Druid Aid

Whilst our indigent compatriots are generally recognised to have a greater claim on our pity than needy strangers, a great calamity in one country readily calls forth a charitable response in other nations. Mr. Pike believes that the contribution of one hundred thousand pounds sterling which England, in the year 1755, when Lisbon was laid in ruins by an earthquake, sent for the relief of the sufferers, inaugurated this new era of international charitableness. "Compassion," he observes, "was at last shown by Englishmen, not simply for Englishmen and Protestants, but for foreigners professing a different religion; pity, for once, triumphed over intolerance and national prejudice." (1)

When I began researching modern paganism in America, Isaac Bonewits was one of a number of smaller voices calling for pagans to be more proactive in charitable giving, both for support within the pagan community, and for the wider world. The wider world, of course, had organisations like "Christian Aid", but there didn't seem to be anything at all like "Druid Aid" on the horizon. A good many Pagans supported charity work, but as individuals. As members of a group, there wasn't any significant identification, as with Christian Aid, for example.

The ancient world had ideas of charity, but this was usually restricted to the tribal group, or the community of faith:

Of the ancient Persians Thucydides said that they preferred giving to receiving. To be charitable towards the poor of their own faith was among them a religious duty of the first order. Zoroaster thus addressed Vîshtâspa:--"Let no thought of Angra Mainyu ever infect thee, so that thou shouldst indulge in evil lusts, make derision and idolatry, and shut to the poor the door of thy house." The holy Sraosha is the protector of the poor. In the Shâyast it is said that the clothing of the soul in the next world is formed out of almsgiving.

According to Zoroastrianism, charity should be restricted to the followers of the true religion; to succour an unbeliever would be like a strengthening of the dominion of Evil

Zoroastrianism, whilst exalting almsgiving to the rank of a cardinal virtue, at the same time excludes the sick man from the community of the faithful until he has been cured and cleansed according to prescribed rites. (1)

The same can be seen in Ancient Egypt, where charity exists, but as an ancient Egyptian papyri tells us, is limited to one's own nation, one's own people:

In the memorial inscriptions, where the dead plead their good deeds, charity is often referred to. "I harmed not a child," says one Egyptian, "I injured not a widow; there was neither beggar nor needy in my time; none were hungered, widows were cared for as though their husbands were still alive." (1)

Within the modern world, however, there were numerous Pagan charities that did look beyond the confines of the Pagan community, but they tended to be small scale, like S.O.T.E.S. (The Society of the Evening Star) (2)

Founded in 1977 (S.O.T.E.S.), Tax Exempt 1982; A.O.K. founded in 1991
.feeding the homeless
.support for elderly in nursing homes
.assisting with medical & funeral expenses for those in need
.ministry to the sick and lonely
.support of animal shelters through donations & volunteer work

or the CWPN, Inc. (Connecticut Wiccan and Pagan Network)
Founded in 1990; registered as a non-profit in 2002
President: Liz Guerra
.food drives for Foodshare to feed the needy
.donations to local animal shelters

There's a good list at http://www.moondragon.org/pagan/pagancharities.html

But now, the Wild Hunt blog is publicising recommendations for how to give to Japan - including a special site for Doctors without Borders - that marks the contribution that Pagans are making to helping people in Japan, not only as individuals, but as a community that reaches out to the world in solidarity.

While the "Pagan Dash" campaign for the UK census is certainly significant in ensuring that the Pagan community is noticed as a quite distinct religious group ( - it involves putting Pagan - Wiccan, Pagan - Druid etc on the UK Census), as was the welcome acceptance of the Druid Network by the Charity Commissioners as a genuine religious group, it is with this wider aspect that I think that paganism can be said truly to have "come of age", not just as a self-interest group with its own identity, but also as a group that can engage with the need for humanitarian support globally. It's not "Druid Aid", but it is pretty much the same idea!

The Wild Hunt notes that:

I have assembled some resources for the Pagan community regarding donation recommendations and other resources for showing solidarity with the people of Japan in the wake of Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

My primary suggestion for donations is Doctors Without Borders. This organization now has two teams on the ground in Japan setting up medical treatment centers. While this is a well-known NGO, I am recommending them due to their level of accomplishment in Haiti saving lives. Additionally, when this organization raised enough funds for its Haiti response it stopped accepting donations. It is important to recognize that organizations have a logistical limit as to how much they can accomplish. By suspending fundraising this organization demonstrated a commitment to spend funds wisely and not just take the opportunity to raise unlimited cash as other large NGO's did. With this in mind, a Pagan Community donation Page has been set up to enable donations to this organization.(3)

and the Doctors without Borders is set up so that Pagans can give, and let it be known that they are - as a group - as concerned as Christians.

Doctors Without Borders

Thank you for visiting the Pagan communities Fundraising Page. Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to make a contribution to our fundraising efforts. Many thanks for your support-- and don't forget to forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate too! Doctors Without Boards is making a difference in Japan. (4)

Links
(1) The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, Edward Westermarck, 1906
(2) http://www.circlesanctuary.org/liberty/pagancharitywork.html
(3) http://wildhunt.org/blog/2011/03/update-japanese-earthquake-and-tsunami-resources.html
(4) http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/Pagan-Community/doctors-without-borders

Dick Buesnel: A "No Hoper" who was Elected!

Jersey Norman-French is not dead, said Senator Reg Jeune, president of the Education Committee, in reply to a question from Deputy Dick Buesnel (St Helier No. 2)about the steps the committee are taking to encourage the preservation of the language. Deputy Buesnel asked "In order to preserve and encourage the speaking of Jèrriais, will the president initiate a five-year programme of substantial prize awards in both junior and senior categories to promote our cultural heritage?" In reply, Senator Jeune said that provided sufficient numbers of students enrol and tutors are available, then adult education classes at Highlands and Les Quennevais will continue. The committee would be pleased, he added, to receive any specific suggestions from Deputy Buesnel, other States Member, or member of the public as to any reasonable steps the committee should take to assist. The brief discussion was ended by Deputy Jean Le Maistre (St Helier No. 3), who made a statement in Jèrriais, which he explained afterwards was a light-hearted jibe at Deputy Buesnel and Senator Jeune. (JEP 21/4/1982) (1)

But who was Dick Buesnel?

Few people now remember Deputy Maurice Buesnel, usually known as "Dick Buesnel". I remember him quite well; he was a very short man, who had a deformity of his spine, but who despite (or perhaps because of) his infirmity, was a tireless battler for what he thought was needed to make Jersey a better place for all its people. Every time he was standing for election, he would invariably turn up in the month before elections at St Aubin on the Hill Church for the morning service, which I always found slightly amusing, as he was never there on any other occasions. He wasn't standing in St Brelade, so he was certainly not there to ingratiate himself with the electorate. Perhaps he thought a few prayers might help, and wouldn't do any harm anyway. But perhaps he saw government as something serious, an act of vocation which required the kind of heart-searching honesty about selfishness and motivation that he found in his Christianity, and which Christians find especially in Lent.

He wrote letters to the paper, and acquaintances of mine always spoke of his "common sense", but somehow, despite standing again and again in elections, he never managed to get that over to the greater electorate. Of course, these were the days before the internet, before phone-in shows on BBC Radio Jersey, when the only way of getting publicity was to write letters to the Jersey Evening Post (and hope they would be published) and do the rounds of the "hustings". States minutes were published, but only for sale on request; there was no online system or yet a Hansard. The information available to the average voter was very selective, largely limited to the JEP's reporting of hustings, and very little compared to today.

The type of letter he wrote varied, but in particular, I remember he was in favour of some kind of installment system for income tax, like the UK's PAYE. When in the States, he tried to edge the States closer to this kind of position, but would come up against a brick wall of States heavyweights. Which is ironic, considering that we now have an ITIS system, and it was all those speeches against the idea of any kind of PAYE by members of the States that were, in hindsight, a waste of time. But unlike the richer States members, for whom income tax and management of their finances was not problematic, Dick could see the problems faced by people on low earnings, who often found it difficult to set aside sufficient funds from their wages for the lump sum requested by Income Tax in September, and would get into all kinds of difficulties over paying.

Sometimes he would try for Senator, sometimes as Deputy, but you could usually expect Dick Buesnel to be almost at the bottom of the votes cast, squeezed out by the "first past the post" system, as even those who wanted to vote for change would not back such an obvious loser. But like Robert the Bruce, he would "try and try again". If I had a "spare" last vote that I did not have any other preferences for in Senatorial elections, I'd usually give it to him, but, of course, that wasn't always the case. I suspect that was the same for other voters.

Under the proposals currently for a £500 deposit, he would have lost his deposit time after time; and he was not a rich man. And this was a time when there were no limits to election spending, and he couldn't afford the glossy colour brochures, personalised with name and voting number, that some politicians had posted to everyone who could vote. I remember those well. But he was undeterred, and eventually, in St Helier, he succeeded at last in fulfilling his lifetime ambition, and he was at last elected to the States as Deputy for St Helier in 1981.

In the House, he did not, I think, succeed as easily as he had hoped. In many ways, he was an outsider, and often lost votes almost as badly as Geoff Southern. The realities of political office never quite match up with expectations, especially as one has to carry other States members with the argument, and members may well enter the Chamber to simply listen speeches with their minds already made up. Nowadays, they simply leave the Chamber and head for the coffee machine, thus making this position blatantly transparent, but in the 1980s, members did at least have the courtesy to be present, even if some nodded off.

But every States members can ask questions which are in the public interest, so that is what he did. And here is a very modern question that he asked:

Deputy Maurice Clement Buesnel of St. Helier asked Senator John Clark Averty, President of the Establishment Committee, the following question - "Will the President inform the House as to the number of Chief Officers of Civil Service Departments who receive an annual salary equal to or in excess of the Treasurer of the States".

The President replied as follows -"There are 8 Civil Service Chief Officer posts which carry a salary equal to the post of Treasurer of the States. There are 3 Chief Officer posts which carry a salary in excess of that of the Treasurer of the States. These salaries are related to gradings which have been established since 1977 when, following several years of disagreement between the Establishment Committee and the Chief Officers themselves, a jointly agreed evaluation of their posts was set in motion and the results agreed."

And considering the cost of medical fees, and the fact that there is no longer a Parish system for helping those "temporarily financially embarrassed", this is also a pertinent question. How does income support manage to cope with the occasional person who has temporary money troubles (perhaps because of unemployment), and who would have gone to the Parish? Can it cope with such circumstances?

