Est.2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

Banner promoting anonymous crime reporting with a phone and contact number 1 800 TIPS (8477), featuring the Crime Stoppers logo and a QR code for submitting tips.

Remove This RH Sign – Chinese Sign Greets Visitors to Sam Lord’s Castle in Barbados

← Back

Your message to the BLOGMASTER was sent

CONTACT THE BLOGMASTER ONLY

How The Hell Would Anyone Know That This Resort Is In Barbados An English Speaking Country? Since when did Barbados Relocate to China? This Sign Must Be Removed. It Is An Insult To The People of Barbados!

 

Image may contain: outdoor

‎Posted to Facebook

The following composed by Heather Cole

Anyone offended by the above title should also be deeply offended by the disturbing signage outside of Sam Lords Castle that is now being rebuilt.  This historic property has been a part of Barbados since the days of Slavery.  It comes packaged with folklore about the exploits of Samuel Lord, who has since been immortalized in song by the Merry Men regarding his exploits as a pirate, hanging lanterns on coconuts trees for ships to run aground on the reef so that he could pillage its treasure.

It is unfortunate that the property was allowed to run to ruin.  All Barbadians are happy at the prospects of it being rebuilt bringing jobs.  However, Barbadians do not speak far less read Chinese.  No one knows what the signage says.   We speak a Bajan dialect and English is our national language.  Our days of colonialism ended in 1966.  We have a flag that is blue and gold not red and white, we have a Coat of Arms on which is written in English “Pride and Industry” not Chinese Characters, we have a national anthem that is written in English.

Chinese is not the national language of Barbados.   Signage in Chinese must not be allowed on such a significantly historical property in Barbados.   If the Chinese want to build a Sam Lords Castle in Shanghai, Shandong, Guangdong, Sichuan, Henan or any of the other Chinese Provinces they would be well within their rights to put Chinese characters at the entrance but not in Long Bay, St Philip Barbados, the signage must be remove immediately.  It is an insult to all Barbadians.

One wonders if it was done in oversight by the Government or on deliberate action.  However, there is no Chinese sign on the Gymnasium.  In Barbados we have a preference for other cultures to assimilate to our culture and our language and want to keep it that way.  Mrs. Ram Mirchandani has a hotel in Barbados and there is no signage at the entrance in any of the Indian languages. The previous owners of Sam Lords Castle kept its original name and in the English language. Why can’t the Chinese?

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

247 responses to “Remove This RH Sign – Chinese Sign Greets Visitors to Sam Lord’s Castle in Barbados”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    Now that we have social media taking to this issue, and rightly so, we wait to hearr a statement from the project manager, Maxine McClean or anyone with responsibility to explain to RH Bajans!

  2. Tell me Why Avatar
    Tell me Why

    @ WW&COB

    This sign is an insult to Barbados. If the Chinese is building and financing the construction of Sam Lords Castle, I don’t see why chinese language should be affix on the pillar before the completion. Is this the dismantling of Independent Barbados. Tek um down.

  3. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Crusoe November 6, 2017 at 9:22 AM

    How about rewriting the national anthem in Mandarin?
    But with the following amendments:

    ‘Those fields and hills are no longer our very own and will soon be overgrown with dragon herb to make Chinese b(r)ush.’

    ‘The Dragon will be the people’s guide for many years to come’.

  4. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    TMY….I see the concerns…..but, it has to be taken up with the government….Tudor I believe said the sign was for Chinese workers…I dont see how government can prevent temporary signage for rotating chinese workers….particularly if they are prisoners…particularly if they dont speak english…but that is only my opinion……

    …I have seen so many foreign language signage, it does not phase me..everyone is not me, that I know…

    And it will only be an insult, if put up without permission, so instead of giving yaselves high blood pressure over it, do the right thing send the BU post to McClean or whichever nitwit is in charge.

  5. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Lol…I am learning Mandarin…my son in law is Chinese, I am learning how to cuss him and to know when he is cussing me…lol

  6. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Tell me Why November 6, 2017 at 9:45 AM

    “Tek um down” and place it where?

    On Bay Street to the entrance to the imaginary Hyatt Erection?

    If this administration can’t even get Bajan-born Maloney to remove that death trap from the highway how can you dare remove anything erected by or made by the Chinese?

