Commonwealth Day 2011

Today is a bank holiday in Gib. A very rainy bank holiday to rival even the traditional British rainy bank holiday.

The sort of rainy day where you set off for the shops with Goretex jacket, leggings and walking boots and are wet within five minutes of leaving the house.

It was too wet to stop to take photos on the way down, but on the way back it had eased off somewhat. Typical. If only we'd waited ten minutes or so instead of being our usual early bird selves.

Irish Town


Main Street looking north


Main Street looking south


College Lane


Why is it a bank holiday?

Because it is Commonwealth Day.

While the Commonwealth may well be a legacy of Britain's imperial and colonial days, at least the work it does these days, and the messages given out every year, try to do some good for the people living in Commonwealth countries.

I wrote about it a couple of years ago here, and here is a link to the Commonwealth web site.

This year's theme is Women as Agents of Change. Very good, I say. As this is not my ranty blog, I shall confine myself to that. For now. I may write more elsewhere.

Poster produced by the Commonwealth Secretariat for this year's theme




I would also like to point out that the research undertaken by the staff of Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma leaves something to be desired. By which I mean his speech is inaccurate. Wrong in fact.

Around the Commonwealth, there are a number of bank holidays today. In Australia, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart and Melbourne all have a hol, and there are also stock exchange holidays there.

Chittagong in Bangladesh has one to celebrate the World Cup Cricket Match, St Vincent and the Grenadines has Kingstown Bank Holiday to celebrate National Heroes Day, while Uganda has a Kampala Bank Holiday and a currency/stock exchange holiday.

Turks and Caicos, Tuvalu, Virgin Islands and Gibraltar all have a bank holiday specifically to mark Commonwealth Day.

Now I have no idea about any of the others mentioned in the list above that have bank holidays today, whether for Commonwealth Day or other reasons, but I can tell you Gibraltar is pretty quiet. And the schools are not open.

Why do I mention schools? Because in his second paragraph Mr Sharma says:
"Commonwealth Day is celebrated on the second Monday in March, a day when every school in the Commonwealth is open,..."

No. Not here, they aren't sweetie. Give me a job.