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Open Letter to Prime Minster Mottley and Minister King

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Open letter to The Hon. Mia Amor Mottley, Q.C., M.P. (Prime Minister) and
 The Hon. John A. King, M.P.(Minister of Creative Economy, Culture and Sports)

 

Dear Prime Minister and Minister of Culture,

John_King
Minister of Culture, John King
mia_mottley
Prime Minister Mia Mottley

I am sure by now you are aware that people in Bristol removed the statue of slave trader, Edward Colston, and deposited it in a nearby river. With this act, people in that city sent a clear message to the world that they would no longer tolerate the glorification of accomplices in the commission of crimes against humanity and those who grew rich from their sordid involvement in human trafficking.

In the present climate when there is a heightened global awareness of the need for zero tolerance towards racism and its symbols, it is unconscionable that in Barbados, a country where over 95% of its citizens are descendants of enslaved Africans, that a monument like Colston’s in Bristol, sits in the heart of our capital city. It is an affront to the people of Barbados and to those all over the world who are standing up to speak out against racism that Nelson’s monument continues to sit in the heart of Bridgetown. It is long overdue that this odious tribute to racism be removed.

There are no longer any excuses that can be made for your government’s failure to remove it. I am therefore writing to you as a concerned Bajan to call on you to do the right thing and remove this affront to the people of Barbados and to all those who today are courageously raising their voice against racism.

It would be very fitting, if it was replaced with a tribute to Nanny Grigg and to the many thousands of unsung Bajan women whose self-sacrifice, ingenuity and struggle have played a decisive role in our people’s progress from the pit of degradation that the English slave masters threw us into.

Yours

Tee White

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595 responses to “Open Letter to Prime Minster Mottley and Minister King”

  1. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Robert…really, why are you so worried about UKs Karma, did you not hear cousin Charles say that slavery was an ATROCITY…and i really want to address this statement to those who want to continue to FORCE a symbol of racism and slavery on the majority population…do yall know what an atrocity is, well that is what all enslaver and racist statues REPRESENT…

    and all of you claim to have attended the best slave schools on the island…….what a shame..

    so if a descendant of ENSLAVERS….the ones who really benefitted from the enslavement of our ancestors say that slavery is a goddamn atrocity…why are you clowns still trying to dress it up as something else…..

    ….ah tired of being vex so ya better give it some thought before i recharge..

  2. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    @John, respectfully guy but dare I say u talk a roll at times… your 12:32 PM was a most twrilling example of how educated folks use language to bamboozle.

    I’ll leave it there for the man who starts with a dismissal of a simple dictum that education is about an ability to think and then amazingly conflates the required rote of pedagogy of acquiring base skills in ANY discipline with the ability to use those learned skills to dissect, analyse and think .

    Do you really believe that you bamboozle anyone here…

    And is was hilarious to see that ploy of deflecting to others what is clearly descriptive of yourself… If Peter is a child you sir are but an infant to him!

    Amusing.

  3. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    Remember I said that there was bound to be a backlash.

    ‘We CANNOT lie about our history’: Furious Boris swipes at Sadiq Khan for boarding over Churchill’s statue as London Mayor says he will CARRY ON covering up the capital’s monuments
    Scaffolding sprung up around Churchill’s statue at Parliament Square and nearby Cenotaph late on Thursday
    The monument of Britain’s war-time leader was covered in graffiti saying ‘Churchill was a racist’ last weekend
    It comes amid fears of a clash between Black Lives Matters activists and far-right thugs in the capital city
    The covering of British historical monuments prompted outrage from a number of Tory MPs last night
    The protests has ignited a discussion about Britain’s imperial past and figures associated with slavery
    By MARTIN ROBINSON, CHIEF REPORTER and JAMES TAPSFIELD, POLITICAL EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 01:48 BST, 12 June 2020 | UPDATED: 18:17 BST, 12 June 2020

    Boris Johnson today blasted ‘absurd and shameful’ attacks on the statue of Sir Winston Churchill and said the UK ‘cannot lie about its history’ as Sadiq Khan was accused of ‘surrendering’ the capital’s streets ‘to the mob’ after he ordered the boarding up of the monument to Britain’s greatest prime minister and the nearby Cenotaph.

