Through a Glass Darkly by Jostein Gaarder: A Review

Through a Glass Darkly by Jostein Gaarder
A Review

"Who are you?"
"Ariel"
"I still don’t know who you are?"
"But we know nearly everything about you. It’s just like a looking glass."
"Like a looking glass?"
"You see only yourselves. You can’t see what’s on the other side."

It is nearly Christmas. Upstairs, a young girl, Cecilia lies ill in bed, enfeebled and tired, and although she will see this Christmas, it will be her last; for she is dying, and both she and her family must come to terms with this. Then Ariel steps through her window. Only she can see him, and he is an angel. He is not like a conventional angel; what he most likes to do is chat about life and death, and the cosmos.

This is a slight book, only 161 pages long, beautifully written by Jostein Gaarder, and wonderfully translated by Elizabeth Rokkan. It explores deep meanings of life and death in a poetic form, and examines what it is to be human, and how humans are "an animal with the soul of an angel".

The book has many delights, and I must be content with picking out just a few.

Time and again Gaarder takes old stories as stories, not as literal truth, but revitalises and subverts them by putting them in a different perspective. One example is a wonderful re-write of creation mythology in terms of childhood, both humorous and deep. As Ariel relates it:

"When God created Adam and Eve, they were inquisitive little children who climbed trees and played around in the big garden he had just made. there was no point in owning a big garden if there were no children to play in it. So they were tempted by the serpent to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, and then they began to grow. That’s how they were gradually driven out of their childhood paradise. The little rogues were so hungry for knowledge that, in the end, they ate themselves out of Paradise."

Then there is a delightful description of childhood linked to the idea of creation and rebirth, sand how "the world is created anew every time a child comes into the world":

"To be born is the same as to be given a whole world - with the sun by day, the moon by night, and the stars in the blue sky. With an ocean that washes in over the beaches, with forests so dense that they are ignorant of their own secrets, with strange creatures running across the landscape. For the world will never become old and grey. You humans become old and grey. As long as children are put into the world, the world is as new as on the seventh day when the Lord rested."

How can Cecilia see Ariel? He tells here that:

"There are several ways of seeing. Some people are blind. They have to use their inner eye. That’s the same eye that you see with when you dream pleasant dreams… Nothing can damage the inner eye."
"Why not?"
"Because it isn’t made of flesh and blood."
"What is it made of, then?"
"Of mind and thought."

Gaarder uses the permanence of angels and their existence as a contrast to the transience of the natural world. Angels are unseen, but so solid, that the material world is cloudlike to them, they can just pass through it; it is the material world that is the shadow land:

"Even a mountain is slowly ground down by the forces of nature and turns to earth and sand in the end… You are ghosts to us, Cecilia, not the other way round. You come and go. You are the ones who don’t last. You suddenly appear, and each time a new-born child is laid on its mother’s stomach, it’s just as wonderful. But just as suddenly you’ve gone. It’s as if God is blowing bubbles with you."

As the conversations continue, Cecilia comes to see that the limitations of human knowledge is what makes us human, and that it is only in death that we pass "though the glass":

"We see everything in a glass, darkly. Sometimes we can peer through the glass and catch a glimpse of what is on the other side. If we were to polish the glass clean, we’d see much more. But then we would no longer see ourselves."

Finally, and daringly, Gaarder takes Cecilia, and us, through the mirror to the other side, to beyond the experience of death.

This book is not a treatise on angels, nor is it a book of theology. rather, it uses ideas about angels and God, and Odin (and his ravens!) to explore the transience of life, and how life can be seen to have an inner meaning, yet this has to be perceived not through external senses, but though our inner eye. 

It is not an easy book to pin down, and indeed it is not intended to be; to read it is to experience different modes of perception, different ways of seeing, and Gaarder has succeeded creating a book that is as more to be experienced by the imagination as grasped by the intellect.

Notes on the Calendar: April – Part 1

From the 1947 Pilot, this piece by G,.R. Balleine, which also mentions a few Jersey customs, may be of interest. 

I would note that the etymology of Easter from Eostre, a Goddess of the Dawn, which Balleine assets as fact, is now considered questionable by most scholars. This goes back to a single mention in Bede, which has no other corroboration anywhere. Sometime in the next ten years, it is to be hoped that the public and clergy will catch up with that.

The Venerable Bede did write in the 8th century that the name Easter stems from the goddess “Eostre” who gave her name to the “Eostur” month. How easily the public has swallowed this statement (one mention in “Temporum Ratione” (The Reckoning of Time))  as “fact,” however, testifies to why the world needs historians. No historical evidence exists to support Bede’s statement. Indeed, scholars have long known that Bede provides interpretations based on his own opinions instead of supporting historical evidence (i.e., not everything he says is correct!).

Historian Ronald Hutton, lamenting how Bede’s statement “has been so often quoted without any inspection or criticism,” stresses that “it is equally valid…to suggest that the Anglo-Saxon ‘Eoster-monath’ simply meant ‘the month of opening’ or ‘the month of beginnings’, and that Bede mistakenly connected it with a goddess who either never existed at all, or was never associated with a particular season, but merely, like Eos and Aurora, with the dawn itself.” As historical evidence for this “shadowy deity” evaporates, Hutton continues, all evidence for a March/April “pre-Christian festival in the British Isles” also evaporates.

