By Raffique Shah
November 29, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
Friday morning. Big day for Prime Minister Patrick Manning. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II heads a list of dignitaries attending the CHOGM. Over the next three days Trinidad and Tobago, this small country, will showcase its wonderful Chinese architecture to our envious Commonwealth brethren. Look at me! Watch my costume (including my brand-name ‘darkers’ that I don’t take off, not even to look Her Majesty in the eye, as royal etiquette demands). Don’t mash my Performing Arts cape! I’m on the world stage!
Continue reading An ‘old boys club’ headed by an old lady
Tag Archives: T&T Govt
Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus: The Commonwealth Climate Change Declaration
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
The Challenge of Our Time
1. Climate change is the predominant global challenge. We convened a Special Session on Climate Change in Port of Spain to discuss our profound concern about the undisputed threat that climate change poses to the security, prosperity, economic and social development of our people. For many it is deepening poverty and affecting the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. For some of us, it is an existential threat.
Continue reading Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus: The Commonwealth Climate Change Declaration
Speech by Queen Elizabeth at the Opening Ceremony of CHOGM 2009
Remarks by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the Opening Ceremony of the CHOGM 2009 at the National Academy Performing Arts. November 27, 2009
President 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.
Continue reading Speech by Queen Elizabeth at the Opening Ceremony of CHOGM 2009
Head of the Commonwealth Queen Elizabeth II opens CHOGM
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
‘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.
Continue reading Head of the Commonwealth Queen Elizabeth II opens CHOGM
UWI students: Remove Queen as Commonwealth head
By Yvonne Baboolal
November 22, 2009 – guardian.co.tt
Continue reading UWI students: Remove Queen as Commonwealth head
Queen kicks off CHOGM today
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
Green 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.
Continue reading Queen kicks off CHOGM today
Leaders fly in for CHOGM
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
The 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).
Continue reading Leaders fly in for CHOGM
Educate, don’t just legislate
By Raffique Shah
November 22, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
ON 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.
Continue reading Educate, don’t just legislate
T&T borrowing $13 billion
Peter D Neptune
November 20, 2009 – guardian.co.tt
Continue reading T&T borrowing $13 billion
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…