    In an extraordinary Twitter outburst, Mr Johnson has slammed those who want to topple the Churchill statue and said: ‘The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square is a permanent reminder of his achievement in saving this country – and the whole of Europe – from a fascist and racist tyranny’.
    Amid growing public anger, Home Secretary Priti Patel has been forced to ‘read the riot act’ to police ordering them to do more to tackle violent protesters – as she pushed for 24-hour fast-track courts like those seen in 2011 riots that swept through urban Britain.

    He said a ‘growing minority’ of troublemakers had ‘hijacked’ the BLM protests ‘as a pretext to attack the police, to cause violence and to cause damage to public property’.

    He said: ‘I saw the police this morning and they have already made hundreds of arrests in the last few days and will make many more. Because believe me they can see the culprits – they may think they’ve got away with it but they haven’t because overwhelmingly they are being recorded and we will bring them to justice.

    ‘And they will face the full force of the law because it is not acceptable in this country to attack a police officer. It is not acceptable to set out in a calculated way to do damage to public property, let alone a statue of Winston Churchill’.

    Mr Johnson also chose to weigh in as the campaign to topple 100-plus ‘racist’ statues raced on and growing public anger that councils, schools and museums are pulling down monuments without consultation.

    The PM said in his gale of tweets: ‘We cannot now try to edit or censor our past. We cannot pretend to have a different history. The statues in our cities and towns were put up by previous generations. They had different perspectives, different understandings of right and wrong. But those statues teach us about our past, with all its faults. To tear them down would be to lie about our history, and impoverish the education of generations to come’.

    “Because believe me they can see the culprits ”
    I have referred previously to the fact that technology exist that can see through walls and as Boris has said “they can see the culprits.”
    I have heard any one keeping noise about how the Chinese treat blacks

  4. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ John
    It is quite clear to those of us who think that you learned by rote. It would make a difference if you would think and learn beyond the box of rote.

  5. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    Corrections : I have not heard ….”

    As I said the British were not going to take shit from recent immigrants ,who do not look like them defacing Churchill’s monument. By the way a black did the defacing and appeared on BBC trying to defend his action. The police are hunting him done.

  6. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    Correction : down instead of done.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    @Dr. Lucas

    Do you think anybody in their right mind will object to the police clamping down on rioters as distinct from peaceful protesters?

  8. Freedom Crier Avatar
    Freedom Crier

    Freedom knows the lady in question to whom you are referring. Since her husband died, she has gone through hell. However, I have a couple of Questions for you …have you visited her Facebook page? Have what she is Purported to have said, is it untrue?

    We know that you have a Big Problem with the Truth. I don’t know that you know the Last Day that you told the Truth for the whole day. Do you know when? YOU ARE FULL OF ACCUSATIONS WITH NO EVIDENCE. Lucky ting the Law in Barbados can’t reach you Na!

    Please speak like this about somebody in Canada on a Canadian Blog and see what will happen to you…I don’t know what you have stuck in your Craw but the Evidence of your Speech Reveals a LOT about your Character and it is Not Pretty. I Dislike it Very Much when People go after Widows.

    Go and Speak your Untruths to your Husband and see if he says I love you once he Knows you are a LIAR, a SLANDERER a GOSSIPER and a DESTROYER of REPUTATIONS THAT YOU HAVE NOT BUILT BUT ARE EAGER TO DESTROY.

    The Problem with Accusers is that they have Never Read the Good Book. They think that the more they Accuse others that they would Appear Virtuous.

