Tag Archives: Politics

CARICOM, CHOGM, Finance, International, Politics, Security

An ‘old boys club’ headed by an old lady

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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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CHOGM, International

Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus: The Commonwealth Climate Change Declaration

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

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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CHOGM, International

Speech by Queen Elizabeth at the Opening Ceremony of CHOGM 2009

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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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CARICOM, CHOGM, International

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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CHOGM, General T&T, International, Politics

UWI students: Remove Queen as Commonwealth head

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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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CARICOM, CHOGM, International, Politics

Queen kicks off CHOGM today

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

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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CARICOM, CHOGM, International

Leaders fly in for CHOGM

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

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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Finance, General T&T, PNM, Politics

T&T borrowing $13 billion

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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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Africa, corruption, International

When electoral fraud is met by congratulations

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By Stephen Gowans
November 03, 2009 – what’s left
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

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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General T&T, International, Politics, Security

Foreign Affairs Ministry Responsible for Diplomatic Fiasco

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By Stephen Kangal, Caroni
November 12, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Paula Gopee-Scoon
Paula Gopee-Scoon
From documented evidence available to me I can state categorically that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is solely responsible for the diplomatic furore involving a Saudi Arabian diplomat, Fawaz Alshubaili and ACP Raymond Craig at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. There is no need for any inquiry in this matter.
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