Speech by Queen Elizabeth at the Opening Ceremony of CHOGM 2009

Queen Elizabeth II delivers Opening Statement
Queen Elizabeth II delivers Opening Statement

Remarks by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the Opening Ceremony of the CHOGM 2009 at the National Academy Performing Arts. November 27, 2009

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009President Richards,
Prime Minister Manning,
President Museveni,
Secretary-General,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

This diamond anniversary year is an important time for the Commonwealth to look back – and, more importantly, look forward. In doing so, I believe we can be pleased with how far the Commonwealth has come in its 60years, and yet how true it has remained to its origins. But this does not mean we should become complacent or rest on past successes. Like any good organization we must continue to pay close attention to the things that give it distinctive character.
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Head of the Commonwealth Queen Elizabeth II opens CHOGM

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Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009‘Together we aspire, together we achieve’
HER MAJESTY Queen Elizabeth II yesterday called upon Commonwealth leaders to adopt Trinidad and Tobago’s national motto in order to find consensus on burning issues such as climate change, during their deliberations over the next two days at their meeting at the Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain.
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UWI students: Remove Queen as Commonwealth head

By Yvonne Baboolal
November 22, 2009 – guardian.co.tt

Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II
Remove Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11 as symbolic Head of the Commonwealth at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Port-of-Spain. This is the call coming from some students attached to the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies. Students from U We Speak, a student advocacy group, made the call during a powerful rendition of poetry and song last Wednesday night, one week before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port-of-Spain. A student crowd assembled at the Humanities Undercroft from 8 pm to support performances centered around the call for the removal of the Queen as Commonwealth Head.
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Queen kicks off CHOGM today

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Queen Elizabeth II at Piarco International Airport
Queen Elizabeth II at Piarco International Airport

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009Green Queen
HER Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is here.
Her British Airways Boeing 777 jet airliner touched down yesterday at Piarco International Airport at exactly 2.44 pm, after a four-hour flight from Bermuda. After a 15-minute wait at the end of the runway, in which time local dignitaries including President George Maxwell Richards and Prime Minister Patrick Manning took their positions on the tarmac, the plane taxied up to the red carpet. British High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, Eric Jenkinson, and local Chief of Protocol, Reitha Toussaint, ascended the stairs and entered the craft. A senior British military officer descended to join the waiting party at the foot of the stairs.
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Leaders fly in for CHOGM

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Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009The Queen Arrives Today
Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, is due to arrive at Piarco Airport this afternoon, coming from a State visit to Bermuda with her husband, His Royal Highness (HRH) the Duke of Edinburgh. Her Majesty is visiting Trinidad and Tobago both for a State visit and in her role as Head of the Commonwealth which tomorrow launches its Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
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Educate, don’t just legislate

By Raffique Shah
November 22, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
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The President, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, Hazel Manning and their son toast the official opening of the National Academy for the Performing ArtsON many occasions during my 40 years of driving on the nation’s roads, I’ve witnessed drunk drivers endangering the lives of other motorists. Mostly late nights, although I’m sure it happens during daytime as well, I’ve seen vehicles wobble much the way drunken persons do when they try to walk after consuming litres of alcohol. On occasion, I’ve had to make the risky decision either to overtake the drifting jackasses, or stay far behind them for my safety.
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T&T borrowing $13 billion

Peter D Neptune
November 20, 2009 – guardian.co.tt

Karen Nunez-Tesheira
Karen Nunez-Tesheira
From January 2007 to the end of the current fiscal year, Government intends to borrow more than $13.6 billion to finance the budget deficit, pay for several large government projects and to fund the government’s money supply management strategy for the economy. Responding to a question by the Opposition during private members day in the Senate earlier this week, Finance Minister Karen Nunez Tesheira said the government has already borrowed more than $8.8 billion since January 2007, and plans are already being made to raise another $4.77 billion to continue its strategy into the new fiscal year. The funding needs for the next fiscal year include $2 billion from the domestic market, $2.2 billion from foreign capital markets and another $572.3 million in project related loans. She added that the Finance Ministry was in the process of developing a plan for Trinidad and Tobago’s borrowing requirements for the medium term – that is for the next three to five years beyond the current fiscal period.
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When electoral fraud is met by congratulations

By Stephen Gowans
November 03, 2009 – what’s left

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
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Hillary Clinton

It has become standard practice in many parts of the world for opposition candidates to decry as fraudulent election results that favor the incumbent. Charges of vote fraud are routinely levelled against governing parties that win elections contested by opposition parties backed by Western governments.

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At that price we expect nothing but the best…

By Raffique Shah
November 15, 2009

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

IT’S most columnists’ nightmare, having to return to a topic he or she will have dealt with recently. It gets worse when the target is a politician, matters not what side of the divide he or she is on. They never look into their mirrors and wonder why writers focus on them. They conclude you are against them, that you support their enemies, hence your criticisms.

But, as I learned early in my many years of writing opinion pieces, you write and be damned; if you fail to address burning issues, readers conclude you are on somebody’s payroll. There are so many important matters I wish to address, to have my fellow citizens focus on. Sadly, because of the insensitivity of our politicians, I have to forego serious issues and zero my computer on Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
Continue reading At that price we expect nothing but the best…