Deputy Maurice Clement Buesnel of St. Helier asked Senator John Le Marquand, President of the Public Health Committee, the following question "In view of the hardship caused to young families through high medical fees, will the President reconsider reopening the General Hospital Medical Clinic for such patients?" The President of the Public Health Committee replied as follows - "The answer is no, mainly for these reasons. For many years the morning Medical Clinic accepted local residents for treatment but with the introduction of the Social Security Health Scheme, in 1968, these facilities were gradually phased-out. Deputy Buesnel will be aware, as a Member of the Social Security Committee, that the Health Insurance Exemption Scheme which is designed to aid cases of hardship, is extensively used by over 2,000 persons currently entitled to free health and prescription benefits. I am also given to understand that persons who are in receipt of Welfare Benefits or who may be temporarily financially embarrassed are helped by the Connétables with medical and pharmaceutical aid."

Yet he could also be mischievous. When the States were (in 1984) considering a Proposition of Senator Ralph Vibert regarding the constitution of a Special Committee to consider the making of a contribution to the United Kingdom towards defense and international representation, he wanted the States to ensure that the committee was representative of the States as a whole, and included newer members (of which, of course, he would also be numbered!): His amendment that those serving "should include one lady member of the States and also a member who has not served in the States for more than three years" was however rejected by the Assembly.

Maurice Buesnel failed to be re-elected 1993 and left the States , and died in January 2002. He left in the Jersey Archive a collection of personal and political papers, including scrapbooks and poems covering the period 1974 to 1993, and had also published a booklet of verse in 1961, "The Tallest Tower".

He had not perhaps achieved all he set out to do in the States, but he represented, for a time, someone whom the voters of St Helier wanted who was not part of the political establishment. Like some of today's would be politicians, he tried and tried to get in to the States. The First Past the Post system is extremely unforgiving of the outsider, and often his vote was pitifully low. Under the kind of alternative vote suggested by former Senator Pierre Horsfall, he would undoubtedly have done a lot better.

And yet he did eventually get into the States; his persistence did pay off, and there, I would venture, is a lesson for today, when those who fail to get in try again and again to do so. Maybe they are wasting their time, but it is a freedom which is for the electorate to decide, rather than States members by putting a financial block on who can stand, especially with the current voting system.

"Why do those 'no hopers' keep on standing?" is a question that is often raised. Dick Buesnel shows that it is because, just perhaps, if the chances are there, they may someday get elected after all. I think our society would be poorer if it denied people like him the chance.

Links:
(1) http://members.societe-jersiaise.org/sdllj/articlyes20.html

Earthshock

I'm shocked and saddened by the devastation across the world. This, I hope, conveys something of what I want to say...

Earthshock
 
Now the earth is screaming out in pain
Waves break on shore, too fast to flee
Pray for those suffering, who still remain
 
The ground convulses, tectonic sprain
Tall buildings shake, like swaying tree
Now the earth is screaming out in pain
 
The King of Terrors comes to reign
Among the fallen, crushed debris
Pray for those suffering, who still remain
 
Comfort the living, weep for the slain
Across the world, give generously
Now the earth is screaming out in pain
 
As a thief comes in night to fell domain
None could tell the hour, nor could foresee
Pray for those suffering, who still remain
 
Weep for the dead, no grief restrain
O poor Japan, we mourn with thee
Now the earth is screaming out in pain
Pray for those suffering, who still remain

Election Deposits and Equality of Rights

The basic liberties of citizens are, roughly speaking, political liberty (i.e., to vote and run for office), freedom of speech and assembly, liberty of conscience, freedom of personal property; and freedom from arbitrary arrest. (John Rawls, Political Liberalism)

Sneaking into a general proposition next week by the Privileges and Procedures Committee about reducing the number of Senators, and having a single day for all elections, is Article 7 of the Draft Public Elections (Amendment No 4) (Jersey) Law. The preamble states that:

This Article does not arise from the work of the Working Party but is a further policy change brought forward by PPC in response to concerns expressed following the June 2010 by-election. PPC has also received correspondence in relation to this matter from the Standing Conference of Women's Organisations of Jersey. The note to the article explains that it is bringing in a deposit of £500 for anyone wishing to stand:

The new Article 21A introduces a deposit for any candidate in an election for Senator, Connétable or Deputy. The deposit is initially set at an amount of £500, which the Committee believes is an appropriate balance between the need to make the deposit meaningful without placing too great a financial hurdle in the path of those who wish to stand for the States. In common with deposit systems used in other jurisdictions, the deposit will be returned to candidates if they receive a certain percentage of the votes, which in this Law has been set at 5% of the persons voting in the poll.

They then make the argument in favour of a deposit:

PPC accepts that there will be those who consider that any form of deposit is unfair, as it may prevent some persons from putting themselves forward for office in the States. PPC believes that this must nevertheless be balanced against the desirability of ensuring that any person who wishes to stand for election, and thereby gain a place on the hustings platform and an entry in any free publication about the candidates, must have some serious chance of obtaining support from at least 5% of the voters or be willing to sacrifice the deposit. Deposits are a common feature of elections in many jurisdictions, and are a common feature of elections in the United Kingdom, where the £500 figure is the deposit for the UK parliament, for the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales.

Now what I find most interesting about their case is that - from an ethical point of view - it is sheer pragmatism- what is right is based upon what will work to exclude frivolous candidates, and no consideration has been given to the unintended consequences of this action.

What is more, while UK elections have a deposit for national elections, they conveniently forget that for County Council Elections (which may be larger than a Jersey Parish), no deposit is required. If one example is fair, surely that would be the better one for the size of local constituencies, with the possible exception of Senators.

Their argument has two principal parts - (1) that anyone willing to stand must have a serious chance of obtaining support from 5% of the electorate (2) that a deposit of £500 will not place a financial hurdle against someone standing.

Now as far as the first part is concerned, I would have thought that the simplest way by far would be to simply increase the numbers of people needed to sign a nomination paper to ensure that the person standing had more support than just family and friends.

But regarding the deposit, and the argument in its favour, if we examine this instead from the ethical approach of John Rawls, author of the seminal work "A Theory of Justice", I think this is deficient in several counts.

John Rawls idea of justice is that a just society is one in which any individual cannot know where they will end up in the society, and has to choose what would be just under what he calls "the veil of ignorance":

"No one knows his place in society, his class position or social status, nor does anyone know his fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities, his intelligence, strength, and the like. I shall even assume that the parties do not know their conceptions of the good or their special psychological propensities. The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance."

Only when the veil is lifted, do we see where we are in society, in terms of advantages and disadvantages. The basis for this is that even with self-interest, we would be forced to ensure that society protected and supported those disadvantaged, because we might find, when the "veil of ignorance" is lifted, that is our own position.

From this, Rawls deduces two basic principles of justice. The First Principle of Justice is that "each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive scheme of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar scheme of liberties for others." The Second Principle of Justice is that "offices and positions must be open to everyone under conditions of fair equality of opportunity".

One weakness of the proposition is that in considering what would be a "financial hurdle", the Committee is clearly not looking at those disadvantaged, such as pensioners or someone on income support. It might be that they have a good deal of public support in a Parish, but because they have to have £500 up front, they are effectively barred from voting.

This clearly goes against Rawls' second principle of justice because it means that the opportunity for standing is not a condition "of fair equality of opportunity". It also seems clear that, for the Committee to consider the "veil of ignorance", they should have considered this kind of scenario, the worst-case scenario, rather that settling for what seems like a very privileged outlook.

Now deposits could be made fairer if there was a means testing for income, so that people below a certain threshold would have a deposit based on a percentage of their income, enough to deter someone frivolous, but not enough to constitute a serious financial hurdle. This would then accord with the Second Principal of Justice.

Why is this important? Because an examination of deposit systems shows that they can quite easily be used and manipulated as a means of excluding poorer minorities from engaging in politics by standing for election, especially with the "first past the post" election system.

Notable, the Green Party in the United Kingdom was severely hit by loss of deposits:

The media coverage of the Spring Conference of 1997 focused on the idea that the Green Party might not contest the forthcoming general election, accompanied with the regular commentaries about how the Party was a spent force. The Party was seriously discussing its election strategy, acknowledging that it always gets hopelessly squeezed by tactical voting in general elections, losing all of its deposits with under 2% of the vote. (2)

The fundamental strategy of those in power to limit and curb the opposition was described by Karl Loewenstein when looking at post-war Europe in 1946:

Elimination of the so-called splinter parties was attempted by legislation prescribing through election deposits and minimum vote requirements for participation in the electoral contest (3)

This can also be seen in Singapore, where the raising of election deposits has been deliberately used as a tactic by the establishment party to disenfranchise the opposition.(4)

In the last 2006 GE, the election deposit for a single candidate was S$13,500 (US$9,910) and $54,000 (US$39,643) for a team of 4 candidates to contest in a GRC. Thus far, only independent candidates or opposition candidates have forfeited deposits. This precedence may discourage qualified opposition candidates to contest in elections and exacerbate the rise in uncontested seats (4A)

And the case of Laos is also an example of how restrictive practices such as (in part at least) election deposits made it harder for particular groups to stand:

In order to run for office, a businessman had to have paid for a trade license for five years. Election deposits were doubled; minimal educational standards were raised, requiring either an elementary school certificate or a maha of the third grade. This last requirement particularly penalized the Pathet Lao, since more than half of its leaders lacked schooling.(5)

And again in Malaysia, deposits were used as a tool to exclude segments of the electorate, because once they are established, they can easily be increased:

In 1974 the election commission announced that election deposits would be increased from M$250 to M$750 for state elections and from M$500 to M$1,500 for parliamentary elections. The commission explained that its original recommendation had been that the new deposits be double the old ones, but that the government had decided to triple the sum instead. (6)

Incidentally, India introduced both deposits and an awareness that not all parties concerned would be able to raise the same level of deposits, which is an adjustment regarding the poorer castes who would otherwise be disenfranchised from standing:

The law also provides for smaller election deposits for candidates from scheduled castes and tribes (7)

The matter of signatures rather than deposits was raised in the UK government, when Mr David Mellor defended the government position:

Mr. Mellor : The Government are consulting the political parties represented in the House on the Home Affairs Select Committee's recommendation that the deposit should be raised to £1,000 and the threshold lowered to 7·5 per cent.

