John Baird: Canada's freedom agenda - Diplomat Magazine

Arctic CircleNorwegian SeaMICROSTATES|Di spatchesBarents SeaBalticSeaNorth SeaKatonamsMonaco boasts the world’s lowest unemployment rate. Its new harbour at Fontvieille, one of the principality of Monaco’s four traditionalquarters, is shown above.6. MonacoFranceMonacoItalyKatharine Hepburn once calledMonaco “the pimple on the chinof the south of France.” Ouch!This acidic quip about Monaco’s apparentstatus as a feudal outcrop of France musthave doubly hurt the Monegasques, forit originated from an immortal cinemaicon, whose celebrity represents the verystock in which the principality has tradedsince 1956 when Prince Rainier III of theGrimaldi family married Alfred Hitchcock’siconic and icy muse, Grace Kelly,partly out of love, partly out of need tosave his principality from financial ruin.While this historic period with itstragic personalities has long faded intoHollywood lore, this principality of lessthan 30,000 residents continues to charmthe imagination of audiences around theworld as the Mediterranean playgroundof the rich, the famous, and the beautiful.Faced with on-going pressure fromthe international community to bring itsopaque banking sector into line, the principalitycontinues to diversify its economyby attracting high-end, non-pollutingindustries in the arts and entertainmentsector (notwithstanding its annual FormulaOne Race). This economic strategyseems to be paying off as Monaco boaststhe world’s lowest unemployment rate,according to The CIA World Factbook: zeropercent.The principality has also sought tosharpen its global leadership in environmentalmatters by placing part of itsshoreline under environmental protectionand promoting the local use of ‘green’products such as organically grown foodand electro-powered vehicles. But for all ofits newly-found earnestness, Monaco didturn back the clocks to its more extravagantdays on July 2, 2011, when CrownPrince Albert married the former Black South SeaAfrican Olympic swimmer, Charlene Wittstock.It was the first royal wedding sincehis father had married another strikingblonde, Grace Kelly.Mediterranean Seadiplomat and international canada 53