{"id":1941,"date":"2009-11-27T11:10:26","date_gmt":"2009-11-27T15:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=1941"},"modified":"2009-11-27T11:10:26","modified_gmt":"2009-11-27T15:10:26","slug":"uwi-students-remove-queen-as-commonwealth-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=1941","title":{"rendered":"UWI students: Remove Queen as Commonwealth head"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yvonne Baboolal
\nNovember 22, 2009 – guardian.co.tt<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

\"Queen<\/a>
Queen Elizabeth II<\/figcaption><\/figure>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.
\n
\nThey expressed support for St Vincent prime minister, Dr Ralph Gonsalves\u2019 November 25 referendum, which affords citizens the vote on a new constitution that would remove the Queen of England as that country\u2019s Head of State and empower an indigenous president. \u201cHer current position in the organisation is a powerful symbol that appends to our legacy of colonialism. Therefore, it is inimical to the Caribbean region and our children not to replace her,\u201d said second year psychology student, Amilcar Sanatan, one of the organisers of the event. \u201cFor this reason, this issue must be immediately and adequately addressed by our leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanatan stressed that their call was not racist or based on hatred of Whites or the British. \u201cWe not telling the woman to go home. We must not confuse British imperialism with British people.\u201d Neil Prout, a first year sports management student, pointed out that T&T, Guyana and Dominica are independent and are capable of running their own affairs. \u201cWe have come of age to handle our own thing.\u201d A petition calling for the removal of the Queen as Commonwealth head was circulated at last Wednesday\u2019s event for signatures. \u201cWe are going to send this to Prime Minister Patrick Manning,\u201d Sanatan said. \u201cOur leaders must form consensus in their decision to change the Queen as symbolic Head of the Commonwealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanatan said colonialism dismantled the Caribbean people\u2019s psyche and its harmful effects are still felt socially and economically. \u201cOne can argue that the Queen is 83 and it may appear irreverent to dismiss her position in the organisation now. \u201cBut it must be remembered that Queen Elizabeth (1) lived for 101 years.\u201d Sanatan said last Wednesday\u2019s event was in no way a protest against CHOGM. \u201cIt was a gathering of students who challenge backward societal norms and systems.\u201d Posters of a frog wearing a crown and smoking a pipe, with the words, \u201cCrapaud smoke all a we pipe,\u201d were pasted on the pillars at the Undercroft last Wednesday.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/guardian.co.tt\/news\/general\/2009\/11\/22\/uwi-students-remove-queen-commonwealth-head<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yvonne Baboolal November 22, 2009 – guardian.co.tt 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 … Continue reading UWI students: Remove Queen as Commonwealth head<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[213,1,5,7],"tags":[225,1015,226,49],"class_list":["post-1941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chogm","category-general-tt","category-international","category-politics","tag-commonwealth","tag-politics","tag-queen-elizabeth-11","tag-tt-govt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1942,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions\/1942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}