Jersey Reform Day.
This site is dedicated to the day, now officially recognised annually by the States of Jersey, to mark the anniversary of the events of 28 September 1769.
Jersey's own Independence or Bastille Day.
Planning and Environment Minister Rob Duhamel introduced a couple of charming Frenchmen to an audience at the Town Hall on Friday 26 April. They share a dream....
Below is a video of the initial 30 minutes of their presentation.
Unfortunately, the battery powered camcorder lost its energy after this so we are unable to bring you the technical details to show how compressed air might be used to power cars, buses, boats and generators but there is plenty of information on the Internet...
just Google MDI cars or compressed air cars or something similar and your computer will be full of images and data...
besides a great deal of sceptical comments.
For his part Deputy Duhamel was full of enthusiasm (although he did not take-off his overcoast for the
evening - which was strange) and suggested that this might be the high-tech way to solve Jersey's looming economic problems and put some diversity into the diminishing Finance sector equation...
That this might be just another canbedone type pie in the sky endeavour was a common worry at this meeting but the repaired and reprieved Boeing 787 has flown in service today...so anything is possible perhaps? Watch here and decide for yourself...but don't give up entirely on the potatoes yet....
Assistant Minister Deputy Roy Le Herissier, Hugh Raymond and Roy Travert feature here in a lively debate about the recent Green Paper - but the time for public comment is running out.
This is not just about "sport" provision in Jersey but relates to many issues and "health" is at the basis of so much of the discussion - but who shall pay for the many and varied facilities. Not least, who shall pay when activities need a "subsidy" from public funds?
User Pays, Privatisation, health, disability and care, Fort Regent, Rugby Club funding in preference to other sports, travel outside the Island etc etc.
The scope is very wide - have you commented yet?
Courtney Huisman and Andy Farmer (interviewed here below) run a Jersey registered non-profit organisation specialising in sea turtle conservation, Littlefeet Environmental.
YOU can be involved in their projects here in Jersey or overseas either as a volunteer or by raising funds.
To discover more, watch the video then visit Courtney and Andy at the Barclays Jersey Boat Show 4 – 6 May 2013, St Helier harbour/marina.
Or Google on - line for further info on turtles or directly at www.littlefeet.org.uk
Later this year, Littlefeet Environmental plan to have a stall at the “Jersey Reform Day” celebrations at Reg’s Garden, St Brelade on Saturday 28 September when other conservation groups will also be invited.
Follow the blogs and Facebook for more details.
There is more to life than politics and A, B or C....
The clock is ticking and the public have it within their grasp to change Jersey's political history...
The following two videos show some views from Sam, Lyndon, Ben, Andrew, Phillipa, Steve and Jeremie whilst Sadie unwittingly probably makes this evening's most powerful case for reform through the Referendum ballot box.
Gary - released from the constraints of the tv studio - refereed the proceedings with enthusiasm and appropriate humour.
Change is in the air that young people breathe...
Proceed with caution...drive home safely says the mother hen of the Parish...
The first is about 4 minutes long and was broadcast by Channel TV around 1993.
It was probably the last project undertaken by Guernsey resident journalist Sarah Montague before she moved on to the UK where she became an established presenter of "Newsnight" alongside Paxo on BBC 2 TV and "Today" for BBC Radio 4.
The subject is the lack of Human Rights' safeguards in the Channel Islands.
The second is about 27 minutes of serious documentary broadcasting from BBC South West with journalist Sally Mountjoy. She makes a determined attempt to expose the disregard for "Womens' Rights" in the Channel Islands in 1991.
Most extraordinary of course is that nothing has really changed so far as "rights" are concerned in the Islands. Both of these items are still valid and could be broadcast today. Human Rights are still ignored across the Channel Islands. Treaties remain unsigned and specific groups such as "women" (half the population) are discriminated against on a daily and institutional basis...
But, just what have over 100 elected States Members been doing in these Islands since these documentaries were broadcast twenty years ago? Where are the reforms that should have been achieved?