  7. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Confucius say Man who turned other cheek get slapped twice

  8. Dr. Simple Simon Phd Avatar
    Dr. Simple Simon Phd

    @Heather Cole”However, Barbadians do not speak far less read Chinese. No one knows what the signage says. We speak a Bajan dialect and English is our national language.”

    Well don’t take the Chinese people money if you don’t want to learn their language. The hotel is being marketed to Chinese people with money. And we do need some of that Chinese money, don’t we?

    China is asserting its dominance in the world, as the English asserted their dominance for 500 years previously, and the English dominance killed off ALL of the indigenous languages of the Easter Caribbean, and killed off ALL of the languages of the enslaved Africans brought to the Caribbean.

    We are NOT English. We have NEVER been English. We will NEVER be English.

    There is nothing holy about the English language

    English is just another language. One of these days like Latin it will be a useless dead language.

    Start getting used to it.

  9. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    As @Sargeant said the piper calls the tune. Cole’s argumentation reminds me of that from the US social media maguffy with a local twist, ‘Make Bdos Great Again’!

    The same Chinese bought the iconic US hotel the Waldorf Astoria. It too surely came “… packaged with folklore” of a gilded history of presidents and the famous.

    But before them so did the Japanese cut big ownership slices of the US. And before them n others of course were the Brits.

    In our case, we complained for the proverbial stage hour when the English huffed property along the gold coast of St. James; when some blocked beach access there was a necessary hue n cry but the landowners remained entrenched.

    In sum, the signage brouhaha is only relevant if the absolutely crucial note from @Hal viz :”[Do] the Chinese workers have a right to settle in Barbados” is seen as a possible dangerous blocking or change of a path of life we took as a norm.

    We easily accepted our British landowners with warts and all but are we prepared for this possible new colonization as aptly described by the British scribe…

    Considering we eventually lambasted the Poms on the cricket field maybe we will one day smash our Asian colonists off the TT tables….oops poor joke attempt!🙁

    Folly aside, of course with property investments within a country comes serious influence and persuasive power. That’s the worry I suspect truly concerns Ms Cole.

    Just last week a non US headquartered company Broadcom heralded a large investment to move their main HQ back to the continental US…a $billions investment. They had reincorporated a few years ago in Singapore to benefit from lower taxes. But now the climate is right to move back.

    Ahaa, but lost beneath the headline is the fact that they are making a bid to take over another major US company… a merger that would have been given scant chance for approval if they remained listed as a Singapore corporate entity… but not likely denied for a US company tho.

    Let’s move beyond the bull horn noise is my point.. the signage is an interesting debate but the other issues must take precedence…. and as the man said, who pays the piper calls the tune!

  10. Dr. Simple Simon Phd Avatar
    Dr. Simple Simon Phd

    @Caswell Franklyn November 6, 2017 at 12:03 AM “I thought that the devil would have spoken English.”

    The devil is English speaking.

    Damn English enslaving devil.

  11. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    They dont even know who is behind Hyatt…I recently saw some names that have business interests in the island….and my eyes literally popped right out, some names cannot speak a word of english…..and ya can’t pronounce them.

    It made me decide that any investments I make must be in certain countries where the citizens literally owns Barbados……ah will get a better return.

    It is a waste of time getting all stirred up over the sign because you do not know that you do not know.

    And am sure not going to be the one to tell ya to make ya even more agitated when I know there is nothing ya can do…it is too late.

    Talk to ya corrupt ministers and politicians.

  12. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    Someone translated the sign and said that it means, “workers entrance”.

    If that is the case, don’t you all realise that would mean that there would be no need an English equivalent because there are not going to be any Barbadian workers to follow that sign.

    Sent from my iPad

  13. Dr. Simple Simon Phd Avatar
    Dr. Simple Simon Phd

    @Hal Austin November 6, 2017 at 3:51 AM “We have areas in London where not a single shop has an English-only sign. Who are they appealing to?”

    They are appealing to the non-English speaking people who who have MONEY to spend with them.

    We are NOT English. We have NEVER been English. We will NEVER be English.

    NOT Chinese either.