Mr. Wigley : In view of your recent ruling, Mr. Speaker, perhaps I should declare an interest on this question. Will the Minister give an assurance that, in considering the increases in deposits, he will bear in mind the need not to drive away from the legitimate ballot box operation all interest groups which should have an opportunity to stand for Parliament, and that if, regrettably, the amount of deposit does increase, the percentage who keep it will be reduced substantially, possibly even lower than 7·5 per cent?

Mr. Robert Atkins : Does my hon. Friend agree that anyone in this country should have the right to stand for Parliament, representing a particular point of view - whether we agree with it or not-and that it would therefore be wiser to increase the number of signatures required as evidence of some measure of support than to restrict people from standing by increasing the deposit?

Mr. Mellor : As I think I made clear earlier, and with great respect to my hon. Friend, we do not consider that that proposal would be advantageous.

Mr. Canavan : Why not?

Mr. Mellor : In our view, the proposal that a sum of money should be put up by candidates is an eminently proper way to proceed, and it has been the way that we have always proceeded. 'We are consulting about the proposal to increase that amount so that we may determine what it should be.

What is interesting is that Mr Mellor's justification is extremely weak - it is "an eminently proper way to proceed", for which he gives absolutely no justification, and "it has been the way that we have always proceeded", which is one of the most fatuous arguments for maintaining the status quo that I have ever read. I imagine Sir Humphrey Appleby would have been proud of him! Again, Mellor does not seem to think that because something is practiced, or it is widespread and accepted, it might still be wrong.

Yet history shows how the "status quo", be it slavery, the restriction of voting to property owners or men, or countless other widespread and accepted norms have later been to seen as restrictive and oppressive. Jersey does not have to follow the herd in this respect.

What we need above all is not pragmatism, but a return to basic principles of justice, something which is sadly lacking in politics today. Rawls, in his book on "Political Liberalism" notes that:

our exercise of political power is proper and hence justifiable only when it is exercised in accordance with a constitution the essentials of which all citizens may reasonably be expected to endorse in the light of principles and ideals acceptable to them as reasonable and rational. This is the liberal principle of legitimacy

and he goes on to remark how there were blatant restrictive practices in the American Constitution from the start:

At the Founding there was the blatant contradiction between the idea of equality in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and chattel slavery of a subjugated race; there were also property qualifications for voting and women were denied the suffrage altogether.

Bringing in election deposits has been done widely, but that doesn't mean that it is just. It is rather like bringing back qualifications for being elected, and allowing only men to stand for Parliament, except in this case, the restriction is on means. Someone on £40,000 a year has far more spare cash than someone earning £18,000 a year or less, or a pensioner who has to make every penny count.

In 1795, Thomas Paine set out the fundamental arguments regarding the legitimacy of representative government. I would draw your attention to the fact that he not only deals with excluding the poor from the right of voting as illegitimate, but also excluding the poor from the right "of being elected":

The true and only true basis of representative government is equality of rights. Every man has a right to one vote, and no more in the choice of representatives. The rich have no more right to exclude the poor from the right of voting, or of electing and being elected, than the poor have to exclude the rich; and wherever it is attempted, or proposed, on either side, it is a question of force and not of right. Who is he that would exclude another? That other has a right to exclude him

Inequality of rights is created by a combination in one part of the community to exclude another part from its rights. Whenever it be made an article of a constitution, or a law, that the right of voting, or of electing and being elected, shall appertain exclusively to persons possessing a certain quantity of property, be it little or much, it is a combination of the persons possessing that quantity to exclude those who do not possess the same quantity. It is investing themselves with powers as a self-created part of society, to the exclusion of the rest. (9)

Links:
(1) www.statesassembly.gov.je/documents/propositions/8952-22837-2712011.pdf
(2) http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?showtopic=17840
(3) Political Reconstruction, Karl Loewenstein, 1946
(4) http://www.singaporedemocrat.org/articlenkflawsuit11.html
(5) American Policy toward Laos, Martin E. Goldstein, 1973
(6) Competitive Elections in Developing Countries, Myron Weiner, 1987
(7) The Architecture of Democracy: Constitutional Design, Conflict Management, and Democracy, Andrew Reynolds, 2002
(7) http://yourdemocracy.newstatesman.com/parliament/home-department/HAN11704788
(8) Political Liberalism, John Rawls, 1996
(9) Thomas Paine, Dissertation on the First Principles of Government, 1795

Enhancing an International Reputation?

Jersey legislation next week will "enhance its international reputation." Before I explain what is doing this, I'd like to take a moment to look at other occasions when that exact phrase has been used. The patient reader will soon see why!

Wales has the Ryder cup, and notes that this will enhance their international reputation:

Hosting the 2010 event will enhance the international reputation of Wales in key markets such as Europe, USA and Japan. It represents a massive opportunity to generate long term economic, tourism and sporting development benefits (1)
 
Australia has an advanced scientific research project in nanotechnology - and notes that this will enhance their international reputation:
 
This project addresses National Research Priorities in the areas of breakthrough science, frontier technologies and advanced materials. Developing new methodologies to fabricate novel functionalised nano-structured materials with tailored properties has great potential in areas including energy storage, novel catalysts, novel sensors, micro/nano-electronics, etc. This project will enhance the international reputation and impact of Australian research in the internationally focused fields of nanotechnology and hydrogen energy technology. Applying innovative nanotechnology to the area of hydrogen energy will add to Australia's export potential and reduce Australia's reliance on foreign fuel sources.(2)

Specialist work by the Digital  Imaging Group in medical imaging will enhance the international reputation of London and Canada:
 
The Digital Imaging Group (DIG) of London was established in 2006. DIG is a group of Medical Doctors, Scientists, and Engineers dedicated to improving and advancing digital medical imaging. We are based in London, Ontario, Canada spread across a number of hospitals and research facilities with affiliations throughout the medical and academic communities in London. We believe that, with our partners in medical imaging, the DIG of London will enhance the international reputation of London and Canada for imaging and patient care. (3)

A prestigious science journal has a high ranking scientist coming on board as Deputy editor  - and notes that this will enhance their international reputation:

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) and the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (SIBS) today announce the appointment of Dr. Dangsheng Li as the new Deputy-Editor-in-Chief for China's premier life science journal, Cell Research (CR). Dr Li received his PhD (in Molecular Biology) from Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences. After extensive postdoctoral training at New York University Medical Center, he joined Cell Press in 2004 to serve as an Associate Editor for the journal Cell. Tokyo-based NPG Publishing Director David Swinbanks said "Dangsheng's appointment to the Cell Research team will be invaluable in our mission of raising Cell Research to the highest international standards"  "This investment in a top-notch editor will lead to further improvements in quality, will enhance the international reputation of China's best life science journal, and is consistent with the Nature Publishing Group's ongoing focus on editorial development and quality" (4)

A laboratory in Mexico doing cutting edge work on astronomy will enhance the international reputation of astrophysics there:

The Establishment of an Infrared to Millimetre Wavelength Astrophysics Instrumentation Laboratory in Mexico at INAOE. Goal: To develop and pursue a world-class program of infrared-millimetre wavelength (1-3000 microns)  astronomical science and instrument development, with industrial application, within Mexico that will address basic questions on the formation and evolutionary histories of planets, stars and galaxies, leading to an improved understanding of the universe we live in...In addition to many new scientific collaborations that will enhance the international reputation of Mexican astrophysics. (5)

So when you read of a proposition in the States of Jersey, coming up next week that "will enhance the international reputation of
Jersey by sending a strong and positive message", you know it must be something big. In fact, of course, while important, it is something other countries and islands are also doing world-wide! This is what the pre-amble to the proposition says:

P9/2011/ - Geneva Conventions: Additional Protocol III - extension to Jersey.

The purpose of this Proposition is to request the States to consider whether they agree in principle to the Geneva Conventions Act (Jersey) Order 2011 (draft text attached at Appendix 1), which implements in Jersey the Additional Protocol III to the Geneva Conventions. The Protocol introduces a new distinctive emblem, the red crystal, in addition to the existing red cross and red crescent, to be used in situations where the existing symbols might be wrongly perceived as having religious connotations. The Protocol puts the new emblem on the same legal footing as the existing emblems recognised by the Geneva Conventions

and after we have this quite extraordinary piece of flannel:

Extension of the Protocol will enhance the international reputation of Jersey by sending a strong and positive message, demonstrating that Jersey stands alongside the rest of the international community in recognising the importance of the Protocol, as well as reaffirming its support for the institution of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

It is a relatively minor change to accept a new symbol, one that is not really a debatable matter - I imagine it will pass on a standing vote - and yet it will "enhance the international reputation of Jersey" and send  "a strong and positive message"!!

I really hope that whoever drafts such pretentious "Executive Summaries" is not one of the high earning Chief Officers. Did Terry Le Sueur actually believe this ridiculous propaganda fluff when he signed off the proposal? I'd have sent it back, suitable reworded, to say something like "Extension of the Protocol is important to ensure Jersey keeps in line with current international protocols." That, I venture to say, is far closer to the truth!

Now if it was legislation against discrimination in the workplace, which Jersey still lacks, or a Freedom of Information law, which Jersey still lacks - then while more or less just catching up with the international community, that would at least be worth talking up.

But the Home Affairs Minister, Ian le Marquand, says budget cuts mean he can't bring in the law. In fact, Jersey is far behind the UK with its discrimination laws, where they have had strong rules in place for decades. These sorts of regulations are in place not necessarily to make sure everyone is treated the same, but to ensure that everyone is treated fairly, regardless of age, gender, race or disability. Jersey doesn't have that. Maybe someone should write:

Jersey's planned discrimination law has been shelved due to budget cuts and this will enhance the backward reputation of Jersey by sending a weak and negative message.

Links
(1) http://www.rydercupwales2010.com/en/business/
(2) http://dig.lhsc.on.ca/
(3) http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/04/prweb371173.htm
(4) http://www.uow.edu.au/eng/research/ISEM/programs/UOW003821.html

On the Origins of Pancake Day

But hark, I hear the pancake bell,
And fritters make a gallant bell,
The cooks are baking, frying, boyling,
Stewing, mincing, cutting, broyling,
Carving, gormandizing, roasting,
Carbonating, cracking, slashing, toasting.
(Poor Robin's Almanack for 1684 )

Did you have pancakes yesterday evening? It was Shrove Tuesday. But where does the custom of pancakes come from? And what associated folk-beliefs have grown up about it?

