Profound Experiences in Britain

living. Due to low salaries for millions of persons, many residents in Britain cannot provide their children with a high school education or afford cable TV. In higher end, stores a necktie cost 80 pounds or approximately $85 US. In London, a taxi to the airport is 95 pounds or approximately $100.00 US.

At least four speakers at the Westminster seminar had to speak virtually, instead of in person, because train strikes for higher wages across London made traveling long distances from point A to point B by train unachievable.

the House of Commons in Britain 225 or 33% of them are women. At home of the 31 elected members of the House of Representatives 4 or 13% of them are women. To encourage more women to participate in government as leaders, the constitution of a number of Commonwealth countries state that a specific number of seats must be reserved for women. A few of those constitutions go even further in stating that only female candidates can contest specific seats for parliament.

Caribbean are being severely strained in coping with the large flow of refugees from Haiti, which has been experiencing major instability for over a year. The consensus was that as a block, CARICOM heads, need to take the lead in pressing world leaders to aid in the stabilization of the country for the benefit of the entire region and the wider world instead of only complaining as the situation get worse.

By Hon. Gilroy Usher, Port Loyola

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”

–Saint Augustine

(Continued from March 26) The service to commemorate Commonwealth Day was held at the historic Westminster Abbey on Monday March 13th, 2023. Royalties such as Prince Charles who is King Charles III in waiting only for a few more weeks and his wife, Camilla, Queen Consort sat in the front row on two chairs with red velvet and gold colored metal linings. Beside the Queen Consort was Prince William and his wife Princess Catherine. I sat in the second row directly opposite members of the Royal family. Throughout the service they did everything as normal persons.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle is Speaker of the House of Commons in Britain. According to Speaker Hoyle some fundamental qualities of good Speaker include the ability to be fair to all parties as well as the ability to allow robust but respectful debate in the House without allowing the pot to boil over –without allowing the debate to become disrespectful and disorderly with mudslinging and character attacks.

Attorney Abdul Rahim Sowe of Sierra Leone, who is confined to a wheelchair, is a professional with diverse ability from birth. Mr. Sowe is the principal bills officer for the parliament of his country. As a result of the appreciation of Britain /United Kingdom (U.K.) for persons with diverse abilities provision is made for wheelchairs in all government buildings. Consequently, Attorney Sowe was able to attend all the sessions with little or no difficulty. Attorney Fatou Bensouda is Gambia’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and former Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC). In one of her final acts at the ICC, Attorney Bensouda ruled that the ICC should hear the case of the Palestinians against Israeli occupation.

Despite its long history of racism against minorities especially Blacks, the Westminster Seminar gave the delegates from around the world the opportunity to see that Britain is moving steadily towards inclusion of all its people.

Axell Kaubo Programme, Manager for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association ( CPA) UK ; Hon. Bell Ribeiro –Addy Labour MP for Streatham ; Victoria Obaze first Nigerian female Mayor of Tower Hamlets, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are all black persons. While the PM is of East Indian heritage, he is still considered black in Britain and the United States. A few decades ago, nonwhites especially blacks being victorious in elections for many prominent positions in Britain was definitely mission impossible.

One of the things that cannot escape anyone in Britain is the high cost of

The Westminster conference revealed that the success of women being elected members of parliament in Commonwealth countries varies a lot.

25 SEP 2020

Of the 650 elected members of

The Westminster seminar revealed interesting positions on conflicts that are affecting neighboring Commonwealth countries. The resources of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and many other Commonwealth counties in the