Brits Rename Piece of Antarctica 'Queen Elizabeth Land'

What's in a name in Antarctica? A lot ... Renaming part of the polar continent as Queen Elizabeth Land is a deeply significant geopolitical move that will be opposed in Argentina, for example ... So while the naming of Queen Elizabeth Land might not have been considered provocative by the British authorities, this 94,000 square mile territory is at the heart of the contested geopolitics of Antarctica – UK Telegraph

Dominant Social Theme: This is just another honorable naming.

Free-Market Analysis: Here's one that slipped under the radar of most of the alternative 'Net media. Part of Antarctica was just named for Queen Elizabeth (see above).

The subdominant social theme here, as enunciated by the BBC and other outlets, could be that this is simply a further recognition of a great queen's service to a grateful country.

But, of course, it's much more. The power elite – much of it based in the City of London – has long used the British royal family as a kind of stalking horse for strategic moves and also to redirect attention.

The renaming of the heart of contested Antarctica Queen Elizabeth Land is symptomatic of how this elite works. They claim what they wish and then work out ways of obtaining it.

Meanwhile, we are to believe that England has lost Her empire! ...

Nothing could be further from the truth. England retains her Commonwealth and wields nearly as much influence as ever, from what we can tell. Both the US and Israel come under her sphere of influence.

But really it is not "British" influence any more than it was "England's empire." The empire, which still exists, is the property of the City of London ... along with its banking families and military, political and corporate associates and enablers.

Yes, there are great banking families – controlling tens or hundreds of trillions in central banking currency – that make their home in the City of London (an independent territory within London).

When the Queen enters their lair she walks several paces behind the City's elected representatives. She is a second class citizen here and indeed she is a second class citizen amongst England's ruling class – despite her trillions in real estate – generally.

There is a reason the royal institution sticks around. People with even greater power – Money Power – want it around. Here's some more from the article:

After the Queen's visit to the Foreign Office this week, Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that the southern part of the British Antarctic Territory will now be known, at least on British maps, as "Queen Elizabeth Land". Within hours of this announcement, made in acknowledgement of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee and her service to the country, the story was top of the tweeting trends in the UK. Why all this interest?

This has been a momentous year for all things polar and Falklands-related. We have had the 100th anniversary of the ill-fated Scott expedition, and the 30th anniversary of the Falklands conflict. In March, the posting to the Falkland Islands of the Duke of Cambridge as a RAF search and rescue pilot stirred Argentine political opinion ...

So the timing of this "gift" to the Queen is noteworthy. But it also serves as a reminder of two really important themes that have dominated the geopolitics of the Antarctic Peninsula region for the last 100 years. The first revolves around sovereignty claims and the second, and related point, concerns place naming. Neither is uncontroversial ...

Respectful science, governed by consensus and exchange, was coming up against speculation about the hidden treasures that might exist under rock and ice. Third World critics thought that all this interest in science was just a cover for what was really driving the interests of the UK and US – oil, gas, coal, and minerals such as uranium ...

Place naming is really important. Along with maps and scientific stations, it is one of the most visible markers of national presence; every country with interests in Antarctica has its own procedures. The map is covered with thousands of names representing geographical features. These reveal lots about a country's exploratory, scientific, monarchical, geographical, political and iconographic traditions ...

So while the naming of Queen Elizabeth Land might not have been considered provocative by the British authorities, this 94,000 square mile territory is at the heart of the contested geopolitics of Antarctica. Place names are markers of national sovereignty and symbols of polar nationalism. And in the wake of the merger fiasco involving British Antarctic Survey, the newly anointed Queen Elizabeth Land serves as a reminder that the Government is committed to preserving the British presence in the far south.

Argentina and Chile may not like the naming, but they are not obliged to use it. And they may choose their own counter names in due course. It may now be Queen Elizabeth Land on British maps, but it will not be Tierra de Reina Isabel on Argentine and Chilean maps any time soon.

The naming has various kinds of import. It increases tension with Argentina and Chile, which is always useful in whipping up ersatz patriotism in England. It establishes the Queen's primacy in a disputed land. It reminds the domestic opposition of the Order of Things: The Queen and her family own much of the planet directly or indirectly.

And yet ... the Queen and her family are merely a kind of Royal Beard, distracting attention from the reality of British Money Power – which is never discussed by the bought-and-paid-for press.

We mention this naming because it illustrates once again that the Royal precedents and old-fashioned ways of doing business are still alive and well at the Top Table.

Here the dominant social themes of God and Country are used to their best advantage ... to "take" land and resources away from the rest of the world via "claiming" and, if necessary, military force.

The renaming of a large part of Antarctica may seem in a sense to be a trivial or jocular thing. But, in fact, it illustrates as before that despite the Internet Reformation – and its exposure of a regnant power elite – those at the top continue to do business as usual.

Conclusion: And as awareness grows, it seems to us that there is a collision coming ...