If on pancake day, a pancake is thrown to a cock, and he eats it himself, bad luck will follow the household. If he pecks at it, and leaves it for his hens to finish, it is a sign of good luck.--Horncastle district.

Eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and grey peas on Ash Wednesday, and you will have money in your pocket all the year round.--General.

Shrove Tuesday takes its name from the term 'shriving' (from the Old English "scrifan" for ""assign, decree, impose penance)"; it was the time for confession of sins and receipt of absolution, so that the congregations went into Lent with clean consciences. But where does the English custom of "pancake day" come from? The 1949 Encyclopedia of Superstitions suggests two explanations:

The origin of the pancake tradition for Shrove Tuesday has two sources. The authors incline to the idea that it was prepared to sustain the unfortunate people who on Shrove Tuesday had long waits at the church (Roman Catholic in those days, of course), and took the pancake for sustenance while waiting their turn to be shriven of their sins. The other suggestion is that the making of pancakes was a convenient way for the housewife to get rid of all the fats she possessed in the house, and which she must not use during the season of Lent, which began the following day. Meat, and all appertaining to it or coming from it, was, of course, forbidden by the Church during Lent. (1)

I've never come across the first explanation before, and I'd tend to disagree with the authors, and go for the second explanation. The 2003 Dictionary of food certainly thinks so:

PANCAKE TUESDAY: (Or Pancake Day.) The day before Ash Wednesday in the Christian calendar.
Source: PANCAKE. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: 14th cent. Pancake Tuesday was once an alternative name for "Shrove Tuesday" (MWCD: 15th cent.), the equivalent of Fr. Mardi Gras "Fat Tuesday" . It was the last day before the beginning of Lent, the last chance to "load up" before forty days-and nights-of fasting. Pancakes may have been selected for this purpose because though they were fried in fat, they contained no meat and were a transition from excess to denial. Each ingredient of the batter-eggs, flour, milk, and salt-was regarded as a symbol of Christianity. (2)

The 14th century certainly seems to have been the time it originated; I can find no earlier sources for the occasion. The custom of eating pancakes seems to have developed from the liturgical calendar in much the same way as, later, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer Collect in Advent which begins "Stir Up, O Lord" gave its name to "Stir Up Sunday", the day for the preparation of Christmas puddings.

Linked to the custom of pancake making, almost from the start, is the bell, tolling for services, which became known as the "Pancake bell". The Yearbook of English festivals notes that this came from "the great bell which, in pre-Reformation times, summoned villagers to confession and shriving by the parish priest"(3)

But there were other customs, now lost in the transition from a rural economy to an urban one, such as this one, which is analogous to the modern "Trick or Treat", and shows, I think, that children have always been ready to seize opportunities to go round asking for treats:

In some places it is still customary for bands of children to go about the villages, singing ditties and asking (or rather, demanding) something for Shrovetide!

Nicky, Nicky, Nan,
Give me some pancakes and then I'll be gone,
But if you give me none,
I'll throw a great stone
And down your house will come

is the threat generations of Polperro lads have sung, to persuade housewives to give them a gift. In olden times the youngsters emphasized the words, at appropriate intervals, with smart blows of the club.(3)

A study of Blackpool in the 1930s shows that the same kind of children's custom was still in evidence there:

Lent actually kicks off with two boys and two girls swinging down Settle Street early on the morning of 1 March, singing at a high screech:

Pancake Tuesday is a very happy day.
If you don't give us a holiday we'll aw run away
Eating tawfy, cracking nuts,
Stuffing pancakes deawn awr guts.

All Worktown kids know this, sing it, only on this day-the only survival of the old custom of door-to-door singing for gifts. (4)

The study of Blackpool shows the start of the modern trend to making pancakes easier by using a ready-made mix, although nowadays the supermarket shelves are full of micro-wave pancakes, which take less than three minutes to heat up 3 pancakes, although sales of fresh lemons are still popular:

Sales of eggs go up, but shopkeepers complain that nowadays people buy pancake powder which is cheaper...Two-thirds of the families have pancakes, predominantly those with children in the home. As a typical pair of parents put it: 'We wouldn't miss our pancake for anything. We think it's a great treat, just to watch the daughter enjoy them. Well, we can't say why we fancy them, but we suppose it's because of the old custom.'(4)

What is also interesting are the folklore beliefs associated with pancakes in Blackpool, which involves snow, and the use of holly and mistletoe:

If it snows on Shrove Tuesday, custom decrees that you must mix the snow with the batter; if you can get the pancake to rise, that's very lucky...But of belief, all that survives in Worktown is that it is unlucky not to eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, and (decreasingly) that you must eat one pancake before the next one is finished and turned. Strong still is the custom of leaving the Christmas holly and mistletoe up until Shrove Tuesday, and then burning them, though in most homes the resultant fire is no longer used for cooking the pancakes-owing to gas. But the next day is the big day for ashes. Ash Wednesday marks the replacement of feasting by fasting.(4)

It is interesting that while the more Puritan elements of the Reformation in England frowned at the merry-making associated with Shrove Tuesday, that the custom of pancakes survived into the Reformation. Ronald Hutton, in his "Stations of the Sun", notes that:

Other medieval and early modern sources illustrate activities especially associated with the festival. One, naturally enough, was the consumption of the foodstuffs soon to be forbidden -- and meat salted down for the winter and batter or fritter dishes would also require a proportionate amount of drinking. A Protestant preacher in 1571 characterized Shrovetide as a time of 'great gluttony, surfeiting and drunkenness' (5)

He also cites the famous early description of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday by the London satirist, John Taylor, in 1621:

at whose entrance in the morning all the whole kingdom is in quiet, but by that time that the clock strikes eleven, which (by the help of a knavish sexton) is commonly before nine, then there is a bell rung, called the Pancake-bell, the sound whereof makes thousands of people distracted, and forgetful either of manners or of humanity; then there is a thing called wheaten flour, which the sulphury Necromantic cooks do mingle with water, eggs, spice and other tragical, magical, enchantments, and then they put it by little and little into a frying-pan of boiling suet, where it makes a confused dismal hissing (like the Lemean snakes in the reeds of Acheron, Styx or Phlegeton) until at last, by the skill of the cooks it is transformed into the form of a Flap-Jack, which in our translation is called a Pancake, which ominous incantation the ignorant people do devour very greedily. (5)

When did the custom of the Pancake bell largely die away? It was still going strong in 1897, but note that the record here says "still", indicating a custom in decline:

In 1897, Alfred Heneage Cocks noted the performance schedule demanded of the Marsh Gibbon ringers: The Pancake Bell is still rung on Shrove Tuesday, on the fourth bell, from 11.30 a.m. to noon. (6)

That transition in Elizabethan left the festivity as one of those untouched by the Reformation is noted in Stephenson's book on "Elizabethan Period", which leaves no doubt that it was still very much a time of licentiousness, and the modern pancakes feast is very much a minor affair in comparison. What is also interesting was that, at this time, the three day nature of the feast was kept:

The Protestant Elizabethans seized upon the carnival element of the Roman Catholic celebration and made the period before Lent one of the jolliest of the year. Collop, Monday followed Shrove Sunday; and was so-called as being the period when the people reluctantly bade good-bye to slices of meat called in some parts of the country collops. The next day was Pancake Tuesday, commemorating an article of diet that has not yet passed out of fashion as distinctively associated with the observation of Shrove-Tuesday.(7)

The bawdy nature of Elizabethan England can be seen in the poem of Thomas Tusser:

Thomas Tusser, a chorister of St. Paul's, later joined the court as musician to William Paget, first baron Paget. He farmed, wrote poetry, and in 1557 (expanded in 1570 and 1573), published Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie. One of his stanzas concerning Shrove-Tide is worth quoting: --

"At Shroftide to shroving, go thresh the fat hen, If blindfold can kill her, then give it thy men: Maids, fritters, and pancakes, now see ye make, Let slut have one pancake, for company sake:"(7)

And the literature of Elizabethan England is replete with references to pancakes:

There are numerous allusions to the pancake diet in the Elizabethan dramas, and of course Shakespeare has mention of them. In the play "All's Well That Ends Well" there is the phrase "as fit as a pancake for Shrove-Tuesday;" and in his "Pericles" there is mention of a "flap-jack", which is an alternative term used:

Shrovetide was, in times; gone by, a season of such mirth that shroving, or to shrove, signified to be merry. Hence, in 2 Henry IV." (v. 3), Justice Silence says:

"Be merry, be merry, my wife has all;
For women are shrews, both short and tall;
'Tis merry in hall, when beards wag all,
And welcome merry shrove-tide.
Be merry, be merry."

It was a holiday and a day of license for apprentices, laboring persons, and others.(8)

When I was researching this, I little thought that there would be a mention of Royalty. But pancakes crop up with poor Prince Andrew, who has been getting into scrapes again recently. Back in 2001, the Sunday Mirror was critical of him for being demanding and asking for "six flavours" of pancakes:

Fun-loving Prince Andrew marked Shrove Tuesday with his third party in a week...and demanded six flavours of pancakes for his guests. He rejected a spread of canapés laid on by Buckingham Palace servants and had kitchen staff rushing around after he made it clear that lemon and sugar pancakes would not be enough. His demands surprised staff because an impressive spread had already been laid on, and there had been no mention of pancakes. The Prince had already held two parties the previous Thursday - one for lunch and one for dinner - as late celebrations for his 41st birthday earlier in the week.... A source said: "At the last minute he thought it would be fun to host a pancake party on top of the meal that had already been prepared. He demanded that servants came up with six different flavours."(9)

So pancakes are still making the news even this century, and perhaps Andrew is not so far from his Elizabethan forbears. I wonder if he had any pancakes this year, or if he decided instead to eat humble pie!

