History of St Lawrence Church by G.R. Balleine (Part 1)

Here is part one of the forgotten piece by  G.R. Balleine  on the history of the Church, transcribed below. Balleine had a wonderful grasp of how to make historical narrative interesting, and peppers his history with interesting anecdotes.
 
History of St Lawrence Church by G.R. Balleine (Part 1)
By G.R. Balleine
 
No one can date our ancient churches. Old parts were pulled down and rebuilt. New chapels and aisles were added, and at St Lawrence this process was so complete, that no part of the original structure remains. Before the parochial system arose there were at least four chapels in what is now St Lawrence parish, St Claire's, St Eutrope's, St Nicolas', and St Lawrence; of these, the last gradually developed into the Parish Church.
 
Early History
 
The oldest document to mention it is a charter of 1198, by which John (then Lord of the Isles and later King of England) gave to the Abbey of Blanchelande in Normandy "the church of St Lawrence in Jersey with all its appurtenances" and that Abbey remained patron of the living till the Reformation. But the church had probably been standing for centuries before John gave it away!
 
It almost certainly started life as a small Chantry chapel on the site of the present chancel. When the family that owned it threw it open to their neighbours, a short nave was built. As the population increased, this nave was lengthened. Then a tower and two transepts were added, giving the church the form of a cross. (The north transept was swallowed later by the building of the north aisle. The south transept is now the south porch). In the 13th century the parish demolished the old nave and built the present one, longer and loftier than its predecessors. (The stonework shows that it was added to the tower and not vice-versa). The nave was now much finer than the chancel: so in the 15th century the latter was pulled down, and the present one built.
 
The two last sections of the church can be dated exactly. Sire Louis Hamptonne was Rector for fifty-six years (1502-1558). He was rich and generous. Chevalier says in his Diary: - "He gave two quarters of wheat rente in perpetuity for the upkeep of the roads and made at his own expense slips for the vraicing-carts to go down to the rocks". But his chief benefaction was the addition to the church of the beautiful Hamptonne chapel, with its gargoyles representing the spirits of evil driven out by the worship within. This is the finest piece of architecture in the Island. The date of the Chapel, 1524, is carved on the N.E. buttress. Hamptonne was still Rector twenty-two years later, when the North aisle was added. In 1546 the Royal Court authorised the sale of some wheat rentes belonging to the Tresor to pay for "the enlargements of the church by constructing a chapel alongside the nave". The building then attained its present shape and size.
 
Celtic Relics
 
Very few relics remain of the church's earliest days. The oldest is a broken pillar in local granite, dating from the 4th century A.D., the only remaining piece of a villa in Roman style. The late 6th century Christian inscription, cut on the flat top of the column, stands as a memorial to a Celtic monk of some importance, one who, probably with other Celtic missionaries, brought the Christian Faith to this Island. On the planed side of the column are Celtic interlacings of the early 9th century. The pillar was found some eight feet below the nave during the restoration of the church in 1890-1892, when the north pillar of the west arch was being strengthened at the foundations. Evidence that a form of Celtic Christianity flourished in Jersey, in a period before the Viking conquest, is thus definite, added to the fact that the column is "important as evidence of the existence of an important late Roman settlement in Jersey."
 
Other crudely carved stones, some of great antiquity, may be seen built into the exterior buttresses of the chancel. Eight of these bear Celtic crosses in three designs, and are of 7th century origin. In the East wall of the old South transept, now, the South porch, but in Norman times a chantry chapel, may be seen a deep arched-recess. It is suggested that this held the tabernacle in which the Blessed Sacrament was re-served, the chantry chapel being used for the normal purpose of reciting masses for the dead. A plain brass cross now marks this sacred spot. In the Hamptonne chapel the             16th Century piscina where the priest washed his hands before Communion, and the sacred vessels afterwards, is still to be seen. In 1963 the old Victorian plaster was removed, revealing Puritan white-wash, and the conduit down which the water ran into consecrated ground. The piscina is again in use. Two stone altar slabs were discovered during the restoration of the church in 1892. No trace of them was found, until in 1964, the present Rector discovered a piece of a stone altar which bears a consecration cross, hidden in the recess of the S.W. buttress near the West door. It can be safely assumed that the two old altars were cut up and used in the reconstruction of walls and buttresses.
 
Rector Hamptonne
 
Rector Hamptonne lived long enough to see great changes in his church. For years Protestant propaganda had been undermining the old faith, and many of the clergy themselves were attracted by the new views. In 1548 the States imported two French Huguenot Pastors "to expound the Word of God to the people purely and sincerely," and, since the Rectors contributed voluntarily to their support, we may assume that they were not opposed to reform. But Hamptonne cannot have been so pleased, when Royal Commissioners began to confiscate church property. First, all endowments for Obits and Masses were seized. In this way St. Lawrence lost twenty-four endowments, as well as the bequests left to the two Fraternities of St Nicholas and St Katherine. In 1549 the Act of Uniformity forbade Latin Services; and this was obeyed, for in the following year the Privy Council thanked the Island "for embracing His Majesty's laws concerning Divine Service".
 
But Jersey could not use Cranmer's Prayer Book, for this had not yet been translated into French. The only French Prayer Book available was that of the Huguenots; so Hamptonne and his brethren had to make use of that. Then came the order to remove all images, closely followed by another to surrender all but one of the church bells. (The size of the belfry, before the present floor was put in, suggests that it once held a full peal of eight).
 
Rector Hamptonne is unlikely to have made any more drastic changes in his church than the letter of the law required; but some of his successors were root-and-branch extremists. Edouard de Carteret was one of those who signed the Discipline Ecclesiastique, which imposed the Calvinistic System on the Island; and Claude Parent, who followed him, was a Frenchman, who had been Huguenot Pastor at Bayeux. Their respective reigns as Rectors were-de Carteret 1572-1576, Parent    1577-1 580. Under them St Lawrence Church was transformed into a Huguenot Temple. The stone altars were broken down, and four times a year the long, narrow wooden Communion table, which now stands in the porch was set in front of the pulpit, and the people stood all round it to receive their Communion. In 1964 it was restored, and is now used as a nave altar at Family Communion. It is over 340 years old!
 
The chancel was filled with pews facing the pulpit. The stained glass windows were smashed. The old wall-paintings were blotted out with whitewash. The `work' was done so thoroughly that, whereas in most of our churches stone corbels show where images once stood, in St Lawrence even the corbels have disappeared.
 
The Calvinist regime lasted till 1623. During this period the stone sundial, now in the Museum of the Société Jersiaise, (which sundial the Rector is most anxious to see restored to its rightful place in the churchyard)-and the bell, which is still in use, were added to the belfry. The latter bears the inscription: "Cette cloche est pour la paroisse de St Lorans a Jarze. 1592. I.W.". It is the oldest bell in the Island.
 
Then Dean Bandinel enforced for a time the. reluctant use of the Prayer Book, but under Cromwell the old Huguenot Service was resumed. The French Prayer Book was finally restored in 1660, when the king regained his throne.
 
Laurens Hamptonne during the civil War had been a leading Royalist. As Vicomte he had proclaimed Charles II as King, as soon as the news of his father's execution reached Jersey. His tombstone and that of his son outside the chancel wall on the south side, attract the notice of everyone who approaches the church. Jersey gentry in those days prided themselves on their skill as Latinists. The two grammar schools of St Mannelier and St Anastase had not been founded in vain. Translated, the inscription runs: "Hail, passer by! I would have a word with you for a moment. Within this Temple lies buried that illustrious man, Laurens Hamptonne, who deserved the best from his country, once Vicomte of this Island, and Lieutenant Bailiff, and Captain of this Parish, now, alas, snatched from us. Born 1600. Unborn II Feb.
and buried V. F. 1664. and Edouard Hamptonne Junior. If anyone in this island in his life-time was polished, it was he. He too was Vicomte, and now, alas, had been torn from us by an untimely death. Ripe in Heaven, he was taken away 27 Jan. and buried on 29th, 1660. Farewell passer by. Live in the light. Remember death and Heaven." (The above dates are confirmed in the Parish Church Register of 1650).

News from Nowhere: Malaisey Enacts Treason Law and other News

Encyclopedia Insulae, 6th edition, 2014
 
The Channel Island of Malaisey is often known as the "forgotten Channel Island". Larger than Guernsey, smaller than Jersey, both more southerly and closer to France. The origins of the name, Malaise, are unknown, but the tourism guides commonly joke that sea-sick sailors, suffering from the malaise of stormy weather, named the Island. It has a ministerial government, headed by the Chief Minister, Gregory Grist, and a local Radio Station which has the jingle "From St Branflakes to St Griddles, from St Martha to St Sensible, this is BBC Radio Malaisey, bringing you news of fresh disasters from across the Island"
 
Malaisey Enacts Treason Law and other News
 
The small Channel Island of Malaisey has decided to enact a Treason Law, as it turns out that most of the other places in the Channel Islands, Great Britain, and even Zimbabwe and North Korea have treason laws.
 
