Martin Henry

Twenty-one years ago I met the Commonwealth up close when the Commonwealth Association of Science, Technology and Mathematics Educators [CASTME] provided a fellowship tour to England in recognition of some innovative work I had done in science education.

Not only did I get the opportunity of interacting with other CASTME awards winners from around the Commonwealth, I had a chance to watch the Commonwealth Secretariat and its agencies at work at their headquarters in ornate Marlborough House in London.

Monday past, the second Monday in March, was Commonwealth Day. Happily, the day was marked by the Parliament in a special event at the Knutsford Court Hotel in which some 100 students from Corporate Area schools participated. There is a vibrant Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. And in 1996, when Richard Thomas was British High Commissioner here, the High Commission packed me off to one of the conferences of the CPA and other interesting things in England.

With cascading independence, the Commonwealth grew out of the British Empire. It is one of those unique quirks of history. There really is no parallel that I am aware of where any group of ex-colonies agrees to stick together and with the former coloniser for the common good.

According to the Commonwealth Secretariat website, the Common-wealth is an association of 53 independent states consulting and co-operating in the common interests of their peoples and in the promotion of international understanding and world peace. Most of these states, many of them tiny specs on the map, have dropped the Queen as head of state as Jamaica is itching to do in certain quarters.

The Commonwealth's two billion citizens, about 30 per cent of the world's population, are drawn from the broadest range of faiths, races, cultures and traditions, ComSec points out. What holds them together more than anything else is a common language, English, and elements of the cultural paraphernalia which came with colonial Anglicisation.

This association of sovereign states does not have a written constitution, but it does have a series of agreements setting out its beliefs and objectives.

Suspensions

South Africa was suspended from the Commonwealth for many years over apartheid. Fiji is now suspended after its military coup last year. In the face of continued suspension and mounting criticism of President Robert Mugabe's autocratic rule, Zimbabwe withdrew from the Commonwealth in 2003.

In 1971, two major events in the history of the Commonwealth took place. One was the Singapore Declaration of Commonwealth Principles, which gave the association a formal code of ethics and committed members to improving human rights and seeking racial and economic justice. The other was the creation of the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation (CFTC), which advanced the idea of technical cooperation among developing countries.

I believe Jamaica seriously under-utilises the CFTC and the Commonwealth Foundation. I sense the usual grasping for aid money in the diplomatic declaration by our Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Delano Franklyn, for Common-wealth Day when he said that, "the Commonwealth also provides a forum for countries such as Jamaica to lobby for the assistance of more developed countries in a context where liberalisation is the order of the day".

There is a wealth of technical co-operation around the transfer of technology and collaborative research and development, as The Gleaner-reported comment by the Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs underscores. Karl Samuda says the country can benefit form the exchange of ideas and technology within the Commonwealth. And Jamaica does not have to be only mendicant recipient. "Each of us is willing to share the developments which take place within [our] respective countries," Samuda says.

We have done world-class R&D which can be shared with others some of which possibly could be powered up into commercial innovation in partnership with other Commonwealth states and private agencies with bigger financial muscles. Years ago when we had an Israeli embassy here, the ambassador complained in a private conversation that Jamaica was making little use of what his country had to offer. The same seems true for us in this amazing family of kindred nations to which we belong.