Notes on the Calendar: April – Part 1

By G.R. Balleine

April got its name from the Romans, who called it the “Aprilis” month, which is Latin for the month when things open. April sunshine and April showers coax the buds open. And in ourselves much is too tightly shut. We, need open eyes, open ears, open minds, open hearts. May  genial April make us hear the Voice that whispers, " Open unto Me."

Anglo-Saxons called this month Eostre-month, from Eostre, their Goddess of the Dawn ; and the name still clings to Our great Spring Festival, Easter, the Festival of the Living Christ, with its triumphant message, ' Jesus is alive to-day.'

All churches are gay with flowers. All Services ring with Alleluias. And every communicant remembers the all embracing rule that bids him greet his Risen Lord in the Service lie appointed. At least three hundred million communicants will be kneeling at their Lord's Table on faster Day. Our own churches will take their share in that world-wide Eucharist.

Easter Day was also called Joyful Sunday. At Capri after their Communion, the congregation open scores of cages and set free a cloud of birds, symbol of souls released from captivity to the grave.

In South America boys let off the biggest bangers they can buy. If you ask “Why?” they reply, “It is the Victory”. Hungarians dress up scarecrows labelled ' Death,' and pelt them with mud, and burn them. It is their way of saving, “No longer now can thy terrors, Death, appal us."

Every Church Season used to be marked by some special food. Christmas pudding, Shrove Tuesday pancakes. Good Friday hot. cross buns. At Easter it was eggs, for the chicken bursting from its shell was taken as a symbol of Christ rising from the tomb.

The Northumbrian name. Bow-leg Sunday. Is puzzling, till you realize that the hyphen has got misplaced, and it should be Bowl-egg Sunday, when hard-boiled eggs were bowled downhill to see whose would reach the bottom first.

In .Jersey another food was added. Ch'n'cst pas Pâques sans Simné. Jersey simnel is quite unlike English Mid-Lent simnel cakes. We all know the bowl-shaped biscuits made of flour, egg, and butter.

And, if you want to keep up old customs. You must have tansy pudding for dinner in memory of the Jews' Passover ' bitter herbs.'

But, before Easter, comes Good Friday, the anniversary of our Lord's death. Hugh Redwood has appealed to his fellow Free Churchmen to make more of this day. He says rightly that England will never be Christian, until it thinks more of the Cross. Year in and year out we must preach Christ Crucified.

But on this day we have behind its immensely powerful allies. Deep-rooted instincts springing from thousand-year-old traditions, backed by Press and Wireless, combine to turn men's thoughts to the hill called Calvary. In Jersey the special Good Friday dish was not hot-cross buns, but “les fiottes”, dough balls floating in boiled milk.

Church-folk, however, do more than observe Good Friday. We keep the whole week as Holy Week.

You may be interested to watch some of the Services of our ancestors on the Thursday and Friday.

Imagine yourself in one of our Parish Churches in the year 1500. The Thursday had several names. It was Sheer Thursday, for every man had his hair and beard sheared (i.e., cut) in preparation for the morrow. It was the Birthday of the Chalice for on this day our Lord instituted the Holy Communion. But its commonest name was Maundy Thursday, Jeudi du Mandé from Old French, mandé, a command.

What command? Some say. ‘This do in remembrance of Me.' But historically the name seems to come from the words, ` A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another ' which was the first Antiphon sunny in that day's Service.

One feature of the Morning Service was the Feet-washing, when the Priest and the Seigneur washed the feet of thirteen poor men in memory of Christ washing His disciples' feet. The Bishop did this in his Cathedral, the King in his Chapel Royal, and .special Maundy money, silver penny, two-penny, three-penny, and four-penny pieces, was struck as gifts for the King's poor men.

The Evening Service was “Tenebrae”, which means Darkness. The lights were extinguished one by one as the Service proceeded, till the whole Church was in darkness.

On Good Friday the bells were silent, and people were summoned to church by a wooden rattle. The chief Morning Service was the Creeping to the Cross. A large crucifix lay on the chancel floor, and everyone crept on his knees to kiss the feet of the Christ.

One old writer says:-"As on Good Friday Christ was the most despised of mankind, Holy Church hath ordered that on Good Friday mankind shall do Him this reverence." The special evening ceremony was the burial of a consecrated wafer in the Easter Sepulchre.

In France and England this was often a recess in the chancel wall: but in Jersey it was an oaken cupboard brought in for the occasion. Here the wafer was laid to rest with much ceremony, to be taken out again triumphantly early on Easter morning. There was no three hours service. This is a comparatively modern innovation, started by a Jesuit missionary in Peru in 1687.

Several strange superstitions clung to Good Friday. Iron was in disgrace, because of the nails driven through the hands of Christ. Poker and tongs were hidden away, lest they should forgetfully be used. To shoe a horse was to court certain disaster. And the only way to get double wall-flowers was to take the seed to church and shake it during the Good Friday Service.

Palm Sunday in the Tropics

Sunday is Palm Sunday, and I wanted to get a contrast between the more hedonistic aspects of modern Western lifestyle, and the way in which the threat of a darkening and threatening world is getting closer.

This contrast between the light and approaching dark is also something present in the Palm Sunday story, hence the setting of the holiday destination and feast approaching on an island with Palm trees: one story has echoes in the other.

