Amos minutes - March 4th

AMOS GROUP of  CHRISTIANS TOGETHER IN  JERSEY
Minutes of meeting on Wed. March. 4th at 5.45 at  Pastoral Centre, St. Thomas .

Present: Barbara Coram, Adrian Pearce, Claire White, Adrian Pearce, Ed le Quesne and guests Deputy Anne Pryke and Louise Magris

1.    The chairman read an opening prayer from Methodist Relief
2.   We had a wide-ranging discussion with our guests and were impressed with the range of work being undertaken.

An initial survey has identified tidal and offshore wind as the two most viable renewable energy sources around our Island.  A group led by Constable Dan Murphy and including Deputy Power, Deputy Duhamel and Sir Nigel Broomfield and Alick McIntosh (a carbon trader living in Jersey) are now setting up terms of reference to include a legal and financial framework  for the next phase which will look at specific sites and possible developers.  It is hoped to form a partnership with other Channel Islands and have a  C.I. grid.  As tidal power has predictable daily peaks and troughs it makes sense to link with the French grid.  A 2 way interconnector is due  to come into operation by 2012.  It will take 10 to 15 years to get in place, but there is enough energy for the C.I. to be a net exporter of energy to France after supplying all our energy needs.  A 5 megawatt marine current turbine is being tested at Stanford Loch, but the technology will have changed  and improved by the time we are ready to order.

The Eco-active website has about 800 hits per month, with users staying an average of 4 mins, quite good for websites apparently.  Eco-business is gathering strength with one a week signing up and moving up the 3 levels of accreditation.  It  is sponsored by Standard Chartered.  Eco-schools is due for launch this month, with HSBC as partner.  JCG and Grainville are already in the national Eco-schools scheme on which the Jersey scheme is modeled.  It will include items like sustainable travel plans for pupils, cycling proficiency.  The annual Environment week in June, now in its 4th year includes 5000 children taking part.  Funding is being sought for an Environment Co-ordinator to support the enthusiastic teachers that are in most schools.

The Environment Dept won £1.0 million in the 2009 Business plan which will be available for grants for home insulation measures along with a voluntary donation of £0.5m from the JEC.. The groups being targeted are those on income support who qualify for cold weather payments and those over 65 on the health scheme.  They are offered a free visit by an energy advisor, who may recommend loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, lagging, draught proofing etc.  If the home owner agrees the work will be carried out by an approved contractor at no cost to the occupier.   Contractors are rushing to become approved as this money will stay in the local economy.    Up to 600 homes may qualify for this aid, only for home owners.  There is a separate scheme for States tenants, where Housing  are bringing forward energy saving measuring in their 10 year upgrade programme.  Deputy Pryke urged many people to apply for this initiative.

To promote energy efficiency in business eco-business is carrying out a 3 stage process,  The first targets behaviour under the slogan 'No excuses', looking at behaviour like switching off computers etc when not in use., by making sure unwanted lights are switched off ..  It will point out money savings as well as energy saving.   The Treasury procurement group is looking at a strategy tried in Lancaster replacing 1000's of desktop  printers with about 200 multifunction machines, print ,scan, photocopy.  It will introduce a gap between a person deciding to print and the actual operation and may reduce the amount of printing.    The Earth Hour is another part of awareness raising.    New buildings are much more energy efficient.  Some investments can be made in older buildings with reasonable  payback times.

Allotments at Les Creux have been approved and 60 at Mont Cochon are going through the planning process.  Potentially 60 sheds/green houses on this plot causes some worry to the planners so there is no great hurry to approve more sites.

An integrated transport plan is trying to reduce peak traffic by 15% but this is a challenging target in Jersey, where people like their car.  An Eastern cycle route is likely to come about in a number of small steps as the old railway route has been built on.

The energy policy, following the green paper, was held up by the election process at the end of last year.  However Senator Ozouf has now taken it up and it will go to the States  in the 2nd or 3rd quarter this year.  Once this is in place, with official targets, then the Transition Town initiative, which links peak oil and climate change, can be promoted.  Electric points have been included in plans for the Westmount quarry development as electric cars are likely to become more common in Jersey.

The move up from 32% to 36% recycling will be challenging for Jersey with a cost for taking items off Island for recycling,   At present there is no place for dealing with food waste by anaerobic digesters.

The Waterfront plan report to Senator Cohen is not being released at the moment while Harcourt are being checked out.    The States own the Masterplan  so could turn to an alternative developer if Harcourt are not approved.  Higher density housing in town is needed to cope with increased demand for Housing.   The new water resources law will allow better management of our water resources.   Raising reservoir walls rather than a new reservoir is the preferred option for increasing storage.

Our sea defences are evolving to cope with likely effects of climate change on sea level.

Solar power is still not widely used in Jersey .  Technology including thin panel silicon cells are developing rapidly 

Both guests were warmly thanked for their responses to our questions.  The meeting ended at 7.15.
Ed Le Quesne   5/  3 /  09


Extra notes
Apologies were received from Deputy Sean Power.  He had a matter to deal with at St. Brelades so could get to our Feb. meeting.  I hope he will attend  our April meeting

 ELeQ is a lay member of the Scrutiny Panel on the new Income Support system   We have heard a variety of witnesses and will be writing a report to come out in April.  The lack of a personal touch is something everyone is aware of and it will be addressed

We are requested to put forward any names for the Statistics User  group.  Peter Surcouf already represents us.  I don't know of anyone else interested.  It has been advertised and I can pas on more details if anyone would like to apply.

One World Group AGM will be on Thurs. March 26th at St. Martin Public Hall. Ian Gorst will speak. 

Dates of future Amos meetings  Weds. April 1st, May 6th

"The Psychology of Superstition" by Gustav Jahoda: A Review

"The Psychology of Superstition" by Gustav Jahoda: A Review
 
What is superstition? In this book, Jahoda begins by pointing out the difficulties of definition. For a start, the term "superstition" is often "little more than a verbal bludgeon to trounce one's ideological opponents"; a corollary to this is the fact that "one man's religion is another man's 'superstition'". It is also difficult to use scientific criteria to judge superstitions as "false beliefs" because the scientific picture of the world is rapidly changing and "each new discovery renders some of the old judgements obsolete and creates a basis for new ones." This can be seen in the fact that many "old wives' tales" have turned out to have a kernel of truth in them.
 
Jahoda's argues that "there is no objective means of distinguishing 'superstition' from other types of belief and action". From this position, his strategy is to adopt the use of a legal fiction; in his study of superstition, he considers those matters which that elusive creature beloved of law, the "reasonable man", would judge to be "superstitious".
 
One chapter which I found very interesting examined superstition as a form of error. In this category, there is "the belief in mythical animals like the unicorn." Here the superstitious notion is "created as a result of errors of observation and subsequent transmission of these mistaken notions." A less direct aspect of error occurs in the idea of regarding natural events - for example, comets, black cats, or dreams - as portents or omens which warn or predict future misfortune. Jahoda comments that "the persistence of such beliefs was at least in part a function of errors of memory - what we now call 'selective forgetting': events that conform with predictions are singled out and cited as confirmation, whilst others that do not are glossed over and forgotten."
 
We all tend to imagine that our memory does not mislead us. But if our memory did deceive us, how could we tell? The position becomes more alarming after Jahoda looks at a famous case from the files of the Society for Psychical Research. It was related by Sir Edmund Horney, Chief Judge of the Supreme Consular Court in the Far East. He "told the story of a reporter who visited him in the middle of the night to collect a judgement handed down the previous day." The man created quite a disturbance, although it was past midnight, and Sir Edmund "gave way to the pressing insistence of the man to avoid disturbing his wife. Nevertheless she woke up, and her husband explained what had occurred." The following day. Sir Edmund learned that the reporter had died that night; he had died at his office, and had not left the building.

This case is often cited as a good example of "psychic phenomena." However, it contains errors which are beyond dispute: "(a) there were no judgements made on the day prior to the reporter's death and (b) Sir Edmund had married three months after that event." These facts were brought to the attention of Sir Edmund, who was forced to admit that his memory must have grossly deceived him.
 
Other chapters cover astrology, clairvoyance, luck, ghosts, visions, and dowsing as divination. Jahoda explores how superstitious thinking functions, and how practices that, to the reasonable man, may seem superstitious, may actually work. This is fascinating study which shows how superstition is still widespread, even in our "rational age".

Habeas Corpus and Jersey

Wikipedia defines this as follows:

Habeas corpus  (Latin: You (shall) have the body) is a legal action, or writ, through which a person can seek relief from the unlawful detention of him or herself, or of another person. It protects the individual from harming him or herself, or from being harmed by the judicial system. The writ of habeas corpus has historically been an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action.
 
