Washington, flush with royals

[n2doc]

By Emily Wax, Published: October 17

The petite, curly-haired princess of Ethi­o­pia is a mortgage loan officer who commutes 40 minutes a day, does her own dishes and shops for sales on twin sets at Tysons Corner Center.

“I don’t have bodyguards clearing traffic or tailors stitching my clothes. This is America,” says Saba Kebede of McLean, who laughed and looked at her husband, Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie, the grandson of Ethio­pian Emperor Haile Selassie.

On Whistling Duck Drive in Upper Marlboro resides Kofi Boateng, an Ashanti king of Ghana — there are many — who works as a CPA and whose palace is a sprawling McMansion with a football game on the flat-screen TV and pictures of West African royalty hanging over the fireplace.

“Sometimes, these suburbs are so quiet they remind me of my village in Ghana,” says Boateng, closing his eyes and listening to the sound of nighttime crickets mixing with the purr of West African music from a party in his basement.

Kebede and Boateng are just two of the many lesser-known royals who live in the Washington suburbs. They include King Kigeli Ndahindurwa V, who ruled Rwanda until his overthrow in 1961 and now calls Oakton home, and Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who lives in Potomac and runs an advocacy association that is outspoken about the need for democracy in his home country.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/washington-flush-with-royals/2011/10/07/gIQA3UoysL_story.html

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. Kind of like being Grand Duke of Ruritania or something, ain't it?

Having a royal title for somewhere that's no longer a monarchy is pretty useless; most of these royals' home countries have no desire to have the monarchy back, nor do they want these royals back because they don't want any visible symbol to serve as a focus for a monarchist political movement. So they live in exile...where? The US, of course, and DC makes sense because the State Department probably wants to keep an eye on them, and their presence could be useful in diplomatic relations.

[Javaman]

2. Hey! I have a "Barony" in my family tree! does that count?

regardless of the fact that it was 5 centuries ago and in an area of Germany that no longer exists as a "nation" and the castle is just a pile of rocks now and all references of the name have been scrubbed from history due to the fact that the said baron was a gigantic fuck head...but hey, that's got to count for something right?

:rofl:

[Burma Jones]

3. I live in the DC 'Burbs and my son goes to Public school with an African Prince

The Pahlavis also live nearby.....but their kids most assuredly do NOT attend the really good public schools here.