The Chief Minister of Malaisey, Gregory Grist said "We have to correct what is a historical anomaly. Our laws are very different from those of the United Kingdom, and we need to be able to give people in Malaisey a fair trial over here before they are hung, drawn and quartered."
 
It is understood that a film company, Nevermore Productions, is looking to buy the rights to film any execution for treason, and will make a film, starring major film star, Captain Nemo. Filming is expected to begin in April, or May, or June, this year, or next year, or sometime in the next decade. Mr Guy Fawkes, the executive in charge, says that "gunpowder plots and treason will make for a great movie. It won't blow up in our faces."
 
Other laws concerning death by careless driving will have to take a back seat, as no one wants to make a film about them.
 
The Minister for Economic Extravagance, Andrew Toothpaste, says "We handed out £200,000, which is money well spent, but I can't comment on individual cases like this. And I have high hopes that something will turn up, according to my Chief Officer, Mr Micawber."
 
There is a hill outside of town, called Gallows Humour Hill, where prisoners were traditionally taken to be hung. The executioner would pull the lever, and the floor would slide away, and he would turn to face the crowd with the well-tried and tested formula "Well, they're not laughing now", which is how the hill came about its name.
 
The last public execution in Malaisey took place in 1814 when three police officers were hung out to dry after they had planted wasps, death watch beetles, and other bugs in a hansom cab travelling across Normandy without obtaining proper authority from the French. They received a ticking off.
 
The Chief Minister is also going to combine the Malaisey (Treason) Law, with the ability to fire Ministers, and a cannon is being made ready, salvaged from the Napoleonic Wars. Any Ministers who annoy him will leave the States Chamber at high speed. The cannon has been declared a listed building, along with the beard of the Planning Minister, Ron Hamster.
 
Meanwhile, Malaisey's iconic airport building has been scheduled for demolition, although Malaisey Heritage campaigner Archibald Eurobin says that he is confident that something can be salvaged. "I believe that even at this eleventh hour, all is not lost and something can be kept. Even if it is myself popping up on news programmes every five minutes, because I'm  an important part of the Island heritage". Archibald Eurobin is a Grade 2 Listed Building with Sash Windows and a Brass Door Knocker.
 
And finally, two new members took their place in the States of Malaisey today. Nigel Corn-Beef and Steve Mezzotint, recently elected, took their seats. The two Deputies are looking to form a new political party called "Infirm", which they hope will appeal to housebound pensioners and anyone else with mobility problems. In a time of ageing demographics, this is likely to be a sure-fire winner.
 

More Questions on the £600 Claimable IT Expenses

Following up my posting on the subject of the claimable IT expenses of £600 for States Members, Jeremy Macon commented on Facebook (in the public domain):
 
"This budget was already going to States Members for IT provision so it's not entirely correct to say that States Members have given themselves anything extra, it's just the way it's claimed is now different. This budget was to cover Internet, hardware and other it provision, whilst yes States members get an expenses allowance this element was held by the IT department now it's been transferred to the States Assembly budget. So the total spend is the same."
 
"What happened was: - As the JT billing system was being changed the mechanism that States Members could use to claim for basic Internet from JT was no longer available. So there was a lot of back and forth between PCC and the IT department. But we were told it was going to happen. This money come out if the IT departments budget to go to JT to pay for Members Basic Internet. Now States Members get billed like everyone else and part of this sum covers that. £17.99 x 12= £215.88"
 
"The other section is to cover hardware and programmes and things like that. Again what happened here was whilst States Members could claim a Laptop from the IT department, to assist with their work, and periodically get it up graded. That's what the rest of this budget was for. However centrally the IT department couldn't support all the different types of technology that States Members preferred or were asking for. Plus lugging an old out of date laptop is something that States member weren't doing. So IT suggested that it would be better for them and States members to get members to buy there own devices and be responsible for them should they break. Whilst IT made them compatible with the States E-mail system. So the remainder of the budget is for that. We did ask if there could be a buy and reimburse provision for members but the administration for such a scheme would be too cumbersome apparently."
 
"Sadly, given the timing of these events the Renumeration review board had all ready sat and made their recommendations. So as uncomfortable as my committee was in taking the decision to allow all States Members to claim this money in a different way, we decided that for this year whilst we were in transition form the old system to a new one it was better to allowing members to decide how to best use the funds. "
 
"So this matter will be referred to the Renumeration review board when they next meet. But to repeat this was money already allocated to States Members for IT provision and it has not increased overall cost to the taxpayer."
 
These details, of course, are missing from the Minutes of PPC, or the Ministerial decision. That's not exactly "upfront" about what is happening. It is clear that part of it - the basic broadband - is cost neutral. The new billing scheme meant this had to be brought in this year.
 
It is not nearly so clear that the other part of the allowance will be, or why it had to be brought in rather than referred to the States Remuneration body for next year. Why the haste? Why entwine the two in a rather neat round sum? Is it not remarkable that the element of cost for a laptop and upgrades came to exactly £384.22, giving a total of £600? How amazing that cost neutrality should come to such a round figure!
 
James  commented that:
 
"It seems as though the equipment is going to the office holder and not the office. By making this decision the tax payer is spending more money on equipment as a new allowance is going to have to be in place for each new member. Whilst I understand that technology advances, surely it would still be more cost effective for the IT Department to have bought the equipment in bulk, and if the States Members were not happy with the equipment, then they could use their salary to supplement their wants.  The mindset seems to be focused on what type of technology members want. I think this is wrong, and it should be focused on technology which allows them to do their job whilst at the same time technology which is cost effective."
 
What is more, by bringing it forward before elections, it means that it is open to States members who may not be standing, or may not be re-elected, to walk away from the States with equipment that they own paid for by the States. It's a nice leaving present. It would have been better to bring it in when the new intake of States members came into the House.
 
I am sure that before the elections are upon us, they will all have claimed their allowance - re-standing or not. You can bet that £600 will be £700 next year and so on. While at present the Member has to take responsibility for damage or malfunction, this may change.  Once an allowance is established for something like this, it becomes interpreted as an 'essential'.
 
Moreover, there does not seem to be too much detail on whether the allowance is claimable against receipt of purchase or just a lump sum. If members already have purchased and used their own devices for a few years, can they claim back on that? Or is it a blanket allowance?
 
As James notes:  "there is a strong likelihood that members who lose their seats, or who decide not to stand for re-election, will have this technology when they leave office. Is there any provision to reclaim this as property of the Office of Deputy/Connétable/Senator, and not the office holder?"
 
The laptops would have been returned, cleaned, and given to new States members. It is not clear what policy will operate with these devices owned by the States member. There do not seem to have been any protocols mentioned anywhere in the Minutes or the Ministerial Decision.
 
If these gadgets are bought to assist Members in their States work, there should have been a security protocol imposed too. Their internet connection at least via a proxy server and for added security,  a cloud account for storing their data.
 
I suspect that what may have been happening is that a number of States members, like Jeremy, preferred the convenience of a small hand-held device, and didn't take up the availability of the States laptop. It would be interesting to know how many did, and how much of the IT budget was in fact underused because of that. Now, of course, all of it will be used.

Fishy Business: An Extra £600 for each States Member

Looking through very recent Ministerial decisions, I came across this little gem:
 
"Budget transfer to States Assembly: IT provision for States Members. A decision made 10 March 2014: Budget transfer from CMD to States Assembly to enable IT provision for States Members"
 
This is a "one off" expense, although what the situation will be in October when new States members may well come along, has yet to be seen. Expect another "one off" expense.
 
The details say that this is:
 
"To enable the Chief Minister to approve a non-recurring budget transfer in 2014 of £31,000 from the Chief Minister's Department (CMD) Information Services (IS) to the States Assembly to enable IT provision for States Members."
 
It is all do to with States members having the ability to claim up to £600 to purchases their own IT devices - iPhones, Tablets etc. They own the device, but the States funds part of the costs.
 
"The Privileges and Procedures Committee (PPC) agreed on 15th November 2013 that a revenue budget of £31,000 should be transferred from the IS budget in CMD to the States Assembly for the sole use of Members IT provision. This budget would be sufficient to allow each member to claim up to £600 per annum, in 2014, for the provision of hardware, broadband and software to assist them in their work as a member of the States. Devices purchased would be categorised as personally owned and operated under a 'Bring Your Own Device' policy and members would be advised to take out device insurance against loss and damage."
 