Palm Sunday in the Tropics

Palm trees: a tropical island
The feast approaches near
Enjoy the sun, sea and sand
A time for life, a time for cheer

Holiday, a time to get away
A moment just without care
No worry, no concerns today
The tropical lagoon so fair

Storm clouds are but distant
But their shadows come near
Sky darkens, rain persistent
Now comes the time of fear

Palm Sunday: rejoice in sunlight
Before the coming of the night

All Saints Church – Part 2

From the 1947 edition of "The Pilot", this historical sketch of All Saints Church in St Helier from G.R. Balleine under the headline "Our Younger Churches". Part 1 appeared last week.

I rather enjoy "mining for gold" in these old magazines! And this explains why the Church has its distinctive name.

All Saints Church – Part 2

By G.R. Balleine

All Saints Church started with an unfortunate nickname. It was popularly known as “La Chapelle des Pauvres” which suggested a kind of adult ragged school. The result was that the poor were too proud to enter it, while their more comfortable neighbours felt it beneath them to do so. Gradually-, however, it outgrew this handicap.

But in 1848 fresh trouble arose over the bones of the dead. In broadening Saville Street, the Parish cut seven feet off, the old Cemetery. Dean Hemery was dying of consumption in Madeira but Frederick Godfray, his Curate, saw to his horror cartloads of sand full of bones being taken to ships for ballast. He raised the Clameur de Haro, which brought the matter before the Royal Court, who postponed their decision till the Dean returned. He was then however too ill to attend to business, and the matter was dropped, but the “Constitutionelle” newspaper unkindly suggested that the new street should be named Impious Road.

Of the first three incumbents we have failed to find any information. Touzel only remained a year. Then John Meadows ministered for nine, and Charles Robinson for seven. Then came Edward Heale who worked for eighteen, until in 1870 he was accidentally drowned while bathing.

In 1868 in Order in Council made All Saints an independent Chapelry (no longer merely a Chapel of Ease to the Parish Church) with a district of its own extending from Great Union Road to Millbrook.

In 169, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners endowed it with £200 a year, and pew-rents were abolished with the proviso that they could be resumed, if ever the collections failed to meet the Church expenses.

The next Vicar, Richard Bellis, had been for fifteen years Incumbent of St. .James. He was a Hebrew scholar, well-read in theology, a botanist, geologist, and archaeologist, and Vice-President of the Société Jersiaise. In 1871 he built the wooden Mission Church on Mont Cochon that eventually developed into the present St. .Andrew's.

In 1893 the French Service, which for some time had been poorly attended, w a, discontinued, and so the trustees felt bound to withhold Dean Hue's endowment. Toward the end of his life, Bellis became blind, and an operation failed to restore his sight. In 1894 he died.

Under his successor. Minton Senhouse, the work went on quietly for five years. Then came a distressing interlude. The next Vicar seemed for a time almost too good to be true. .A Doctor of Divinity, he had been incumbent of a large parish in Birmingham. His powerful preaching filled the church. He formed a surpliced choir. He lectured in Public Halls on such subjects as the Origin of Man. It looked as though All Saints would become the leading church in the Town.

But the old gentleman was nearly eighty, and soon began to show signs of senile decay. One form which this took was neglect to pay his bills. Twelve times in twelve months he appeared before the Petty Debts Court. In other ways too he was clearly unlit to have charge of a parish. Both the Dean and the Bishop tried to persuade him to resign, and promised him a pension but he was obstinate and refused ; and, as he had been appointed for life, he seemed irremovable.

Then one day a couple came to be married. He did not want the bother of going to his church, so, though they had no licence, he read the Marriage Service over them in his study, telling them to come to the church next day to sign the Registers. They arrived with only one witness : so the Vicar entered an imaginary name on the second line. This brought him within the grip of the Criminal Law  and the Royal Court fined him £20 with 48 hours imprisonment. His two churchwardens and 104 of the congregation then petitioned the Ecclesiastical Court to remove him, and, he was suspended for ten years, but allowed to draw a quarter of his stipend, so that he should not he destitute.

His place was taken by a Cambridge graduate. Leonard Foster Ward. This was a very happy appointment. Assisted by a strong choir, which under Mr Marguerie, the organist, became the best in the Town, the church was  again crowded. The Choir  Excursions were a great event in the church life. One year they went to Dinard, the next to Guernsey. Ward was enormously helped by his devoted wife. They re-established the Sunday School, and secured as premises the Ragged School in Cannon Street.

But he was only Curate in charge. The Vicar had merely been suspended, not deprived. The Court had expected that ten years’ suspension would get rid of him for good ; but at the end of the time he was still alive, and, though 88, determined to resume his old position : and there seethed no way of preventing this. It looked as though Ward would have to go, and all his work be undone. But at the last moment nature intervened : the old gentleman died : and Ward was appointed Vicar.

Now great improvements were carried out in the church : the barn-like building, entirely devoid of architectural beauty, was skilfully transformed into a place of real charm and seemliness;. A granite font was bought in memory of the congregation who fell in the First World War. A copper cross and candlesticks were placed on the Holy Table. A pulpit was given : then an oak screen in memory of

 Mrs. Ward : then a reredos.

More than £1,000 was raised or the work of restoration : and this scheme was not seriously checked. thought the earthquake of 1927 shifted the roof, and caused great additional expense. Yet the congregation did not become self-centred. It supported liberally three Missionary Societies and the Winchester Diocesan Fund, public charities like the Dispensary and the Blind Society; it maintained a child in one of the Waifs and Strays Orphanages ; and in addition there were frequent collections for such objects as rebuilding a Flanders village, Japanese earthquake relief, and Russian refugees.