  14. Dr. Simple Simon Phd Avatar
    Dr. Simple Simon Phd

    @Hal Austin November 6, 2017 at 3:51 AM “We are now a colony of China. Maxine McClean and her lack of thinking is to blame.”

    Nothing at all to do with Maxine. Nice lady. Smart too. But in the matter of geopolitics both Maxine and Barbados are small potatoes. China would still be powerful even if Maxine had never been born. China would still be powerful even if Barbados did not exist.

    China is powerful because China is big and powerful.

  15. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Simple….it is only females seem to see these things in practical terms….I already sent for info on how to invest in the countries whose citizens got controlling financial interests in Barbados, I did not waste one second….ah should get the information any day now…..

    And since Chinese my son in law looks too cute and slick, nice dude, but I prefer to know how he thinks…ah learning Mandarin…lol

  16. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    For the hotel to cater to the zillion wealthy quadrillionaires China got. ..they must have chinese and bajan workers and english and Chinese signage….there is no getting around that..the Chinese are business pros, they dont do halfassed contracts.

  17. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Chuckle…..another 5th columnist arises…..with a PhD no less……talking bovine excrement about the language of Bim…….frauds too love degrees.

    Hmm…..I wonder which west african tribes’ language should we speak if we went to that side of the family or on the other side should it be one of the celtic tribal ones?

    Note our own Bim dialect…..a local construct of a free people is not worthy of a look in…….and english the language of business of the majority of the world should not be used placing us at a further disadvantage.

    Lets all study Chinese…..hmm….they say mandarin…….I wonder how many Chinese speak mandarin??

  18. Dr. Simple Simon Phd Avatar
    Dr. Simple Simon Phd

    @Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. November 6, 2017 at 4:33 AM “I myself get hell understanding the bajan dialect, because it was banned in my household growing up…”

    A pity. Because many people think that being fluent in multiple languages, and presumably multiple dialects makes you smarter.

    And for you and Hal, here is a link from the British Council, although maybe I shouldn’t quote them, but The British thinks that being multilingual makes you smarter:

    https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/does-being-bilingual-make-you-smarter

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html
    And the New York Times thinks so too.

  19. Dr. Simple Simon Phd Avatar
    Dr. Simple Simon Phd

    @Vincent Haynes November 6, 2017 at 10:28 AM “Chuckle…another 5th columnist arises…..with a PhD no less…talking bovine excrement about the language of Bim…frauds too love degrees.

    Don’t worry too much Vincent. Just having a little fun. But you didn’t complain when I was a simple simon, so why are you now complaining now that I have given myself a Phd?

    And do you know that Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second awards honours to her own family members?

    So why can’t I award myself a fake Phd? Please note that this fake Phd has NEVER appeared on my official resume.

    Have a good day Vincent.

  20. Dr. Simple Simon Phd Avatar
    Dr. Simple Simon Phd

    Which is more that i can say for a few people ’bout this place

  21. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Everyone believes being multilingual makes you smarter…it dont, it just makes you a better communicator, able to understand people when they think you cant…and likely to have a brain that retains languages….lol..

    Dont mind the british..they cant speak french to save their lives.

    Unless ya are latino descent with spanish spoken in the household or learned Spanish and other languages in school and it stuck because ya kept it up…..Americans can only speak American english…

    My 5 year old grandson is learning Spanish….the younger they are, they better they soak up foreign languages…I witnessed a then 13 year old soak up french in one semester…..and another soak up 4 languages in a ten year period…one was the Korean language, I had questions but held my tongue.

  22. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Dr. Simple Simon Phd November 6, 2017 at 10:05 AM
    “English is just another language. One of these days like Latin it will be a useless dead language.”

    Latin might be “dead” as a ‘spoken’ language.

    But its etymological footprints (linguistic DNA) live on in many Romance languages from which has been concocted that bastard called ‘vulgar (e)nglish’.

    Unless the King James Bible is rewritten in Mandarin and becomes required reading for black people that piece of the best English prose ever composed will be around until the Twelfth of Never.

  23. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Simple Simon

    I am shocked…..I thought it was an imposter using your handle…..but now you have clarified that you are having fun,I understand as you could not have been serious on what you said.

    I agree with you,which is why I said frauds come with PhDs……degrees have I none and I take pride in that.