Now it is notable that while States members' salaries were increased, in line with the recommendations of the States Remuneration Board, the same body decided to freeze members' allowances.
 
States members have two income components as a legacy of the past. A salary, and an expense allowance; the latter derived from the days before they were all paid. The two have been kept separate, and while the salary increased last year, the expenses were frozen.
 
But here is an extra £600 per States member, so where does it sit? The report accompanying the decision is very vague, no doubt assuming that no one would really scrutinise it deeply. It simply says:
 
"It was further agreed that the States Members' Remuneration Review Body should be requested to provide a recommendation regarding how information services expenses should be reflected within the standard expense allowance for States members from 2015."
 
So this is bypassing the recommendations of that body, and effectively suggesting to them that the expense allowance should be increased to accommodate it next year. So much for letting the body get on with its work at arm's-length; this is a firm nudge to either increase the main allowance, or introduce a new allowance specific to IT.
 
The Minutes of PPC of 15th November 2013 simply reflect the decision of the report "to allow each member to claim up to £600 per annum for the provision of hardware, broadband and software to assist them in their work as a member of the States. Devices purchased would be categorised as personally owned and operated under a 'Bring Your Own Device' policy and members would be advised to take out device insurance against loss and damage. The connection of the devices to States of Jersey corporate systems would be dependent upon the member adhering to Information Services policies in respect of mobile devices and information governance, including Data Protection notification."
 
And they also look to this being an extra component to be added to States members allowances:
 
"It was agreed the States Members' Remuneration Review Body should be requested to provide a recommendation regarding how information services expenses should be reflected within the standard expense allowance for States members from 2015"
 
Stripped down to its bare essentials, what is this suggesting? That the standard expense allowance should remain the same? Hardly! It is a recommendation that the States Remuneration Body takes this on board and increases the standard expense allowance!
 
When the Remuneration Body recommends an increase, as happened last time, there was a good deal of argumentation that it was independent, and States members had to abide by its decision. But it appears that neither PPC nor the Chief Minister in signing off this Ministerial order, really abides by that.
 
They can increase the standard expense allowance on an ad hoc basis, side stepping the States Remuneration Body, and then effectively tell the States Remuneration Body to include an extra sum in its standard expense allowance to "reflect" this in the future. Will the Remuneration Body take their request on board? If I was a betting man, I would say it was a cast iron certainty!
 
Is it just me, or does this smack of hypocrisy? When salary goes up, it is untouchable. When expenses are frozen, ways and means are found to get around that. The Village fishmonger, Unhygienix, in the Asterix books, is well known for his stale and smelly fish. But this way of smuggling in an increase in the face of the States Remuneration Body's recommendations smells even worse.

Alfred Tennyson, 1809-92: Part I: An Introduction

I've been trawling through the archives at the library again, and in particular for Sundays, "The Pilot" which was the monthly magazine for the Church of England in Jersey for many years. Every month, there would be pieces from the minister of each church, along with various other articles of interest.
 
In 1995, the Reverend Tony Keogh began a series of articles in "The Pilot" under the umbrella title "God and the Poets", beginning with a four part look at Tennyson. I thought it was a shame that it should be buried in the past, so I've transcribed it for my blog. Here is part 1.
 
God and the Poets:
Alfred Tennyson, 1809-92: Part I: An Introduction
By Tony Keogh
 
Alfred Tennyson was a large, dark, untidy man, swarthy as a gypsy, clumsy in movement, with a bricklayer's hands, yet handsome in a way. In his youth, he was once rebuked for his dirty shirt. "So would yours be if you'd worn it for a fortnight," he rejoined.
 
Later on, Queen Victoria, whose laureate he was and neighbour on the Isle of Wight and with whom he was to become close friends, told Edward Lear that "he would not come to see her because he did not know how to bow." He smoked for nine hours - shag in a clay pipe - and drank at least a bottle of port a day. He could be gruff and growling, rude at times and in deep melancholy; yet his marriage at the age of forty-one seems to have been one of an almost mystical happiness, in spite of his wife's ill health for the last twenty years of her life. "The peace of God came into my life before the altar when I wedded her," he said.

He loved to read his own poetry to audiences of family and friends, this in his fine, deep voice, with a Lincolnshire accent. As well he might, for it is lyrical and mellifluous beyond most. "He had the finest ear, perhaps of any English poet," wrote W H Auden, "he was also undoubtedly the stupidest" - a harsh and debatable judgment, though there are many worthy people who are very unsure that poets or any artists of genius would score heavily in an intelligence test.
 
Like Shakespeare, Tennyson has contributed many well-known phrases to the language, still material for Trivial Pursuits if not now the staple diet of tabloid journalism or small talk:
 
a land in which it seemed always afternoon." (The Locust Eaters).
 
"In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." (Locksley Hall).
 
"T'is better to have loved and lost; Than never to have loved at all."
 
"Nature, red in tooth and claw." (both, In Memoriam).
 
"More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." (Morte d'Arthur).
 
"Theirs is not to reason why; Theirs but to do and die. " (The Charge of the Light Brigade).
 
He was nothing but a poet. From infancy to his death at the age of eighty-three, verses sang in his mind and he often wrote them down much later. He was essentially an oral poet. His major works germinated for years and he was a constant revisor. As laureate for forty-two years, he had to compose much official, establishment verse, by no means all devoid of inspiration or without captivating memorable images.
 
News items often prompted him, or the suggestions of his friends and his romantic views of the classical and mediaeval past, but his greatness comes from his awareness of nature and the depths of his own experience and solitary brooding. Greatness in poetry is not possible without sorrow and times of despair. He knew both to the end.
 
There is also nostalgia. From a youth he had Virgil's "sense of the tears of things," and a regret for the past even when there was so little that he needed to regret in his own direct experience. Poets are often old in youth and youthful image- Whatever their vicissitudes, their days - long or short - are in Wordsworth's phrase, "bound each to each", even if the cord is frayed or broken             early. Tennyson used to talk of "the passion of the past", "it is distance which charms me in the landscape, the picture and the past, and not the immediate today in which I move." He was always capable of the most beautiful images, whether of the country, the elm trees,
 
"their broad curved branches,
fledged and clearest green,
new from its silken sheath; or
the heavens, Mars following white Venus,
whiter than all the stars
Down to the quiet limit of the world."
 
Or the city, "Inextricable brickwork image in image. "
 
He is the poet of the new railway as well as of the flowing river and the waves of the seashore.
 
Next: Tennyson's early years.

Southern Comfort

I belong to a group called "Friday Poetry", and every week someone from the group chooses a theme for the week. This week was (according to the person setting it) to be about "a Southern Belle's attitude. Southern Belles can make anything sound charming. Even going to Hell."
 
That was a very difficult one to get my head around, and off my regular track for poetry. I don't read any books with Southern Belles in.! I've never read Gone with the Wind, or anything like that. Possibly the closest I've read is "Bring the Jubilee" by Ward Moore, a science fiction alternative history book where the Confederate States of America win the Battle of Gettysburg and subsequently declares victory in the "War of Southron Independence".
 
So how to do this - well, I grabbed bits and pieces from movies, as the Hollywood movies shape a picture of the South and Southern Belles. It's Hollywood, so it is fiction, but it is the only source I could think of to write the poem.
 
Hence there's a bit of Gone with the Wind, the paddle boat sequence from the Danny Kaye version of Walter Mitty, Disney's Song of the South, thoughts about swamps and plantations (grabbed from Universal's Son of Dracula, of all places), and finally a bit of Clint Eastwood style Spaghetti Western and Annie Get Your Gun.
 
It's a fiction, and I've never come across a Southern Belle (or anyone remotely like that), but I hope it amuses.
 
Southern Comfort
 
Frankly my dear, you said to me that day
You couldn't give a damm. Well shucks!
This lady couldn't care what you may say
Advertising for a smarter man, in a fine tux
 
On the Mississippi, I'll find me another man
That paddle steamer, gently chuggin' along
Dressed in lacy finery, with an ivory fan
Oh, Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, here I belong
 
Plantations, and swamps, this is my land
In the Deep South, I can take any man
I flutter my eye lashes, hold out my hand
Capture the gentlemen, those with a deep tan
 
Now rides in a stranger, who smokes a cheroot
I got my gun in my garter, ready to shoot

In Victory, Magnanimity.

"In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity" (Winston Churchill)
 
"What cheers me up? I suppose mainly gloating over the misfortunes of other people. I guess that has to be it, yeah, mainly crowing over the miseries of others. It doesn't always work, but it never completely fails." (Christopher Hitchens)
 
I was down at the election for Procureur du Bien Public last night to get a photo for La Baguette, the Parish Magazine. I was originally just going to take a photo of the winning candidate, Peter Norman, but my editor very wisely, I think, suggested I took a photo of Peter Norman and John Trafford (the losing candidate) shaking hands. He was quite right, of course.
 
That's an image of victory and magnanimity; it is a sign that whoever wins, this is not a result that should end in bitterness or acrimony. And John Trafford lost, but he was a good loser, which is I suppose what you might expect; he is a very nice man.
 
It's all too easy with elections or other news stories to feed into the modern trend for divisiveness, and gloating. There's a lot of gloating on the misfortunes of other people on Twitter locally.
 
Those doing it will probably be able to justify it to themselves, but what it often comes down to is an excuse for that kind of behaviour was that "they started it first", the kind of excuse that two children fighting give to their parents. But however the other person is behaving, do they really need to react that way? They are surely not children any more; why do they then persist in behaving with such childish patterns of behaviour. Can't they do better than that? Is that really the best that they can be as human beings?
 
I'm not going to name people; they know who they are. This is not about naming and shaming, it is about exploring the psychology of this behaviour, and look at why people behave in this way.
 
Psychiatrist John Birtchnell describes this tendency of some human beings to respond in this way to the misfortune of others. He notes that:
 
"some people are capable of deriving satisfaction from the abuse of their power by showing off to others, intimidating them, bullying them, making fun of them, putting them down, pointing to their deficiencies, causing them embarrassment or distress, gloating over their misfortune, or witnessing their distress or desperation" (1)
 
And he notes that even psychotherapists themselves "are not immune from any of these forms of behaviour, which lie at the very heart of sadism."
 
There is a kind of sea-saw effect at work here, where "reacting to the setbacks and misfortunes of others is gaining upperness as a consequence of others losing it. When someone drops in position, another's position in relation to her/him rises." (2)
 
What cuts against this is compassion, and concern for the plight of the other person. As he comments:
 
"Potentially this is a source of pleasure, but the pleasure can be diminished, or denied altogether, out of concern for the plight of the other person." (2)
 
And a lot of these kinds of behaviours are patterns learned from childhood, which still effect how people behave. They become fixed patterns for reacting, hitting out, and enjoying the misfortune of others. As he notes on "derision":
 
"Children more than adults laugh at the misfortune of others and, in their laughing, experience the state of upperness. In former times, adults would visit lunatic asylums to laugh at the inmates, but nowadays they do not so blatantly enjoy the misfortune of others. Ridicule and mocking are nonetheless ways of experiencing upperness at the expense of others, and many jokes and humorous stories relate accounts of other people in unfortunate circumstances."
 
"Humiliation. There is ample evidence that people derive pleasure from humiliating others, but, as with derision, they are inhibited from doing so by their consciences" (2)
 
We don't visit lunatic asylums now to mock others, but the internet lends itself to a modern equivalent of this kind of behaviour. Ignore that voice of conscience, and it will fade away.
 
And on cruelty, Birchnell again notes the roots in the children's behaviour:
 
"Children, because their socialization process is less complete, are capable of great cruelty under certain circumstances. William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, though a work of fiction, credibly illustrates this. Bandura et al. (1975) demonstrated that two effective means of making cruelty possible were diffusion of responsibility and dehumanization. They wrote, 'By displacing responsibility elsewhere, people need not hold themselves accountable for what they do and are thus spared self-prohibiting reactions" '(2)
 
Buddhism has a lot to teach us about how these patterns from our past shape our lives, and what we need to do about it. The Buddhist Society for Compassionate Wisdom notes that:
 
"It is conduct unbecoming to a Dharma student to pick on others and blame them in order to build a self-defence or reinforce one's position. It is the downfall of a Dharma student to become jealous of the other people's prosperity and gloat over others' misfortunes." (3)
 
And the Buddhist movement Soka Gakkai International notes that:
 
"Buddhism sheds light on the inner dynamics of human life that lead us to create such an undesirable reality. One of the most pernicious and powerful desires inherent in human life, according to Buddhist thought, is the desire for power over others, the urge to subjugate other people to our will. In this condition, the ego finds its most unrestrained and destructive expression, regarding others simply as a means to satisfy its selfish objectives."
 
"But if human nature is the cause of our most dire global problems, it is also the source of the fundamental solution. The countervailing force to the destructive aspect to human nature and the suffering it engenders is compassion. Compassion, a sense of solidarity with others--with all life--arising from a wish for mutual happiness and growth, is the heart and origin of Buddhism." (4)
 
And Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron comments on why we badly need compassion in political dialogue:
 
"In recent years, national dialogue in the U. S. has deteriorated, with people ranging from politicians to talk show hosts encouraging anger, disrespect, harsh speech, and exaggerated accusations that only stir people up. It seems that rudeness, blame, and demonizing others is passed off as entertainment in the effort to gather votes. ..This lack of basic human manners, petty squabbling, and in some cases outright aggression interferes with finding solutions to very real national and international problems. Compassion helps us be more respectful and considerate so that we work together for the benefit of everyone. "(5)

Compassion is a challenge because it goes against deep rooted behaviours that we learned in childhood, and challenges us to be the best people we can be, not to be stuck in a groove laid down in the past. I'll finish, then, with a quote from a Veteran Western Practitioner of Buddhism:
 
"Compassion does not put others down to make us feel more important. Compassion builds bridges between people instead of erecting walls. Compassion helps to solve problems instead of creating new ones. Compassion agonizes at others' efforts gone wrong instead of gloating over their misfortunes. Compassion practices positive thinking, making others see their potential and helps them to achieve their best." (6)

Links
(1)   "Relating in Psychotherapy: The Application of a New Theory" by John Birtchnell, 1999
(2)   "How Humans Relate: A New Interpersonal Theory." by John Birtchnell, 1993
(3)   http://www.zenbuddhisttemple.org/seminary.html
(4)   http://www.sgi.org/buddhism/buddhist-concepts/compassion-solidarity-of-the-heart.html
(5)   http://www.thubtenchodron.org/CurrentEvents/applications_of_compassion.pdf
(6)   http://www.pureinsight.org/node/2161

Rungs on the Ladder?

The new Bailiff will be William Bailhache, but who will be Deputy Bailiff. Traditionally, the Deputy will be the previous Attorney General, and as he moves up (because it seems to be an all-male enclave at the top), the Solicitor-General moves up to become Attorney-General, and someone comes in to fill the bottom rung.

The position of Deputy Bailiff is in fact relatively new in Jersey's history, unlike that of the Bailiff and goes back to 1958, when the law - Deputy Bailiff (Appointment and Functions) (Jersey) Law, 1958.was passed. The reason for this was to do with extra workload:

As the law stated:

WHEREAS it has long been customary for the holder of the office of Bailiff, in exercise of the power conferred upon him by his Royal Letters of Appointment, to name Lieutenant Bailiffs to assist him in the discharge of his functions both in the Royal Court and in the States;

AND WHEREAS the functions appertaining to the office of Bailiff have greatly increased in recent years and it has become necessary to make further provision for assisting the Bailiff in the discharge of those functions;

AND WHEREAS the States, after consultation with the Bailiff and the Royal Court, are of opinion that this object would best be achieved by the appointment of a Deputy Bailiff;

It is also a Crown Appointment:

"The person appointed by Her Majesty to be Deputy Bailiff shall receive such salary and be entitled to such pension as shall be fixed by the States"

But what a lot of people may not know is that it is also an advertised position. The post, when a vacancy will arise, is advertised for suitable candidates to come forward.  Names go before a panel in Jersey which selects a preferred candidate whose name is communicated to the UK Ministry of Justice for approval before a formal recommendation is made to the Queen.

There is in fact a lot of detail about how the appointment is made in one of the public hearings in Lord Carswell's review of the role of the Bailiff and Deputy Bailiff in the States. I have reproduced part of that extensively as I think it makes very clear the process and reasoning and deliberation behind the appointment of Deputy Bailiff and the lesser rungs on the ladder.

Despite the fact that as stated, there were multiple applicants for the roles of Attorney-General, the appointments committee evidently decided last time that the best man was the man already on a rung of the ladder. It is perhaps notable that it is less likely for a Solicitor General to proceed to the office of Attorney General than from Attorney-General to Deputy Bailiff, and this has not always happened. Solicitor-General Stephanie Nicholle being a recent case in point.

The Chairman was Lord Carswell, and also interjecting questions or comments were Mrs M-L Backhurst, Mr G Crill, Dr S Mountford and Mr I Strang. The witness was Jurat de Veulle.

JURAT DE VEULLE:  I sat on the Appointments Panel both for all three offices in the recent round of appointments. They were all advertised posts. At least the Bailiff was not. My understanding is that there is an unwritten rule that the Deputy Bailiff becomes Bailiff. But there was an interview process for the appointment of Deputy Bailiff and of Solicitor General and of Attorney General

JURAT DE VEULLE: There was not one for Bailiff. At least I did not sit on it if there was.

