doesn't care about anyone but himself. This is because Harvard is refusing to bend the knee.
  
  Narcissists are likely to treat offspring as a personal extension into the future.
- I’ve looked into it, there really is not any indication Barron ever applied to Harvard, he is going to the same business school as his brothers and father, the likelyhood he applied anywhere else is low. The attack on Harvard can be recontextualized as a big liberal name in a big liberal state going against what he wants.
- It's retaliation for this: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/harvard-trump-funding-antisemitism-columbia-b2733306.html So Harvard isn't the only target, but they're the ones that dared to publicly stand up against the bully and now the bully wants to make an example out of them. It's basically a repeat of Ron Desantis war on higher education, but now on a national scale.
  Here's an overview of how other universities are faring: https://www.yahoo.com/news/tracking-trumps-war-on-elite-universities-which-schools-have-lost-funding-and-what-theyre-doing-about-it-200621655.html?guccounter=1
Of all the people suffering from Trump's deranged actions, European royalty are probably not the most deserving of pity.
- I think you're missing the point. It's not about pitying her, but bringing more attention to the utterly stupid things happening
  
  And I think you're missing my point. To the Crown Princess, this is a mild inconvenience and will probably eventually turn in to an interesting anecdote. She can slide right into any other Ivy League university if she wants to, or she can head home to a local university without worrying about applications, grants or anything else of that boring stuff. To many other students, this might wreak havoc on their academic careers and their economies. That is some of the utterly stupid stuff that should be brought to attention. Tell me their stories.
  Admittedly, I'm a European republican, i.e. in the non-US sense of the word, but still. This article reads more like a gossip piece than international news.
Fuck off! She's rich AF, who's really suffering is the bright and poor immigrant that got this one chance to have a good education
- It's less that it's bad for her and more that it's another way the US is dismantling their own soft power. There are long term advantages to having the rich and powerful from around the world get their upper education in your universities.
  
  Yeah this isn't newsworthy because she's rich, tbh there's probably richer immigrant students at Harvard we don't know about. But diplomatically this is a pretty big deal. This lady is gonna grow up to wield substantial political influence in her country, and she likely won't have warm feelings towards America as a result of this.
Why does he have the power to ban people from going to a private university?
- Because the executive branch has power over student visas.
what a toxic piece of shit, he is like the most obnoxious type of kid who screams, flails arms and legs when he loses a game and gets confronted about his shitty behaviour. except he is also the president of the US
- And this is who the majority of the voters and those who didn't turn up wanted as their president. Democracy at work, ladies and germs!
If I were studying in the Untied States, I'd be afraid to stay there anyway
It does raise the question of why her royal highness could not deign to attend a Belgian university in the first place lol
- Considering her future job as queen will involve a lot of diplomatic and ceremonial functions it does kind of make sense to me that you'd want her to gain some international experience.
  Also on a personal level i'd imagine it is much easier to have some resemblance of a private life in a foreign country, especially at a prestigious institution where plenty of others share notable backgrounds, compared to going to a local university where everyone knows who you are. In a small country like Belgium you probably don't even have much choices as to which university even offers a good program in your chosen field.
  Edit:
  Elisabeth initially studied at St John Berchmans College in Marollen, Brussels from September 2004 until August 2018. This marked a significant change in Belgian royal tradition, being the first time that a future Belgian monarch's education has begun in Dutch
  In May 2020, the Belgian Royal Court announced that Elisabeth would undertake military training. On 31 August 2020, Elisabeth entered the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, studying social and military sciences
  - wikipedia
  Really seems like the worst candidate to make this accuse against
  
  Elisabeth initially studied at St John Berchmans College in Marollen, Brussels from September 2004 until August 2018.
  Something is off here. Ok, apparently the St John Berchmans College is a secondary school, but still I guess it should say 2014. Surely she didn't start school when three yeard old.
  (Not opposing your original point, this just caught my eye.)
- Because the rich go to university primarily to network.
  
  correct answer
- Because going to another country where she'll learn to deal with another cultures is important and will be a huge part of her future. You raise a question when the answer should be easily understood.
Honestly. If a couple bourgeoisie take some strays for Trump's awful policies I'm not gonna shed a tear. Who the fuck cares about a Belgium queen? I care about the working class kid that isn't gonna graduate. Fuck the Queen.
- I care about the working class kid that isn't gonna graduate.
  There's a near zero amount of working class kids studying abroad at Harvard
  
  Do you think this policy is only going to be unique to Harvard? Your comment is ironic because it's upvoted by the same people disagreeing with me that don't care about a royal. But can't see the the the bigger picture of who this hurts.
  The entire criticism I have is that it shouldn't take a royal for people to care and it's absolutely silly to write an article around it. It makes the absolutely wrong point about who is harmed by this. It's literally pro Trump. Use to trick his base into thinking the "elite" are the ones that will be hurt. They won't. They will at most be inconvenienced.
  But you somehow miss BOTH points. Somehow not getting my point of criticism of the article AND missing the larger picture of who these xenophobic policies will hurt the most.
  It's starts here. At the easiest place for American working class to say "yep, fuck the Queen". And solidifies xenophobic policies into law. All while idiot liberals clutch their pearls as "the poor queen".
- This however highlights the fact that foreign students used to be a source of revenue for the USA. This is wealthy European money that was getting spent in America but now will likely be spent somewhere else.
  This is also denying American Harvard business students the opportunity to establish lucrative connections with European money. You've heard of "it's not what you know, it's who you know"? Poor Harvard students on a full scholarship who plan on setting up their own business someday could have benefitted from being classmates with the future queen of Belgium.
  My point being that even if you fully subscribe to "America first", this is still a really dumb policy that's shooting America in the foot. Foreign students studying in America were, by definition, bringing money into America. No longer.
  