  24. Dr. Simple Simon Phd Avatar
    Dr. Simple Simon Phd

    @Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. November 6, 2017 at 7:25 AM “My daughter who was born on the island, raised and schooled in other countries…cannot understand the dialect…I try to translate what I can understand…And dont talk about Jamaica and the other dialect flavored islands…I dont understand a damn word, will have to spend time there to learn all.”

    Some people have an ear for language…some don’t.

    Although i must admit that the ONLY time I did not understand spoken English was on a brief visit to Birmingham…tweny years later i am still trying to figure out the man’s response.

    But even though I have only decades old third form French I was able on a couple occasions to ask directions in English and the native French speaker in France and in Canada replied in French and I surprised myself by understanding the response.

    I am good with all Caribbean English based dialects.

  25. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Sargeant
    ….perhaps Bushie has a point.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Touche Boss!!!
    That one hurt the Bushman deeply….
    You are one vicious private…

    You are hereby promoted back to sergeant……

    @ Simple Simon
    Anyone who cannot see the difference between being multi-lingual, and having strangers come and piss in your living room ….deserves to be unable to see…. blessed ignorance.
    It is better for them in the long run to be enveloped in ignorance as they are being used as a brass bowl topsy.

  26. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Vincent is a bigger fraud, the country where he was born, they speak different languages…lol

    If ya want to learn Dutch, Spanish Papiamento……based on Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and several African dialects.

    The dialects always get me because they are very cultural ingrained and entrenched….

    Vincent is a joke.

  27. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Dont mind Bushman he will soon be speaking Cantonese. …lol

  28. Dr. Simple Simon Phd Avatar
    Dr. Simple Simon Phd

    @Hal Austin November 6, 2017 at 8:09 AM “Part of these infrastructural Chinese deals include allowing the workers to settle in the receiving country. Get Maxine McClean to say if the Chinese workers have a right to settle in Barbados.”

    The English settled in the Caribbean without asking permission of the indigenous people.

    Even a country as big and as powerful as China sometimes does RH shi!e.

    China had for many years a one child policy.

    Chinese traditionally boy children, Bajans do too. If you doubt me ask your grandmother.

    With readily available abortion, too many Chinese boys were born compared to Chinese girls, and now these boys are big men with hard doggies and with no hope of getting a Chinese wife. A man can’t live forever without. We ALL know that.

    So the Chinese government is doing all that it can to offshore these men.

    If I was young I would tek on one myself, especially as black Bajan men are traditionally so reluctant to enter formal/legal marriages, although loving sex as much as anybody else.

    That is the reality.

    A couple of my young relatives have already married into the Asian communities. Ten years later the marriages are doing fine.

    As I said before, if only I was young…

  29. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    If ya want to learn Dutch, Spanish Papiamento……based on Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and several African dialects…..GO TO Curacao..lol

  30. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Simple…I have no problem with french, spanish, german and italian, but the dialects are tough…I gitta spend time among the people, cant learn them from a book.

  31. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Dr. Simple Simon Phd November 6, 2017 at 10:44 AM #

    Can’t understand Brummie, you should go to East London.

  32. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    It says….no littering….apparently when it was in english bajanss could understand what it meant.

  33. Dr. Simple Simon Phd Avatar
    Dr. Simple Simon Phd

    @Vincent Haynes November 6, 2017 at 10:28 AM “and english the language of business of the majority of the world should not be used placing us at a further disadvantage.”

    Why don’t you and miller etc. stop trying to put words in my mouth?

    I have NEVER said that English should not be used.

  34. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    could not

  35. Dr. Simple Simon Phd Avatar
    Dr. Simple Simon Phd

    Vincent don’t put words i my mouth. You can’t see that I have a Dr. and a Phd so therefore I can speak for myself?

  36. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Dr. Simple Simon Phd November 6, 2017 at 11:15 AM #

    What language should Bimmers use as their own??

  37. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ David,

    What I was going to write had too many expletives so I will just say this.

    Bajans shì hǒng huáng tóng báichī. !!!!!!!

  38. Dr. Simple Simon Phd Avatar
    Dr. Simple Simon Phd

    @Hal Austin November 6, 2017 at 11:04 AM “Dr. Simple Simon Phd November 6, 2017 at 10:44 AM “Can’t understand Brummie, you should go to East London.”

