Commentaire de texte en Civilisation Britannique

Résumé du document

Queen Elizabeth's speech at the 1997 Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting
Commentaire de texte civilisation britannique
I - Methodology for the Commentary in Civilisation US-GB (English & French)
II - Civilisation Britannique - Assignment
III - Civilisation Britannique - The Industrial Revolution (Text & Commentary)

Extraits

[...] Reference is made of the 1991 Harare Declaration and the “purpose” (l. 28; l. 30) that has come out of it: “the promotion of democracy, the pursuit of prosperity through trade and development, and the building of consensus” (l. 31-32), indeed echoing what can be read in the Declaration itself, that is to say that “the Commonwealth way is to seek consensus through consultation and the sharing of experience” (paragraph 3). Numbers of references to the idea of a joint cause, a “common purpose” (l. [...]

[...] making an extensive use of the personal pronouns and determinants “I”, “me” ; l. and “my” and l. talking about her closeness to heads of governments (l. 25-26) and her trip to India and Pakistan. As it is her first participation to a Head of Government Meeting, she seems to be willing to point the importance of her presence and the pride associated with it. Throughout her reign, the longevity of which she points out (“a far cry”, l. she has been able to witness the genesis and expansion of what has become a 54 member states organisation. [...]

[...] As stated in the 1949 London Convention, all members states are free as well as they are equal. Democracy is promoted (l. 30) as the key to the freedom of each nation. In the following sentence: “It is the people who elect their governments and exercise, by the discipline of the ballot box, their right to choose how they are governed” (l. 45-46), each word seems to be hammering the importance of the electoral process. In that matter, Fiji are mentioned, as they have been excluded from the Commonwealth because of a military coup (and would be excluded again) but, “now that a new constitution has been approved which enjoys national consensus and which conforms with the Commonwealth's Harare principles” (Commonwealth Secretary- General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, 1997) are to resume their membership. [...]

[...] On the contrary, it is a way to underline the contrast between the Commonwealth Prime Ministers Conferences of which had taken place in London, and the Commonwealth Head of Governments Meetings, which differents members states already had the opportunity to host since 1971. The Queen insists on it expansion with words such as “grown” (l. 22) and “growth” (l. 24) and superlatives such as “one of the largest and most respected organisations of peoples in the world” (l. 22-23) and “the greatest gatherings of Commonwealth leaders” (l. [...]

[...] Furthermore, the same prefex “con” as in “consensus”(l.31), meaning “with” in latin, occurs three times in the same sentence: “conferring, consulting and co-operating with each other”(l. these are the introductory words of La Harare Declaration. Comparatives and superlatives are here to emphasise this sense of being together: “Our association is more than a partnership of governments” and the Head of Government meeting that is about to start is depicted as “the greatest gathering of Commonwealth leaders that the world has ever seen” (l. 48-49). If “difficult” (l. 51) issues will undoubtely have to be dealt with, the queen leaves them to the politics. [...]