    The Day Of Reckoning will come of that you can be Assured.

    https://i.pinimg.com/originals/19/52/f1/1952f1279533acfc8868ab067c2feb81.jpg

  9. Freedom Crier Avatar
    Freedom Crier

    ESPECIALLY FOR THE DYSFUNCTIONAL SOCIETY
    SO VERY OBVIOUS WHO FITS THE MOLD HERE!!

    https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2016/04/socrates-pinterest.jpg

  10. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Ah wonder who he really means….lol

    nothing less was expected, but that’s a whole nother topic, breathe.

    ‘The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square is a permanent reminder of his achievement in saving this country – and the whole of Europe – from a fascist and racist tyranny’.

  11. John Avatar
    John

    Vincent Codrington
    June 12, 2020 1:39 PM

    @ John
    It is quite clear to those of us who think that you learned by rote.

    ++++++++++++++++++++++

    Everybody learns by rote!!

    If you can’t get simple facts organized in any order you have no basis for making conclusions and progressing.

    That is a skill learnt by rote, practice practice and more practice!!

    Some just practice more than others.

  12. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ robert lucas June 12, 2020 1:33 PM
    “Remember I said that there was bound to be a backlash.
    ‘We CANNOT lie about our history’: Furious Boris swipes at Sadiq Khan for boarding over Churchill’s statue as London Mayor says he will CARRY ON covering up the capital’s monuments..”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    It’s paradoxically amazing when it comes ‘their’ history (their stories) some people would want others to respect, ‘protect’ and glorify it.

    But when it comes to talking and demanding reparations for the wrongs committed by some of these past heroes, it’s always a different tale to be told and to be avoided like the plague to be buried between the dark pages of the same history.

    When the demand for toppling of the monuments dedicated to the memory of these great British heroes is heeded would the same Boris be open to discussion regarding the missing other scale of justice in need of monumental attention?

    Would he entertain any ‘peaceful’ application for reparations (not in monetary form) for the enslavement of Africans in the Caribbean; especially in Jamaica and the model slave plantation called Barbados?

    Is he prepared to listen to “Sir” Hilary Beckles and his team of ‘chastened’ negotiators armed with historical facts and not guns?

    Would it be too much to ask the British government to review the compensation package awarded to the slave owners for their lost of property and see if it can be matched with a similar award of damages for the forced labour and the excruciating pain and on-going suffering both physical and mental inflicted on the people of Africa and which still exist today in the angry behaviours of their descendants?

    Or should they be simply told to forget the past and let bygones be bygones by getting the monkey of their blackened backs and learn to accept their God-assigned lot in life; just like the Jews?

  13. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Miller June 12, 2020 3:21 PM

    “When the demand for [the cessation] of the toppling of the monuments”

  14. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    Nelson’s statue was sculpted from bronze by Sir Richard Westmacott and erected in Trafalgar Square on Monday, March 22, 1813.

    Since Westmacott is a renowned sculptor, perhaps the 207 year old statue may worth a considerable amount of money. Rather than throwing it into the sea, ‘government’ could place it for sale in an art market.

    The few million dollars realized from the sale could be used to help poor Barbadians or invested in a project that would be beneficial to all Barbadians, (e.g. repairing and modernizing the ‘free library’ on Coleridge Street).

  15. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ John June 12, 2020 12:32 PM

    de pedantic Dribbler June 12, 2020 11:11 AM
    The purpose of education is always to teach us how to THINK and dissect data…
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    “It really isn’t!!
    I would point out that any significant learning is done by rote.”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    So why not tell us “by rote” how you arrived, ‘by rote’, at your claim that the vast majority of black people living at the time of the Act of Abolition of slavery in Barbados were indeed ‘free’ men women and children?

    If that were indeed the case, on what basis were the slave owners compensated for the lost of their property?

    Or are you implying that the plantation owners (including the remnants of the local Quakers) cooked the books to swindle the British taxpayers?

    Those who seek to practise the ‘dark’ art of intellectual fraud in trying to justify black chattel slavery in the ‘new world’ should always possess the memory of the old African elephant.

  16. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Hal
    Not in my book. That generation of Bajans thought he was worthy of the honour. They collected the money to buy land and statue. It is disrespectful to our ancestors to pull down their legacy. We have this unprofessional notion that we should judge past events by today’s equally faulty standards of morality. I do not buy into that approach to history or religion.

  17. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @Artax June 12, 2020 3:41 PM
    “Since Westmacott is a renowned sculptor, perhaps the 207 year old statue may worth a considerable amount of money. Rather than throwing it into the sea, ‘government’ could place it for sale in an art market.”
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Excellent suggestion, there!

    If Big England can sell off her own family silver of indigenous artefacts and ‘historic’ landmarks like ye ole London Bridge and Harrods why can’t Little England follow suit in its dire hour of economic need?

    After all, “little England” always has Big England’s back as can be seen from the message sent in that famous telegram to the Motherland:

    “Carry on, England. Barbados is [right] behind you”!

  18. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Vincent

    Are you saying your compromise would not include Lord Nelson?

  19. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ Miller

    I’m sure you remember the John associated affidavit PLT posted, in which certain individuals whose surnames are Deane were mentioned. The Wards and Deanes were recent owners of Adam’s Castle plantation.

    Perhaps John may want to give you a short history of how greed among people of his ilk caused that plantation to be ‘stolen’ from its original owner, Robert Hackett, to being owned by Thomas Waldron, George Graeme, James Elliott and Thomas Adams (hence, the name Adam’s Castle plantation).

    It is interesting to note ‘fighting for land’ goes as far back as 1679.

    He may also want to ‘tell’ you how many slaves……. (NOT FREE men, women and children) were on the plantation between 1817 and 1832.

  20. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Hal

    I made no compromise. Lord Nelson’s statue is entitled to remain on the spot purchased by the contributors for the purpose of erecting his Statue.

  21. John Avatar
    John

    Miller
    June 12, 2020 3:49 PM

    @ John June 12, 2020 12:32 PM
    de pedantic Dribbler June 12, 2020 11:11 AM
    The purpose of education is always to teach us how to THINK and dissect data…
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    “It really isn’t!!
    I would point out that any significant learning is done by rote.”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    So why not tell us “by rote” how you arrived, ‘by rote’, at your claim that the vast majority of black people living at the time of the Act of Abolition of slavery in Barbados were indeed ‘free’ men women and children?

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Read carefully what I rote!!

    The logic is all there.

  22. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    (Quote):
    It is disrespectful to our ancestors to pull down their legacy. We have this unprofessional notion that we should judge past events by today’s equally faulty standards of morality. I do not buy into that approach to history or religion. (Unquote)
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Maybe this is simply a case of Karma at work.
    Or to use a familiar phrase more up your religious street: ‘Those who live by the sword, die by the sword’.

    Where then are the cultural artefacts and religious icons of the people the European came and found in Barbados?

    Or, in your book, these people never existed. Or even if they did, their culture was that “inferior” it was not worthy of preserving.

    Would there be any objection in Barbados to the preservation of statues dedicated to Baal or Baphomet or the acceptance of the cult worship of Satan as still practised by some white Americans today?

  23. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ John June 12, 2020 4:23 PM
    “Read carefully what I rote!!
    The logic is all there.”
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=

    We did and logic proved you to be a liar.

    On what basis were those large compensation pay-outs to the slave owners calculated?

    On the projected ‘lost’ of future profits which you always claim never existed in the sugar industry in Barbados?

  24. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    “If Big England can sell off her own family silver of indigenous artefacts and ‘historic’ landmarks like ye ole London Bridge and Harrods why can’t Little England follow suit in its dire hour of economic need?”

    @ Miller

    But, then again, Mr. Codrington was fair and objective in his comments re: “That generation of Bajans thought he was worthy of the honour. They collected the money to buy land and statue. It is disrespectful to our ancestors to pull down their legacy.”

    On one hand, we want to disrespect the legacy of Bajans from a by-gone era, by removing Nelson’s statue, on the basis that he represented slavery………..

    ……………….. but on the other hand, we accept Morgan Lewis windmill, which is a true representation of slavery, being given to the Barbados National Trust for preservation as a museum.

    So, we are essentially petitioning for the REMOVAL of Nelson and petitioning the historical PRESERVATION of the windmill at Morgan Lewis.

  25. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Who gives a damn about the racist mouthings of Winston Churchill? He was a better deal for blacks than Adolph Hitler and that’s good enough for me. Hitler would have skinned us alive. Glad am I that Churchill lived and breathed.

    When weighed in the balance the results of his deeds far outweigh the effect of his racist words.

    Churchill saved our black asses whether he intended to or not.

    Why would they touch his statue? They must leave the Brits something of themselves to hold on to. Churchill is probably the least offensive of their greats.

  26. Tee White Avatar
    Tee White

    OMG! Winston Churchill saving the world from fascism and racist tyranny? Don’t make me laugh! Ten years after condemning the Nazis at Nuremberg for running concentration camps in Europe, the British government was running concentration camps in Kenya. That’s why the statues have to come down so that the whole mountain of lies can come down with them

  27. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Artax June 12, 2020 4:46 PM

    But you quite well know that at the end of the big sound and dance Money will trump every cultural emotionalism.

    If the statue can fetch a few million GBP on the Christie’s auction block do you think Barbados will refuse such an offer?

    The country at this stage of its economic survival will sell even the bones of Errol Barrow if he could be reincarnated.

    Didn’t the BST assets, BL&P shares and the BNB worth more to the Bajan image?

    Even the last administration would have disposed of the Hilton which brings in more forex than the Nelson statue could ever do like its ‘replica’ in the real Trafalgar Sq.

    After the sale on the art market the statue can always be replaced by a plaque similar to the one marking the slave gate to remind Bajans of their blackened’ and white past.

  28. Tee White Avatar
    Tee White

    As a matter of historical fact, the Soviet Union was the force that palyed the main role in the destruction of Hitler’s Nazi regime. The USA and Britain were playing a double game from long before the war. When they realised that the Nazi regime was facing disintegration at the hands of the Soviet Union, they rushed in to salvage what they could. They picked up the remnants of that regime and spirited the political leaders to South America and the scientists to the USA. Research Operation Paperclip. They then took up Hitler’s anti-communist banner and declared the Cold War. And with Churchill, it’s not just a matter of words. He supported Mussolini’s invasion of Ethipia in 1935 and the killing of thousands of Ethiopians, including the Addis Ababa massacre of 1937, he openly supported the use of poison gas against Iraqis and was responsible for the famine in Bengal which killed millions of people. Churchill was a racist criminal no different from Hitler. Black people don’t owe him one damn thing.

  29. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Tee White

    You are right about Hitler going East and walking in to a trap. By the way, why have there been so many boys called Winston in the post-war Caribbean?

  30. Tee White Avatar
    Tee White

    @ Hal
    You are right about Hitler going East and walking in to a trap. By the way, why have there been so many boys called Winston in the post-war Caribbean?
    ########
    Lol. I haven’t the faintest idea. A research project for some social scientist maybe?

  31. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    I applaud the enthusiasm exhibited by Barbadians at the these ‘9 day wonders,’ such as the petitioning for the removal of Nelson, which usually ‘fizzles out after 9 days until the next time.’

    I would love to see this enthusiasm ‘prolonged and sustained’ on issues such as unilateral decisions by banks to increase service fees and decrease interest rates. How about the difficulties black entrepreneurs experience in securing funds to finance their businesses? We complain, but find all types of excuses not to withdraw our money.

    Why do we prefer Royal Bank, Scotia Bank or Republic Bank to BPW, BUW or COB Credit Union?

    A few years ago a white manager of a Bizzy Williams owned hardware accosted a black customer. The news made headlines. Bizzy response to the incident……..the manager was having a frustrating day. He was subsequently transferred to another outlet.

    One guy announced he was staging a protest. When that day arrived, he was the ONLY protestor on the scene……. not even the accosted guy joined him. Barbadians, included the man-handled customer, closed their eyes at blatant act of racism and continued to shop there.

    There are stores in Swan Street where the Arab and Indian owners shout at black employees. I know some stores don’t have chairs for employees to sit when there aren’t any customers. Even pregnant women have to stand for 8 hours. Yet, we ignore the plight of our people and continue to shop at those establishments because “things does be cheap.”

    Some COVID-19 restrictions were lifted from restaurants. Given Haloute and his son’s treatment of their black employees, I was appalled to see the number of people, who seemingly became tired of home cooked meals, blocking the free flow of traffic to line up at Chefette’s ‘drive-thru’ for ‘fast food.’ I’m also appalled each time I hear black Bajans celebrating the opening of another Chefette.

    Because of the increasing volume of customers at his chicken, pork, fish and chips shop, George decided to ‘put in an extra door.’ and buy another stove. Over the next few weeks, he sees a gradual decline in his clientele. God help him if he had bought a van or opened another shop. Reason being, he has taken their “money to open a new shop and buy things.”

    On the other hand, Haloutte opens Chefette #16 and still realizes an increase in customers.

    A Chinese opens a restaurant in a black dominated community and it’s full everyday. Even George’s fish and chips shop will suffer as a result. The only Chinese you see in black owned establishments are salesmen, and more so those selling the cheap cigarettes.

    How about expressing this ‘protest enthusiasm’ at police brutality?

  32. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Hitler bombed buckingham palace for a reason, wonder if it thad anything to do with his evil experiments..

  33. Freedom Crier Avatar
    Freedom Crier

    ‘When one of the most eminent defenders of our built heritage is begging for our monuments to be sold off instead of being destroyed, you know we’ve reached a strange time indeed. Future generations will not have the ability to make their own judgements of these things, because of this hyperbolised cultural Marxism.

    What will mob rule demand next?

    I would like to see what petition that a majority of Barbados’ population has approved for its removal. Then what? The goal post moves, parliament next, the hospital… and on and on…

    It is remiss to forget that Nelson chased Napoleon’s fleet of Spanish and French ships which fled Toulon and sneaked through the strait of Gibraltar and headed towards the Caribbean. Without doubt this struck immense fear in the West Indies. In the midst of all this Napoleon was planning to invade Britain, which would have devastating effects for Barbados and the whole English speaking Caribbean, the worst case being invasion, massacre and destruction. Villeneuve commanded a combined fleet of 59 ships vs Nelson with 27 during this time of pursuit.

    After months of playing chess with Nelson, Villeneuve finally met Nelson at Trafalgar with 33,000 men vs Nelson’s 17,000. The rest is history as they say. I share all this only to give the genuine feeling of relief this may have brought to Barbadians at the time of Nelson’s victory. He would succumb 5 months later from the injuries he received during this battle.

    8 years later the statue of Nelson was installed at Bridgetown, it would be 38 years before Nelson’s later statue would be erected in London.’

    https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e7/32/78/e73278dd8708c4b4eedbb4c8e8b395e8.jpg

  34. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    No, Artax. Nelson can be preserved as part of our history. BUT NOT PLACED ON A PEDESTAL AS A HERO! The statue can be kept at a museum where his history can be detailed and placed in its context.

    As usual you guys are getting everything muddled.

  35. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    I expected somebody to come and educate me. I still say that he was preferable to Hitler and played a great part in his demise. Will refresh my memory of the Ethiopian affair. Never heard about the Kenyans.

  36. David Avatar
    David

    Happened to hear Ellis discussing BLM with a caller who opined American Blacks are able to fight this battle and Barbadians should concentrate on other matters of a parochial nature. This is the problem with Black people right there.

  37. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Artax,

    Count me out of all you say. I don’t shop at any of those stores and if i were present for any of that poor treatment of workers i would have washed them ass in cuss and walked out.

    I learnt to make rotis to wean my son off Chefette. Make my own pizza and plan to make my own burgers from minced beef. Bought a Bajan coating to give my chicken a different flavour. Bought a chipper for making uniform fries. It is a hard sell because his friends use Chefette as a meeting place. Still, i have an idea that might just work.

    I keep a bank account only to do what credit unions don’t do and keep the funds there for that purpose.

    I support mostly black businesses if i have that option and small farmers and village shops etc.

    And as for fighting police brutality, i gave a whole police station a lecture all by myself and would be quite willing to do more but….

    Barbados is full of frighten people and i can find none to join me

    Not in ANYTHING!

  38. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    This is a comment…
    “Because of the increasing volume of customers at his chicken, pork, fish and chips shop, George decided to ‘put in an extra door.’ and buy another stove. Over the next few weeks, he sees a gradual decline in his clientele. God help him if he had bought a van or opened another shop. Reason being, he has taken their “money to open a new shop and buy things.”

    I have seen similar reasoning for a Barbadian selling in New York. The guy has a thriving business but keeps it small (one-door). Others says if he enlarged the store, then Bajans would stop patronizing his business. I wonder if this is true or if it is an excuse for the business owner to just play it safe.

  39. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Bajans love to visit America and could easily suffer the same fate. Black is black.

  40. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    A next comment..
    “Still, i have an idea that might just work.”

    Keep on trying. You may be planting a seed. who knows how this weed will germinate and what will happen in the years ahead. Perhaps, I may visit one day and be able to eat in one of the many Donna’s reastaurants; or he may take off in another direction.

  41. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    My hairdresser bought a car a few decades ago and lost half of her customers. I am still there. I can’t do anything about the rest.

    Recently her daughter, who now does my nails said them Syrians have more than tripled the price of most products. I asked her why the cosmetologists don’t get together and order the stuff from overseas suppliers. She said they would never do that and some stooge would inform the Syrians. I guess they would have a sale and kill the idea for a while.

    There is much that we can do. But…

  42. THeOgazerts Avatar
    THeOgazerts

    Amids the flowery language of Miller, there is an item that need more scrutiny…

    “If Foolish Bajans can willfully destroy without any cultural justification- and accept without national outcry or to demand a call to account of those involved- the structure of outstanding architectural beauty and archaeological significance at Fort George Heights constructed long before the erection of Nelson which was dedicated to the acts and memory of a man who was racist, pro-slavery and anti the teachings of your true ‘Lord Jesus’- what’s so nihilistic about removing from the land a graven image which your Lord Jesus would see as repulsive and most Unchristian in the pursuit of the mission he was sent from Above to fulfill?”

    Do you remember the haste with which the underground structure was destroyed? there was no beating of gums orno gnashing of teeth, just decisive and fast action. I like to say ‘we are men of words and not men of action’, but some can be very decisive and will act when the need arises for them to act

  43. TheOgazerts Avatar
    TheOgazerts

    I think BU is out to get me…
    weed=seed

  44. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    “Nelson can be preserved as part of our history. BUT NOT PLACED ON A PEDESTAL AS A HERO! The statue can be kept at a museum where his history can be detailed and placed in its context. As usual you guys are getting everything muddled.”

    @ Donna,

    Are you sure the above comment was meant for me? I can’t remember posting anything that would draw such a response from you.

    I simply ‘said’ Mr. Codrington’s comments in his June 12, 2020 3:56 PM contribution, in MY OPINION, were FAIR and OBJECTIVE. Then, I went on to ‘say’ some people are petitioning for the removal of Nelson on the basis of his involvement in slavery, while others are petitioning for the preservation of Morgan Lewis windmill, which is also representative of slavery.

    I’m at a loss how you’ve interpreted my opinion to mean placing Nelson “on a pedestal as a hero” and conclude “as usual you guys are getting everything muddled.”

