POOR NELSON! Even when we should be concentrating all our energy on getting this country back on a sound footing, some still find time to complain about the Nelson statue.
The latest one is Beverley Griffith, whose letter to the NATION Editor states that “Barbadians who are calling for the removal of Lord Nelson’s statue from Heroes Square have a valid point”, and that it would be impossible for the 92 per cent of Barbadians who are descendants of the enslaved African people to accept Lord Nelson as any sort of hero.
She has it all wrong. The Nelson statue wasn’t erected in Heroes Square. It was erected in a bygone era, quite appropriately, in Trafalgar Square, named after the Battle of Trafalgar.
Some people of the day considered Lord Nelson a hero of that battle and erected a statue in his memory. All of us today may not agree that he was a hero, but he’s part of our history and history is history, good or bad. We can’t change it, only learn from it.
The real question is this: why did Government choose to rename Trafalgar Square “National Heroes Square” in 1999? Wouldn’t Independence Square have been more appropriate to locate our heroes? Maybe Government did have a change of heart, since a statue of National Hero Rt. Excellent Errol Barrow has since been erected in Independence Square.
The Sir Garry Sobers statue seems to be a moveable feast, the “Bussa statue” stands on a roundabout, the bust of Sir Grantley Adams is at Government Headquarters and Sir Frank Walcott is at the National Insurance building. Why not bring them all together in Independence Square? Wouldn’t it be more easily accessible to locals and visitors who could wander at their leisure, enjoying the statues with appropriate biographical inscriptions?
We remember well that around 1990, when Barbados was also in a financial crisis, $750 000 was reportedly used to turn Nelson around so that instead of him facing down Broad Street, he faced out to sea. Talk about poor prioritisation and a waste of money!
Which brings me to this growing penchant for renaming buildings, streets and so on. These names, too, are part of our history, which we can’t really change. What was so wrong with Sweet Bottom that it had to be changed to Sweet Vale and Penny Hole to Gemswick?
Aren’t there enough new roads and buildings which we can choose names for? Of course, when we do attach names to these new highways, people still continue to use the generic names like Highway 2A instead of the Ronald Mapp Highway, much to Carl Moore’s dismay and annoyance.
Then, of course, we have the uproar about the American artist painting an inspirational mural on the ruins of what was apparently a “bath house” years ago. I don’t know anything about the artist, but I haven’t seen any reports that label her as a danger to our society.
As Dr Karl Watson observed, the concrete structure does not belong there and is of no historical significance. So what’s all the fuss about? It’s been claimed that the artist did the mural without permission. The question is, permission from whom? Who owns this structure? Does anyone know? I’m sure that by the time she jumped through all the hoops, she would be ready to retire.
Furthermore, I’m surprised the “pressure-washer man” didn’t use his time and equipment better by pressure-washing some of the mouldy-looking public buildings around the island, or remove some of the most vile graffiti messages plastered in prominent places.
But, of course, by the time he got permission to do that, he too would probably have long since retired and pressure-washing would’ve been replaced with some more modern technology. Why do we “strain at gnats while swallowing enormous camels” daily?
In my experience, it’s not easy to help Government, but I look forward to the promised response of the Prime Minister to the recommendations made by the subcommittees of the Social Partnership, bearing in mind that urgent action is crucial to our future.
Finally, I leave the Cadbury chocolate company trying to defend its relegation of the word Easter to the back of their Easter egg packaging, and wish you all a blessed and happy Easter.
• Dr Frances Chandler is a former Independent senator. Email: fchandler@caribsurf.com