Links
(1) Encyclopedia of Superstitions. M. A. Radford, E. Radford, 1949
(2) Food: A Dictionary of Literal and Nonliteral Terms, Robert A. Palmatier, 2000
(3) Yearbook of English Festivals, Dorothy Gladys Spicer, 1954
(4) Worktowners at Blackpool: Mass-Observation and Popular Leisure in the 1930s, Gary Cross, 1990
(5) Stations of the Sun, Ronald Hutton, 1996
(6) Popular Culture in Microcosm: The Manuscript Diaries of Richard Heritage of Marsh Gibbon, Buckinghamshire, Keith Chandler,Folk Music Journal. , 2006
(7) The Elizabethan People., Henry Thew Stephenson, 1910
(8) Folk-Lore of Shakespeare, T. F. Thiselton Dyer, 1884
(9) Party Prince Andrew Flips Over Pancakes, Sunday Mirror, March 4, 2001

Hospitality in Jersey

YOUNG Islanders are shunning work in Jersey's hospitality industry and forcing firms to recruit foreign labour - despite record levels of unemployment. Last week worrying new figures revealed that at least 1,390 Islanders were now out of work - including 320 teenagers. But despite the massive rise in unemployment, hospitality firms are struggling to find Jersey-born people who want to work in their industry. Dominic Jones, director of Jersey Pottery, said that only about ten per cent of the 110 people currently employed in the firm's catering section were local.(1)

Peter Body, writing in the Jersey Evening Post, noted how the lack of investment in training in the hospitality industry had led tourism into the position where they were struggling to find local staff:

This particular roosting chicken is the result of a marked lack of interest by leaders of the tourism industry to employ and train local people in the past. The situation has improved recently because the industry has shrunk to the point where it now only consists of those with a long-term outlook and a high degree of professionalism. They realize that the industry can't rely totally on importing cheap labour.

There's not much point in hospitality employers bemoaning the fact that they can't find Jersey staff when all they are saying is that it's too much trouble and expense to train up inexperienced locals(2)

Of course, this is nothing new. A study in India in 2002 noted that:

It is generally agreed that the hotel workforce has a high level of temporary workers, substantial female employment, low levels of training, low wages, high labor turnover and gender segregation (Charlesworth, 1994; Deery and Iverson, 1996; Riley, 1991)

There is an increasing emphasis on occupations delivering services rather than being involved with the physical work to produce the goods. This means that not only is employment increasingly skewed towards service industries, but in the production industries also, the activities within them are increasingly oriented towards service activities (2)

There was an excellent letter in the Jersey Evening Post which picked up where Peter Body left off, putting flesh on the bones for where the opportunities in the hospitality industry are for youngsters - and what the industry itself needs to do to put its house in order and start to attract young people. As it doesn't appear in the online edition, I have set it out in full below:

SO the youngsters who are unemployed are shunning the hospitality industry (JEP, 28 February) and jobs are being snapped up by eager immigrant workers, swelling our already overstretched public services.

It is no secret that work in this sector is at times hard manual work, poorly paid and unsocial hours, but what about the advantages?

. It is a profession which enables you to work virtually anywhere in the world, so if you want to travel the world is your oyster.
. It is possible to gain promotion and move up the ladder even if you are not academic, so long as you are dedicated.
. You don't need to splash out on gym memberships as you keep fit while you work allowing you to enjoy your leisure time doing what you want and not exercising because you feel you ought to, having spent all week at a desk.
. Most of your friends will also be in the industry and will have similar days off, so you won't need to lose touch with friends.
. People have to eat so there wilt always be jobs in hospitality whereas finance could be gone in a blink.
. Uniform is normally included, so you'll only have to buy clothes that you like and not smart office wear as well.

And those are just some of the advantages, so what can the hospitality industry do to attract more of the youngsters? Having trained and worked in catering for much of my life these are my observations and things I would have liked.

. Make sure that shifts are arranged so that employees have two days off together; that was one thing I disliked having either two separate days off in a week or only one day - everyone deserves two days' rest, especially if doing hard manual work, and at least one weekend a month.
. Offer rewards for punctuality, dress and customer service, ok, they can't offer a bonus as in the finance sector hand-outs, but a quarterly performance bonus of say £100 would be something attractive; maybe an annual award of travel vouchers to the overall best employee. In the 80s and 90s seasonal staff used to get paid a bonus if they stayed to the end of the season, which many used to fund their winter travels.
. Provide real training and promotion opportunities.

Hospitality is not so bad but, unless it is made more attractive it will always strive to find adequate local workers. Maybe the States could offer incentives, such as free bus travel to those working in the hospitality industry, and for those school leavers who make a career out of it, give them something to work towards (such as a day working with one of the Island's top chefs) so that they are rewarded for staying in the industry and not just using it as a stepping stone until something else comes up.

So come on, all you school leavers who don't know what to do - give it a chance. You might just like it!

The States can also take a more proactive approach. In 2004, Glasgow, faced with long term unemployment, set up a programme to help train people for work in the hospitality industry, where the government and hospitality industry worked together. This wasn't a course in catering, such as we already have in Jersey at Highlands, but an initiative which covered all kinds of employment in hospitality, from catering to waiting on tables, or being a night porter at a hotel.

In Glasgow, a unique training programme was launched this year to help long-term unemployed people work in hospitality.  Hospitality Glasgow is the end result of a working party set up in 2002 to address recruitment to the city's many hotels. It included members of the Glasgow Hoteliers Personnel & Training Forum, along with Jobcentre Plus, Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, Remploy, Springboard, the Glasgow Employer Coalition, the Greater Glasgow Hotels Association and training providers. The course included a combination of class-based learning along with real experience. Trainees completed a two-week placement with one of the participating hotels, which included the Millennium Hotel, Holiday Inn Theatreland, the Hilton Grosvenor, Malmaison and the Radisson SAS. (5)

Links:
(1) http://www.thisisjersey.com/2011/02/28/come-and-join-us-3/
(2) http://www.thisisjersey.com/2011/03/03/the-hospitality-chickens-come-home-to-roost
(3) Employee Motivation and Empowerment in Hospitality, Rhetoric or Reality, V. Umashankar, A. Kulkarni, Journal of Services Research, 2002
(4) Letter to JEP, 07.03.2011
(5) Employment FOCUS: High Levels of Service; Jobcentre Plus Are Working Hard to Help Fill Jobs in the Hospitality Sector, Daily Record, 2004. Publication Date: July 8, 2004. Page Number: 10. COPYRIGHT 2004 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday; COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

Guernsey Watch

Another look at what's been happening in our sister Island. Some interesting stories.

SKELETONS from about 700 years ago have been discovered just inches below the surface during the building of a new church boiler house. States archaeologist Philip de Jersey was called in earlier this year to look at where the footings for the new boiler house at St Martin's Church were due to go in. No bones were registered as being buried on the site, but just inches below the surface three skeletons were discovered, as well as several other remains. 'Before the path was dug in the 19th century, the bodies would have been buried about a metre down,' said Dr de Jersey.

700 years ago puts it at around 1310. In  1300, the Bailiffs of Guernsey and Jersey are given separate seals of office, and in 1307 the market in Guernsey moves from Landes du Marche to Town. The Medieval Warm period had lasted from around 880-1050 AD, but the transition to the period known as the Little Ice Age would see fierce storms wreaking environmental havoc and severe coastal erosion.(1)

But from ancient history to the last war. You would think that most of the artifacts of World War II were removed from Alderney, but not so:

BOMB disposal officers blew up a Second World War hand grenade in Alderney yesterday. Guernsey Police's Bomb Disposal Unit was in action in the morning after a British Mills Type 36 hand grenade was found in David Storer's garden. A controlled explosion was carried out 50 metres from where the device was discovered in Fontaine David, off Braye Road. Mr Storer said: 'Chris Tozer, from the Wildlife Trust, found the hand grenade while he was digging out an earth bank. He was using a mattock and the grenade came away from the bank.' (3)

What intrigues me is how it got there. As far as I can see, there were no Commando Raids on Alderney:

There were seven Commando missions carried out on the Channel Islands. Operation Ambassador was the first and largest of these, employing 140 men from No. 3 Commando and No. 11 Independent Company in a night raid on 14 July 1940. Later raids were much smaller; only 12 men of No. 62 Commando took part in Operation Dryad in September 1942, when they captured seven prisoners and located several German codebooks. Operation Branford, a reconnaissance mission that aimed to identify a suitable gun position to support future raids on Alderney, followed only days later. In October of that year 12 men from No.s 12 and 62 Commandos took part in Operation Basalt, a raid on Sark that saw four Germans killed and one taken prisoner.

All the other Channel Islands raids were less successful. In January 1943, a raid on Herm Operation Huckabuck was a failure. After three attempts to scale the islands cliffs the Commandos finally reached the top, but there were no signs of any German occupation troops or of the island's population. The next raids were Operations Hardtack 28 and Hardtack 7 in December 1943. The Hardtack 28 raid on Jersey ended in failure when two men were killed and one wounded after they walked into a minefield. The exploding mines alerted the German garrison and the Commandos had to abandon the operation. In Hardtack 7 the Commandos had returned to Sark, but had to abandon the operation and return to England when they were unable to scale the island's cliffs (4)

Now the nearest of these is Operation Branford, but it didn't actually involve a raid on Alderney:

Operation Branford was a British Commando raid during the Second World War. The target of the raid was the island of Burhou in the Channel islands. The raiding force was supplied by No. 62 Commando also known as the Small Scale Raiding Force was commanded by Captain Ogden-Smith and consisted of 11 men. The raid took place a few days after the successful Operation Dryad over the night of 7/8 September 1942. Their objective was to establish whether the island was suitable as an artillery battery position to support an attack on Alderney (4)

So where did the grenade come from? Was it left by the British Forces after the Liberation of the Channel Islands? Unfortunately the Guernsey Press doesn't supply any answers.

Meanwhile, Guernsey school children are in trouble over pictures spreading on Facebook:

HUNDREDS of island school children are at potential risk of prosecution after an indecent paedophile image of a local teen was circulated on the internet. Education has warned all secondary school mothers and fathers not to let their children pass on the picture, which was posted on Facebook this week. 'All parents need to be aware that this image may now be on their child's computer, which may cause upset or perhaps open up the possibility of a criminal offence being committed if the image is copied, downloaded or passed on,' it said. The problem began when a pupil under the age of 16 took a photograph of themselves and sent it to another person. Another pupil then posted the image on Facebook. (5)

COMPUTERS, mobile phones and other devices with internet connectivity have been seized by police investigating the distribution of indecent images of a local teen. Officers said yesterday that the girl concerned, who is aged under 16, took the pictures of herself and sent them to someone whom she had accepted as a 'friend' on Facebook. Sergeant Sarah-Jane Snowdon said the recipient of the images had a profile on the site stating he was a teenage boy living in England. 'At this stage there is no evidence to confirm that the profile is genuine and the true identity of the recipient is being investigated.' (6)

The term for this is "sexting" and it is quite a new phenomena, only appearing in the last year:

The term "sexting" refers to the distribution of sexually explicit photos or messages using electronic media. The practice of teenagers taking enticing photos of themselves have become a common part of courtship. This might seem like a private token of love, but many teens experience problems after the relationship ends, as their former partner is in possession of a highly compromising image that can easily be distributed via mobile, e-mail or social networking sites. Modern technology enables anyone to send, copy, forward and publish revealing photos of themselves and others to be seen by huge audiences. When such photos are made public there is no way to stop the images spreading further. It becomes possible for anyone to see a child's most intimate self.