MRS BACKHURST: In past times there has been a Deputy Bailiff who did not move up to being Bailiff and there was a process then initiated.

JURAT DE VEULLE: Yes, I think they were, I hesitate to use stopgap as a word, but I think they were in there for limited periods of time in order to enable the succession to be more ordered.

MRS BACKHURST: I was referring to Mr Tomes. Sorry, I did not want to bring specified...

JURAT DE VEULLE: Yes, Mr Tomes left

Vernon Tomes was, of course, Deputy Bailiff (1986-1992), but he was relieved of his position by the Crown and effectively sacked for exceedingly late delivery of judgements. As the saying has it, justice delayed is justice denied, and because the Deputy Bailiff, like the Bailiff, also exercises a judicial role, this means that they cannot retain their position in the States if they are removed as judge.But Vernon Tomes had ignored many warnings about his backlog of undecided cases. Some judgments had taken over two years to be delivered!

For some of the background and controversy on the Tomes affair, there's an excellent article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/10/world/st-helier-journal-on-queen-s-special-island-lese-majeste-no-less.html

The only other Deputy Bailiff who did not move to Bailiff was Francis de Lisle Bois OBE (1962-1968). A crisis in the succession to the island's highest offices in 1962, following the retirement of Lord Coutanche and the early death of Cecil Harrison led to his agreeing to a request by Bailiff Sir Robert Le Masurier to become Deputy Bailiff, a post he held with distinction for six years.Evidently he stepped into the breach to fill a gap, and did not want higher office; instead Frank Erault became Bailiff, after becoming Deputy Bailiff in 1969.

Returning to the public hearing, Jurat de Veulle explains how the selection of Deputy Bailiff is made from applicants for the position.

JURAT DE VEULLE: Yes. It might be useful to explain how those interview processes took place. There was a panel of three comprised the Bailiff in the chair, Mr Michael Liston who was chairman of the Appointments Commission and widely experienced in public appointments, and me. The three of us, we saw a series of people. There was a sort of common core; seven or eight senior lawyers from the Law Society, the Chief Minister, the Bailiff's Advisory Committee, which is a committee of politicians, and the Jurats as a body. In connection with the Solicitor General we saw the Attorney General and the Deputy Bailiff. In connection with the Attorney General we saw the Deputy Bailiff so we saw the one above, for whom of course the person had worked, the applicants had worked. In all cases, not in the case of the Deputy Bailiff where there was only one applicant, but in the case of both the Attorney General and the Solicitor General there were three or four applicants.

MR CRILL: Just to understand this, the applicants apply.

JURAT DE VEULLE: Public advert.

MR CRILL: Yes. And then the selection panel of three then consults with these others.

JURAT DE VEULLE: Yes.

MR CRILL: Then there is an interview process and then there is a selection.

JURAT DE VEULLE: Then there is an interview process with the individual.

MRS BACKHURST: When you are appointing someone, you may not wish to tell me this; I do not know, you are thinking this SG might become Bailiff, or not.

JURAT DE VEULLE: Well, not as much as I think it used to be. I think it used to be a set ladder, but the moment you start, and this must affect the view of the candidates themselves, the possibility that someone will be appointed Attorney General over their head when they apply for Solicitor General must concentrate their minds. Because bearing in mind what we understand to be the relative pay scales, a young lawyer going into the position of Solicitor General will have to weigh that particular matter up extremely carefully.

MR CRILL: And the position of Crown Office is not protected from though more modern ability of employment I suppose.

JURAT DE VEULLE: Absolutely. And of course there is a much higher profile. You are putting your head above the parapet.

MR CRILL: As far as the selection is concerned, invariably, I think, the Crown Officers have been experienced court advocates and consequently the Bailiffs have traditionally come through that court advocacy route. Do you think that the development of the function of the Bailiff - particularly through, I suppose, the lessening of his judging in recent years with the appointment of Commissioners and so on - justifies a continued policy that it is predominantly court advocates who move into the Crown officer roles, or are there other skills, do you think, that the Crown Officers or the Bailiff lack that have to be supplemented from elsewhere by virtue of that?

JURAT DE VEULLE: Certainly in the interview process, the fact that some candidates had not acted as Crown Advocates was a factor taken into account in the interviews. Indeed, in the interview with the appointment of the Deputy Bailiff - I am sure I am not letting any secrets out - the question of the transition from prosecutor to judge was a matter of some fairly intensive questioning and examination. Even though there was only one candidate, nevertheless, one ought to be very sure that that transition was properly understood.

THE CHAIRMAN: Quite right too. Yes.  There is the factor that when, because of the conventional ladder, if I may put it that way, when  you are appointing one of the Law Officers you have in mind that you may be appointing a future judge. Experience in court is, I can tell you, very valuable to a judge, just the way they say some of the best referees have played in the scrum.

JURAT DE VEULLE: Absolutely

THE CHAIRMAN: So there are no easy answers. Certainly, I think - I take Mr Crill's point entirely - one should not be too restrictive in where one looks but all other things being equal, court experience has got a lot to help a future judge. I will put it no further than that.

JURAT DE VEULLE: Yes, and I think in the course of the application processes there were applicants who had not appeared much in court or who had had a very specialist area of activity and this did not count in their favour.

THE CHAIRMAN: But a good person will pick up experience quickly.

JURAT DE VEULLE: Yes, indeed.

THE CHAIRMAN: That always seems to happen.

MR STRANG: A Crown Advocate is appointed by the Attorney General, is what I am saying.

JURAT DE VEULLE: I believe so, yes. 21

MR STRANG: There is a bit of self-serving there, really, because if the Attorney General did not appoint someone as a Crown Advocate, then they might be disadvantaged in the process of moving forward to be Solicitor General or Attorney General.

JURAT DE VEULLE: That may be attributing too much politicking to the workload - which is extreme - in the office of the Attorney General. I think if he can find anybody who is competent in court, he will grab them.

Buddhism and Blogging

"Hate groups used to be hard-pressed to get any airtime; now they have a global forum twenty-four hours a day on Web sites and blogs." (David D. Perlmutter, Blogwars)
 
George Orwell, in 1984, had the "Two Minutes Hate" when people chanted away at those declared non-persons, enemies of the State. The internet has democratised the "Two Minutes Hate", and at the same time it dehumanises people. Like the picture on the Televisor Screen, faces are posted to become figures of hate. People are demonised, and those doing this cannot see that they are becoming what they hate.
 
Buddhaghosa said ""By doing this you are like a man who wants to hit another and picks up a burning ember or excrement in his hand and so first burns himself or makes himself stink", and this saying has been paraphrased, rather neatly as:
 
"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else - you are the one who gets burned."
 
The Dalai Lama has a good deal to say about the negative effects of hate: In his book "Healing Anger", he comments that:
 
"The destructive effects of hatred are very visible, very obvious and immediate. For example, when a strong or forceful thought of hatred arises, at that very instant it overwhelms one totally and destroys one's peace and presence of mind"
 
And he goes on to examine how hatred can arise:
 
"If we examine how anger or hateful thoughts arise in us, we will find that, generally speaking, they arise when we feel hurt, when we feel that we have been unfairly treated by someone against our expectations. If in that instant we examine carefully the way anger arises, there is a sense that it comes as a protector, comes as a friend that would help our battle or in taking revenge against the person who has inflicted harm on us. So the anger or hateful thought that arises appears to come as a shield or a protector. But in reality that is an illusion. It is a very delusory state of mind."
 
Without mindfulness, what starts as a defence can easily become a habit, and the bully is born. The road is one in which the virtues of compassion become lost, swallowed up in vilifying others. The Dalai Lama describes this in terms of:
 
"Only thinking of yourself, having no regard for others, a lack of concern for others' well-being."
 
It is notable that people who direct invective at people from blogs avoid meeting people face to face. As David D. Perlmutter notes in "Blogwars"
 
"Over the years of getting e-hate-mail responding to some of my newspaper op-eds, I have also noted the tendency of people putting the worst invectives and language into an electronic message that, I believe, they would not have expressed similarly in a phone call, in person, or even on paper"
 
There is a disengagement from the other in a blog or social media which can lend itself to very destructive words being used. And the immediacy of it means that there is often a lack of mindfulness. Meeting someone in person, you have etiquette of conversation, the give and take, the talking and listening which is part of dialogue.
 
People who spend too much time disengaged from dialogue with other people other than online may, of course, lose this skill, and simply harangue and shout at people, and be unable to listen when they do meet people. They lose the ability to speak to people face to face; this is another example of how the internet can dehumanise people. They are losing social skills, and becoming almost autistic in their inability to interact, take turns, and listen.
 
It is ironic, because autistic people, aware of their deficiencies, struggle to interact, take turns, and listen. What is hard for them to achieve, and what they desire to achieve, is a gift thrown carelessly aside by people who have it.
 
One of the most notable features of the lack of mindfulness in the internet is the ability to jump in and make pronouncements without looking at the facts. It's the world of the child's playground, of taking sides, of goodies and baddies, where everything is starkly drawn in black and white.
 
It does no good to provide facts, because without mindfulness, a person takes a stance, and does not change it, and defends it, never admitting or being willing to admit that they might be mistaken. Rather like writers like Von Daniken and his "Chariot of the Gods", suppositions rapidly become treated as facts; allegations, if they support your own prejudices, must be true.
 
That's not how science works, of course. Science works to look for falsification of your own theories and ideas, to test them, to be aware that they might be mistaken, and what you really want to be true is no guarantee that something is true. A theory has to be good enough to fit all the facts.
 
But pseudoscience takes a different approach, a selective approach to evidence, which screens out any inconvenient facts, and avoids confronting them; it is a fundamental intellectual dishonesty, and there is a lot of it about. Repetition is also used as a means to suggest something is true, as if the number of instances it is repeated somehow gives a statement a special verisimilitude.
 
The notion of critical peer review is something alien to this approach, because pseudoscience is tied up with an emotional investment in certainty; any criticism is seen as bad, the action of an enemy of the truth. That is a measure itself of how distant the pseudoscientific approach is from genuine science, and how it encourages an emotional immaturity which rejects a critical friend. As Popper remarked, even our most cherished scientific beliefs should not be beyond scrutiny.
 
The internet provides plenty of scope for rumour, and selective use of facts, and the rigours of a more scientific approach is discarded in favour of the attention grabbing headline. That is one area where the blog certainly can emulate the tabloid newspaper, in its use of lurid headlines, and the striking rhetoric, and ad hominem arguments, all of which sell the blog to its readers just as the newspaper sensationalises the story in order to sell papers.

The Blizzards of March 2013: A Restrospective

Tuesday: Weather :   Rather cloudy and misty in the morning. Some bright or sunny periods developing for the afternoon. Fair overnight. Wind :  Northeast moderate F4 to fresh F5, veering northeast to east moderate F4 later. Max : 12 °C
 
The weather so far - as can be seen in today's forecast - is considerably better than one year ago, when blizzard conditions swept across Jersey. I penned this some time ago but never used it. It's a poem which captures something of the scenes in March 2013 - and can be sung to the tune of Jingle Bells, of course!
 
Let's hope this year does not have any nasty surprises!
 
Dashing through the snow
In St Brelade's March one day
Where cars no longer go
Shivering all the way
What a sight in Spring!
Abandoned cars in sight
The weather brings a sting
A sleighing song tonight!
 
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Sledging time today
Oh! what fun it is to slide
For children out to play
Winter magic, casts its spells
Snow in March this day
Oh! what fun it is to slide
For children out to play
 
Now the ground is white
But it won't be here for long
Keep in the warm tonight
And thaws will come next day
As falling snows recede
Put away the open sleigh
For now it's time to weed!

I'd also recommend my posting on "Monday Snow in Tweets" to capture the feel of that time:
http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2013/03/monday-snow-in-tweets.html

Vote Peter Norman for Procureur

There is a contested election for Procureur in the Parish of St Brelade, with John Trafford standing against the current incumbent Peter Norman. I am sure than John is a very worthy man, but he is an unknown quantity (with only one trustee appointment mentioned on his posters), while Peter Norman has proven his worth with considerable background and skills in financial management to his voluntary service to the Parish as Procureur.

I would therefore urge Parishioners of St Brelade to vote for Peter Norman as the best individual for the office.

But what is a Procureur du bien public? The French translates as "attorney of the public good" and the people elected to the office are the legal and financial representative of a parish in Jersey.

Procureurs are elected for a term of three years. There are two Procureurs for each Parish and their duty is to act as public trustees, maintaining an oversight of Parish finances and represent the Parish along with the Connétable in respect of property transactions of the Parish (if so authorised by a vote of the Parish Assembly).

Some background on Peter Norman.

Peter Norman is the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Normans  (building supplies) - a post he held for countless years. Normans are by  Jersey standards a very large company which needed stringent financial  oversight, and he proved himself able and capable in that position. He is  an astute businessman, and as part of the Procureur's remit is to keep a watching  eye over Parish finances, he is eminently suitable for the post, and has  already a proven record in that position.

It goes without saying that with his background as a former director of Normans, he clearly knows about balance sheets and running a business, skills that important for someone who is effectively a Trustee of Parish finances; he has considerable business skills and acumen of value to the Parish.

Peter is an individual whose heart and history lies in St. Brelade, and who appreciates that the role of Procureur can be as much knowing about the needs of the community as it is to scrutinise proposed expenditure. He understands the importance to take more than the money itself into consideration when making judgements.

Peter is a born and bred Jerseyman and St. Breladaise. He has involved  himself in Parish affairs for many years. He is a former Roads Inspector  and served on the full Roads Committee. He clearly understands the parish  and municipal procedures. His heart and his life is in St. Brelade

As well as honorary involvement in Parish work, he has served as a Samaritan and as a member of the St. Helier Lifeboat crew. He was also a member of the States Rates Appeal Board from 2006 to 2012, recommended because of his financial background.

Please VOTE PETER NORMAN for PROCUREUR on Wednesday.

Addendum:

I went to Procureurs election at St Brelade, earlier to vote, later to take count and photos of candidates shaking hands. 306 votes cast. No spoilt papers. 263 for Peter Norman. 43 for John Trafford. 4.1% turnout. Voting was eased by the Honorary Police managing a "quick stop" for voters outside the Parish Hall, and being there to guide cars from voters in. A really excellent job well done, especially as it is hard to park at St Aubin. 

Terry Hampton on Pharaoh Shishak of Egypt

In 1994, Terry Hampton penned a series of articles for "The Pilot" called "It's in the Bible but." dealing with names that were somewhat obscure mentioned in the Bible, of whom the average reader would know little. Terry, with his interest in archaeology, decided to write articles to tell the readership more about them. They are wonderful lively little pieces and really capture Terry's distinctive voice.
 
Pharaoh Shishak of Egypt by Terry Hampton
 
Now, there's a puzzle. Who was Shishak, where does he appear in the Bible and what was he up to?
 
This Pharaoh is mentioned in 1 Kings Ch 11. He gives refuge to a young man called Jeroboam, who had been one of King Solomon's building overseers. In v 28 of Ch 11 we read that Jeroboam was a man of "great energy" (NEB tr.) so he was promoted. and put in charge of all the labour force of one district, (In case you didn't remember, Solomon did a great deal of building in his reign, not only the first Temple, but  also building chariot centres at Megiddo and Hazor.)
 
But a meeting with the prophet Ahijah completely changed Jeroboam's life and future. Ahijah had on a new cloak - he tore it into twelve pieces and gave ten of them to the no doubt quite mystified Jeroboam. Then came the explanation. "This is God's word to you. He will give you .the ten northern tribes to be King over." (v 31). The energetic young man is told that he must keep God's commandments and statutes, and then God will deal with him as He has done with the family and house of King David.
 
So far so good, but then King Solomon heard about the cloak tearing business, and took a very dim view of someone else removing the tribes from his control and leaving only two for his son Rehoboam (an arrogant youth) to rule over from Jerusalem. It does seem as though' the energetic Jeroboam had still a lot to learn about tact and diplomacy! The anger of powerful kings was not to be ignored, and so the future king of the north fled at speed to Egypt and the shelter offered by Pharaoh Sheshong (in Egyptian), Shishak in Hebrew. Whether Jeroboam took the ten pieces of the prophet's cloak with him we're not told.
 
Now let's find out a bit more about this Pharaoh. Pharaoh Shishak was a Libyan prince who founded the 22nd Dynasty and ruled from c 945-924 BC. In 926 BC he invaded Israel and plundered it from end to end. He also took away from the Temple the beautiful gold shields that Solomon had made. All the treasures of the house of the Lord were removed and the king's palace was stripped too. The new king, Rehoboam, had to replace the gold shields with bronze ones, what a come-down. Poor young Rehoboam, (We do have carvings of Assyrian soldiers carting off gold shields from captured temples in the British Museum.)
 
Sheshonq's army also. raged through the country and there is part of a stele with his cartouche on at Megiddo. No doubt he had heard about the treasures of Solomon from the fugitive Jeroboam, and once Solomon had died, and a young, inexperienced king on the throne, than was the time for the wily Pharaoh to strike. (There are two bracelets in the British Museum which Sheshonq gave to one of his sons.)
 
