Tag Archives: Commonwealth

CHOGM’s Shameful Legacy

By Ras Tyehimba
December 09, 2009

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009Trinidad and Tobago recently hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009 under the theme “partnering for a more equitable and sustainable future”. Fifty-three leaders of countries, formerly direct colonies, gathered in Port of Spain, under the symbolic leadership of Queen Elizabeth II. The general responses to the Summit have been quite unsatisfactory, especially in terms of the lack of critical perspectives and understanding of the operations of the Commonwealth organisation and our own government’s participation in this. The shallow mainstream media reporting and discouragement of perspectives and activities that may “embarrass the government” has meant that people of the so-called Commonwealth, in countries across the world, have been locked into the agendas of Imperial countries. By looking at the Commonwealth of Nations from a historical perspective, there can be greater awareness of how various hierarchies and systems of control have evolved from the period of direct colonialism to the present.
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In the shadow of Commonwealth excess

By Stephen Chan
December 03, 2009 – guardian.co.uk

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009A Commonwealth summit in Trinidad and Tobago was careful to shield delegates from the plight of nearby slum residents

Sea Lots is a slum that lies only a kilometre from the luxury hotels where the presidential and prime ministerial delegations from 53 Commonwealth countries, including the Queen, gathered last weekend in Trinidad and Tobago. Two huge cruise ships were tethered alongside it to provide overflow accommodation for the great and good. Many of them were confined to windowless cabins.
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PoS CHOGM ends

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

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009PoS CHOGM ends
COMMONWEALTH leaders yesterday paid glowing tribute to Trinidad and Tobago for hosting one of the most successful Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM) in the 60-year history of the organisation. The leaders paid their tributes as they delivered their closing statements in the presence of local and international journalists during the final executive meeting of the CHOGM in the Port-of-Spain ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Centre.
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PoS climate deal sealed

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

CHOGM 2009 Press Conference
CHOGM 2009 Press Conference

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009PoS climate deal sealed
HISTORY was made in Port-of-Spain yesterday as Commonwealth leaders reached a groundbreaking agreement on climate change on day two of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). This was revealed at a news conference held at the International Financial Centre in Port-of-Spain by Prime Minister Patrick Manning, Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Denmark Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
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Ahead Has No Crown

By Amilcar Sanatan – UWI Student
November 29, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II heads CHOGM
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II heads CHOGM

The Commonwealth is a voluntary intergovernmental organisation that covers fifty-three independent states. The collection of nations that belong to the organisation and the two billion people they represent justify its existence. The Commonwealth organisation has established itself throughout the former colonies of the British Empire and the world.
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An ‘old boys club’ headed by an old lady

By Raffique Shah
November 29, 2009

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

Commonwealth 2009 Heads of State
Commonwealth 2009 Heads of State

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009Friday 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!
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Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus: The Commonwealth Climate Change Declaration

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
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South Africa President Jacob Zuma (right), his senior wife, Sizakele Khumalo (left), Hazel and Patrick Manning (centre)
South Africa President Jacob Zuma (right), his senior wife, Sizakele Khumalo (left), Hazel and Patrick Manning (centre)

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009The 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.
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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

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

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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