In 1928 the Royal Court sanctioned the alteration of Dean Hue's Trust Deed ; so that the interest could again be used for All Saints', though there was no French Service. In tine following year part of the old parish of St.. Andrew's was added to All Saints', when St. Andrew's was moved from the Weighbridge to First Tower. In 1937 a new Schoolroom was built on a site adjoining the Church at a cost of £2,300. Mr. Ward died in 1943 leaving many happy memories.

Today, All Saints' with its 5,335 parishioners has almost the largest population of any parish in the island. Only the Town Church exceeds it. Under its new Vicar it is facing its task of making these five thousand Christians. 

Part 1 of the history can be read at

http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2017/03/all-saints-church-part-1.html

Politics is Personal

At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper-no amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of the point. (Winston Churchill)

Speaking in the States on the debate on electoral reform, Rod Bryans began by saying: "At 4.00 a.m. this morning when I woke up I had a fantastic speech in my head. It was full of rhetoric, it was full of wit and wisdom and then I went back to sleep again and I woke up with the ghost of the bare bones of a speech. It will not be the one that I was hoping to give to you."

But I welcome the fact that he lost that fantastic speech, because what we had instead was one of those rare glimpses of personal anecdote. So often we don't really know what motivates politicians, and of course, a lot of motivation is complex, but here is one insight worth sharing: it is the faith people have in a politician to do the right thing for them, for the ordinary person, and not lose sight of the common man or woman who voted for them, who put trust in them.

There's a paragraph at the end of science fiction Robert Heinlein's only overtly political novel, "Double Star", where the hero of the book, who has agreed to take on the responsibility of "Supreme Minister" of the earth and colonies on other planets, and the indigenous natives, reflects on his life, and what politics means, and why it is important, and it is also about that connection:

"I do not regret it, even though I was happier then – at least I slept better. But there is solemn satisfaction in doing the best you can for eight billion people. Perhaps their lives have no cosmic significance, but they have feelings. They can hurt."

Rod Bryans on Democracy: Politics is Personal

Just the other day I had a phone call late at night, and it was a constituent and I live in my constituency, like Deputy Mézec now does. I was round there as quickly as I could and we resolved the issue.

In this particular case, as it turns out, it was just a parishioner that really, when I got through to the bottom of it, was lonely. That is the thing that is killing our parishioners on this Island. Loneliness.

I sat and I listened for a while and again the conversation moved to politics but once again at no point did she never mention the composition of this Assembly. I did tell her the sort of things we were talking about.

So I think we have a right, and I was reminded of a situation when I first went for election and did not get in. I was down at Springfield, like we have all experienced, on a cold November day, and a car pulled on to the apron in front of the Springfield Sports Stadium, a taxi.

An old lady started to get out. I went over to help her and she grabbed my hand and she looked at me and she said: “Do you know why I am here?” And I said: “No, I have no idea.” She said: “I have come to vote for you. I am really sorry.” I said: “Why?” “Because my husband cannot make it too. He is ill.” This woman was from St. Ewold.

I was in a nanosecond humbled like you would not believe. I have never forgotten. I have never forgotten the testimony of that individual and the hope and the faith that she put in me as a politician to stand here in this Assembly today. I carry it with me every time I press the button. The faith that she put that I will make the right decisions.

Occasionally within this Assembly we start talking about democracy and it gets waved around this Assembly like a loaded gun, like some people have the sole right and ownership of democracy. They do not.

Sexting: Some Notes

Sexting: Some Notes

The BBC reports that:

“In the last year there has been a growing number of young people "sexting" in Jersey, police figures have shown. Sharing indecent images of children is illegal, even when a child sends a picture of themself. In 2013 there was one case of sexting reported to the police, but there have been 17 so far this year.”

And Sarah Gray of the Charity, Love Matters, said:

“We will always encourage young people to consider the social, legal and emotional consequences of sexting because they maybe committing an offence, they may also be suffering in their relationships with other young people. Sexting is very often coercive, its every often indicative of wider sexual pressures they may be feeling."

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a sext is “The action or practice of sending or exchanging sexually explicit or suggestive messages or images electronically, esp. using a mobile phone.”

The first use of the term goes back to the Daily Telegraph, where a report in 2005 included the sentence:

“A telling aspect of his sexual farragos is the use of his mobile for sexting (texting)”

The verb “sexting” is described as “To send (a person) a sexually explicit or suggestive message or image electronically, typically using a mobile phone; to send or exchange (sexually suggestive or explicit content) in this way.”

The OED says that it is “formed within English, by derivation”, coming from the words “sex” and “texting”.

The 2011 study “Sexting in the Schoolyard” by NK Segool and TD Crespi, published by the National Association of School Psychologists notes that:

"Sexting" can be defined as the act of sending, receiving, or retaining sexually explicit text messages, pictures, or video using cellular phone or other digital media technology.”

They also note that it is a deliberate action:

“An essential component of a sext is that it is produced and disseminated with the full volition of the person depicted. As such, sext messages differ fundamentally from sexually explicit language or images being distributed without a person's consent.”

