Masman Mac Farlane dazzles CHOGM opening
Trinidad and Tobago hosts its biggest ever international conference. Queen Elizabeth 11, decked off in a glittering gold outfit, addressed the CHOGM delegates on the relevance and importance of the Commonwealth.
In the 1960s Lord Kitchener sang a calypso bemoaning the fact that in Trinidad “any time is Trinidad time”.
The opening of the talk extravaganza Commonwealth Heads of Government conference (CHOGM) in Port of Spain earlier today underlined Kitchener’s lament: for some reason it had no respect for royal punctuality with Queen Elizabeth 11 in attendance and started 30 minutes late.
However, the final 30 minutes of the opening ceremony, held at the newly opened National Academy for the Performing Arts, Queen’s Park West, made up the late start: just like he did at the opening of the Fifth Summit of the Americas in April, celebrated bandleader Brian MacFarlane presented a dazzling show featuring some 935 performers.
The breathtaking choreography showcased the country’s ethnic diversity, heritage and natural resources.
It made up for the platitudes about the cohesiveness and strengths of the 53-member countries in the Caribbean, North America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific which have a combined population of almost 2 billion.
Climate change will be major topic on the agenda at the three-day conference and Prime Minister Patrick Manning spoke about advancing diversity and adherence to consensus and pointed out that CHOGM gave them the opportunity to illuminate the way forward for all peoples.
Queen Elizabeth 11, head of the Commonwealth, said that the Commonwealth needed to prove its relevance beyond its own borders and develop a truly global perspective and the meeting could map out the way for the next 60 years.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon will join the discussions this weekend on climate change ahead of the Copenhagen conference which starts on December 7.
Tomorrow will be the first working day of the conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
The leaders of several African countries and St Lucia did not attend but sent representatives and actually a total of 40 heads of state or government attended.