Rwanda wants to join the British Commonwealth.....

[Stan]

Quote:

Rwanda has shown its determination to join the Commonwealth by establishing English as an official language and embracing cricket as a new national sport.

Although the former German colony subsequently ruled by Belgium has no direct British ties, neither did Mozambique when it was admitted 14 years ago to the federation of former British colonies.

Set up 60 years ago, the Commonwealth now counts 53 members representing some two billion people and accounts for a fifth of the world's trade.

Source

[Stan]

Doug, it never left.

[Gail]

[phkrause]

Interesting, not sure why they want to belong to Britian? They left many countries that they occupied, in ruins or in termoil. At least from my persective.

pk

[Nan]

I wonder which version of cricket they would embrace...there are the 5 day test matches, the 50 over one day matches and the newer 20-Twenty form of the game. The last one has been taking over by a big

franchise in India and many of the international players make a lot of money (by cricket standards) for playing for the regional Indian teams, for a few weeks each year. Of course designed for a TV audience, that is where the money is.

And I do not need to hear comments about how any sports match can

go for 5 days!!! I am in perpetual wonder about the stop start nature of American football and how those games can be stretched out.

There are certainly a lot of African nations in the Commonwealth.

[Bravus]

It's not so much Britain per se, PK, as the Commonwealth, which is now much more of an organisation of nations like the OECD or the G20 or whatever. I imagine they see economic and political advantages in linking up with other countries in the Commonwealth.

[phkrause]

I understand Bravus, but still in my opinion Britain doesn't have a good rep for being helpful.

pk

[Bravus]

True, but I guess that's true of all the colonial powers... It's not an exaggeration, IMO, to say that almost all of the conflicts in the world today are just the leftover wounds from the colonial era...

[Gerr]

If you think Britain was bad, look at the countries formerly ruled by Spain!

[phkrause]

I wasn't saying that Britian was cruel but when they left they left everything intermoil. Like the middle east, india, china, etc. That's what I was really refering to Gerry. Is that what you thought I was saying. I know kind off what happen to the Basque (not sure that's the correct spelling) area. I have a friend that I used to work with that came from that part of Spain.

pk

[Stan]

after WW2 they ran out of $$$$, and spent 20 years unloading most colonies. Not sure they did the right thing in some places.

[Stan]

their version, not mine.

[phkrause]

Sounds about right Stan. They actually went to the Jews to get money to keep the war going. And more than likely if it were not for the US they might have lost all.

pk

[phkrause]

New mass graves in Rwanda reveal cracks in reconciliation efforts, 30 years after the genocide

HUYE, Rwanda (AP) — The diggers’ hoes scrape the brown soil, looking for — and often finding — human bone fragments. The women then wipe the bone pieces with their hands as others watch in solemn silence.

https://apnews.com/article/rwanda-genocide-anniversary-mass-graves-61fb69da1c44be82a9f85d193e91104f?