And they note the dangers of harm:

“The potentially harmful effects of sexting also extend well beyond the courtroom, with many teens experiencing emotional distress, bullying, alienation, and loss of privacy following the transmission of intimate images beyond the originally intended recipient”

Probably the earliest form of major fallout from a rashly sent email was that between Claire Swire and Bradley Chait which predates the use of the term sexting, but was very much about sexually explicit emails between the two which happened in 2000.

Snopes summarises it thus:

“Swire sent an e-mail joke to Chait and others. The joke prompted a private e-conversation between the pair, during which Swire made what would later prove to be embarrassing revelations about the palatability of Chait’s bodily fluids and beauty tips concerning other uses for the substance in question. Flush with pride about his conquest and her glowing endorsements, Chait shared the exchange with some of his best buddies, who mailed the whole thing to additional acquaintances, thus setting the Swire/Chait correspondence loose on the Internet.”

Because of its wide coverage, the incident is often cited as an example of the problems that staff can cause to the reputation of their employer (and the risk of embarrassment and disciplinary measures) by forwarding personal or questionable material

But it also shows the dangers to the individuals involved. As the BBC reported later that year:

“The young woman behind a revealing e-mail seen by millions is still in hiding as five top law firm employees accused of circulating the correspondence await their fate.” Her mother said: “"She is horrified by all this. She has gone into hiding. I don't blame her. Would you stick around after something like that?"

“Sexting in the Schoolyard” notes that with younger children, the risk can be greater because the understanding is less:

“Children's reasoning and judgment skills are still developing throughout adolescence, and poor planning, decision-making, and lack of understanding of the risks and implications of one's actions are commonplace (Steinberg & Scott, 2003). Few teens consider that a single text message can be forwarded in rapid succession by recipients, resulting in the widespread distribution of an image intended to be a private exchange between two individuals.”

This was also the conclusion of Reid McEllrath writing in the Washington Law Review:

"One explanation as to why teenagers are more susceptible to sexting and its ill effects might be the underdevelopment of their psychosocial maturity."

"Juveniles' psychosocial immaturity leads them to be heavily influenced by short-term rewards. Research shows that teenagers lack many decision-making skills they will possess as adults, including the ability to consider the consequences of their actions. During adolescence, the brain begins its final stages of maturation and continues to rapidly develop well into a person's early twenties, concluding around the age of twenty-five. The prefrontal cortex, which governs the "executive functions" of reasoning-advanced thought and impulse control-is the final area of the human brain to mature. Although teenagers' cognitive capacities approximate an adult's, their judgment and actual decision-making may differ from an adult's based on teenagers' psychosocial immaturity. This can make teenagers deficient in their decision-making capacity."

"Psychosocial immaturity also increases the likelihood of being influenced by peers. Research shows that juveniles lacking in psychosocial maturity generally are more responsive to peer pressure, more impulsive, less future-oriented, and place less weight on risk in risk-reward calculus. Conversely, controlling impulses, planning ahead, and resisting peer influence increases from pre-adolescence to post-adolescence, and sometimes continues to increase into adulthood. This data may suggest that if juveniles are driven more by immediate reward than by fear of risk, juveniles are less likely to rely on the possible consequences of their actions when making decisions and are more likely to consider only immediate rewards like peer approval."

"Even when juveniles know of possible legal consequences, they often neither care nor consider legal consequences a serious threat when sexting. A study of high school students found that over a third of the students who reported sending a sexually explicit picture did so despite knowing that, if they were apprehended for the picture, serious legal consequences would follow. Another survey found that fifty-four percent of respondents did not consider getting in trouble with the law a concern when sending or posting "sexy" pictures or videos of themselves. This further illustrates that juveniles lack risk consideration when weighing the long-term risks and rewards of sexting. Without full psychosocial maturity, juveniles are less likely to competently contemplate the consequences of their actions."

Adele Hasinoff, an assistant professor of communications at the University of Colorado, has written on the subject and argues that “Rather than focusing education programs on telling kids not to sext, we could move the focus toward emphasizing that it is immoral to share private information without consent”

Kerri Wachter, writing in Clinical Psychiatry News, also warns that we must be careful to understanding sexting as lying on a spectrum of actions rather than just one kind of action, usually described in the most extreme terms.

In a study of sexting by Janis Wolak in America which collected data for the Third National Juvenile Online Victimization Study, they decided to focus on the extreme end to see how common that was:

“Because the term "sexting" is imprecise in its meaning, the researchers used a more specific expression - youth-produced sexual images. Specifically, the agencies were asked if they handled any cases from 2008 or 2009 that involved sexual images created by minors (aged 17 or younger) and if these images were or could have been considered child pornography under the statutes of the local jurisdiction.”

In conclusion, Wachter notes this:

“Major Finding: The percentage of youth who have, in the past year, appeared in or created sexually explicit sexual images that potentially violate child pornography laws is low (1%). But if sexting is defined as appearing in, creating, or receiving sexually suggestive rather than explicit images, the survey reveals 9.6% of youth who used the Internet in the past year were involved in this way.”

It is important, therefore, to keep a sense of proportion about the kind of activity which can take place under the umbrella term “sexting”, and to note that the current news reports refer specifically to explicit images, about which the law is very clear:

“By sending indecent pictures of a person under 16 on to someone else you could be breaking the law.”

"If a teenager were to have in their possession an indecent image of another minor, they would technically be in possession of an indecent image of a child, which is an offence under Jersey law."