Geoffrey Robertson wrote a book called "The Tyrannicide Brief" (2006) about the trial of John Cooke, the barrister briefed by Oliver Cromwell and his colleagues to prosecute Charles I for high treason and other crimes. After the Restoration of the monarchy, Cooke was himself dragged back to the Old Bailey, tried and convicted of high treason and executed. But two years after John Cooke' s execution in 1660, there was a devious plan to take care of targets  which involved the use of Jersey as a kind of "Guantánamo Bay". These are the details as given by Keith Thompson, Area Legal Counsel for the Pacific , USA:

Despite the blanket amnesty that had been expediently proclaimed in the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion,17 the royalist authorities were mopping up the regicides and sating their desire for vengeance. They dug up the decomposed bodies of Cromwell and others and publicly hanged them again before an enormous crowd. They then started hunting down regicides who had escaped to other countries. Some they kidnapped back to England for execution and others they simply assassinated where they found them overseas. But when the connection with the overthrow of Charles I was harder to prove and the targets were at home in England, they had to go through trial formalities. Clarendon, the Lord Chancellor, wanted to keep the stay-at-home republican diehards in prison indefinitely. But that was a problem because the writ of habeas corpus established by Magna Carta entitled anyone in England to challenge the legality of his detention. And so Clarendon hit on a devious plan.

Robertson's words say it best:

He would keep the 'enemy combatants in custody for ever, but not in England - instead on offshore islands like Jersey and the Isle of Man. Clarendon's device was regarded as despicable at the time - it was one of the reasons for his dismissal, and it led Parliament in 1679 to pass the Habeas Corpus Act, which gave 'the great writ' extra-territorial affect.

The later extension of Habeas Corpus was passed in 1679, and what is interesting is that this is (1) a law passed by the UK Parliament (2) a UK law that applies to Jersey locally - because of its extra-territorial scope. This demonstrates that, on occasion, the UK Parliament can and did legislate for Jersey in local matters - despite what certain legal authorities (notably William Bailhache, but not Sir Philip Bailhache) and politicians have proclaimed to the contrary.

"Habeas Corpus may be directed into Counties Palatine, &c And an Habeas Corpus according to the true intent and meaning of this Act may be directed and runn into any County Palatine The Cinque Ports or other priviledged Places within the Kingdome of England Dominion of Wales or Towne of Berwicke upon Tweede and the Islands of Jersey or Guernsey."
 
Links and References:
http://jrclsconference.com/files/SpeakerMaterials/2009/The%20Doctrine%20of%20Religious%20Confession%20Privilege.doc
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/RevisedStatutes/Acts/aep/1679/caep_16790002_en_1
The Tyrannicide Brief, Robertson, G., Vintage Books, London, 2006, pp 154-155

 

Bullies and Glass Houses

Senator Perchard has recently written a letter to the paper saying that "while some use the internet for gaining information, others use it for destruction of sensitive data, or for demeaning and abusing individuals or organisations. While some use the web as a communication platform, others use it for and derive pleasure from intruding in the internet privacy of individuals and seek enjoyment from cyber-bullying."

He then goes on to provide a psychological profile of the bullies:

It is widely claimed that adult bullies are unable to cope with their own lives and problems and that they are easily intimidated and have strong feelings of jealousy and inadequacy. They are thought to be desperate to receive attention, which they probably don't receive at home or in relationships. I have noticed that they continually seek to discredit those in authority, particularly those who are influential, knowledgeable, capable and successful.

Who can he mean? I think the next paragraph where he is far more specific makes it pretty clear:

It is true that occasionally they can appear plausible, by introducing a cocktail of fact and fiction, but I am convinced that cyber-bullies are always vindictive and manipulative liars. They often, in an attempt to justify their behaviour, threaten their target with referral to a higher authority, e.g. the law, the UK Ministry of Justice, even the European courts, imagining that such authorities would be interested in the detail behind their vindictive tirade of abuse and bullying.

This means he clearly has in mind local bloggers, and most probably Senator Stuart Syvret's blog, which recently won the acclaim of former Senator Frank Walker as "that vile blog".  As far as I know, no one else is taking any case to the UK Ministry of Justice. Then follows a bit more of his tirade. Is this against bullying in general, or is it his opinion on particular individuals? Why does he not cite the facts and the fiction, so we can all check up on the matter in hand? Blanket accusations without an evidential base could be seen as a form of deflecting all criticism by devaluing it, which is a pernicious use of the ad hominem argument.

Here is a matter of fact: the report in newspapers that the fragment discovered at Haut de la Garenne was a coconut was a fiction, the forensic reports never mention the word "coconut", as he would have seen if he had taken care to research the matter and read them. That was pure press hype, and took on the status of apparent "truth" by dint of repetition, as is commonplace, especially in the internet age.

Cyber-bullies, like all bullies, will eventually prey on those closest to them in order to resist entering into permanent and lasting friendships. This is because they are mentally disturbed people who are incapable of having meaningful relationships. It is symptomatic that they find solace and power alone in their virtual world in front of their computer screens.

He ends on a most peculiar note.

I have given very careful consideration to the content of this letter, as I know it will provoke a hostile reaction in my direction, from cyber-bullies and internet abusers, those who believe it is their right to publish on the internet defamatory and hostile untruths about others. I for one am prepared to stand up to these bullies. I shall not be intimidated by them.

Why is is odd? Because he says that he is prepared to stand up to these bullies, and will not be intimidated by them? In that case, why doesn't he say who they are? Shame and name - instead of hiding behind a smokescreen of language! This is a strategy he has used before, for example, in a States debate (reported in Hansard) when he said: "Just briefly, I feel bound to speak after the cynical Senator and I think we all know which one." Again - no names! He also notes - again pre-empting any critique - that his letter will no doubt cause a lot of abuse to descend on his head from these bullies.  In the absence of names, how can this be understood except as an attempt to avoid any criticism, even legitimate ones.  Just as bullies can hide behind anonymity, so can those making remarks about criticism hide behind presenting those who criticise them as anonymous.

On the subject of bullying, did he ever give an apology for his intemperate language against former Deputy Baudains in the Masterplan Debate? I know he did admit he was mistaken in terms of fact, but I can't ever recall a retraction of the tone of the language, which might conceivably be seen as hectoring, intimidatory, or even tactical verbal bullying.  It was another case of being unable to separate fact from fiction. Senator Perchard thought the Harcourt Court case in Nevada was a fiction, but unfortunately it was a fact.

As the Deputy was standing there making his proposition I could imagine him in bed last night.  In fact, I can imagine him [Members: Oh!] and Deputy Baudains, both in their own beds white-knuckled, biting their pillows, thinking: "How can I derail the process tomorrow?"  They must have stayed awake all night.  Shame that they did because it has failed miserably.

Reading that, I could not help recall what an article in the Birmingham post noted:

Any youngster watching the way politicians bray, heckle and jeer at each other in Parliament may also question their authority to tell them how to behave.

I'll end with this quotation on the subject of bullying in politics, and there is certainly some of this in the States of Jersey, of which Senator Perchard must take a portion of blame for past behaviour, especially during the debate cited:

The arena of political activity is one that can draw out the best and the worst in people. Generally speaking, politics attracts those who are most concerned with the acquisition and exercise of power. Where there has been no effective democratic constitution the abuse of political power has proved awesome... But even in countries with democratic institutions, with well considered checks and balances, opposition parties, regular elections, parliamentary conventions and so on, there can be, and sometimes is, a systematic abuse of power by individuals or by groups of the kind that can fairly be called bullying. Bullying in politics is most public, and therefore most evident, in parliament. In Australia we are continually reminded of the schoolyard. The intent is to embarrass, humiliate and expose one's political enemies as fools and incompetents. The targeted member rises to his feet, ignores the question, and launches into a spirited attack on the members opposite. The game's afoot. Bystanders now act according to cue. Cries of derision for supporters of the putative bully; expressions of solidarity from the friends of the struggling speaker; a few bystanders - independent members - become spectators watching to see how things develop. Whether the scene unfolds as a bully/victim scenario will depend upon the virulence and pointedness of the attack , the defensive skills of the speaker and the degree of support provided by the party. Often enough it is stalemate: no real harm done - but equally no good done either.

(Ken Rigby, New Perspectives on Bullying, 2002, p97)

Amos Group - Recent Minutes

http://www.ctj.org.je/amos.htm
Here are the recent minutes of the Amos Group of Christian's Together in Jersey, which may be of interest to readers of this blog.


Who are we? One of the sections of Christians Together in Jersey. We look at social and political issues in Jersey in the light of the Christian gospel of good news for all.

Why Amos group? We take our name from the Old Testament prophet Amos, who had a vision of a society where "justice flows on like a river and righteousness like a never-failing torrent" (Amos 5:24) (and it is less of a mouthful than "The Social Responsibility Committee of Christans Together in Jersey"!)

The minutes do appear on their website - so are in the public domain - but are rather out of date at the moment, so here are the last two sets of minutes. There is an interesting note that they do not see the exemption of GST - from food - as a way forward, and I should note that I have changed my mind on that and am inclined to agree - provided the rate stays at 3% - but no comment has been made on exempting GST from electricity (a far simpler proposition as there is a single supplier, and far more beneficial given the huge increases in electricity rates this year effective people on the margins, such as elderly home owners not eligible for income support, but surviving on a pension alone).

---

AMOS GROUP of CHRISTIANS TOGETHER IN JERSEY
Minutes of meeting on Wed. Jan. 7th at 5.45 at Pastoral Centre, St. Thomas .

