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Tonga islands, czytanka. Czas trwania nagrania 3:57 minut............................................
We are sure that few have ever heard of the Tonga islands. This, the most eastern country in the East, is the last oceanic kingdom ruled by a member of the Tupou dynasty, considered to be the longest ruled dynasty in human history. This isolated archipelago of 169 islands recently became the center of the funniest political scandal. This event has shocked this normally sleepy region.
Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, the king of Tonga, has been in power since 1965. He has always valued tradition. One tradition was the former post of court jester. Thus, the king decided to reestablish this position because the king who has no court jester is not a good ruler. The king ordered his subjects to find the right person for this post, but after a few years, the search had still been unsuccessful. In the whole kingdom, there was not a single person who had a sense of humor compatible with the king?s own. As a result, the king abandoned this idea.
In 1999, Jesse Bogdonoff, an American, appeared at the royal court. He proposed himself for the court jester post. The 87-year-old king was very happy about this, as Bogdonoff?s sense of humor entertained the king. Bogdonoff started to make a career as a Tonga court jester, and this career was very successful. After few months, the king officially announced that the jester was his friend and that the members of the Tonga government should take his opinion into consideration. The American jester was very clever, and he became the king?s closest advisor with the power to make decisions about the kingdom budget.
The question is who was this Jesse Bogdonoff who introduced himself as a poet, singer, and jester? In reality, he was a lowly Bank of America clerk, and one day, he learned of the Tonga governmental account, which contained almost 27 million dollars. This money was deposited in a special account. These funds came from scandalous actions made by Tonga government officials in the late 1990s when they decided to fill the coffers by trading on Tonga citizenship. They sold more than 16 thousand Tonga passports in one year, and most of the new citizens were criminals from China, the United States, and Europe. This business was protested by ONZ, and so, the Tonga government soon ended this activity.
The Tonga court jester soon realized that he could use his good name and sense of humor to cheat the old king. The king trusted him completely, so he convinced the old man to make some risky investments in three American companies with doubtful financial status. The members of the Tonga government asked him many times about these investments, but the convinced them that the investments would return large profits. They totaled more than 25 million dollars. After a year, the government ordered the jester to present the profits, but he disappeared immediately. The government officials were afraid that he had cheated the king and took control of the finances. The Tonga government filed a lawsuit against Bogdonoff in a San Francisco court. They demanded he return the invested money with extra penal interest, as this scandal had resulted in the ruin of the Tonga state budget.
In Tonga, this phony investment blew up into a big political scandal. Some members of government were dismissed, and the members of the royal family accused each other of naivety. Then, the people rioted, demanding that the monarchy be overthrown, but in the end, the old king survived the coup. The former court jester rejected all accusations as false because he was a jester only and all his suggestions were... pranks and no more! The court certainly could not sentence him for the pranks? results. The American court agreed with him.
As you see, this clever jester almost brought down the oldest dynasty in human history. One would hope that our European politics would preclude belief in the jester?s advice. However, many European politicians behave as jester themselves, so unfortunately, we cannot be sure about this.
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