Inevitably, sexting involves forwarding images. Although receiving the messages is not an offence, keeping them counts as "possessing an indecent image". The longer the image remains on a phone, the more serious the offence. Anyone who then forwards a message with an image of a child is likely to be committing a further offence of "distributing indecent images of children". Any suggestion of malice - such as revealing images of a former boyfriend or girlfriend after a break-up - is likely to be seen as an aggravating factor.(7)

and the case of forwarding images and sharing images surfaced alarmingly last year:

The British ringleader of an international network who shared up to 100,000 indecent images of children on Facebook has been jailed for four years, reports the BBC. The man is a convicted sex offender who set up eleven Facebook accounts to share these images with other child sexual predators through private groups. It is important to note that these images were not publicly available on Facebook, they were shared privately in the same way this type of criminal content has been shared; through newsgroups, forums, peer-2-peer file sharing, and via other social sites. Access to the images was controlled and required newcomers to provide "credentials", usually in the form of sharing child-abuse images of their own. (6)

The article makes the following points:

That 100,000 images of child sexual exploitation were stored on Facebook's servers without their apparent knowledge is troublesome. Consumer facing websites that accept consumer generated content need to have automated and manual filtering processes in place to screen images and videos. While it is impossible to guarantee that every image of child exploitation will be caught, 100,000 images begs the question of who's managing the farm.

In the BBC article (9), Facebook said that people known to be on the sex offenders register were not permitted to use the site, but it relied on police forces to inform it of new offenders. They also said they  would investigate any suspicious activity or abuses reported to the site.(6)

Jersey has just recently passed legislation creating what is termed a sex offenders register. Given Facebook's stance on this matter, does the Jersey law permit the police to proactively pass on new offenders (on what is, after all a new register) to Facebook? If not, then Jersey is obviously wide open to the exploitation of Facebook by pedophiles, as it is clear Facebook relies on police forces to inform them about people on the register:

As stated in our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, convicted sex offenders are prohibited from registering for our service. Once we are able to verify a user's status as a sex offender, we immediately disable their account. When an account is disabled, the profile and all information associated with it are immediately made inaccessible to other Facebook users. What this means is that the user effectively disappears from the Facebook service and will not be able to reactivate their account. We are only able to remove the accounts of convicted sex offenders if we are able to verify their status with valid documentation. We accept the following forms of documentation: a link to a listing in a national sex offender registry, a link to an online news article, or court document uploaded to this form. If you do not provide valid documentation, we may not be able to process your report. (10)

Links
(1) http://www.thisisguernsey.com/2011/03/05/work-on-church-boiler-house-reveals-14th-century-skeletons
(2) Sorrel, P., Tessier, B., Demory, F., Baltzer, A., Bouaouina, F., Proust, J.-N., Menier, D. and Traini, C. 2010. Sedimentary archives of the French Atlantic coast (inner Bay of Vilaine, south Brittany): Depositional history and late Holocene climatic and environmental signals. Continental Shelf Research 30: 1250-1266.
(3) http://www.thisisguernsey.com/2011/03/05/grenade-comes-away-as-chris-digs-earth-bank/#ixzz1Fwgg3CW5
(4) http://www.answers.com/topic/british-commandos
(5) http://www.thisisguernsey.com/2011/03/04/police-investigate-sexting-incident/
(6)  http://www.thisisguernsey.com/2011/03/05/local-teens-indecent-picture-is-posted-to-800-facebook-friends/#ixzz1Fwh1InUj
(7) http://www.kidsandmedia.co.uk/article/373
(8) http://ilookbothways.com/2010/09/12/ringleader-of-child-abuse-images-network-on-facebook-jailed-in-uk/
(9) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11101149
(10) http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=15160

Mortal Engines

"What destructive desire of life is so great / that it forces us to shake anxiously in times of doubt and danger? / Assuredly there is an unalterable limit of life for mortals, / and it is impossible for us to avoid death and not pass away." (Lucretius)

"Do you want to be free despite your body? Live in it as if you were ready to move. Keep in mind that you will one day lose your quarters, and you will have greater fortitude for the necessary departure." (Seneca)

However much we try to enfold our personal world in a kind of existential stasis, time and death keep breaking in; the theme of this poem. The Greek word for this was "krisis", and while that lent it self to our modern word "crisis", it also meant judgement.

Christianity, in its earliest forms, as we find in the letters of Paul, does not avoid the "krisis" of mortality, but sees it as a necessary stage before the "new life" of the new creation: "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies."

This poem, however, is a more akin to the thinking of the Roman Stoics such as Seneca and Lucretius, whose philosophy resolute embraced death as part of human existence which must not be ignored. They would not have seen that as a pessimistic attitude, but a realistic one. They would have argued that only with an acceptance of mortality do the values of real importance come to be seen, rather than the ephemeral illusions which dominate otherwise...

Mortal Engines

Into every life comes a turning of the tide
The darkness deepens; nowhere left to hide
When frail body fails, and bell tolls for thee
There is no escape, and nowhere to flee

The veil of ignorance is rent upon that day
The mind grows dim, sensations die away
Change and decay, the felling of the tree
Seeds may survive, but death has come for me

The reaper comes, his blade as sharp as sword
Harp's strings are cut; I play a final chord
And darkness comes, comes to set me free
Twilight of days, now abide with me

Where is the raging, every passing hour?
At the dying light, and the fading power
As mortal engines fail slowly by degree
And eyes see at last what we should foresee

Time brings to ending false dreams of progress
And lays bare and empty, trappings of success
This is death's sting; this time's victory
Though entropy triumphant, universal key

Precious is each moment, as lilies of the field
Enough is enough, let not to greed yield
When mortal engine breaks, and vanity does flee
Night will fall and bless, and abide with me

In Our Time is 500 next week!

The BBC Radio 4 Blog mentions "In Our Time" coming up to its 500th edition next week.

On 15th October 1998 Melvyn Bragg welcomed listeners to a new Radio 4 programme called In Our Time. "In this series," he said, "I hope we'll look at the ideas and events which have shaped the century." Thirteen years later, on March 10th, IOT will celebrate its 500th edition. The programme has changed quite a bit since those early days. In 2000 it was extended from half an hour to 45 minutes, and the original two guests became three. And the programme's original remit - to look forward to the 21st century by surveying the key ideas of the 20th - seemed a bit passé post-millennium; so Melvyn and his then producer Charlie Taylor came up with the brilliantly simple format that persists, a decade on.

One of the programmes I found interesting was the one on religion and science, where the late Stephen Jay Gould gave a much more nuanced presentation of his Noma idea. Melvin Bragg introduced it:

Melvyn Bragg : Hello, what space should science leave to religion? What ground should religion give to science? Do they need to give ground to each other at all? The American palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould tackles the old problem in his latest erudite and - odd adjective perhaps - charming book "Rock of Ages - Science and religion in the fullness of life" . In it he writes: "Science tries to document the factual character of the natural world, and to develop theories that coordinate or explain these facts. Religion on the other hand, operates in the equally important but utterly different realm of human purposes. In other words science studies how the heaven's go, religion how to go to heaven, the rocks of ages and the age of rocks." But do the two realms really exclude each other?

Now Michael Ruse, in his review of "Rock of Ages", thinks that, with NOMA, Gould is restricting religion to a domain of belief that does not have any place for miracles, for example. He writes:

What about miracles, for instance. Many non-Creationist Christians would argue for a literal resurrection, with a truly dead Jesus being lowered from the Cross and then coming alive again and rising on the Third Day. Can the Magisterium of religion as it were push aside the Magisterium of science and argue that this is possible? Such Christians would argue that since God is creator of all, it is up to Him, not us, to decide the limits of science. And if He wants a literal resurrection, then this must be possible. However Gould makes it clear that this is not his position, and essentially he reduces or confines religion to sentiment and feeling and will not allow it to make ontological (that is, existence) claims.

This stemmed from two of Gould's main statements about "Noma", or non-overlapping Magisteria:

Science tries to document the factual character of the natural world, and to develop theories that coordinate and explain these facts. Religion, on the other hand, operates in the equally important, but utterly different, realm of human purposes, meanings, and values -- subjects that the factual domain of science might illuminate, but can never resolve. Similarly, while scientists must operate with ethical principles, some specific to their practice, the validity of these principles can never be inferred from the factual discoveries of science.

The first commandment for all versions of NOMA might be summarized by stating: "Thou shalt not mix the magisteria by claiming that God directly ordains important events in the history of nature by special interference knowable only through revelation and not accessible to science." In common parlance, we refer to such special interference as "miracle" -- operationally defined as a unique and temporary suspension of natural law to reorder the facts of nature by divine fiat. . . . NOMA does impose this 'limitation' on concepts of God . . .."

But in fact, in this "In Our Time", possibly because of the unique format, Gould showed a much more relaxed attitude, and is able to explain that religion can have a place for miracles, but that may still does not bring it into conflict with science, because some of those miracles are outside of that domain:

Stephen Jay Gould : But at that point I just very say "alright I don't happen to believe in the immaculate conception of Mary for example", but that's not a scientific question I will leave that to you, to debate whether or not Mary was conceived without sin and free of the taint of Adam, because that's not a question that science can adjudicate in any case.