What too has happened to the media over these two decades because neither the BBC in Jersey, Guernsey or the South West nor CTV would undertake such investigative journalism today.
No time or resources are available now but even more worrying is that there is no obvious enthusiasm among local journalists to undertake such challenging tasks.
Why should this be?
Channel TV Special Report about 1993 (above). This was broadcast originally at 6.00pm as part of the news at that time when CTY regularly researched serious social issues and promoted discussions. What has happened to the archive of such material held by CTV and is there the technical capacity to store it safely and access it now and in the future...?
The BBC South West documantary (above) is about 27 minutes long and was originally broadcast in 1991.
When has BBC Jersey or Guernsey attempted anything similar in recent years?
We acknowledge with thanks the efforts of those who produced such programmes in the past and that we are enabled to post them here today.
Some people live in a place all their life and never understand what makes it tick.
Prof Prem Sikka has been in Jersey for just two days but has arrived at some very critical conclusions already.
Of course, he has visited before and has a political agenda but there comes a time when such people as Prem and Richard Murphy or John Christensen really should be listended to.
Others within the Island have been expressing critical thoughts for many years too and been dismissed by the "establishment" as troublemakers or cranks or worse but such learned people as Prof Sikka should not be so casually dismissed.
His observations on Jersey's failure to achieve acceptable standards of "good governance" are especially relevant now - at a time when Jersey is trying to grapple with reform of the democratic/electoral system.
The spectre of the UK government's restorative role in the Turks and Caicos Islands should be in the minds of all residents of small British territories around the world but especially those that are involved in dubious "tax haven" activities.
Prof Sikka meets all sorts of people around the world and at his Essex University where undergraduates and graduates from over 100 nationalities study. Here he expresses some of his departing thoughts in a ten minutes interview but what a pity that the Jersey government does not engage with his mind more usefully? What a shame that such a person was not invited to serve on the Electoral Commission!
Over the past few years Jersey has removed from office a Chief of Police, the Chief Executive Officer of the States administration, the Auditor General, and now the Church of England Dean is "suspended".
A States' Senator has been imprisoned and hounded and the Chief Magistrate too is currently in jail...A local accountant has just been imprisoned in Australia in connection with the most serious tax evasion case known in that country, finance scandals on an immense scale with international dimensions are regularly being revealed - usually in foreign courts - whilst other local accountants, lawyers and other professionals face prosecution and sometimes jail, in Jersey....
Is this Jersey administration as currently constituted able to provide "good governance"? Is it fit to offer finance services to the wide world?
Prof Prem Sikka is a frequent writer on accountancy and related economic/political matters in National newspapers and regularly advises government departments/politicians. He travels and lectures widely.
see www.guardian.co.uk/profile/premsikka
AABA is the Association for Accountancy & Business Affairs which he heads.
see visar.csustan.edu/aaba/home.html
Membership is just £10 p annum.
Jersey ATTAC in conjunction with TJN (the Tax Justice Network) invited Prem Sikka and John Christensen to Jersey for a few days in April 2013.
An informal discussion and meeting was held at the Post Horn in St Helier and the following videos record some of the proceedings.
These commence with an introductory talk from John and Prem followed by answers to some of the many questions posed.
The sequence of these has been modified here slightly to help the flow and because my editing skills are inadequate.
Initial talk (above) - about 22 minutes
Cyprus now - Jersey next? About 3 minutes
Question Two (part one) About 4 minutes
Qestion two (cont'd) About 3 minutes
John Christensen (of Viking origin) waxes lyrical about some Scandinavian models About 1.5 minutes
ATTAC Jersey is a member of the International Tax Justice Network and TJN
Contacts; Jersey ATTAC http:jerseyattac.blogspot.fr/
TJN http:www.taxjustice.blogspot.fr/
AABA is the Association for Accountancy and Business Affairs headed by Prem Sikka at
visar.csustan.edu/aaba
Richard Murphy is on Facebook
ATTAC translates as the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Benefit of Citizens