Present: Christine Le Marquand, Barbara Coram, Claire White, Adrian Pearce, Ed Le Quesne
Apologies: Adrian Walton, Tony Bellows, Gill Carter
1. The opening prayer, on Epiphany, was led by Adrian Pearce
2. It was decided to invite Advocate Tim Hanson to a future meeting to explain some of the issues he has found in dealing with cases of child care in Jersey and where changes are needed.
3. To meet its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the child, a draft child employment law has been produced which tries to set out a possible law.
It is aimed at young people under 16. Its main points are
• Children are not allowed to carry out paid employment if they are 12 years or younger.
• Children cannot work at all during school hours or unsocial hours – before 6 am or after 8 pm. They cannot work for more than five days in a week.
• Children must have enough breaks and time off. If approved, the law would give them at least one 30 minute break if they work for more than four and a half hours.
• Children must also have two consecutive weeks off work every year – and this must be in a school holiday.
We hope this law is seen as a safety backup because in general good parents should make the decisions about what their children should undertake. Responses are needed by 27th Feb so ELeQ will prepare a draft response before our Feb. meeting. The full paper is on
http://www.gov.je/Health/ChildEmployConsult.htm
4. Following Ian Gorst's election as Social Security minister and the controversy about the income support system, it was agreed to send him a letter of support but urging that some form of personal contact was built into the system as many elderly people can't cope with an entirely paper based system.
5. ELeQ introduced the Transition Towns handbook. Started just 2 years ago at Totnes in Devon, it brings together the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change and the need to work towards more resilient and diverse local systems. It builds on ideas already put forward by genuine Jersey, Fairtrade and other groups and needs a core group to take it forward. Possibly the One World Group could take it up. Well worth further consideration, the book only arrived the day before. .
6. Issues for 2009 will emerge in the next few weeks but we do look to a tenancy law, an ombudsman, a scheme on redundancy, more consumer protection, an energy policy, a discrimination law and take up the living wage campaign. We also await responses on Sunday trading, gambling control and new directions in health care for which consultation ended long since..
7. We hope that GST will not be removed from food. It introduces more complexity, especially for hotels as Claire pointed out. Instead an increase in income support is much better targeted..
8. Dates of future meetings Weds. Feb. 4th, March 4th, April 1st, May 6th
9. The Grace was said by all at 6.45
Ed Le Quesne 7 / 1 / 09

AMOS GROUP of CHRISTIANS TOGETHER IN JERSEY
Minutes of meeting on Wed. Feb. 4th at 5.45 at Pastoral Centre, St. Thomas .

Present: Christine Le Marquand, Barbara Coram, Claire White, Adrian Walton, Adrian Pearce, Ed Le Quesne
Apologies: Tony Bellows, Gill Carter, Martyn Shea.
1. Opening prayer was from the Methodist Prayer book for 08/09
2. The draft response to proposed child employment law, sent round earlier, was approved with a couple of extra comments. The final response is at the end of these minutes.
3. A letter has been sent to Ian Gorst re income support system and some form of personal contact by staff with claimants, but no response has yet been received.
ELeQ has been asked to be a lay member of the Scrutiny Panel on the new Income Support system by chairman Geoff Southern and will discuss the possibility next Tuesday Meetings are fortnightly 12 - 2 on Tuesdays.
4. Deputy Sean Power did not arrive so this is left for another day.,
5. Deputy Anne Pryke and Louise Magris from the environment dept have both agreed to attend our March meeting. Some questions we would like to ask include
How much investigation is going into using the plentiful resources of tidal, solar and wind energy around our Island?
How much use is being made of eco-active?
Are tax breaks or grants going to be made for house insulation, lot insulation etc to promote energy efficiency more noticeably
What is being done to promote energy efficiency, by making sure unwanted lights and computers are switched off when not needed.
What is being done to encourage allotments on unused farm land?
What about the cycle network toe encourage people out of their cars?
Is there any move to promote the Transition Town initiative, linking peak oil and climate change
What effort is being made for recycling, Jersey still invests too little in the facilities
Are we locked into the incinerator contract
Will the population decrease automatically with the downturn in the economy or does it need active control?
Is the Waterfront plan dead and buried and will the area be used for leisure or housing?
We look forward to what they have to say.?
6. ELeQ said that the CTJ Housing Trust are looking for two new Trustees. Several suggestions were made, which he will follow up.
7. One World Group AGM will be on Thurs. March 26th at St. Martin Public Hall. Ian Gorst will speak.
8. Dates of future meetings Weds. March 4th, April 1st, May 6th
9. The Grace was shared at 6.45 and some members went off to Alpha course classes

Ed Le Quesne 4 / 2 / 09

Draft Child Employment Law:
The Amos Group of Christians Together in Jersey has considered the draft child employment law set out in the recently published paper.
1. We agree that it should be aimed at children of less than 16.
2. • Children are not allowed to carry out paid employment if they are 12 years or younger. The main area of difficulty here is children helping with their parents in activities like farming, fishing or shops. It is right that there should be a backstop in law for parents who make very unreasonable demands on their children but the law should not bbe used to stop the occasional assistance in return for pocket money.
3 • Children cannot work at all during school hours or unsocial hours – before 6 am or after 8 pm. The restrictions on hours of employment in a day and a week as set out in article 4 seem reasonable,i.e
(1) A child shall not be employed −
(a) on any school day, for more than 2 hours;
(b) in any week during a school term, for more than 12 hours.
(2) A child aged under 15 years shall not be employed −
(a) on any day which is not a school day, for more than 7 hours;
(b) in any week during a school holiday, for more than 25 hours.
(3) A child aged 15 years shall not be employed −
(a) on any day which is not a school day, for more than 8 hours;
(b) in any week during a school holiday, for more than 35 hours.
(4) For the purposes of this Article −
(a) any reference to a week during a school term includes a week in which a school term begins or ends;
(b) any week that that is not a week during a school term is a week during a school holiday.

4. When it says that children shall not be employed on more than 5 days a week, it seems to indicate that school is not work, or there would be no Saturday job in term time.!

5. • Children must have enough breaks and time off so article 6 seems reasonable. i.e.
(1) In each period of 24 hours, a child shall have a rest period of at least 14 consecutive hours.
(2) Where a child works for more than 41/2 hours in a day, the child shall be entitled to an uninterrupted rest period of at least 30 minutes.
(3) In each period of one year, during a school holiday, a child shall have a rest period free of work of at least 2 consecutive weeks. This again seems reasonable. A child in full-time education as they must be up to 16, should not be working every school holiday.
.
We hope this law is seen as a safety backup because in general good parents should make the decisions about what their children should undertake.
We realise that it is difficult to monitor when children have jobs withtwo or three different employers, but on the whole parents should be monitoring this.

Ed Le Quesne
Chairman
Amos Group
February 2009

The Real Alice

"The Real Alice" by Anne Clark: A Review
 
This is a biography of Alice Pleasance Liddell, who provided the happy inspiration for "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Alice Through The Looking Glass" of the Reverend Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll); Dodgson was a friend of the young Alice and her sisters, and would often extemporise with witty, fantastic tales. It was at Alice's insistence that he wrote up one of these, and it was this story, entitled "Alice's Adventures Underground", that formed the core of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland".
 
Alice was born, in 1852, to Henry Liddell, who was at that time not only headmaster of Westminster School, but also domestic chaplain to the Prince Albert. As a result, "Alice's baptism took place in Westminster Abbey itself."
 
In 1855, Liddell left the headmastership of Westminster School to take up an appointment as Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. After moving into the Deanery, Alice's parents "set to work immediately to build a home and develop a way of living which was to transform the Deanery into a glittering social centre, the focal point of Oxford Society for the next thirty-six years." Consequently, much of Alice's early life was to mirror, in microcosm, the dazzling splendour of upper class Victorian society.
 
When Alice's brother was born in 1863, the Prince of Wales consented to be godfather, "and it was he who chose the names" - Albert Edward Arthur. Indeed, in the same year, "the newly wed Prince and Princess of Wales favoured Oxford with a visit" and "Alice and the rest of the children were wildly excited at the impending visit, for the royal couple were actually coming to stay at the Deanery."
 
It was at this time that Alice and her sisters were seeing a good deal of Charles Dodgson. Together with Dodgson's friend Duckworth, they "went out boating several times each summer." It was, as Alice remembered "one summer afternoon when the sun was so hot" that Dodgson began to create his fantastic tale of "Alice". However, Dodgson's friendship with Alice's family began to break up shortly after this, largely as a result of disagreements with Mrs Liddell, and by 1865 "the breach with the family was complete".
 
An interesting feature of this book is that it shows how the class distinctions of Victorian society were carefully guarded. When "a romance blossomed" between Alice and Prince Leopold (Queen Victoria's younger son), "the subject of matrimony constantly recurred"; surprisingly, it was Alice's mother who "demolished the proposal from the outset" because she believed that the Queen expected "all her sons to marry princesses"; instead, Alice was to marry Reginald Hargreaves, whose family's social standing was of equal parity with the Liddells.
 
The book tells of Alice up to her death in 1934. It is a tale that may well have been typical of a good many large Victorian families; inherited wealth was expended as if it were income, and the cost of up keeping retainers increased, so that gradually Alice's family had to lose most of their servants, and, by 1928, it was only by auctioning her manuscript of "Alice's Adventures Underground" at Sotheby's (for £15,400) that Alice was able to raise sufficient funds to maintain the estate.
 
This is a well-researched book, which gives a fresh look at what upper class Victorian society was like, and how it came to fade away with passing years.

Exact wording of ruling on Shaft Jersey

This is the exact text of the ruling on Frank Walker. Items in bold are mine.

Newsnight, BBC2, 25 February 2008 - Complaint

The ECU received complaints from two viewers in Jersey about an item on the investigation into the Haut de la Garenne children's home.  The item included footage of an exchange between Senator Walker, the Chief Minister of Jersey, and Senator Syvret, one of his leading critics.  The viewers complained that this footage had been edited in a way which was unfair to Senator Walker, and that further unfairness resulted from his response to Senator Syvret being misquoted by Jeremy Paxman in a live interview with him.  One of the viewers complained that the exchange with Senator Syvret had been filmed without Senator Walker's knowledge.

Ruling

The exchange, as edited and broadcast was as follows:
Senator Syvret
Frank, we're talking about dead children.
Senator Walker
Yes, Stewart. Exactly. You shouldn't be politicising it. You're trying to shaft Jersey
internationally.

In the view of the ECU, the editing had not materially altered the meaning of the exchange, and did not result in unfairness to Senator Walker.  However, because of a mishearing, Jeremy Paxman paraphrased him as having said "We're trying to promote the international image of Jersey", then quoted him as having said "We're trying to show off Jersey internationally", despite his denials.  Although, by way of clarification, Senator Walker's actual words were given later in the programme, this did not sufficiently offset an impression of undue preoccupation with Jersey's image which his words did not warrant.  As to the filming of the exchange, the ECU found that sufficient steps had been taken to make both Senators aware of the likelihood that filming would still be going on at the point when the exchange took place.

Partly upheld

Further action
Editors in BBC News have been asked to stress to teams the importance of making sure the audience is clear about cases where a presenter's mishearing affects the subsequent discussion, in particular by ensuring that enough has been done as soon as is practical to prevent the audience being left with a misleading impression.

 

You’re trying to shaft Jersey, internationally

http://www.thisisjersey.com/2009/02/26/bbc-admit-we-got-it-wrong/

THE BBC's flagship current affairs programme Newsnight has been strongly criticised by its own standards watchdog for its handling of an interview with former Chief Minister Frank Walker about events at Haut de la Garenne. The damning report from the trust, published today, criticises Newsnight for the way Senator Walker was portrayed during the interview with Mr Paxman two days after the first claims, now dismissed, that children may have been murdered at the former home. Senator Walker and former Health and Social Services Minster Stuart Syvret were interviewed live outside Haut de la Garenne, where ex-deputy police chief Lenny Harper had sparked off an international media frenzy with a press conference to announce that human remains had been found there. A complaint made by a member of the public against the programme has been upheld, and the trust is to write to the BBC's deputy director-general to ensure that programme makers correct 'serious errors' in future.

Channel Reports's website noted that:

In an interview, which was broadcast last February, the Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman repeatedly misquoted then-Senator Walker, accusing him of saying the former Health Minister, Senator Stuart Syvret, was trying to "shaft Jersey".Jeremy Paxman did correct himself after the interview and accept the former Chief Minister never used those words, but the BBC Trust found he didn't go far enough in apologising.There were a number of complaints - including one from Mr Walker's stepson, Adam Spurr - calling on the BBC to make an "official, well- published apology".

Having read this, you would be forgiven for thinking that former Senator Frank Walker had not in fact uttered the memorable words "You're trying to shaft Jersey, internationally", words which really are pretty appalling for a chief minister to use.

In fact, Jeremy Paxman misquoted Walker's words, putting in words about Jersey's international reputation, which while not accurately reflecting the appalling rude and unstatesmanlike language of Walker himself, surely conveyed the gist of his strongly expressed feeling, while not descending to the same level of gutter slang.

Such language as used by Frank Walker has only been topped in recent times locally by the poor jokes from the Deputy Chief Minister of Guernsey. While he wanted to retain his job, at least that individual had the grace to apologise for his remark. Walker, on the other hand, took pride in standing by what he had said, and telling the States effectively that the standards of language one can expect from a Chief Minister of Jersey can incorporate cheap and nasty insults.

So let's get it clear. Walker did say: "You're trying to shaft Jersey, internationally", and the serious error was that it was misquoted and bowdlerized by Paxman to language more appropriate to the dignity of a senior member of the Island's parliament than was in fact the case.

To put the record completely straight, here is the UNEDITED transcript supplied by the States of Jersey's own website. This is what was actually said:

http://www.statesassembly.gov.je/documents/questions/37706-30326-1132008.htm


SS: “Frank we’re talking about dead children.”

FW: “Yes Stuart exactly. So you shouldn’t be politicising it you should now be throwing your support behind the Police and behind every effort to find out who was responsible.”

SS “Indeed I have repeatedly expressed my full support.”

FW – “No you’re trying to shaft Jersey internationally.”

Proof of Poison

"Proof of Poison" by Jurgen Thorwald: A Review
 
This book tells the story of toxicology, and explains, by detailed historical examples, how the study of poisons was used to bring the great poisoners to justice.
 
It is surprising to relate that the earliest breakthroughs in toxicology took place as late as the nineteenth century. Some of the chemical methods necessary as preliminaries in this field were developed in the late eighteenth century, with the work of Scheele and Metzger providing the means of chemically isolating arsenic. However, the first real application of this knowledge in criminology came in 1806, when Valentin Rose, of the faculty of medicine at Berlin, "conceived of a method of detecting the presence of arsenic in human organs, especially in the intestines and in the walls of the stomach."
 
After this point, the study of poison finally began to catch up with the poisons and, in particular, with the most commonly used of all poisons, arsenic. Arsenic was popularly known as "inheritance powder" because of its frequent use by members of a family in aiding the departure of an inconvenient relative, and so hastening the time of inheritance. But the method conceived by Rose was, in its final stages of chemical analysis, rather clumsy; it was still possible to cut up a cadaver and be unable to detect arsenic even though it contained quantities of arsenic sufficient to kill.
 
The extraordinary breakthrough in finding the solution to this problem came in 1833, with the invention made by James Marsh. Marsh "had a U-shaped glass tube made, with one end open, the other terminating in a pointed nozzle. In the nozzle, he suspended a piece of zinc; in the open end of the U-tube, he placed the fluid to be examined, to which he had previously added acid.
 
When the fluid reached the zinc, even the tiniest traces of arsenic would produce arsenic which escaped through the nozzle." The escaping gas was ignited and Marsh precipitated it on a cold porcelain bowl in the form of "a black deposit". This apparatus was extremely sensitive, and could measure "a thousandth of a milligram of arsenic added to the test fluid."
 
It might have been though that this would have solved the problem of detecting death by arsenic poisoning. But this was not to be the case: in a manner that was typical of so many advances in toxicology it created new problems. For a start, using Marsh's sensitive apparatus, it was found that "arsenic is an extremely common element"; consequently, some traces of arsenic are to be found in almost everyone. But, in the investigation of poisoning, with exhumation of bodies required, what proved a real stumbling block was that "Marsh's apparatus showed that the ground contained arsenic in many places, especially in certain Paris cemeteries." If this was so, how could one be sure that the arsenic found in a decaying corpse (taken from a rotting coffin) had not been washed in by rain from the surrounding soil?
 
How these problems were eventually overcome, and the setbacks and triumphs on the way, are related later in the book. It also deals with vegetable poisons, and concludes with a summary of the latest developments such as spectrography. It is an interesting story, showing how a science advances, solving problems with both luck and logic.

Good Government

P.72/2008 was approved by the States of Jersey in July 2008 following a protracted public review of the alternatives and considerable States debate on three separate occasions. It is not good government to review the decision taken democratically by States Members so recently.
 
But is it "good government" to sign a contract just days before a general election in which the incinerator had been a matter raised? And moreover when a new house was due to sit which might have had very different ideas? That would seem to be to be a democratic two fingers up at the voters! On the day when the incinerator debate is thundering on in the States, perhaps this might not have been necessary if the government had been better beforehand.
 
In fact, I've come across a last minute contract elsewhere - in that place renown for a history of good government, especially during the apartheid years - South Africa. It is still going strong! Recently they have had what journalists are calling "L'Affaire Mqoqi". This was to do with a last minute extension to an employment contract for the city manager Mqoqi, just before the election. Editorial comments have called this a "fiasco", and said that "the last minute contract awarded to ex city manager (and ANC cadre) Mqoqi just before the election was not very democratic." The legality of this was questioned, because it was taken during a council recess, and not ratified by a full sitting of the council. Which is shades of passing a contract when everyone is fighting elections, some on this issue, after the last sitting of the States and just before members of the old legislative assembly finally cease to hold office.

Mgoqi was defiant, and said that "a competent authority had approved his contract", but he was suspended because of the last minute nature of the contract, which was seen by many as an attempt to thwart the democratic process, including the new government. Later, the Cape High Court  chosen to uphold Wallace Mqoqi's suspension, saying in no certain terms that his eleventh-hour contract extension by Nomaindia Mfeketo was illegal.

I don't think it makes for good government to do things this "last minute contract way", even if, with the Jersey States, it manages to stay just the right sign of legality. Regardless of which side people are on with the debate, we are only having it because the ethical boundaries were certainly transgressed.

http://supernatural.blogs.com/weblog/2006/05/judge_a_country.html

http://commentary.co.za/archives/2006/04/11/laffaire-mgoqi/

Gandhi

'Gandhi."  by Taya Zinkin
 
This short biography by Taya Zinkin portrays Gandhi not as a saint, but very much as a man who was always in the process of discovery: trying to find a simple and non-violent lifestyle. The book deals with his early life in India, and follows him through a journey of discovery in England, South Africa and finally back to his homeland of India. It is well researched, and a fine illustration of how Gandhi's life was, as he entitled his autobiography, "The Story of My Experiments with Truth".
 
In India, Hindu society was divided, on religious grounds, into four rigid social groups, or castes. These are the priests, soldiers, merchants and cultivators. Finally, outside the caste system, and therefore with no social standing or rights whatsoever, are found "the Untouchables, people so low that they cannot be touched because their contact is so polluting."
 
It has been noted by James Cameron that this rigid caste system was perfect for British rule; all that the British had to do was to secure themselves a position above the top of this ladder of inequity.
 
But however much this anti-democratic system might have suited the British at the start of the Empire, it rapidly came into conflict with the ideals of justice and charity of a civilised British society. As Mrs Zinkin observes, considerable unrest occurred in India "because the British had interfered with age-old Hindu custom, like the killing of baby daughters and human sacrifice to the Goddess Kali".
 
Moreover, under British rule, it had been insisted that the children of Untouchables should receive education, "but even then these children had to stand at the back of the class, as if they had a contagious disease." The British could do no more; they "were helpless in the face of tradition."
 
Although Gandhi came from a Hindu background, he broke across this caste system. At an early age, into order to train in England as a barrister, he had to break a caste taboo by crossing sea. He faced a caste boycott - deprivation of status amongst his own countrymen, and treatment as an Untouchable. Events such as these led him to see that the caste system was an evil which must be abolished, and so, indirectly, to his death at the hands of a Hindu fanatic who saw him as a traitor to his faith.
 
Nevertheless, Gandhi's fight proved successful, and "the first thing that independent India was to do was to make the practice of Untouchability a criminal offense under the constitution."
 
The book also shows that Gandhi was able to apply his methods of "non-violent civil resistance" only because, despite all its faults, British rule was essentially just, civilised and humane. As Orwell commented: "It is difficult to see how Gandhi's methods could be applied in a country where opponents of the regime disappear in the middle of the nights and are never heard of again".
 
Because the British held to such high ideals of justice and freedom of speech that Gandhi was able to embarrass them by showing the deficiencies and inequities in
British laws in India that did not stand close comparison with the ideals of British justice; ironically, such knowledge resulting from his training in British law. In this respect, Maucaulay ' s words form a fitting epitaph to British rule in India: "To have found a great people sunk in the lowest depths of slavery and superstition, to have so ruled them as to have made them desirous and capable of all the privileges of citizens, would indeed be a title of glory all our own."
 

Purgatory as Child Abuse?

I came across these books recently, and I can only say that they make me realise the fire that burned within Martin Luther when he hammered his theses to the door and began, by accident, the fragmentation of the church called the Reformation.

STORIES ABOUT PURGATORY AND WHAT THEY REVEAL. Compiled from traditional sources, this book was written to impress upon its readers many truths about Purgatory: first, that it exists; second, that the souls there suffer long and excruciating pains, and that they desperately need our prayers and sacrifices; and finally, how we should strive to avoid Purgatory.

I found myself dumfounded by this description of the book. Who is one to impress about a truth on "long and excruciating pains"? I can begin to see that Richard Dawkins might have a point about religious education being a form of child abuse. To tell a child this kind of stuff is surely to instill a sense of fear in them, and then to tell them, no doubt, that by obedience they can escape this doom. What a wonderful basis for ethical behaviour! It might be said that it is not for children, and yet if it is a "truth", surely there are not truths that are somehow esoteric, available only to adults, rather like video nasties? This blurb certainly left a very nasty taste in my mouth. I have heard of contemporaries of mine who are friends telling about their education, and how they were presented with a fearful picture of burning fires, and I had assumed it was largely in the past. I'm not so sure it is completely so, having seen this book.

PRAYING IN THE PRESENCE FOR THE HOLY SOULS: by Susan Tassone. Introduction by Fr. Groeschel. This is a comprehensive collection of the most powerful prayers of the Catholic Church for the holy souls in Purgatory. These ancient and modern prayers are rich, beautiful and effective. Pray them during Eucharistic Adoration, before and after Mass, in prayer groups or during private meditation.

This is not quite as "in your face" as the other, but it still has this conception of "souls" in purgatory. I'm not convinced, and have never been convinced, that the Platonic / Greek idea of souls is something that meshes well with the somatic Jewish ideas of resurrection and new creation.

PURGATORY: Fr. Frederick Faber answers many questions about Purgatory, like: Is Purgatory almost like Hell, or is it a place of peace and even joy? Based on Catholic teaching and revelations of holy people, especially St. Catherine of Genoa, this book helps us appreciate the supernatural treasures at our disposal, both to help the Poor Souls and to help us avoid Purgatory ourselves!

I love the final exclamation mark! At the end of this is a fear again - we might be cast into purgatory.

I note that the Catholic Library says that "Likewise, Scripture teaches that purgatory exists, even if it doesn't use that word and even if 1 Peter 3:19 refers to a place other than purgatory.". That just about encapsulates the weakness of this whole idea. The word doesn't exist, scripture teaches it, even if it doesn't use that word. There is of course a lot of "proof texting" about purgatory, wrenching texts from context. The Orthodox church doesn't have a doctrine of purgatory, which is strange indeed, for it shares much of the same early history!

Lastly, I should add - in fairness - that the current Pope presents a vastly more nuanced rethink of the whole idea of purgatory, and to which I refer the interested reader in full in the link below, but here is an extract, which presents a much more symbolic account of the idea.

Some recent theologians are of the opinion that the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Saviour. The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away. This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves. All that we build during our lives can prove to be mere straw, pure bluster, and it collapses. Yet in the pain of this encounter, when the impurity and sickness of our lives become evident to us, there lies salvation. His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation "as through fire". But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God.

Links
http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Purgatory/id/551503
http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/death/stmark_purg.aspx
http://swallowedscroll.blogspot.com/2008/03/pope-benedict-xvi-on-purgatory-and-hope.html

 

Funny Money

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/jersey/7905601.stm

Jersey could lose £55m if a contract for a new waste incinerator is cancelled, the minister for transport and technical services says. The planned £100m plant at La Collette is set to replace the existing Bellozanne incinerator and was approved by the planning minister last autumn. Critics say the new facility is not needed and will be too large.

Minister Michael Jackson said £30m had already been spent on the project and backing out would cost the island more. He said: "On top of that [£30m], other equipment has been ordered which will have to be added on to that figure because the contractor will not be able to do anything else with it and he will have to be recompensed. "There will also be the question of damages being claimed by the contractor; and then, of course, we get into the unknown legal field. "This is the area which causes great concern because no-one ever knows how much it is going to be."

But Deputy Daniel Wimberley, one of the politicians hoping the States will reverse its decision to go ahead with the plant, said he believed that the estimated cost to cancel had been exaggerated. He said: "First of all he added £5m to the figure this morning, which shows the kind of joke world we're in. The price last week was £50m, now it's up to £55m. "In any case, the cost of the alternative is so much less that even with the cost of cancellation that it will make a saving to the island of roughly £10m in capital costs." If built, the new plant is expected to be cleaner and generate electricity for about 8,000 homes through burning waste, with an expected lifespan of up to 30 years.

Actually the figure than amazes me is not the way in which the figures have jumped up so rapidly, as

(1) The 30 million pounds spent on a one hundred million project, and not for "equipment ordered". What precisely has it been spend on, as it accounts for nearly one third? As far as I can tell, just the foundation work - digging a very large hole - has begun. If has been spent on work done, where is the work? If it has not, what precisely was it spent on?

(2) The casual way in which large round figures are thrown about. I know it might be convenient for PR to round figures up or down, but this gives the impression that they are just plucked out of a hat, and if asked for a supporting breakdown of costs, that would not be forthcoming. Figures to the nearest pound may still not be accurate, but at least if a politician is standing up and giving them, one feels that he must have something to back them up, because he would be held accountable if he lied in the States. It is hardly any wonder that that Daniel Wimberley calls it a "joke world".

(3) The unknown legal field is wonderful, because here we are in the land of dreams - or nightmares, and we can bid reality goodbye. Actually, the obvious thing to do is what Daniel Wimberley has done - and no doubt will given evidence of - other cases where contracts have been rescinded and where this kind of legal nightmare did not in fact emerge. I find it amazing that they cannot specify whether the contract itself has a cancellation clause which gives details of the sums involved. It must be an extremely poor contract if it does not; most contracts contain clauses giving details of what will be charged in the event of cancellation.

Here is an example of the kind of thing one would expect - it is part of a Dragon Energy From Waste Plant:

11.2 In the event of a determination by Dragon of the Contract in accordance with Clause 11.0.1 or 11.0.3 above or any cancellation and/or repudiation
of the Contract by the customer, Dragon shall be entitled to recover damages as follows.
11.1.1 The value of any work completed or goods manufactured at the date of the determination.
11.1.2 The value of any work begun or goods begun to be manufactured at the date of the determination.
11.1.3 The value of any work begun or goods begun to be manufactured but not completed at the date of determination including the cast of materials, labour, overheads and profit connection therewith.
11.1.4 A sum representing any further profit which Dragon would have made on the contract but for its determination such profits to be determined by Dragons auditors whose decision shall be conclusive and binding on the Customer.

Now 11.1.4 clearly has dangerous implications for any cancellation, but Mike Jackson has so far not come out with any specifics like that, or indeed, mentioned what the precise terms of cancellation are. He might have good grounds if our contract has a clause like 11.1.4, but the way in which the case is being presented at the moment against cancellation does not mention this kind of clause, and the TTS comments on the States website do not mention exact clauses either. Why not? Either they forgot when producing their detailed comments against Daniel Wimberley, or no such clauses exist (which would be a sloppy contract). If they exist, can we see them in detail please, so that we can see just what is involved, instead of fantasy and funny money?

Links
http://www.dragonheat.co.uk/frame2files/resources/dragonheat-terms.pdf
http://www.statesassembly.gov.je/documents/propositions/23984-8209-322009.htm)

God and the Mad Scientist

I've just been watching Colin Blakemore on Channel 4 "God and the Scientists" and a worse use of selective evidence I have rarely seen in recent times.

Blakemore is committed to "proving" a contradiction between the "Church"  and "Science" (which is taken in the singular - shades of Dawkins, "science says..."). If I was a scientist, I'm not sure I'd be too happy about being lumped together in Blakemore's ideology of what science is about. As with Dawkins, he seems to have no philosophical training, and his history is also pretty erratic.

He plays up the Church's opposition to Galileo and the belief in a geocentric universe as if it was totally a biblical matter, and the Aristotelian influence did not get a mention whereas a good part of the conflict was that the Church of that time, after the synthesis of Thomas Aquinas, was committed to Aristotelian science, which had a geocentric universe (along with many of the Ancient Greek thinkers). The reasons for a geocentric universe were observational and experimental.  The first is that the stars, sun, and planets appear to revolve around the Earth each day, with the stars circling around the pole and those stars nearer the equator rising and setting each day and circling back to their rising point. The second is the common sense perception that the Earth is solid and stable; it is not moving but is at rest. The third, and perhaps the strongest, was the Aristotelian argument of "the Tower". As Wikipedia notes: "The tower argument was one of the main objections against the theory of a moving earth. Aristotelians assumed that the fact that a stone which is dropped from a tower lands directly beneath it shows that the earth is stationary. They thought that, if the earth moved while the stone was falling, the stone would have been left behind. Objects would fall diagonally instead of vertically. Since this does not happen, Aristotelians thought that it was evident that the earth did not move. If one uses ancient theories of impulse and relative motion, the Copernican theory indeed appears to be falsified by the fact that objects fall vertically on earth". Galileo could not counter this, and had to make do with ad hoc hypthosesis and proceed counterinductively; the theory of relative motion relied on notions of gravity which required the later Newtonian synthesis to displace Aristotle. If Blakemore had read Stephen Toulmin's "The Fabric of the Heavens: The Development of Astronomy and Dynamics", or even Paul Feyerabend's "Against Method", he would have been able to give a more nuanced account of the controversy that the simplistic faith versus fact narrative that he provided on the TV. It was more of a clash between two scientific world views.

As usual when creationism was mentioned, but Augustine's views on genesis as not being a literal seven days were somehow overlooked; instead we had (1) a creationist presented who said that when the bible and science were in contradiction, the bible was correct, and so much the worse for science (2) other Christians whom Blakemore suggested had needed to tailor their faiths to science as it made inroads. Augustine's nuanced view on science (natural philosophy) and scripture was made well before Blakemore's supposed "conflict", and can be summarised thus by Kenneth J. Howell,:

Suppose someone says that the earth is no more than ten thousand years old, as Christians in the West believed for centuries. Again, we should test this claim by the means that science has at its disposal. For well over a hundred years historical geology has developed tests to show that the earth must be far older than ten thousand years. These tests are cross-checked and rechecked to make sure the time estimates are not flawed. Now what should we do? Shall we insist that the Bible teaches that the earth is no more than ten thousand years old? Could it be that our interpretation is wrong? Augustine advises the second step: "But if they are able to establish their doctrine with proofs that cannot be denied, we must show that this statement of Scripture . . . is not opposed to the truth of their conclusions." He urges us to change our interpretation of Scripture, not because Scripture is to be ruled by science, but because no two truths made by God will contradict one another. All truth comes from God, whether discovered by science or by the Church in its interpretation of Scripture. The first question we must ask is whether a particular scientific theory is well-founded. If it is, then we must make sure we don't read the Bible in a manner that contradicts sound knowledge of nature.

Blakemore then he presented the American Declaration of Independence as the major political triumph of the enlightenment, and while it was a triumph it had major deficiencies in its understanding of human nature. "We hold these truths to be self evident... that all men are created equal" - did not apply to women or slaves. He praised Benjamin Franklin as the "enlightment man" with his lightening conductor, and yet failed to mention that Franklin advertised slaves for sale and rewards for capturing runaways in his Philadelphia newspaper. He was proprietor and the advertisements were good business. When he did change his mind, it was first of all on economic grounds rather than humanitarian ones, and only after a time in France, much later in his life, did he accept the French ideas of equality contradicted the American ones of slavery. Thomas Jefferson saw the institution of slavery as an evil, even though he continued the practice of slave ownership. George Washington was committed to slave ownership. The failure of these supposedly rational thinkers to see this is remarkable given Blakemore's position that they had discarded religious superstitions in favour of enlightenment science. Franklin, of course, was also a freemason, and hence was certainly committed at least to what we would term "deism". Incidentally, Franklin's kite experiment probably never happened, but was written up later by him as a "back story".

When we get to the Darwin religion versus science debate, Blakemore accepts most of the Huxley propoganda at face value, and we now know that most of that never happened as he would see if he was up to date with modern historical research on the subject. It is now pretty well established that the debate between Huxley and Wilberforce never happened in the way Huxley wrote up in his memoirs nearly half a century later - as a piece of typical Huxley self-promotion. Wilberforce, far from being the old fuddy-duddy opposed to Huxley, had already made his position clear:

But we are too loyal pupils of inductive philosophy to start back from any conclusion by reason of its strangeness. Newton's patient philosophy taught him to find in the falling apple the law which governs the silent movements of the stars in their courses; and if Mr Darwin can with the same correctness of reasoning demonstrate to us our fungular descent, we shall dismiss our pride, and avow, with the characteristic humility of philosophy, our unsuspected cousinship with the mushrooms, - `Claim kindred there, and have our claim allowed'  - only we shall ask leave to scrutinise carefully every step of the argument which has such an ending, and demur if at any point of it we are invited to substitute unlimited hypothesis for patient observation, or the spasmodic fluttering flight of fancy for the severe conclusions to which logical accuracy of reasoning has led the way.

Darwin saw Wilberforce as presenting real and formidable criticisms, which he went out of his way to address in his later revisions. This has been well known to historians for some time, and the latest BBC History Magazine dispelled the science versus religion myths of the time. The late Stephen Jay Gould - always careful on sources - had written about the extremely suspect (and unlikely) character of Huxley's account almost a decade ago.

All in all, Colin Blakemore has presented us with a new mythology about science, presented historically selective (or discredited) evidence, weighted to "prove" his case, and given probably the best example of the New Atheist fundamentalism on television since Richard Dawkins. Why can't scientists, supposedly committed to truth, do a little historical research before presenting a kind of schoolboy textbook history that went out of date 20 years ago, and which is accepted without any criticism?

Links and References
The Fabric of the Heavens: The Development of Astronomy and Dynamics (1963) with June Goodfield ISBN 0-226-80848-3
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1998/9803fea3.asp

http://www.philsci.com/book6-8.htm

http://www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org/site/sections/about_franklin/Issue%2013%202007-2008%20Franklin%20and%20Slavery.pdf

http://www.pbs.org/jefferson/enlight/brown.htm
http://hnn.us/articles/920.html#kite10-29-03

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~jrlucas/legend.html

Creation

"Creation" by Claus Westermann: A Review
 
This book sets out to explore the background to the Creation stories of the Bible, and explains how they are meant to be understood.
 
The introduction to the book deals with how the narratives came to be written, and Westermann shows us that: "the first eleven chapters of the Bible were not composed as a literary work in the same way as Paul's letters in the New Testament.. The written draft is rather the end product of a long history of formation."
 
Westermann explains how a careful study of the early chapters of the book of Genesis reveals two distinct creation stories: (a) Genesis chapter 1, verse 1 to chapter 2, verse 4; (b) Genesis chapter 2, verse 4 to chapter 3 verse 24. A particular clear feature marking these as distinct is the fact that the order of events described is quite different in each narrative.
 
The first narrative is a great poem of joy in the beauty and goodness of creation, and praise in their Creator. Westermann mentions that the Hebrew word "tob" which is translated by "good" in this narrative, has a broader meaning, and also includes our word "beautiful".
 
Westermann also comments on a distinctive feature of the first narrative - "the procession of the days of work into a day of rest." He remarks that this is to teach us a lesson: "The work which has been laid upon man is not his goal. His goal is the eternal rest which has been suggested in the rest of the seventh day."
 
With the second narrative, we come to "the creation and limits of man." Here is the story of the temptation of man by the serpent; it is a story which contains a central paradox: "God himself has created the being which leads man to disobedience."
 
Although some commentators have tried to explain this away, Westermann warns us that to do so is to misunderstand the text. We must simply accept that "the origin of evil cannot be explained."
 
This is a fascinating book, with many arguments and insights. Westermann shows how Genesis can be understood even when it is not treated as historical fact. He regards it as myth, and points out the value of such myths as presenting universal truths which could not be portrayed otherwise.
 
It is hoped that such a book will help the reader not to neglect the Creation stories in the book of Genesis. All too often, these have been brought into a false conflict with the scientific picture of how the world was made. But this conflict arose relatively late in the Church's history, when the texts were interpreted by theologians whose perspective was so distorted by rationalism that they could not see that there could be other truths apart from scientific ones; naturally, such a procedure brought discredit upon the texts, because they should never have been understood as giving historical truth in the first place. Instead, they should have been understood along the lines of parables - stories which reveal truth, but which it would be most improper to treat as historically true. This is not a new discovery. As long ago as the 5th century A.D., St Augustine remarked that the Creation stories should not be understood as historical chronicle of events; this was because, he says, they were not written that way - they were "written after the manner of a popular poet."

Guernsey Carnival - February

A round-up of recent stories in our sister Island. The full stories are in the links.
 
http://www.thisisguernsey.com/2009/02/17/jobs-available-at-higher-levels-recruitment-firm/
 
Source Recruitment Specialists says that it has 250 vacancies on its books, but admitted that the lower end of the job market was tricky, with over 400 unemployed. Last month, 343 people were registered as unemployed with Social Security. At this time last year, the figure was 255. Their Managing Director commented that "Although the unemployment figure has regrettably increased, it's important to stress that there are still a large number of vacancies in Guernsey at all levels, in all business sectors and companies continue to expand and create new opportunities.". It would be interesting to see a like comparison in the JEP, and perhaps this would go some way towards not just reporting redundancies, and providing a more balance picture.

 http://www.thisisguernsey.com/2009/02/18/states-needs-to-think-ahead-says-former-farmer/
 
Former farmer Peter Falla, 83, made a representation to the inquiry yesterday suggesting more land reclamation for landfill and calling on the States to look ahead more. Guernsey has reclaimed land at Longue Hougue, and as we know, once you have it, you start to think what you can do with it. Reclaim more land, is Mr Falla's opinion, and you can use this for extra landfill, which would be cheaper than building an incinerator. I've been out to the extremity of our own landfill area at La Collette in Jersey, and I'm not sure whether that is still slowly growing in the quiet. If not, what are all those diggers and lorries still trundling back and forth doing?

About 15 years ago, the island imported stone from France to build a breakwater at Longue Hougue so that many thousands of tonnes of solid waste could be diverted there from Mont Cuet. 'Less than £10m. spent on a containment area of land reclaimed from the sea would be preferable to £80m. to £100m. spent on an incinerator,' said Mr Falla. 'Remember, an incinerator will have smoke, ash and residue to dispose of on a site close to the island's bulk oil storage tanks.'

Now why does this seem familiar, all of a sudden?
 
http://www.thisisguernsey.com/2009/02/18/business-plan-to-be-pulled/
 
THE Policy Council wants to defer debating the Government Business Plan after deciding at the last minute that it needs a radical rethink. It has long championed the plan, which has been developed since 2004, as key to prioritising government's work. It is now set to be simplified with Treasury minister Charles Parkinson in charge of a new political team. He put proposals to Monday's Policy Council meeting, which unanimously backed the concept of an overall strategic plan to guide how the States conducted its business and that departments' work needed to be coordinated. But it also agreed that to be successful it required widespread ownership together with understanding and commitment to a plan that was relevant and easily comprehended by the man in the street and States members.

This is the similar kind of talk we see from Terry Le Sueur - if you substitute "taking the Island along", and "inclusive" for the phrase "widespread ownership". It will be interesting to see if Guernsey manages to do this better than Jersey, where there is a lot of talk, but most of the action is simply to go with the status quo, the same old policies, the same old faces. Maybe Terry Le Sueur could learn from Guernsey?

http://www.thisisguernsey.com/2009/02/17/killer-dogs-drive-forest-couple-to-quit-keeping-chickens/

Killer dogs drive Forest couple to quit keeping chickens. Francis Russell surveys the pile of feathers after a dog attack killed three and injured one of the 20 silkie chickens that survived a New Year's Day attack. Four were safe in their hen house when dogs struck again but the rest of the birds have vanished....He blamed the same animals that carried out the first strike and, by the size of the bite marks, he believed they were terriers. 'My wife was devastated,' he said. 'We aren't going to get any more.'

Wayne Le Cuirot, in Grouville, Jersey has also had attacks on his birds. It seems that in either Island, there is little policing that has been done on the issue, although it is difficult to see what could be done unless the dogs are caught in the act and their owners identified.
 
http://www.thisisguernsey.co.uk/discus/messages/11779/12366.html?1234966625

The incinerator is also a dominant issue in Guernsey, but the planning is not as advanced a stage as in Jersey. In the letters page, Laurie Queripel has a long letter on the subject, in which he looks at one of the alternatives mentioned. Wouldn't it be ironic if Guernsey ended up with a better system! Here is what he has to say - it is quite long, but worth hearing in full.

HAVE to report that I was thoroughly impressed by the Bio Plex waste solution presentation at the Vale douzaine room on Wednesday evening...There are serious environmental and health implications associated with mass-burn incineration, with children being particularly vulnerable. Of course this version of biogas digestion would not be a complete solution to our waste problems but it would deal with several thousand tons of our food waste each year in a clean and sustainable way and produce energy as a by-product.  The public really needs urgently to re-engage on this topic and then lobby their deputies. It has to be said that there does not seem to be the political will to furnish the public with all the relevant facts and details. Whatever the reason for this determination among certain politicians to push for a mass-burn incinerator, I can assure the reader that such a choice would not be in the best interest of the community. The Bio Plex representatives seemed to answer every question and query in a most satisfactory manner, including the fact that this process would not endanger our water supply, as the compost by-product would be sufficiently sterilised.  It was also pointed out that once this system was running, it would be most cost effective as opposed to a large incinerator, which would not.  Of course, as with all new initiatives, there would be a cost allied to the logistics and practicalities of setting up such a scheme. A small problem to overcome would be in persuading people to make the small adjustment needed to their lifestyles to support the scheme, i.e. food waste separation, however, this need not be onerous and would be to our and our children's long term benefit. This system has proved to be a success among all communities who have chosen to partake in it - indeed, it is a source of local pride and its proactive nature has a positive affect upon the spirit of the  ommunity. Plus, this is a modular system - it can be added to and adjusted as required and is so flexible as to where and how it is sited. One must remember this is not a new, untested approach. Anaerobic digestion has been in existence for many hundreds of years, the difference now is it has been allied to contemporary technology making it fit for purpose in the modern world. We must not settle simply for a mass-burn solution, it is the antithesis to the recycle, reuse, waste-avoidance preservation message that has previously been sent out. Remember the monster will have to be fed - once you burn you can never return. This is one of the most serious and far reaching issues Guernsey has ever had to face. It involves us all, therefore it behoves all of us to get involved.

Paul Lapage looks at a different option, not unlike our own kind of incinerator, but what is interesting is that he thinks the bulk of construction work should be done "in house". And why not? I've seen Geomarine on billboards over in Jersey. Shouldn't they be involved in our local project, whatever it is? With a downturn in the economy, and a weak pound, this would have made perfect sense.

To try and reduce our dependence on landfill, the States want to look at other processes, including recycling and energy recovery. This comes in the form of energy-from-waste, which is a process whereby energy is derived from burning waste.  The combustion process produces high-pressure steam that can be converted to electrical power by the use of a turbine and generator. This electricity can be fed into the Guernsey grid and supplied to local industry.  Energy-from-waste plants can also be used to supply high-pressure hot water or steam that can be used for industrial or domestic heating. This type of facility is known as a combined heat-and-power plant because of the two types of energy it produces. These plants are highly efficient. Brilliant idea, I hear you hark. Fantastic idea. But who is going to construct such a fantabulous plant? English or European companies? Well, I hope not, as Guernsey has sufficient skills in the construction industry. Fantastic, skilled, local companies to construct our fantastic energy-from-waste plant is what I say. We have a high-class civil engineering company in the form of Geomarine. We have superb construction companies in the form of R. W. Rihoy and R. G. Falla. OK, I agree some parts of construction may need to come from England but, by golly, we should demand that we (Guernsey) do a large chunk.