  Your points are speaking to a Trump voter that would never even care about those things because they would never actually apply to them. They live in a contradiction that doesn't apply to what you're saying.
  You literally replied with talking points that only benefit rich well off bourgeoisie. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make or who you're trying to convince. Because this definitely doesn't appeal to the me (looking at this from a class perspective) or the idiot Trump voter (looking at this from a "fuck the elite" perspective).
  The later of which is just, on average, an uneducated working class idiot that thinks we live in a meritocracy but blames the "elite" for their position in it. They lack class analysis to actually understand where to direct that anger. But Harvard and "Queens" are the definition of that elite to them.
  Who is this article supposed to appeal to? That's my question. This is just garbage puff that distracts from the real problems with Trump's policies.
  It only appeals to well off petty bourgeois Liberals that have nothing better to care about than some "royal" being effected by a policy that they are only, at best, collateral damage to.
- I understand. But Trump seems to like being invited by royalty (at least UK royalty). Also visited her father when in Belgium during his 1st term. Probably not, but if he isn't welcome because of this (among other things) next time, Trump could do something you do care about. He acts much more bourgeoisie than this princess (not yet queen) seems to act.
- But hey, at least db0 have their idiot right here
  
  Even a stopped clock etc
I'm just glad we are keeping these thugs and criminals out of Harvard, it was clearly a huge problem.
Why do we care about whether a princess can study in another country? Fuck princesses, they're nepo baby billionaires plus a "divine right" to oppress people.
- Hey, don't put any random rich-ish person from Europe into the same US billionaire basket
Either not white enough for trump or hasn't payed the orange shitnozzle enough homage.
Coin toss but odds are on not enough $$
On the one hand I wish anything bad that's possible on anyone who's royalty. On the other hand this might shine a light on Trumps bullshit in a way that even his supporters might start questioning.
- even his supporters might start questioning
  Lol nope. Have you ever met a trump supporter who didn't have resentment towards higher education? I sure haven't.
  
  Luckily I live far away from them, so I haven't met any. But yeah maybe I'm still too optimistic because of it.
- Why would your heart be so dark as to wiah bad on someone just because of who their parents are? That's not okay.
  
  they could stop being a royal though
  
  She's an adult, she has the choice. She can step away like Prince Harry for example. As long as she remains crown princess, she's perpetuating royalty.
Oh no! So anyway…
- The king of America poses a minor threat to the princess of Belgium.
  Does any of this make me get paid what im worth and left the fuck alone?
  Tune in at 6pm PST for "Why do I give a shit?"
  
  Sure has a lot of downvotes, I'm sorry but is there a nuanced view I can hear about that makes me forget that the only war is a class war and both of these motherfuckers are against me and anyone else that is reading this?
I guess something good came out of a really really shitty thing then.
Future queen I guess means she is a princess. Just say that. I did not know Belgium still has vestiges of monarchy. That does put a damper on the judgment from Europe over the U.S. having Trump. Also can't forget Leopold. Fuck that guy
- Future queen I guess means she is a princess. Just say that.
  "Future queen" is more specific than "princess."
  They call her Princess Elisabeth repeatedly in the article, but she's not just "a princess."
  The princess is heir to the Belgian throne, as the eldest of four children born to King Philippe and Queen Mathilde.
  Her siblings are also a princess and two princes, but she's the eldest, and thus the only one that can currently be called "future queen."
  
  Well, then it's crown princess
  
  Yes but it's all very dumb and made up, and I think they should just call her princess because I'm doubling down on a pointless opinion about pointless subject
- Belgium's monarchy is mostly ceremonial. Most of the power lies with parliament.
  
  I get that. I still think it's ridiculous. Not that echewing monarchy has done so well in the u.s. either.
  
  Okay? So where are you telling the top commenter that having soft power with a ceremonial monarchy is pointless?
  Why is everyone getting up and arms like it matters if they have no actual power?
- I guess you’re one of those doesn’t read the article types.
  
  No I did, doesn't change anything except exaggerate my dismay. Trump and the ivy leagues and the princesses can all just go away
A relative of King Leopold II, the number 4 ranked mass murderer. Look up Belgian Congo and that monarchy should have been torn down.
However, Krasnov's revoking international students that apply to Harvard is plain stupid and very fascist/communist move.
- fascist/communist
  Come on. Aren't we better than this? Your other points are correct but get out of here with this horseshoe bullshit
  
  My grandmother was jailed by the Nazis and survived WW II. Post WW II, my relatives were on both sides, East Germany and West Germany. Tell me again how I know the similarities between the fascist and communist when it boils down to power and corruption. It's not horseshoe BS.
We finally found an immigrant that deserves to be sent to a prison in El Salvador. Other than Musk, that is.
- Apparently, you know something about our crown princess we don't know yet. Or are you just insulting a random person you don't know anything about?

140 comments