Grimaldi Goings-On

Last Friday, HSH Prince Albert II presided over a meeting of the board of directors of the Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco to review for approval new projects such as a Pew Charitable Trust campaign for the creation of a protected marine area in the Arctic passage of northwest Canada and another for the conservation and protection of the Mediterranean monk seal in collaboration with the Tethys Research Institute, the Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the monk seal and the WWF Greece. The foundation will also be supporting a new exhibition at the MIT Museum called "Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya". At the same time, HSH Princess Charlene has offered to help the South African Olympic Swimming Team in their preparations for the upcoming Olympic games in London, an offer graciously accepted by team CEO Shaun Adriaanse. The Princess will be providing the team with living accomodations and a practice pool and facilities in Monaco free of charge. Living and training in Monaco for free? Awesome!

Also last Friday HRH Princess Caroline presided over a meeting of the general conference of her charitable foundation AMADE. And, also in the Caroline camp, lawyers for Pierre Casiraghi in Europe have been trying to keep his nightclub brawl out of the tabloids in Europe, saying that it is a private matter, on another continent and has yet to be settled in the legal system. Yeah, good luck with that. I'm afraid Pierre's only hope is that something even more "juicy" comes along to give the tabloids something else to talk about. However, this also highlights the absurdity of the claim by the lawyers of the man who assaulted Pierre that he is some sort of serial-brawler. The media bottom-feeders would have never let events like that go unreported.

And, finally, on Monday TSH Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene were in Monaco for the 2012 Monte-Carlo ATP Masters Series Tournament. They awarded the Médaille en Vermeil de l’Education Physique et des Sports (Vermeil Medal for Physical Education and Sports) to Serbian tennis player Novak Đoković for his contributions "to the development of physical education and sports in the principality". The medal was founded in 1939 by HSH Prince Louis II.