This latter statement is perhaps lacking in some explanation. Receiving a transmitted image by a device is not a voluntary act on behalf of the recipient but merely a result of the sender's action. As the UK's Crown Prosecution Service notes, if that is the case, and the image is not retained, this is not deemed to be "possession" under the law as a prosecutable offence:

"The defence is made out if the defendant proves that the photograph in question was sent to him without any prior request by him or on his behalf and that he did not keep it for an unreasonable time. "

McEllrath, in theWashington Law review suggests that many legislatures adopt regimes which are too punitive and do not take into account the immaturity of the offender:

"Juveniles are often treated differently than adults in the courts due to their immaturity and a perceived lesser culpability. As such, they should also be treated differently in the context of juvenile sexting. Juveniles are more capable of character reform than adults and, because of this capacity to change, punishments should distinguish between adults and juveniles."

"Because psychosocial immaturity often prevents teenagers from considering the consequences of their conduct, the first tier should assign mild punishments for those engaged in non-alicious sexting. However, because cyberbullying involves malicious intent, the second tier should assign elevated punishments for those engaged in this conduct. In these situations, diversion classes or misdemeanors may not be severe enough to punish the malicious conduct." 

"Differentiating between malicious action and non-malicious action by using two tiers would be preferable. The first tier should include diversion or a misdemeanor charge as a general punishment for juvenile sexting. The second tier, to address cyberbullying, should include any sexting that involved malicious intent. This tier should have a stricter punishment, charging cyberbullying juveniles with a felony. Neither tier should include sex offender registration because juveniles are less mature than adults and more likely to be reformed, making a severe and long-term punishment like sex offender registration-with its lifelong consequences inappropriate for either tier."

This is certainly something which Kristina Moore, as Minister responsible in this area, should consider. In the meantime, it is good to hear that Jersey police are taking the view that cautioning with words of advice is better as an approach than to be too heavy-handed.

See also
http://jersey.police.uk/be-safe/child-sexual-exploitation/sexting/
http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/h_to_k/indecent_images_of_children/

References:

Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd Edition
Keeping Up with Technology: Why a Flexible Juvenile Sexting Statute Is Needed to Prevent Overly Severe Punishment in Washington State, McEllrath, Reid, Washington Law Review, October 1, 2014

Teen Behavior Involving Sexting Varies Widely, Wachter, Kerri , Clinical Psychiatry News, February 2012

The Misguided War on Sexting: America Is Taking a Punitive Approach to Teens Who Send Each Other Explicit Messages-And It's Backfiring, Berlatsky, Noah, Reason, May 2015

Sexting in the Schoolyard, Segool, Natasha K.; Crespi, Tony D., National Association of School Psychologists. Communique, June 2011

Sexting among Young People: Perceptions and PracticesBy Lee, Murray; Crofts, Thomas et al, Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, November 1, 2015

Odd and Ends

Historical Explanations and Fact

Those who have attained the chief places are led to seek the character of “safe men,”—which is gained by avoiding entering into questions or giving reasons, that they may “not commit themselves;” by evading difficulties neatly; and by speciously turning away from troublesome duties, and letting evil principles work themselves out at the expense of the public, unless forced into notice by clamour,—applying the rule—“Never to act until you are obliged, and then do as little as you can,” …

—Chadwick 1854: 


I noted Kevin Keen’s recent tweet: “Disagree with him often but Ian_Gorst is a good man. I for one want to see less playing the man & more playing the ball in Jersey politics.”

Imputing motivation is fraught with dangers, but whenever history is written, there is a need to consider motivation, either in the absence of a response, or even when a politicians statement might not be taken at face value. Anyone who has watched "Yes Minister" understand this only too well!

But in fact no one has taken the view expressed by Sir Humphrey in the photo. Even Reform have been judicious in accusing Ian Gorst of deliberately lying to the house.

Politicians do, however, engage in avoidance strategies, and just as it would be unprofessional of a historian to ignore that as a possibility for motivation, so too, it would for a commentator on current events.

An example of how to explore options came in my own comment on Ian Gorst’s reply to Mike Higgins that indicators such as average wage or the general economy improving have only a tangential relationship to relative poverty – which is defined by the median wage, and was spotted by Matthew Price recently on BBC Radio Jersey.

In the first part of my comment, I note the factual inaccuracy, and secondly, I explore what is hypothetical – the reasons for the reply. There may, of course be other reasons, but I think it is legitimate both to explore possibilities, but also give possibilities rather than just one explanation for the reply.

“Well done to Matthew Price of BBC Radio Jersey for pointing out that Ian Gorst's measure - average wage - is skewed and therefore misleading. If the gap increases between rich and poor, this would not show with average wage - indeed that indicator could point the opposite way as higher earners getting even more drag it upwards. By contrast, Median Wage is the accepted best statistic for looking at anything to do with wages which is why the UK and Guernsey use Median Wages in any discussions on the economy.”

“Either Ian Gorst shows a lamentable lack of knowledge of statistics, or has been badly informed, or is deliberately choosing a statistic which gives no indication of relative poverty at all.”

Data Protection

Having just attended a 3 hour presentation on the forthcoming new Data Protection Law coming in by May 2018, I was bemused to hear from a friend that a clergyman refused to give the location of a grave on the grounds of Data Protection.

Note to clergy: Information about where a dead person is buried is NOT covered by Data Protection and cannot be refused on those grounds. The Data Protection Law (current and future) only covers rights to protection of data on living individuals..

Green Light for Stargazing

Saw some of Australian Stargazing on BBC – I was interested to see that one presenter had a green astronomy laser like me. It is really good for pointing out stars and planets and constellations and galaxies to others.

Just the smallest amount of water vapour in the night sky is enough to pick up the laser and make it look as if it is a long beam, which can be used to show exactly where a star is. Two things are needed: a bright enough laser, and enough water vapour. Light can only be seen when it strikes objects, which is why the laser in the James Bond film “Goldfinger” is such an obvious fake,

Bailiff’s Veto: A Comment

In response to my recent blog, former Deputy Paul Le Claire made this comment:

“Standing orders should be reviewed and the States of Jersey Law including how they answer the ones that get through the net or in many cases do not answer them. Another thing to look at is the power to give way to respond to the many instances over the years where Ministers have spoken to the detriment of other members without them having an opportunity to be heard in defence of what they said. “

“There were many occasions when propositions and questions were denied me whilst I was in and some were approved by latter Bailiffs. Therefore opinion of the person comes into play in approving them. This should not be allowed and the only option it would seem is to lodge propositions asking the States for the Bailiff to review his decision. All in all a futile time consuming process when at the end of the day the majority could not care less about the people who are trying to represent the electorate.”

“Too many States members have in the past and continue now to act as Directors in putting the States ahead of their constituents. At election time they should make it clear that when elected they will represent the interests of the COM as this is in effect the position now!”

No ECT In Jersey

Remember that "Call the Midwife" with electroconvulsive therapy used on Sister Cynthia. In a recent blog I highlighted the potentially life changing damage it could (and is known to have caused) to memories.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was used in Jersey during the 1980s under Dr Fogarty at St Saviour's Hospital, and one of my friends was frequently subjected to it. As a short term fix for depression or schizophrenia, it may work, because it causes at the very least retrograde amnesia for a few weeks, but there is always a danger which is now well documented of long term effects on memory.

Moreover because it effectively wiped the time shortly before the depression kicked in severely, it was effective, but because it did not treat the underlying causes of depression, it needed to be repeated frequently.

I'm glad to find out that the Health and Social Services Department does not provide Electroconvulsive Therapy in Jersey. If a patient required treatment with ECT they would need to travel to an alternative Hospital in the UK.

The FOE response: “There were no patients treated with ECT in 2016. H&SS have not been providing ECT for a number of years.”

And lastly...

I thought of those famous lines by W.H. Auden when I was taking in the impact and the shock of that attack at Westminster recently:

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

A Bit of Comic Strip Nostalgia - Part 1

My father used to get two daily newspapers in the 1970s, the Telegraph and the Daily Mirror, so I certainly grew up with news given both a right and left wing point of view. The Telegraph was rather boring, as it didn't have any cartoons. The Mirror, however, had a section on comic strips, that strange 3 or 4 frame story (or part of a story) and that used to be the first part of the paper I turned to. Occasionally the Daily Mail would come our way, and I'd enjoy its comic strips as well. Here's a nostalgic look at some of those.

Andy Capp

Reginald Smyth (10 July 1917 – 13 June 1998), known by his professional name Reg Smythe, was a British cartoonist who created the popular, long-running Andy Capp comic strip in the Daily Mirror. Television tried a series with James Bolam as the titular anti-hero, but I never felt it really worked well. Bolam was just too far from the old soak with a fag dropping from his mouth.

Andy Capp was very much a reflection of how the North of England was seen at the time, where men where in pubs, women at home with rolling pins and hair in scarfs when out, or curlers when in, and belongs to an era that has largely vanished, although Jeremy Corbyn and his cloth cap does have a distant echo.

Garth

The strip belonged to the action-adventure genre and recounted the exploits of the title character, an immensely strong hero who battled various villains throughout the world and many different chronological eras.

The art work I remember most came from 1971 when Eagle comics' Dan Dare artist, Frank Bellamy, took over the art with John Allard writing the scripts

Some of Bellamy's art was very erotic for a tabloid newspaper! Although for a teenage boy, with hormones beginning to fire off, they were certainly something to look forward to! I liked the mix of the science fiction and history, and the stories were all very good as well.

Bellamy also did some notable artwork for Radio Times Doctor Who:

Martin Asbury became Garth's artist after Frank Bellamy's death in 1976, drawing the strip and writing many of the stories until its final episode in 1997, but it never was quite as good.

Flook

Walter Ernest "Wally" Fawkes (born 21 June 1924 in Vancouver, Canada) is a British-Canadian jazz clarinetist and a satirical cartoonist. As a cartoonist, he generally worked under the name of 'Trog' until failing eyesight forced him to retire from cartooning in 2005 at the age of 81 to concentrate solely on his clarinet playing.

Fawkes' most creative work as a cartoonist was 'Flook' – the unlikely and increasingly satirical comic-strip adventures of its small and furry eponymous hero, which first appeared in the Daily Mail in 1949.

Fawkes's role was chiefly as illustrator, and he had a strong team of collaborators on the scripts for Flook over the years, including George Melly, Barry Norman, Humphrey Lyttelton and Barry Took

Flook is a strange surreal creature, with elements that look like a pig, but not exactly. The cartoon both poked fun at society but also on occasion made sharp social commentary. The idea that a lot of consumer goods server no real purpose apart from getting people to buy is the topic of this strip. How much of what we are persuaded to buy is really junk?

Lenten Reflections - Part 5

The 2006 Desert Southwest Annual Conference of United Methodists in the USA directed the Conference Board of Church and Society to provide a way to study the issues we face concerning immigration.

As part of this, they went to Mexico to explore, on a personal face-to-face level, what the issues were, what economic pressures the Mexicans faces, how Mexico and the USA were interlocked together, what effect trade deals had on Mexican farming, and all this comes out in their report. Below is the final part.

This was long before today’s troubled issues about immigration, but it opens up some good ethical questions with each section. I’m not giving my opinions; I’m leaving it for the reader to look and make up their own minds.

The Desert Southwest Conference Board of Church and Society
Borderlinks Trip Reflection - Part 4

After our visit to the Red Cross we returned to the plaza and saw that the Roman Catholic Church had opened its doors. It seemed very important to all of us to go and sit inside for awhile.

As we entered and found a pew to sit and reflect and pray, we saw several migrants kneeling at the altar in prayer to God. This was indeed was one of the most emotional experiences of the trip for many of us.

One young man finished his prayer and turned to walk down the aisle to leave. As he walked by, the tears on his face were very evident. One could only wonder what he had lifted to God in this moment of preparation.

Did he pray for strength as he faced this very anxious moment of crossing? 

Did he pray for safety or for peace as he faced such an unknown future? 

Did he pray for his family and those he loved that he would be separated from for possibly years? 

Did he pray for an angel in his life to be a source of strength as he journeyed as that stranger into a strange 

land? 

Did he pray for all of the above?

Biblically, compassion means to enter into another person’s life so completely that you understand it from their perspective. Luke 6:36 has Jesus challenge us “to be compassionate as God is compassionate”. What does this tell us about the essential need to seek “experience” as we discern our faith understandings of life as Christians?

How does the issue change or the context of a discussion change when you move from discussing a nebulous name to dialoguing about a person whose countenance is full of tears?

How does the discussion become reframed when the person you are talking about is all of a sudden a child of God who you have experienced a moment of prayer with in the house of God?
This account summarizes only the basics of the trip, yet it captures some of the most meaningful experiences. There may be no more important aspect of the Wesleyan quadrilateral than experience and its effect upon us as we theologize on this or any topic.

It is what personalizes any situation for us and causes us to put a human face and framework at the heart of an issue

Exciting New Exhibit at Jersey Zoo

Retrobreeding the Woolly Mammoth

Scientists have been examining the condition of the Woolly Mammoth bones found at La Cotte Cave in St Brelade. The mammoths had been hunted and killed by Neanderthals living in the cave over 100,000 years ago. 

La Cotte Cave

New techniques, developed by Scandinavian Professor Olaf Lipro, head of veterinary research at the University of Irkutsk, and Dr. James Creak of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology mean that it is now possible to extract sufficient DNA from the bones and genetically splice it into elephant cells.

Creak extracted the nuclear DNA, aligned it with similarly-prepared DNA from modern elephant sperm, and concluded that the genetic material was compatible.

Mammoth Bones from La Cotte

This experiment began last year and these cells will be brought to term during 2017 inside surrogate elephant mothers, inside a secret enclosure specially created for this purpose at the newly renamed Jersey Zoo. It is likely that the world’s first elephant-mammoth hybrid, christened Elephas pseudotherias, will be born on 1st April 2017.

Today, 1 April 2017,  Islanders are invited to view the mammoths that roamed the plains below La Cotte in times long past at the aptly named "Mammoth Enclosure" at Jersey Zoo. It will be officially opened at 9 am by the new Lieutenant-Governor General Sir Stephen Dalton and his wife Lady Dalton.

What they said:

Dr Lesley Dickie, CEO, Durrell:

With the rebranding of "Durrell" in Jersey back to the familiar "Jersey Zoo", this is a fantastic opportunity for the public to come and support this special initiative which will surely put the Zoo firmly back on the map. I hope than in addition to seeing the new Mammoth enclosure, visitors will also take in the smaller but no less important species on the verge of extinction.




Dr Lee Durrell:

Gerry used to call the Zoo, a 'Stationary Ark', and I think he would have been pleased in the irony that we had been able to rescue a creature which originally was thought by Victorians to have become extinct in Noah's Flood.



Sir Stephen Dalton, Lieutenant-Governor

This is a wonderful project, and I shall be very pleased to open it. I have long heard of the world-famous Jersey Zoo, but this is my first opportunity to visit in an official capacity, and myself and Lady Dalton are very much looking forward to such a ground-breaking event.



Senator Lyndon Farnham:, Minister responsible for Tourism

This will put Jersey at the top of the Tourism map. Where else can you see a real mammoth anywhere in the world? I hear that The Dodo Cafe will also be serving "mammoth steaks" with chips, but that rest assured, they will be Aberdeen Angus Beef!




John Carter, Jersey Heritage:

It is wonderful that advances in DNA hold extra hope for the preservation of species on the point of extinction. A new exhibition at the Jersey Museum, also opening on April 1, will tie in the remains of the mammoth from which the DNA was extracted.

Keith Beecham, Visit Jersey:

I am delighted that in addition to St Brelade ranking in the top 3 beaches in the British Isles, and Bergerac's Car in a Bergerac themed retrospective now open at the Museum, we also have another great attraction at the Zoo.