In this respect, he is very close to Chesterton, who wrote:

How could physical science prove that man is not depraved? You do not cut a man open to find his sins. You do not boil him until he gives forth the unmistakable green fumes of depravity. How could physical science find any traces of a moral fall? What traces did the writer expect to find? Did he expect to find a fossil Eve with a fossil apple inside her? Did he suppose that the ages would have spared for him a complete skeleton of Adam attached to a slightly faded fig-leaf? The whole paragraph which I have quoted is simply a series of inconsequent sentences, all quite untrue in themselves and all quite irrelevant to each other. Science never said that there could have been no Fall. There might have been ten Falls, one on top of the other, and the thing would have been quite consistent with everything that we know from physical science. Humanity might have grown morally worse for millions of centuries, and the thing would in no way have contradicted the principle of Evolution. Men of science (not being raving lunatics) never said that there had been "an incessant rise in the scale of being;" for an incessant rise would mean a rise without any relapse or failure; and physical evolution is full of relapse and failure.

But what of the miraculous itself, such as the Christian idea of Jesus' resurrection:

Stephen Jay Gould : But I think that way about the phenomenon of miracles that is I cannot say as a scientist, that miracles defined technically as suspensions of natural law for a moment don't happen. I suspect they don't, but if they did, I couldn't study them anyway, so I'm going to leave that domain aside. They don't seem to make much of an impact on human history anyway.

Hilary Rose : And prayer?

Stephen Jay Gould : Prayer is the placebo effect, that's one of the most powerful (John laughs) ones we know. I have no doubt that prayer is immensely beneficial for many people, it don't think it changes the character of the world, that can be scientifically adjudicated. But again I would say, for those for whom it is necessary to think that it does, it's outside the realm of science, I'll let them be.

Gould seems to be saying that if miracles, defined as suspensions of natural law - or perhaps as singular anomalies in natural law - exist, then science cannot study them, because they are not repeatable events, which can be tested. He also seems to be taking quite a soft line with regard to prayer, that while he doesn't think it is effecting the natural world, he thinks it is not a testable subject, so "I'll let them be", as he says.

Chesterton considered miracles in his play "Magic", where a conjurer uses magic to change the colour of a light, without any special apparatus or tricks. Because this causes an fervent (and almost Dawkinsian) atheist to suffer a breakdown, because he cannot understand how such a thing could happen, the conjurer takes pity on him. Chesterton argues in the play that if a miracle can have a naturalistic explanation that has the same effect, people will generally prefer the naturalistic to the miraculous:

Conjurer. I am going to tell that poor little lad a lie. I have found in the garden what he did not find in the garden. I have managed to think of a natural explanation of that trick.
Smith. It is much more marvelous to explain a miracle than to work a miracle. What was your explanation, by the way?
Conjurer. I shall not tell you.
Smith. [Starting.] Indeed? Why not?
Conjurer. You would believe it as he believed it. You cannot think [pointing to the lamp] how that trick could be done naturally. I alone found out how it could be done-after I had done it by magic. But if I tell you a natural way of doing it....
Smith. Well?...
Conjurer. Half an hour after I have left this house you will be all saying how it was done.

But perhaps the most interesting part of the In Our Time discussion was at its conclusion, in which Gould commented that both religion and science had the same root - the questioning nature of human beings:

Melvyn Bragg : Can I conclude what for me has been an absorbing discussion by asking Stephen Jay Gould, d'you think it's the same impulse that drives physicists to complete string theory as drives theologians to prove the existence of God?

Stephen Jay Gould : In some very broad sense I suspect it is. We're such a crazy curious species, that's why we're so (indistinct) to do the mostly terrible things to each other, and yet there is this substrate that one can only deem admirable. We are, as Sarvay(?) puts it this little creature, wondering why in the vastness of the heavens we're here and what it's all about and we've got this damnedest desire to find out. Science is a way of finding out in a factual sense. What religion seeks may not be factually resolvable, but it's a similar set of questions. "Why are we here? What's it all about? What can we do? How can we make it better?" that is the most noble part of our nature, and I think we should do everything we can to nurture it, because there's some very ignoble parts as well.

The Gardener's Calendar - March 1863

This is from Whitnash Parish Magazine, in 1863, and here is the section that begins March, and the gardening tasks. While England in 1863 had a predominantly urban population, most of the food was local, being the surplus grown by the rural community, from farmsteads and small villages and towns like Whitnash. Whitnash is a Parish in Leamington Spa, and I came across the magazines, bound, from a second hand bookshop that was closing down.

The Whitnash piece made me think how rural the parables of Jesus are - the sower, the shepherd, the vineyard, and how that rural theme continued in English hymnody, with such hymns as "We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land", and looking at the Whitnash notes for March, how much of that is present! I've also included a poem from the Magazine on March

The flood theme in the poem which follows is interesting. Contrary to what one might expect, by the 19th century, the age of the earth's lifespan was already generally considered longer that than the chronology devised by Archbishop Ussher of around 6,000 years, and increasing numbers of scholars, including educated clergy, would have probably taken the position of William Buckland, of "geological catastrophism".

The Reverend William Buckland, first Professor of Geology at Oxford University, had published in 1820 his "Vindiciae Geologiae; or the Connexion of Geology with Religion explained.", in which he - following both Augustine's arguments and the geological evidence for "deep time" - suggested a much greater lifespan for the earth:

Buckland set out the facts as he saw them, noting clear evidence for a universal deluge, and introducing the hypothesis that the word "beginning" as used in Genesis expressed an undefined period of time between the origin of the earth and the creation of its current inhabitants, a period during which a long series of revolutions had occurred with successive creations of new plant and animal groups.(1)

Following his careful excavations in Kirkdale Cave in Yorkshire, Buckland had noted fossil bones alien to contemporary England - elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, ox, deer, hyaena, tiger, bear, wolf, fox, rodents and birds. Previous explanations had assumed these had been swept across the globe by a universal catastrophic flood, but Buckland came to quite a different conclusion in his 1823 "Reliquiae Diluvianae, or, Observations on the Organic Remains attesting the Action of a Universal Deluge"

the great quantity of hyaena remains and the splintered state of all the bones pointed to a quite different conclusion - that the cave had actually been inhabited by hyaenas in antediluvian times, the effect of the Flood being no more than to cover bones already present with a layer of mud. (1)

In 1837, with Adam Sedgwick and Charles Lyell, he prepared a report that initiated the Geological Survey of Great Britain, and in 1838, he broke away from the theory of the universal flood, meeting Louis Agassiz in Switzerland and examining  for himself the polished and striated rocks and transported material that Agassiz had attributed to the agency of ancient glaciers, as an alternate explanation.

Whitnash Parish Magazine - March 1863

In March comes the spring ; sometimes quietly enough, and sometimes heralding his arrival with much boisterous music. Most of the lambs that we see sporting in the meadows during the summer months, come into the world in March, and it is an anxious season for the shepherd and the breeder of flocks. The husbandman has abundance of work on his hands: the plough is turning up the glebe on the bill-sides ; the hedger is plashing and trimming the fence; the sower is dibbling in the grain ; and you may hear the thud of the woodman's axe sounding in the copse.

As you walk along the green lanes you may gather the primroses in bunches, and are guided by its rich fragrance to the hiding-place of the March violet. The tops of the distant woods are purple with the multitudes of small buds which here long will burst into small leaves, and high above them you may see the lark quivering in the clear sky, and hear him, for the first time this year, pouring forth his song.

Our native birds are now generally pairing, and those who visited us for the winter are beginning to move off. In March the first of the butterflies makes his appearance.

THE GARDEN.-Sow cauliflowers for summer use, radishes, lettuces, cress, parsley, leeks, and spinach. Plant potatoes, and sow main crop of carrots. A small sowing of turnips may now be made for a summer crop, and when the young leaves appear, dust them with lime. Give growing plants in frames more air, light, and water. Plant Windsor beans in succession, and sow additional crops of peas. Sow celery, cucumbers, vegetable-marrows, tomatoes, and gourds in a hot-bed. Take cuttings of chrysanthemums. Prune rose-trees, cutting away about two-thirds of every shoot; but China roses should only be thinned. Sow mignonette and other hardy annuals in the open ground. Keep down weeds everywhere. Propagate dahlias, salvias, verbenas, and scarlet geraniums. Plant out pinks and carnations.

As a concluding piece of advice, let all digging, leveling down, sowing, &c., be performed when the soil is very dry. No crop can be counted secure which is got in while the ground is wet; besides, such involves double the amount of after-labor. Let the allotment-holder make up his mind to give no quarter to weeds, and to be in earnest he must. make an early start. No manures should be left uncovered after the beginning of March. If any is wheeled out and not spread or dug, let a thin covering of soil be put over it, smoothing the surface to keep out the rain.

MARCH.

As when of old, the water floods assuaging,
God sent a gracious wind to dry the earth ;
So, when the gales of March are wildly raging,
Let us remember Him who gives them birth.
Before His breath see mist and vapour flying,
The moistened earth again his power shall know
God's promise of a seed-time never dying ;
Now be it ours the precious seed to sow !

Labour of love ! the tiny grain bestowing,
To see it spring again a summer flower;
To watch each leaf expand, each blossom blowing,
Warmed by the sun and nurtured by the shower ;
To find the dainty mignonette a dwelling,
To bid the sweet pea's tendrils linger there,
To plant the hollyhock in grace excelling,
And find a home for every flow'ret fair.

Hope sows the seed ; and patience, duly waiting,
Expects the early and the latter rain ;
Waits till the breath of April, life creating,
Shall teach us that our work was not in vain :
Patience and hope, almighty in their power,
And never weary in their daily task,
Point us to Him who rules the varying hour,
And bid us only for His blessing ask.

Links
(1) http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/buckland.pdf

An Unclear Census

Peter Ustinov (the actor) made fun of the US visa questionnaires which needed completion before he could enter the country. When the official asked the question about the colour of his skin, he  he answered: 'Pink'. Needless to say, he did not get his visa!

Now the new census in Jersey for 2011 will have a question (as most have since 2001) on the individual's "cultural and ethnic background". (1). Quite what this means is almost as problematic as the question asked of Mr. Ustinov:

How to answer: Choose one section from A to D and then tick one box only which best describes your ethnic group or background. If you tick any of the 'Other' boxes please also write in the ethnic group. If you are writing in an ethnic group and there is not enough space, please write in as much as you can. If you are unsure of your ethnic group, you should select the option that you think is most appropriate. 

Why this question is asked: The information provides a basis for analysing patterns in long-term migration and for estimating the numbers and circumstances of immigrant communities who may have particular needs. It also helps identify second and third generation families who may be born in Jersey but have a different ethnic background.  This information is used to support resource allocation or provide special services.