And a letter from the redoubtable Peter Falla. An interesting point he raises is the cable replacement. What is the lifetime of our own power cables from France? I've not seen any figures on that, but think there probably should be. Nothing lasts forever. Is the cost of replacement factored into the price of electricity?

Yes, we use nuclear energy from France but like all man-made materials, that cable will have to be replaced, while oil is getting more expensive.  China needs oil and Russia feels she can charge whatever she asks for it and gas. So will France for her electricity in future. We must consider a measure of self-sufficiency, including tidal power.

The Logic of Madness: An Observation

When Courant was asked to explain the special factor that gives mathematical talent, he replied that "There is no such thing." To underline his point, he added: "Rather than ask what special qualities mathematicians possess, you should ask - what do they lack that other human beings possess."
 
Diderot, the famous French encyclopaedist, would have probably replied: "A sense of fair play, that goes with adulthood and maturity. Monsieur." Diderot must have been wary of mathematicians ever since his encounter with Euler at the French Court. There was to be a grand debate between the most powerful intellects of the day - "Did God exist?"
 
Diderot would argue for his own brand of atheism, while Euler would espouse the Christian cause. Euler opened by stating, with a great sense of certainty, a nonsensical algebraic formula (which he had just made up on the spur of the moment). He then declared solemnly, "Therefore God exists! I rest my case." Diderot was a mathematical ignoramus, and consequently was unable to come up with any reply; he ended up as a laughing stock - a cautionary example for all "great" intellects.
 
But the most apt illustration of the odd behaviour of mathematicians is Cardan, who was a famous mathematician and astrologer of the 16th Century. Using astrology. Cardan predicted the exact date of his own death. And he was absolutely correct! However, astrologers care to avoid this single proof of the veracity of their predictions. Cardan was such a logical pedant that he considered that his reputation would suffer if he was wrong. On the predicted date - 21st September 1576, he killed himself. Quod erat demonstrandum!

The Jersey Finance Fantasy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/jersey/7892289.stm

Seafront plan 'will ease crisis': A major building development in Jersey will help stimulate the island's economy, a financial expert has said. Chief executive of Jersey Finance Geoff Cook said a multi-million pound plan to develop the Esplanade could help Jersey through the financial crisis. He said it would create jobs and tax revenue and boost the wider economy. Mr Cook said when the project was completed in about three years' time, the crisis should be over, creating more demand for office space.

When you are in a hole, there is nothing quite like digging it deeper. That is what I thought on reading, with incredulity, Geoff Cook's recent sound bites in the BBC and JEP about how it is especially important to press ahead with the Waterfront development. This is a development that will - according to estimates at the time - cost a cool half a million pounds in maintenance costs for the sunken road infrastructure. Can we afford to just chuck away that money as if there is no tomorrow? According to Geoff Cook, yes!

If he was a passenger on the Titanic, I can imagine him not only as one of those who dressed for dinner as the ship was sinking, but someone who would go one stage better and order one of the most sumptuous five course meals, with champagne, as well. Buttressed by his no doubt inconsiderable salary, and part of a quango which as far as I can make out - unlike even WEB - has no published accounts easily available, he can afford to indulge in these costly flights of fancy.

Whether the States can afford to indulge - or finance - someone like him is another matter, and one I would like to see Ben Shenton and his scrutiny team investigate. Who is Geoff Cook accountable to? Who elects him? He seems to me to be a complete fantasist, living in his own private world, a parallel universe without any recession.

I can hear him saying, "Don't worry about the iceberg, by the time we reach it, it is certain to have melted anyway" - that appears to be the Jersey Finance / Harcourt line on the credit crunch from the JEP stories on them. I think instead the iceberg will still be there, and there will be a nasty crunch when we hit it, if they have their way. 

If Mr Cook is a "financial expert", who "predicts" the crisis should be over, maybe he should write the horoscope columns for the JEP, because he is obviously an expert in that kind of prediction.

The Empty House: A Ghost Story for February

I can still remember that night in the empty house. I was asleep, then suddenly started into wakefulness, with a feeling of disquiet. Alone, in my bed, in the darkness, every sound had a strange and sinister quality. There was a creak of timbers, adjusting to the change in the air, the cold wind howling past outside the window, and the odd rattle of the window pane. Every so often, the wind would gust, and the bare, finger like, branches of the nearby elm trees would scratch softly against the glass.

Then I thought I heard, almost below the level of hearing, a soft, muffled, whisper; a voice, speaking faintly, so quietly that the words were all but inaudible, but sounded like a human voice, trying to talk. I could not tell where it came from, it seemed all around, sometimes from far away in the dark recess of a distant wall, and sometimes close to hand, a hissing by the ear. Was it a voice, a trick of hearing in the silence? We are here, it seemed to say, we are here and we are waiting, waiting, waiting. We are here.

There seemed the sound of footsteps, softly, as of slippered feet, moving across the carpet; then at the bottom of the bed, a weight, first sudden, at the foot, then moving slowly up, on top of me, nearer and nearer to my face.

I was now awake in terror, alive to all sensations - the scraping branches like fingers, scratching on the window pane, the muffled whispered voices far and near, and the soft weight slowly moving up the bed.

A white and shadowy shape took form in my dazed, blinking eyes, peering into the gloom, and hoping against hope that I would see nothing. Then it become more distinct, more solid, and I saw that it was only a cat, a large white, long haired cat, come to keep me company, and comfort me throughout this night of horrors.

Now the horrors receded from my sight, I was not alone, because I had the company of a warm and friendly cat to share the night. I was so relieved, so happy at this sight. I reached out to pat the lovely animal. But my hand touched only empty air, it, reaching only a cold, mist like wraith, that moved to embrace me in its icy grip. Then everything vanished into a whirlpool of darkness, and I knew no more.

When I awoke, the sun was shining, and the room was full of the colours of the day. The ordeal was over. Had I imagined what I saw? The ghostly cat upon the bed, the whispered voices, the trees rattling against the window pane. It all seemed so far away, now I looked out of the bed, to see the leafless branches of those elms.

But Dutch elm disease had long left its mark; only the bare stumps remained to mark their spot. Not a single branch remained.

Aspects of Antiquity

"Aspects of Antiquity" by M.I. Finley: A Review
 
This book contains essays on a variety of aspects of ancient history. With each subject, Dr Finley takes care to describe how the history came to be written, showing what different historians made of the evidence, and explaining why they reached the conclusions that they did.
 
One of the most interesting essays concerns the fall of Rome. Why did Rome fall, and what caused the mighty Roman Empire to lose its power? The popular view on this has largely been due to Gibbon, and his epic "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". In this, he portrayed the citizens of Rome as "timid and luxurious inhabitants of a declining empire", and placed the blame largely upon the decline in moral standards, and a resultant collapse of the social order. Rome fell. Gibbon tells us, because the Romans had lost all discipline; their minds were "degenerate".
 
Dr Finley points out the deficiencies of Gibbon's analysis. "Even if one were to accept the characterization," he writes, "it does not explain. One would still have to give reasons why the Romans had become 'timid' and 'degenerate' if that is what they now were. "
 
If Rome fell, then the first area to scrutinize for weakness should be defence. The army, Dr Finley points out, was only about 300,000 strong from the times of Augustus to Marcus Aurelius. However, despite its small size, it "was sufficient for its purposes; it kept the peace within the empire; it could cope with rebellions, though that might require time; it protected the frontiers; it was even able to make a few further conquests,  including Britain." In a straight fight, the Roman legions usually defeated larger numbers of German warriors, because the Roman army was "better trained, better, better equipped, better led." But, as Dr Finley observes, the trouble was that the army was not at war with "a neighbouring state like themselves, but with migratory tribes." The Roman forces were faced with the problem of continual, scattered attacks, and found themselves spread too thinly over a great frontier "from the mouth of the Rhine to the Black Sea and then on to the borders of the Persian kingdom". The problem was one of manpower.
 
Dr Finley argues that the agrarian economy of the empire could not provide such manpower. He summaries the Roman economy of this time in a simple model. Most of the population produced just enough to live on, and enough to maintain the "very rich and high-living aristocracy, and the modest army." This was a sort of "social equilibrium" and if any change took place in any of the elements making up the equilibrium, it had to be balanced elsewhere. It was this which resulted in a vicious circle which brought an end to the empire under the threat of the barbarian invasions: "The army could not be enlarged because the land could not stand further depletion of manpower; the situation on the land had deteriorated because taxes were too high; taxes were too high because the military demands were increasing; and for that the German pressures were mainly responsible."
 
Other subjects in the book include Crete and the Trojan War. The book is informative and at times acutely critical of popular beliefs about ancient history; it is also well argued, and shows with great clarity how the historian pieces together a picture from the fragments of the past.

http://www.amazon.com/Aspects-Antiquity-M-I-Finley/dp/0140134409