    No problems at all in London. Maybe I just needed to spend a bit more time in Birmingham. There is still time I hope…

    A good afternoon to you.

  39. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Dr. Simple Simon Phd November 6, 2017 at 11:28 AM #

    Do you remember when people in St Philip and St Lucy had distinct accents. I used to tease my Philipian cousins just to hear them speak.

  40. Dr. Simple Simon Phd Avatar
    Dr. Simple Simon Phd

    They still do but to a lesser extent. There is still also a distinct ‘Town accent, and one from “up the hill” the area around Rock Hall, St. Peter/St. Andrew.

    I used to buy bananas from a lady who sold opposite the Cheapside market, just to hear her speak. She was from that area of St.Andrew/St/ Peter. That was about twenty years ago and she was very elderly, so maybe she and her beautiful accent are both gone now.

  41. Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger

    Simple….the Chinese men are populating Africa with African women like energizer bunnies, the African men are weeping and wailing, they never want to take care of their women and children, in no time the African population went over 1 billion, soon it will be 2 billion Chinese men are showing them how to and they vex….lol

    ya notice it`s only BU men carrying on…the worse that could happen, is the Chinese dudes will show bajan men how to be real men and treat women and children with respect, Jones will get the population explosion he is lusting after….a win win.

  42. Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger

    the bajan dialect got a unique way of cussing, with intermingling nuances, ah trying to perfect it.

  43. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Hal Austin November 6, 2017 at 11:32 AM
    “Dr. Simple Simon Phd November 6, 2017 at 11:28 AM
    Do you remember when people in St Philip and St Lucy had distinct accents. I used to tease my Philipian cousins just to hear them speak.”

    Can’t you see that Dr. Simon is a Simple fraud with a low(e)down PhD hiding behind her moniker and not a true-blue whistleblower?

    Why are you not asking her to remove her mask of duplicity by pretending to be a doctor of Philosophy is instead of a hard-of-hearing witchdoctor who has a simple single cure for every ailment under the BU Sun.

    Why are you allowing your high “English” standards and ‘holier-than-thou’ principles to slip so ‘lowdown’ even into the gutter where only the anonymice wallow?

  44. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Miller

    Chuckle….looks like Simple Simon has swallowed the kool aid from the topsy…..hahaha.

  45. Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger

    some months ago, the Jamaicans were complaining about some Chinese actions in Jamaica, the same Chinese the government allowed in because they wanted their money, apparently they built toll booths and there was confusion over the way the process was progressing, nothing as simple as an unwanted sign, it was more complex….ah will bet my last dollar half the money handed over to the government already disappeared….

    the point being, if you do not take these people money, they cannot inveigle their way into the country and societies, although i see nothing wrong with a future population of bajan chinese who can speak Cantonese…lol

    as things stand ya got foreign and local minorities tiefing ya pension fund ya worked decades to accumulate….that is your pension they are stealing and hiding it in Argentina and all over the place….with no returns to you and with the likes of Vincent egging them on…

    that is the problem right there…… not a Chinese sign, but what do i know, my pension could never be stolen by Vincent and his ilk.

  46. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Artax

    Read the above postings by the entity and note how the robot has been reprogrammed to talk about dialects and nuances.

  47. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    @Dr. Simple Booboo

    How did this morph into a debate about dialects? The sign is in Chinese characters of which very few if any Bajans are familiar. We don’t care if members of your family married the King of Siam or Madame Butterfly or if you are hankering for a bit of Yellow Tail the sign as it currently exists is offensive to Bajans.

  48. Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger

    someone on another blog said the sign says…..`Emergency stop tourists stop”

    that would probably be in Cantonese. when i catch hold of my son in law, i will ask him…i think he knows cantonese as well.

  49. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Sargeant

    Chuckle……yuh gots de wrong Dr. Boobie……its de udder one with the United Nations family…..rainbow coalition of the world……de modified topsy.

  50. Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger

    ya just jealous i can dial up a Chinese and get an accurate translation of the sign, while ya have to sit there and help cockroaches dream up ways to tief bajans pension money….because that is all thats left to steal….and all you know to do.

The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading