Finally the symbol of an oppressed colonial past was laid to rest. Nelson statue for years positioned at the top of Broad Street and lately in Heroes Square was removed by the Mia Mottley government on the International Day of Tolerance. History the blogmaster suspects will view this act- delayed though it was- kindly.
Lord Nelson Put to Rest
338 responses to “Lord Nelson Put to Rest”
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@Artax
Agreed
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What is the purpose of the preferred share offering to gain eligibility? The GoB gets the preferred shares as collateral?
It is known that the ultimate owner, Fairweather Group, did get a PPP loan in the USA, but that likely is use restricted to USA employees.
There are going to be many of these sad situations. -
It is known that the ultimate owner, Fairweather Group, did get a PPP loan in the USA, but that likely is use restricted to USA employees.
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In other words, an applicant business which has a foreign affiliate that has 500+ employees living outside of the United States may still be eligible for a PPP loan under the Interim Final Rule.” Paul Hastings LLP, Borrower’s Guide to PPP Loans, dated April 8, 2020.May 11, 2020
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These WHITE BAJANS like they are ANGRY that supporter of the Slave trade LORD NELSON STATURE got taken down.
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Cruises called until MARCH 2021:
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SHOULD BE “CANCELED”
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@ John November 18, 2020 12:30 PM
“Did you know Wilberforce spoke against the abolition of slavery?
Tru tru fact.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Wasn’t Paul a bounty hunter of members of the Essene cult the forerunners of so-called Christians?
Maybe poor W W, like Saul, saw the Light and accomplished what the Quakers failed to do in 150 years.
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@ Artax November 18, 2020 6:00 AM
I speak here only as a concerned citizen who does not belong to any party and is therefore neutral. My admiration for our Supreme Leader is purely objective and fact-based.
Of course, naming buildings is primarily a political act to appease the naive, lethargic masses and to humiliate opponents.
That is why we have the Errol Barrow cinema on the Cave Hill Campus. A centre of fictional art goes very well with a braggart. When our Great Leader raises her little predecessor to be the namesake of the campus, he stands one step above Barrow.
However, the small predecessor would indeed be very useful as a statue at Heroes’ Square. As a placeholder for a far greater being, greater than all legends and greater than life.
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He shouldda been moved eva since.
Put a woman there. Any Bajan woman has done more for Barbados than the old English sailor.
I don’t understand why we spent decades pussy footing ’round the old thing.
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Although I heard said that Bajan parents once used to ask their children to salute Nelson.
That has never been my experience. I guess that i was blessed with too sensible parents.
Actually I have NEVER saluted, nor curtsied to anybody living or dead in my whole life,, and I don’t plan to start doing so now.
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@Critical Analyzer November 17, 2020 8:07 AM “I willing to bet some of the same white people the racist people constantly bitching about slavery does cry down laughing all the way too the bank cause they get some of the money to move it.”
Actually I know the guy whose company moved Nelson. He is a black guy. Very nice guy too.
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Carson C CadoganNovember 18, 2020 2:59 PM
These WHITE BAJANS like they are ANGRY that supporter of the Slave trade LORD NELSON STATURE got taken down.
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Trevor Marshall doesn’t agree with you.
“Well-known historian Trevor Marshall has suggested that potential backlash from black Barbadians is likely the reason for Government postponing the removal of the Lord Nelson statue from Heroes Square.
Despite a strong public movement to force the Barbados Labour Party-led administration to get rid of the statue, Marshall, who has publicly called for Nelson’s removal for almost 30 years, said he believes black Barbadians were more likely to be upset than white people if it was removed.”
He has spent his whole life trying to upset white people only to realise now in his twilight it is black Barbadians who will be upset.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/08/25/historian-delay-in-moving-nelson-about-blacks/
What a complete waste of a life!!
You could learn a thing or two from Trev’s waste.
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@David November 17, 2020 7:16 AM “What to replace Nelson will be contentious…”
Why David?
As I said any woman will do. Bajan women have worked so hard these past 393 years, worked through the racism, worked through the white misogyny and the black misogyny, worked through the rapes, raised the children conceived through rape, with little help from their fathers white or black.
And yet not a single statue to us? Wha’ happen. we don’t exist? Except as workers in the home in the filed, in the kitchens, in the shops in the bedrooms?
Stupssseee!!!
On Monday I was thinking and realized that Barbados’ Parliament has has 77 Speakers in the House, and yet not a single woman. Wha’ happen? Women have no voice?
We need right there a woman representing the mothers of our nation, the woman who raised the black children, the mulatto children and the white children.
I am good with Nanny Grigg.
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@ Cuhdear BajanNovember 18, 2020 5:36 PM
What about Rachel Pringle?
That entrepreneurial woman must have earned thousands of shillings in her day from the pockets of the same “English sailors” into her hairy purse to make Bridgetown the commercial hub of the BWI.
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John, John A and Tron.
24 hours have passed.
Dry your tears.
Put on you big boy sliders.
And do whatever you can to make Barbados a better place.
Welcome to the 21st century.
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@Simple Simon
Sliders?
LOL
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We don’t need anymore statues in this country. We like creating idols that say nothing instead of writing down history.
Leave the location empty and put cobblestones, benches or something simple there to match back with the surroundings. Fix the fountain so it has water running again and put a National Heroes cenotaph nearby. They can chisel in the new Heroes every year.
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Drawers, BVD’s, bibadees, boxers, underwear, underpants.
Get dressed and get to WORK.
Since I have been told that tomorrow in International Men’s Day
A Happy Men’s Day to ALL of the men of BU.
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Good advice! Put on wuhnuh big boy sliders! The son of a bitch is down. He ent goin’ back up. The money spent went to a black business. Donna and Cuhdear Bajan rejoicing!
Oh happy day!
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@John November 17, 2020 8:23 PM
Nope.
We can’t replace one old white male devil, with another.
NEVER.
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@MTA
Rachel Pringle, she makes my whole botsy tremble….or sumting like dat? -
Nothing will be laid to rest until racist Crime Minister Mia is exposed for her crimes < Beatrice E Henry and Violet C Beckles are True Heros and Queens of Barbados can be placed there,! removing an old dead white man is a start, but schools and people are hungry in Barbados, Nelson gets home as some are still homeless, there are no Bajan women to be placed there that we know off with more impact on Barbados than Beatrice E Henry, aka SUGAR for the many Plantations she bought witness by Mia grandfather E.D Mottley! Mia and her father E.D Mottley 2nd went to school to be lawyers on Money made working for Beatrice E Henry! Lawyer was low paid professions, but Bajan builds them under the Queen to act like they were worthy of Freedom of Information Freedom of Speech, Freedom put back records stolen or hidden from public eyes at the Archives, which will open the Banks Doors in Barbados with over 24 Billion to the people to get loans to build over 30,000 house and not pig pens! BFP
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@Cuhdear
Whether Nelson is there or not is of no interest to me. It makes my day no better or worst.
To me though history can not be changed. Taking down Nelson will change it no more than when we put up Bussa. History is history and no one can change it.
It just amuses me how different our outlook is to the people in Antigua. I did some work there and the first thing an Antiguan asks you proudly is ” have you visited Nelson Dockyard?” Nelson and his historic Dockyard there is the single biggest tourist attraction on the island. One island wants to destroy its history and the other intends to prosper from it.
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Tron November 18, 2020 4:56 PM #: “I speak here only as a concerned citizen who does not belong to any party and is therefore neutral. My admiration for our Supreme Leader is purely objective and fact-based.”
@ Tron
The second sentence in your contribution is absolutely hilarious. I can’t imagine you saying it with a ‘straight face.’
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@ Northern Observer November 18, 2020 7:14 PM
Yes, “NO”, yes, that same Rachel P immortalized in song by the “Merry Men”.
The very Rachel with the clutch bag for a ‘P’ which used to pull English soldiers and sailors to her ‘internationally-renown’ brothel in Bridgetown.
Why do you think there were so many mulatto picaninnies around Bridgetown in those days without widespread contraceptives?
Maybe the Bajan authorities- in order to enhance the reputation of Bridgetown as a place of ‘Special Interests’- can erect a miniature statue of that Lady Rachel of the Night similar to that seen in the ‘Red Light district of Amsterdam.
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Northern Observer,
Lol. Sticking with the topic of the week…
I know you know it is “body tingle”.
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@John A
The history of Nelson and Antigua is different compared to Barbados.
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Happy International Mens Day.
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Imagine a world where the descendants of the oppressed celebrate and legitimise their historical oppressors at the expense of their own people.
We are told that we need to find a home for Nelson, yet no credible attempt has ever been made to give voice to and to pay homage to our ancestors. Where are the memorials of our ancestors that should be etched throughout our island? Has any government ever attempted to mark the burial grounds of our slave ancestors who remain invisible. Where is the respect for them and us?
We have over 100,00 yearly sun worshippers who come to visit our island and leave without having any knowledge of Barbados dreadful slave history.
Imagine going to and leaving Auschwitz without been informed of the town’s terrible Nazi legacy. Shameful!!!
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@Hal,
The contribution of the Windrush generation and their descendants has never really been documented. Our contribution and the influence that we have had on British culture is indelible; yet it has been ignored by film makers. Who can forget Hugh Grant’s Notting Hill film where there were no black characters.Steve McQueen is a serious director. Let us just be happy that he has had the chance to display his talent, alongside the various cast members. His Small Axe series will be promoted internationally.
I believe that there is only one surviving member from the Mangrove nine.
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(Quote):
We have over 100,00 yearly sun worshippers who come to visit our island and leave without having any knowledge of Barbados dreadful slave history.Imagine going to and leaving Auschwitz without been informed of the town’s terrible Nazi legacy. Shameful!!! (Unquote).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Because the ‘average’ black Bajan is dreadfully ashamed of their past and finds it most uncomfortable to talk about it; much unlike the Jews who wallow in their holocaust experience.
Some under the influence of our own BU John would argue slavery never existed and was more a programme of rescue of the persecuted blacks from Islamic oppression in West Africa and brought to the Christian West of refuge and enlightenment.
Many Bajan blacks still see slavery as a blessing form their adopted god Yahweh since they are now allowed to worship the white man gods in order to receive salvation and a place in paradise producing the milk and honey (tending to the cows, plants and bees) for the white androgynous angels like Gabriel(le) and Michel(le).
Some even are looking forward be allowed in the all-white supremacist choir to sing and dance for their heavenly supper.
There is definitely some forex (the main god of modern Bajans) to be extracted from such soul-cleansing tours by making them pay penance, in some financial form like buying indulgences, for the collective guilt of their ‘slavery-infected’ ancestors.
Now that would be another form of reparations the likes of Trevor Marshall should welcome!
Miller the Sunworshipper.
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@TLSN
Steve is an award-winning director, he does not need BBC exposure. Your point about the Caribbean community is well made. Of ALL the communities in the UK, the Caribbean community has been the worst treated. We have also been ignored by our own governments.
As to documenting our history, I do not think we have to wait for the BBC to tell us our history. Accuracy is more important that just a few minutes on BBC1. Even our relatives and friends in the Caribbean know very little about us.
I will tell a little story. Some time ago a very good friend of mine, someone I had known since the early 1970s, sadly no longer with us, wrote a small booklet in which I was mentioned.
And this guy described me as a former probation officer. I have never had anything to do with the probation service, as worker or client. I do know some probation officers, however, and they are very sociable. All this guy had to do was to pick up his phone and ask me. Fifty years from now someone doing research will copy that as proof that I was a probation officer. Accuracy is very important.
Go back to the story of Christine Keeler and how she was portrayed on TV and cinema. Note the marginalisation of black Caribbean men, the backbone of her harassment by the state. Christine Keeler was targeted by Notting Dale police because she was dating black men, the bit about spying was a separate story.
Or look at the film, Notting Hill, and note the almost total absence of black people. Remember this is the area that most non-Jamaican black people settled and lived and established their carnival – and the Mangrove Restaurant. Accuracy is important.
Language is also quite important: race relations become diversity, become equalities, become hate crime, become human rights, become Black and Minority Ethnic – anything but racial discrimination.
Fifty years from now, if we are to believe some people, books will be telling us that there was no or very little racial discrimination in the UK. -
@ Cuhdear Bajan November 18, 2020 6:26 PM
Why the Nanny? Our Supreme Leader would be the far better choice for a new monument.
Didn’t she lead us – like a shepherd leads his sheep – safely through the dark valley of the pandemic? Has she not accomplished the conviction of an opposition leader? Has she not almost halved the debt?
In the past, such deeds would have been called miracles.
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Stories of Bajans living in England are being published in the Sunday Sun. Stories of Bajans in America are always being published in the Sunday Sun.
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@Hal,
Point taken. When I was growing up I heard that Elvis Presley was the king of Rock and Roll; and that Benny Goodman was the king of Swing/big band Jazz music. Goodman had to hire Fletcher Henderson to compose his music because he could not articulate the sound that he was looking for. Whilst Elvis was immersed in black culture from when he was a toddler.A common expression now in fashion: “people of colour” further adds to the neutralisation of black causes.
We need a concerted effort at all levels to promote the truth. It is for others to build on the legacy of McQueen.
Our government should be serious about Caribbean culture in the same way that European countries attempt to do – especially, in France.
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There is on the boardwalk in Bridgetown a narrative that tells of the slave trade. Trevor Marshall does tours of Bridgetown and I have run into him on many occasions standing on that spot very with his audience of tourists.
My best friend does tours and Bussa, Nelson and other such memorials are among the topics covered. Tourists have been known to pause in pensive thought as my friend is genuine, articulate and not accusing or belligerent. Just the facts and the residual consequences from the perspective of the wronged party.
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@ Tron November 19, 2020 9:25 AM
“In the past, such deeds would have been called miracles.@
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++LOL!!! The court jester of supremely ironic sycophancy is at his best.
Next minute you would be calling for (before death) the beatification and apotheosis of Saint MIA of Los(t) Barbadoes.
How about a statue in recognition of the real power and tower of support behind the scenes called “Amor”?
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@TLSN
Next time you are in Covent Garden visit the London Transport Museum and you will see a history of Barbadians who left that little island to work in London in the 1950s and 60s..
Or next time you are passing through London Bridge tube station exit at the Borough market and you will see a photo display of a Barbadian bus conductor memorialising his colleagues, those men and women who worked as conductors on London buses. It is a picture of the late Ralph Straker.
London Transport sent researchers down to Barbados to research its history of recruiting from that little island; at the same time, there is no memorial in Barbados of the Diaspora.
Tells you all you want to know. -
Colonialism Reparation – Press release United States: It Is Time for ReparationsColonialism Reparation welcomes that in the United States of America reparations are gaining traction and invites all the other federal, state and local administrations to take action in the same direction.On March 1, 2019, giving continuity to the action of congressman John Conyers Jr. begun in 1989 and those who preceded and accompanied him, congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee introduces the bill 40 to establish a Commission to study and develop reparation proposals for African-Americans, holding during the legislature a public hearing and gathering the support of 162 representatives, 20 senators and the United States Conference of mayors.On January 14, 2020 in New Jersey senators Ronald Rice and Sandra Cunningham introduce the bill 322 to establish a Reparations Task Force to conduct research and develop reparatory proposals and recommendations.
On February 7, 2020 in Maryland delegate Wanika Fisher introduces the bill 1201to establish a Reparations Commission to develop and administer a program for the provision of compensatory benefits to the descendants of individuals enslaved in the State.
On February 13, 2020 in Illinois representatives William Davis and Carol Ammons introduce the bill 5024 to establish a African descent-citizens reparations Commission.
On February 21, 2020 in California assemblymember Shirley Weber introduces the bill 3121 to establish a Task Force to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans, which is approved and enters into force on September 30, 2020.On June 5, 2019 the City Council of Evanston in Illinois adopts resolution 58launching a local reparations process with the creation of a dedicated Subcommittee, a dedicated fund and the first reparatory measures.
On June 17, 2020 the City Council of Chicago in Illinois adopts resolution 694launching a local reparations process with the creation of a dedicated Commission.
On August 10, 2020 the City Council of Burlington in Vermont adopts resolution 7.06 launching a local reparations process with the creation of a dedicated Task Force.
On August 18, 2020, the County Commission of Kalamazoo in Michigan adopts resolution 1917 launching a local reparations process.
On October 20, 2020 the City Council of Carrboro in North Carolina adopts resolution 382 launching a local reparations process.
On October 20, 2020 the supervisor of San Francisco in California Shamann Walton presented the ordinance 201190 to launch a local reparations process.Colonialism Reparation welcomes that in the United States of America reparations are gaining traction and invites all the other federal, state and local administrations to take action in the same direction, keeping the electoral promises made.For further information, inquiries and interviews:
Colonialism Reparation http://www.colonialismreparation.org/
Press Office: media@colonialismreparation.org -
(Quote):
It is a picture of the late Ralph Straker.
London Transport sent researchers down to Barbados to research its history of recruiting from that little island; at the same time, there is no memorial in Barbados of the Diaspora.
Tells you all you want to know. (Unquote).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Quite true!
A genuine but cryptic criticism of Bajan ungratefulness towards a group of Bajan-born people making up one of the biggest contributors to the country’s forex-earning capacity and the development of the Bajan economy especially in the area of housing construction.
Not even a register of appreciation to recognize those who boarded ocean liners like the SS Sorento and went into the bowels of a maddeningly cold world called England the mother country of racism.
Not even a listing on some large plague near the Wharf in recognition of those bold and brave emigrants/migrant workers representing a reverse replica of Ellis Island.
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@ Tron
I disagree I feel a monument of Gearbox should replace Nelson as he was a true man of the city.
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How about building a digital monument with images of Nation Heroes ?
“Just beyond your imagination ” ?
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@ Hants November 19, 2020 11:32 AM
Now that’s what you call a forward thinking man of vision!
The future is digital not so much physical.
Even holograms can depict the contributions to struggle of social and economic freedom by those heroes (and fallen warriors in the wars of liberation).
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TLSNNovember 19, 2020 7:36 AM
Yours, Miller’s and Hal’s contributions above are poignant. It also drives right to the heart of the reason for moving the Nelson statue and even to the objection to it being moved.
I posit that there has not been a discussion and openness about the move forward from the past slavery.
The country changed via emancipation and then independence, but much of the vestiges of slavery were left to be ‘sorted out’ via some sort of natural progression. I am not a historian, so maybe the historians have a better view on this.
However, even the disturbance on the moving of the statue shows that there is not enough compassion and empathy for those whose ancestors were slaves.
Many of us have ancestry of both European and African. That is for each of us to come to terms with. However, we need to respect the reality of brutality that was slavery and that celebrating, because that is what it is, those who participated in it, as national icons, is inappropriate.
A person may look at their great, great grandfather who may have owned a plantation and be in awe that they have the same facial structure, etc. That is one thing and it cannot be changed, Those were ancestors who lived by the time. Such cannot be denied and there is no need for the person to disown their ancestor.
But to ascribe to the view that the nation should continue to hold onto old icons, of a terrible past, is another matter.
There is a time to move on, now is it. Particularly as some of the larger nations are also at a ross roads of political ideology.
National icons should reflect who and what the nation is as a people and who and what the people wish to be.
Removing Nelson’s statue does not mean that Barbadians as a nation do not like the British, or do not like white people. It simply means two things. That that statue represents an oppressive and cruel past and that it also does not represent the present nor future.
The nation needs to look to recognise the victories of the past fifty years and as Hal rightly says, there were many, including those who bravely stepped forward to seek fortunes elsewhere.
The nation also needs to be introspective and look at where the people want to go. I do think that there was generally good guardianship by those to whom the transition into independence was entrusted, the leaders, the civil servants and the workers.
As you are aware, there were also some who acted to seek self enrichment at the expense of the many, but I see those as being the few, who breached protocols.
The main thing is that the nation keeps a view on the goals, a compass of sorts. Events are one offs, principles are what lead to enduring success.
What has the country done well as a people? What has gone wrong? Where does the nation wish to go?
These are the questions that we need to address as a people, in order to move forward.
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@ Crusoe
If I use your argument then Rome should bulldoze the colosium too then. After all slaves were take there to be killed for the entertainment of the public. Or is it the fact that they were white that makes there ok?
What about all other historic sites worldwide most of whom are popular tourist attractions, should they be destroyed too then if their past reflects enslavement or oppression of any particular race? What about the historic garrison where the enforcers of the plantocracy were posted, should that be bulldozed too? The argument you are putting forward can not hold up to any logical scrutiny.
History is history none of us can change it. Removing statues and erecting others will change nothing. I was happy when Bussa was erected as it showed all sides of our history. We had Nelson in town and Bussa at Haggatt Hall. We lack balance in our decisions and must realise that history is carved in stone. We just don’t care as was evident when the BWA destroyed that historic under group building in the Pine.
I go back to Antigua and say they have shown us how if one takes the other road you can enrich your own people of today with history. As has St Kitts too I must say.
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Okay, so you guys want a memorial. Make sure you put my mother’s name on it! My three great aunts, my great grandmother, my aunt and my uncle and numerous old cousins dating back to my grandmother’s generation.
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The only reparations worth seeking are from China over the damage it has caused to 186 + nations in the world.
The Only man capable of doing that is Donald Trump.
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An arena is not a statue of a “hero” being looked up to. Nelson is not being destroyed. He has been removed from HEROES SQUARE and will be put on display in a more appropriate location where his story will be told but not celebrated.
Wuhnuh head real hard doah!
It will change nothing for you. How do you know that it changes nothing for anybody else? It changed something for ME as I watched it come down. It changed something for those ordinary Bajans who gathered to watch and cheer as it fell.
If statues mean nothing then why do we erect them? Why are they prevalent in religious worship?
Some people are so one dimentional and assume everyone is like them.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.