  45. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Tee White June 12, 2020 5:25 PM
    “As a matter of historical fact, the Soviet Union was the force that palyed the main role in the destruction of Hitler’s Nazi regime. The USA and Britain were playing a double game from long before the war.”
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    An excellent and insightful appreciation of the reason behind the fall of the Hitler regime.

    It took almost the entire world (excluding Japan) to defeat the Germans.
    Even the ole Bajans like to boast of their invaluable contribution to this pandemic effort.

    It was the Russian front which turned out to be Hitler’s Trafalgar and Waterloo all in one.

    Britain was just one of the many players in that ‘global’ mission.

    A Mission which turned a formerly Great Britain into a broken little britain much in need of an economic bailout via the Marshall plan.

    At least the Marshall plan to rebuild Britain paved the road for the blacks from her colonies of the Windrush generation to seek their fortunes on the imaginary golden streets of London.

    Yes, the same simple peaceful colonial brainwashed blacks whose descendants of today the Doc Lucas of BU would like to see in the crosshairs of the backlash from the modern fascists as if he is blissfully unaware of the preaching and incendiary anti-immigrant speeches of Oswald Mosley and Enoch Powell which incentivize the reasons the Notting Hill riots.

  46. John Avatar
    John

    Hal Austin
    June 12, 2020 5:38 PM

    @ Tee White
    By the way, why have there been so many boys called Winston in the post-war Caribbean?

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Same reason there are so many slaves and free people all around the world called Horatio, or Nelson or Horatia after 1798.

    Two rock stars!!

    When will the BLM/Antifa coalition decide to call for the pulling down of the Pyramids of Egypt?

    After all, slaves built them!!

  47. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    Your whole discussion about the alleged oppression of the naive masses by certain entrepreneurs shows once again that most of you definitely do not live on the island. I know many successful Barbadian entrepreneurs of African origin.They exploit their employees in the same way as the Chinese, Arabs and Europeans.

    Of course these distinguished entrepreneurs do not live with the ordinary people. They also like to remain anonymous, because they don’t want to be begged by the naive masses. It is therefore no wonder that you do not know these people.

  48. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Artax June 12, 2020 7:34 PM

    But the Morgan Lewis windmill is ‘endemic’ to the Bajan experience of brown sugar and black slaves.

    To deny that would be equivalent to denying the existence of the mulattos and their ‘brown’ skin descendants of Barbados.

    Nelson was neither Bajan or a friend of Barbados or even a ‘lover’ of its black population based on his personal views as documented in his many letters from the heart.

    The Morgan Lewis windmill is a symbol of human exploitation just like the pyramids of Egypt.

    The Nelson statue is symbolic of racism and colonial subjugation which Barbados claims to have outgrown.

    So why not treat it just like the Union Jack? Accept and respect but also put it in its ‘rightful’ place in the museum of time.

    The statue has its eternal resting place in London where it truly belongs.

    John Brown has more relevance to a modern Barbados than Nelson ever did.

    “I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done…in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit: so let it be done!” — John Brown

  49. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    gi muh a lil help. iz dat tree moh ministries

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/06/12/pdp-unveils-alternative-plan-for-creative-economy/

    Me no kno. I askin

  50. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ John June 12, 2020 7:39 PM
    “When will the BLM/Antifa coalition decide to call for the pulling down of the Pyramids of Egypt?
    After all, slaves built them!!”
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Where is your evidence to support such a claim?

    Unless you are referring to the Jews in your book of myths and legends aka Jewish bible which make claims of 400 years of enslavement in Egypt of the same Jews?

    So, of what skin colour were these slaves in Egypt who built the pyramids?

    The same as those who occupy the cushy chairs of the modern corporate world or those genetically more able to withstand the sun crossing over daily the banks of the African Nile river?

    Why do you think that the legendary Moses destroyed all images of the golden calf or bull? Wasn’t he doing the same symbolic smashing of images of evil and oppression which the people of today’s generation are doing?

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