Have you more accounts of these events?
 
Yes. In the temple of Amon at Thebes is a series of carvings which show Pharaoh Shishak celebrating the conquest of Israel and Judah plus the names of the various towns he had captured. I saw them last November when in Luxor.
 
And what happened to all the gold that was pinched from Solomon's temple -- any news of that?
 
Again, yes. In a recent article in the Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR for short) Professor Ken Kitchen of Liverpool University gave details of a- fascinating inscription found at Bubastis. This recorded the "breathtakingly munificent gifts to the gods and goddesses of Egypt." It came to just over 380 tons of silver and gold. Now the Pharaoh who made these was the son of our Biblical Sheshonq, who had the name of Osorkon I. This Pharaoh had only ruled for three years and Prof Kitchen asks how he could possibly have amassed such wealth so soon in his .reign. As he dryly remarks, father Sheshonq had ransacked Jerusalem's palace and temple. only five years before, and wealthy cities of Israel, so it seems very likely that much of this treasure was used by the new Pharaoh to honour the gods of Egypt.
 
Two other points worth a mention.
 
(i) When one of Osorkon's sons died, he was buried in a solid silver coffin which was found in 1939.
(ii) When Alexander the Great captured the Persian town of Susa, he removed some 1180 tons of gold from the vaults. Staggering isn't it! Perhaps we can find out more about gold and treasures at another time, and the Queen of Sheba should get a mention as she gave Solomon a very handsome amount of gold.
 
But what. has Pharaoh Shishak to say to us today?
 
(i) If you meet a way-out character who tears up his cloak and gives you some of the pieces, watch out - there could be dangerous times ahead!
(ii) Solomon amassed great wealth, but this aroused the envy of his neighbours, and it was at great cost to his people.
(iii) God doesn't seem to have been angry at the wealth, but He was angry at the worship of foreign gods (to please Solomon's pagan wives) and the kings ceasing the live by the Commandments.
 
As St Paul later said, "money is the root of all kinds of evil." Still true, it's a dangerous two-edged weapon.

Anger Games

We live in a world consumed with strife, in Syria, in the Ukraine especially in the news, but across there globe there is strife. People become consumed by anger and bitterness. I was reflected on that when I was reading on ancient Buddhism, which was very much a protest movement. John Macquarrie called Buddha one of the mediators, the "stars in the human sky".

I particularly was taken by this quotation from Buddha, which I think is demonstrably true: "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." Anger, to Buddha, is a poison in the mind. It has a corrosive effect on relationships.

As Barbara O'Brien said:

"Buddhism teaches that anger is never justified, however. Our practice is to cultivate metta, a loving kindness toward all beings that is free of selfish attachment. "All beings" includes the guy who just cut you off at the exit ramp, the co-worker who takes credit for your ideas, and even someone close and trusted who betrays you. For this reason, when we become angry we must take great care not to act on our anger to hurt others. We must also take care not to hang on to our anger and give it a place to live and grow."

This poem is about anger, and why we must be mindful of its effects:

Anger Games
 
Time came crashing down, sledgehammer blows
That laid bare all pretence, a mirror face to face
Fury reflects in the silvered surface, anger shows
And time draws a finished line, losing the race
 
Across the globe, anger games erupt and destroy
The others become hate figures, to hurt and kick
And those that play the game, lash out to annoy
Like a hornets nest, coming to the attack so quick
 
Buddha spoke of compassion, of healing of wrong
How anger destroys from within, an acid of hate
That battle cries should cease, and sing a new song
To let go, to forgive, and unburden great weight
 
Anger games destroy us, and make us so blind
It is time for mindfulness, and time to be kind

Jersey Textiles Showcase 2014

This officially opened on Wednesday, and continues until Tuesday 11th March. For all details, see
http://www.theharbourgalleryjersey.com/textile.html

Here are a some of the main events / exhibitions.

Harbour Gallery

The Harbour Gallery is looking great with the new exhibition of the work from Jersey's talented textile artists, it is well stocked up with Oliver Twist and Clover products and many other textile products, Artesano Fairtrade yarn in the yarn shop , next to Helene and the Elf in gallery 3, lots of art and craft materials and special offers.

Workshops

The Workshop Details can be downloaded here, and the all important Workshop Timetable can be found here.

Full and half day workshops everyday until 11th March. Details at the Harbour Gallery.
PDF of Tutors details here:
http://www.theharbourgalleryjersey.com/JTS2014inside.pdf

• 
  
• Kim Thittichai - teaching Wednesday to Saturday
• Val Holmes - teaching Wednesday to Saturday
• Fay Maxwell - teaching Saturday to Tuesday
• Ineke Berlyn - teaching Wednesday to Saturday
• Anne Kelly - teaching Thursday to Monday
• Christine Witham - teaching Wednesday then Saturday to Tuesday
• Shirley McCann - teaching Wednesday to Saturday
• Brenda Scarman - teaching Thursday to Sunday
• Ruth Skinner - teaching all week
• Eleanor Holmes - teaching Saturday to Tuesday
• Fran Griffiths - teaching Wednesday to Friday then Tuesday
• Anniken Allis - teaching Friday to Tuesday

Some other events of note

Saturday 8 March

10am-2pm
Genuine Jersey Farm and Craft Market in the Square outside the Parish Hall

7pm
Beaulieu Convent School GCSE and A Level Art and Fshion  students fashion show at the Methodist Church on the Bulwarks. Tickets to be booked in advanced.

email: partintheframe@yahoo.co.uk for further info or booking or look on www.theharbourgalleryjersey.com

Monday 10 March 7-9 pm

A relaxing final evening. Ann Pallett will be demonsrating how to make exquisitely mouth-watering and beautiful sugar paste roses and hydrangeas. Relax and unwind in the cafe, and enjoy a buffet and soft drink first. Numbers limited - £12 for cost of buffet, wine and demonstration.

email: partintheframe@yahoo.co.uk for further info or booking or look on www.theharbourgalleryjersey.com

Exhibitions

Beside the workshops, free exhibitions will be taking place in the Harbour Gallery, the Methodist Church on the Bulwarks and St Aubin on the Hill Church, including the exhibition of work from the Open Competition and primary schools working to the theme of "Festivals". 

There is also a Texere exhibition of scarves in the Parish Hall,  and a Beaulieu exhibition of photography and painting in St Aubin on the Hill church. Why not wander in on Saturday or Sunday in the day?

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/theharbourgalleryjersey

http://www.theharbourgalleryjersey.com/

Election results

Nick Le Cornu and Sam Mezec have both been elected on a strong reform platform.

Political analyst Adrian Lee said: "Both candidates were explicit about where they stood. It is often said the electorate are fed up with talk of reform, but these candidates put packages together that linked constitutional reform with social reform. Looking at it from the outside, both put together a rather successful package using a mixture of traditional campaigning and digital media."

District 1

Nick Le Cornu 248
Gordon Forrest 201
Paul Le Clare 178
Roy Travert 70
Maureen Morgan 51
Turnout 15.3%

Pretty evenly distributed at the top, then a big gap. 47 between Nick and Gordon, and only 23 below that for Paul Le Clare. And then a big drop.

Low turnout bi-elections with one candidate are tricky things, and I think as well as Nick, the other two may well come back in October. If Paul doesn't get in October, though, he should give up. Mea culpa - I got this one wrong - I'd put Paul Le Clare where Nick was and vice versa. I goofed there! On the rest, I was right.

Although Gordon didn't make it, on canvassing, he went out and about like Nick, and put in a good deal of hard work; in fact, they saw each other a few times while out! Given that level of determination, I'd be surprised if he didn't try again.

Roy Travert didn't do very well and he's tried several times before. I suggest he gives up as well. There is a large gap between Paul Le Clare and Roy. He's just never going to make it. But he will probably try again.

Maureen's vote as a newbie was lowest, and not unexpected. I do think the lack of posters did not help, and I do not really think it is a big enough vote for her to contemplate standing again. Still, someone has to come last, and Gino Risoli messed up his nomination so was not standing. A silver lining in this election!

Well done, by the way to Nick Le Cornu for pointing out just after the election that his vote is well under half the votes cast, and making a play for Single Transferable Voting. It's about time we got electronic voting (even if at first at polling stations) which would make the calculations for STV simple.

Listening to the States debate on that, a few weeks back, I was struck by how low a view some politicians have of the intelligence of the general public. "They won't understand it". Translation: "I won't be elected".

District 2

Sam Mezec 277
Ian Philpot 99
Bernard Manning 87
Paul Huelin 65
Turnout 14%

This district was very different, with a large lead by Sam, streets ahead of the other candidates. Even with a low turnout, that bodes well for October (if he does well in the States). Ian Philpot was as I predicted second place, but Bernie Manning did surprisingly better than Paul Huelin. I'm pleased with that, but I don't think it is high enough to warrant standing again.

As for Paul, a lack lustre campaign, not much visible presence, and I'm not surprised, although I'd put him third and not fourth. Unless he changes his campaign strategy, I don't think it is worth him bothering in October.

I managed to get round to Springfield, and grabbed a manifesto off Sam and Bernie. It was interesting seeing the "election body language".  Sam had Geoff Southern with him, Bernie had one other person, and they were standing close together. Ian Philpot and Paul Huelin were standing close together, but at a distance from the others. Ian had as far as I could see, no other supporter, while Paul Huelin had about half a dozen, a distinctly "heavy mob" appearance!

Although I've not supported him, Bernie was very friendly, while I got a distinctive feeling of cold shoulder from the Huelin camp. He may have been disgruntled because he had to remove a poster in a car which was too close to Springfield (in the car park at the rear), and which apparently broke the rules.

BBC Radio Jersey had an interesting panel, with Geoff Southern, Richard Rondel, and everyone's favourite political guru, Adrian Lee. Unfortunately it also had a semi-deranged individual, who was allowed to ramble on for five minutes, spouting all kinds of nonsense on figures, and not making any kind of sense at all. Gems like - if you have 5,000 people who can vote, and five candidates, that is around 1,000 votes each. And at one point, he didn't even know how many people were standing in District 2. I turned off while my brain was still working; I'd sooner listen to Alan Maclean doing his smooth Jim Hacker impersonations, because at least he is a consummate professional at the noble art of sounding good and saying nothing.

The turnout was extremely low, even given fine weather, but just wait to see the Procureur's election in St Brelade next week. And at around 14% I believe in district number 2, it still compares favourably with Constables elections in St Peter Port, where 5% or less is the order of the day.

Philip Ozouf pointed out on Twitter that those who voted against the Referendum result in the States because of low turnout were quite happy for the vote to be legitimate here despite a lower turnout. A fair comment, but it is a bit like apples and pears. Voting for a politician is a temporary measure; elections come and they can be voted out. A constitutional change usually requires a higher turnout because it is by and large irreversible, which is why Jeremy Macon was right to want a threshold for acceptance.

Some blame for the low turnout was given (without any solid evidence apart from a few anecdotes) on the Referendum failure, but historically bi-elections (especially in election year) do not attract general election turnouts, either here or in the UK. That has not really been considered.

Most amusing thing - a dog sporting a Vote Sam Mezec rosette. Something to make passers by pause for thought. (I make no apology for that terrible pun).

Election Photos at Polling Station

Ian Philpott, Paul Huelin and supporters. 

Bernie Manning and supporter.

Sam Mezec and Geoff Southern in support.

Who Will Win?

These are political guesses, and just because I place someone high or low, that has nothing to do with whether I endorse them or not (readers of my blog elsewhere can probably work that out for themselves!). No one is going to be influenced by a blog on election day, so I don't really think this will make any difference. And like most political pundits, I'll probably be wholly wrong!
 
St Helier No. 1:
Gordon Forrest
Paul Le Claire
Nick Le Cornu
Maureen Morgan
Roy Travert
 
My guess is that Paul Le Claire may well top the poll. He only lost the last election by 17 votes, which is a relatively small margin, and largely because new incoming James Baker swept up a good many votes as a "fresh broom". James Baker is no longer an unknown quantity, and how well he fares in October will depend on how much time he has spent on his constituency, whereas his record of attendance in the House has been paltry. No one could accuse Paul Le Clare of that, and alongside a solid record as a critical but independent member, he has a fairly good record from his time in the States. As a director of a local insurance company, he has clearly also picked himself up from losing the vote, and shown that he could hold down a job outside of the States; that also is good for his credibility as someone who doesn't take defeat lying down.
 
Gordon Forrest, as the main establishment candidate - he is still on the Chamber of Commerce website, will probably pick up some votes from voters who live and work in the district; how well he will fare with residents as opposed to business folk (who often live outside of St Helier) is another matter. I'd place him as second. He has, by his own account, worn out a pair of shoes, so he's evidently been putting in the footwork. On the radio, he didn't come across as a very fluent speaker, and that may count against him
 
Nick le Cornu has working class credentials and Unite behind him. How well his somewhat confrontational style will do (them and us, comrades) has yet to be seen. I'm inclined to place him at number 3. However, some of his local knowledge - living in the district - may boost his ratings. His vivid yellow posters are a loud and bold statement of certainty, but perhaps he comes across as too sure of himself, and also too hectoring of other candidates. Nick would like it to be a two horse race - and all his rhetoric has been geared to that, against Gordon Forrest, but he has completely neglected the presence of Paul Le Clare, who will almost certainly take some votes from him.
 
Roy Travert has been around the block before, and not done brilliantly in the past. As the Fort Regent campaigner, although he has other policies, he comes across as something of a one trick pony. Nonetheless, the fact that he is definitely a worker (and not someone who speaks for workers in a posh voice) may count in his favour. And on radio, he also stood up firmly for "Middle Jersey", the people who pay all the taxes, and support all the benefits, which was a quite interesting (and I think very honest) play for the centre ground. I think Peter Body might have approved, and I think he said some home truths that people often forget. But I'd still put him towards the bottom, partly because I think he will lose from a split left vote, and secondly because he has stood a few times before and failed by quite a margin.
 
Maureen Morgan is a newcomer on the left, but independent. Given the split vote on the left, I don't think she will do particularly well, although I would add that is no reflection of her obvious intelligence; it's just the way the vote splits. I'd place her towards the bottom; part of that is because she is new, and being a newcomer always tends to be disadvantaged on split votes.  I admire her stand on posters, but C.P. Snow, who knew a thing or two about politics, always used to say that you had to be seen to be present. Frugality may seem like penny-pinching, just as Nick Le Cornu's many posters may seem like overkill.
 
St Helier No. 2:
Paul Huelin
Bernard Manning
Sam Mezec
Ian Philpott
 
I've seen some posters for all candidates, although more for Sam, and least for Paul. Apart from Ian Philpott, who is something of an outsider (from Grouville, and politically), a lot of the candidates have very similar stances on matters like immigration, GST, etc. This might lead to something of a split vote, and Ian Philpot would benefit from that.
 
Sam Mezec I would put as the front runner. That's nothing to do with the fact that I know him; I also think Paul Huelin has some very sound policies. But Sam has evidently been engaging with voters on the doorsteps, and I think that will work in his favour, as well as the freshness and enthusiasm and idealism that he has, tempered with a degree of realism. His policy platform is pretty sensible; he is against GST but cautiously so, realising that its removal needs sound business sense. He has been less inclined to rise to confrontation that his counterpart, Nick Le Cornu,
 
Ian Philpott will probably pick up votes from those who want a reassuring voice of experience, and to be honest, someone who sounds like Jim Hacker. His election statements are full of bland and vague pronouncements about managing change etc, but don't forget that sounding confident, and saying relatively little (his immigration statement is a masterpiece of vacuity) can win votes. People voted for Tony Blair's "New Labour" and David Cameron's Slick Conservatism. Style over substance can win votes, and has done many times. His policy on drinking age raised to 21 will alienate some young voters, and probably some parents, and is a lazy kind of armchair suggestion that would have been better left hidden. But I think he'll probably press Sam quite closely, especially as the left vote is split.
 
Paul Huelin has some solid policies behind him, such as CCTV, and his position on Sunday trading, GST, and immigration; his endorsement of the honorary system and Parish hall enquiries as a middle way which deals with offences while avoiding criminalising young people is something which should be said more often (and a recent academic study looks at it as a good model). But he doesn't seem to have great visibility, apart from one or two posters, and online has been virtually non-existence. Not that translates to votes, it doesn't, but it does add to visible presence and getting the message out (and answering questions). Even Ian Philpott put up a Facebook page quite soon, and if a 69 year old can, surely anyone can.  I had ranked Paul as a front runner at the start, but now I'd be inclined to put him third.
 
Some people stand, and stand, and just don't seem to make it. It's what I call "loser's luck", almost as if by losing quite badly a number of times, the electorate already know who you are and write you off. I'm very much afraid that I'd place Bernie Manning there. He's presentable, he has some posters out and about, and his policies are not bad, but he's been around the block and is something of a known quantity. He has to persuade the people who voted for someone else rather than him to change their minds, and that is difficult. Also, without wishing to be snobbish, the promotion of himself comes across as a "DJ", with night club connections, and I'm not sure people vote for DJs. If you are a mechanic, like Roy Travert, people see you have a skill, but being a DJ, while I'm sure does require skills of its own, just does not seem as if it does. So I'm afraid I think he'll come bottom.