Although one has to ask: what resource allocation and special services are required for third generation families with a different ethnic background, who almost certainly regard Jersey as their home? As far as help goes, the question about whether individuals have English as a first or second language, or not at all, is far more helpful in supporting special services and resources.

Can I describe my ethnic group as something other than the tick box categories listed? Yes. If you feel that none of the specific response options is appropriate, there is an 'other' option within each of the main ethnic groupings which you can select and then enter your ethnic group in the space provided. This ensures that people can record their ethnic group in whatever way they wish.

My ethnic group is not listed. What should I do? Please use the response options to help guide you but if you feel that the tick boxes provided are too broad or do not allow you to identify your ethnic group please select the 'Other' option under the most appropriate section (A, B, C,  or D) and enter your ethnic group. (2)

But what is an "ethnic group"? The States section on "International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination"   gives a breakdown from the last census:

Jersey 44,589 51.1%
British 30,317 34.8%
Portuguese / Madeiran 5,548 %6.4
Irish 2,284 2.6%
French 1,522 1.7%
Other white background 1,980 2.3%
Black African 151 0.2%
Black Caribbean 33 < 0.1%
Other black background 71 0.1%
Chinese 145 0.2%
Indian 120 0.1%
Bangladeshi 31 <  0.1%
Pakistani 21 < 0.1%
Other Asian background 8< 0.1%
Other / mixed 366 0.4%

Approximately half (51%) of the resident population in 2001 considered themselves to have a Jersey cultural background. More than a third (37%) considered themselves British, whilst 6% of the population thought of themselves as Portuguese or Madeiran. (3)

This is a complete nonsense, mixing racial classifications with cultural identities. So that, for instance, you have "other white background". Does that mean that the people who call themselves "Jersey" or "British", for example, must be Caucasian? Someone could quite happily describe themselves as Indian - Spike Milligan, for example, who was born and spent his early years in India - yet also be "other white background". Equally, someone could have migrated to Jersey from Africa, and consider themselves Jersey rather than "other black background".

I know two people, one from England who has married a lady from Portugal and they have two children. Another is of an old Jersey family, and has married a Polish lady, and they have children. Where do they fit into this peculiar classification? Because it is how people think of themselves - note the words "considered themselves..." and "thought of themselves...", it is wholly unclear what the statistics reveal apart from the conceptions that people have of their own identity. As a piece of psychological material, it is interesting. As a study of objective classifications, it is a nonsense.

Of my parents, one is English, one is Jersey. Go back a few generations, and my great-great-grandparents on my mother's side also came from England, while some of the other great-great-grandparents came from France, and others were still living in Jersey at that time. I would definitely consider myself Jersey, despite this background. Or should I create a new ethnic group: Anglo-French Jersey?

The UK Census also has its own classifications, but these included looking at national identity and distinguishing it from what it terms "ethnic" background (although there is clearly a muddle on what is "ethnic" and what is "racial"):

In most non-White ethnic groups in Britain in 2004, the majority of people described their national identity as British, English, Scottish or Welsh. This included almost nine in ten people from a Mixed (88 per cent) or Black Caribbean (86 per cent) group, around eight in ten people from a Pakistani (83 per cent), Bangladeshi (82 per cent) or Other Black (83 per cent) group, and three quarters (75 per cent) of the Indian group. (4)

In fact, Stephen Molnar noted that to single out just one attribute and try to fix on that as "ethnic" is doomed to fail, mainly because there is not a simple characteristic which can be chosen as a discrete marker of identity:

Group classification based on some single attribute, such as geographic origin (e.g., Asian), language (e.g., Hispanic), or skin color (e.g., white versus nonwhite) ignores all other attributes and neglects to consider degree of admixture. . . . The confusion over "color," origins, and genetics is even more extensive when the ethnic group African American is considered. Their ancestry is a mixture of African and European with a contribution of Native American genes, forming, in some areas, triracial hybrids'. . . . In addition, African ancestry is anything but homogeneous (5)

The mixing of racial and ethnic categories can also be seen in the USA, where one of the members of the US census committee noted that:

"Hispanics see themselves as one group ethnically and culturally despite the racial variety within the group." (6)

The confusion between different categories comes out most clearly when one considers the two classifications in the USA over black and Hispanic, which is parallel to the same kind of confusion in the Jersey census over "Black" and "British" or "Jersey":

Black. A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.
Hispanic. A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race(6)

Really this is an extremely poorly thought out question, adopted no doubt from the UK, and it was first introduced when Senator Ozouf was in charge of revamping the census in 2001, and noted on his 2008 election platform that:

As President of Etat Civil, Oversaw 2001 Census, regarded as most accurate and detailed census of modern times. Estimated for first time Island population undercount and provide States with most accurate base line data on population, housing and many other statistics.(7)

The same spurious categories fed into the 2006 survey on States reform in 2006 where the categories forced the following assumptions on colour and background. It classified people as WHITE -Jersey, British, Portuguese/Madeiran, Irish, Polish, Other, and BLACK - African, Caribbean, Other, ASIAN - Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Other, although it did have a grouping for MIXED ETHNICITY - White and Black African, White and Black , White and Asian, Other ethnic background. (8)

Again it is confusing cultural identity (and nationality) with race. British is a classification of nationality or cultural identity, and the idea that British was a subset of White is totally untrue, as can be seen from the UK census.

It is interesting also that the most obviously ethnic characterisation does not get a look in. Unless subsumed under "other background", there is no Jewish ethnic count in the Jersey census, no doubt because of a justifiable fear that some categories create scapegoats. I'm not wholly convinced that "Portuguese" or "Polish" won't do the same.

But where would the Jew place themselves or be placed? In 1910, one of the prevailing views in Southern States of the USA  was succinctly noted in the title of a book:

In 1910 the Dixie Publishing Company of Moravian Falls, North Carolina, published The Jew a Negro, Being A Study of the Jewish Ancestry from an Impartial Standpoint by the Rev. Arthur T. Abernethy, A.M., Ph.D. Abernethy--a preacher, professor, and rustic journalist--sought to demonstrate through "ethnology" and "Scriptural proofs" how "the Jew of to-day, as well as his ancestors in other times, is the kinsman and descendant of the Negro." (9)

And it is notable that the placement of the Jew was problematic in the American South, where a folklore had evolved (coming from Europe) of the Jew as "dark and ugly" in contrast to the fair and handsome gentile:

In the American South the problem of the Jew's racial identity was a footnote to the larger debate on white-black relations, a question pushed forward in the racially unsettled period between 1850 to 1915. Jews were accepted as white, but their precise racial place was not fixed. A long tradition of European folklore, reinforced by an emerging racial science, cast the Jew on the black side of the color line.

Race thinkers usually classified race by three colors--white (Caucasian), yellow (Oriental), and black (African)--or by five, adding brown (Malay) and red (Indian).

A new scientific historicism opened Hebrew origins to debate. Jews were described variously as purely Caucasian Semites, dark Egyptians, ruddy Edomites, black Cushites, mixed-blood Chaldaeans, and so on.(9)

It was not just in the USA that such attitudes persisted. They even occurred in the 20th century:

The idea that Jews were "`black' or, at least, `swarthy'" prevailed in late nineteenth-century literature and persisted well into the twentieth century, particularly in Germany. Karl Marx labeled Ferdinand Lassalle, "the Jewish nigger," questioning his head shape and parentage. Houston Stewart Chamberlain thought Jews had interbred with Africans during their Alexandrian exile. Freud was labeled a "`black' Jew" and wrote of himself as a Mischling, a half breed with "Jewish-Negroid features."(9)

What can we learn from this? That the history of the Jews shows us how categorisation into supposedly "objective" "ethnic" or "racial" categories is arbitrary; it is a fiction which exists only in the social milieu of a particular culture. It tells us more about those creating and imposing those categories than anything "objective" and scientific.

 

And the experience of the Jews with ethnic or racial classification, as the last war demonstrated, has been a particularly unhappy one. The Jersey Alien's Officer was extremely remorseless in his categorisation of Jews, as historian Paul Sanders observed:

The Jersey Aliens Officer Clifford Orange who applied over-inclusive criteria to the process of registration. Orange appears not only more rigorous than his Guernsey counterpart, Sculpher, but even more thorough than the Germans themselves. The best example of Orange's pernicious impact is the case of Hedwig Bercu who should have never been on the list of registered Jews in Jersey, but nevertheless was, thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Jersey Aliens Officer.(10)

The question about ethnic and cultural identity is misconceived. It tells us about how people think of themselves in terms of their identity, helpfully nudges people into pre-conceived straight-jackets (although it does permit the odd exception if people are critical of the form) and should be removed or radically re-thought.

It won't be, because someone will have the idea that the figures that emerge will mean something, even if they don't, and what is worrying as that they may be used to formulate some kind of policy on entirely spurious grounds.

Sir Humphrey: If local authorities don't send us statistics, Government figures will be a nonsense.
Hacker: Why?
Sir Humphrey: They'll be incomplete.
Hacker: Government figures are a nonsense, anyway.
Bernard: I think Sir Humphrey wants to ensure they're a complete nonsense.

Links:
(1) http://www.statesassembly.gov.je/documents/propositions/17662-15458-3072010.pdf
(2) http://www.gov.je/Government/Census2011/HelpCensus/Pages/Question8EthnicBackground.aspx
(3) http://www.gov.je/GOVERNMENT/PLANNINGPERFORMANCE/Pages/MinisterialDecisions.aspx?docid=292b44dd97775781e4702e71e918e65c_MDs
(4) http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=459
(5) Molnar, Stephen. "Human Variation: Races, Types, and Ethnic Groups". 4th ed. Upper Saddle River N.J.: Prenlice Hall, 1998
(6) Spurious Issues: Race and Multiracial Identity Politics in the United States. Rainier Spencer, 1999ber
(7) http://jerseyelections.info/senators/philip-ozouf.html
(8) http://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government%20and%20administration/R%20SOJSurveyonElectoralReform%2020060829%20MORIforPPC.pdf
(9)  Is the Jew White?: The Racial Place of the Southern Jew. Leonard Rogoff,  American Jewish History. 1997
(10) http://www.jerseyheritage.org/templates/jerseyheritage/occupation_memorial/historybook/occupationhistorychapter3.pdf