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.
I bumped into Gill Curtis today.
That's not unusual because I see her and hear her words all the time - although she died in 2008.
Gill was of course an artist with vision who worked for the Jersey Pottery for years - but I knew her mostly because of her campaigning for equality and how she saw the unfairnesses of discrimination - most especially from the perspective of disability.
Sadly, I have no recording of her speaking although I would expect the BBC or CTV to have something in their archives but I am provoked by her memory into action whenever I encounter "poor design."
So today I encountered some aspects of poor design that she would have campaigned against - yet they are still commonplace today.
Many people will dismiss these observations as trivial but I try to remind people that we all start life as helpless babies needing everything to be done for us and many of us experience vulnerability again - personally or otherwise - as we make this curious journey towards mortality.
Gill helped me with the Liberation 50 Human Rights seminars 25 years ago and its so sad that she is not here today to help organise something similar for Liberation 75.
Maybe this will provoke others to volunteer.
Here follows a few words about Gill Curtis and her major work in Jersey which sadly remains unfinished.
Anybody who would like to record a video interview or wants more information about a possible Liberation 75 Human Rights Project can contact me Mike Dun by PM on Facebook or tel Jersey 862929
Social Security Minister Deputy Judy Martin spoke at the Jersey Disability Partnership meeting on 16 October 2019.
The Deputy has been given responsibility for "disability matters" including the implementation of the strategy that is a long time coming. I don't know her precise terms of reference or responsibilities.
Deputy Martin was first elected to the States in 2000 and this meeting was held in the St Paul's Centre main hall where acoustics is always a problem.
No microphones were in use on this occasion which is especially bad when disability in all its form was the basis of the agenda - although a lectern with microphone facility was visible.
The quality of sound on the video posted here is poor and questions from the audience were especially difficult to hear or record.
Other speakers were also recorded and will be posted if I can salvage enough material that can be heard.
I regret not having the technical ability yet to post captions on my blogs but am trying to learn.
I have campaigned on discrimination and disability issues for a lifetime and despair that the people and government of Jersey will ever take this problem seriously. There will never be adequate funding and the endless talking and writing of reports seems to be some sort of an obsession.
I have studied and gained a qualification in Environmental Access and Design which includes undertaking access audits.
Of course there are groups and societies and some businesses doing great and meaningful work but my criticism are mainly directed at the Jersey government and the States Members who have consistently failed to tackle the immense problems that affect so many people.
Deputy Martin says she will be encouraging ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities - which is good - but it is not necessary to wait years for this to happen.
If the government is serious it can follow the standards laid down without actually ratifying through the UK - and Deputy Martin can do this. There is no need to wait for others (such as the UN) to push the local agenda.
When Deputy Martin was an Assistant Minister with special responsibility for children many years ago the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child had not been ratified but I am not aware that she used it to guide her political decision making.
Subsequently Jersey has experienced the painful Independent Jersey Care Inquiry and the exposure of the "Jersey Way" and much much more and this cost nearly £25 millions. But it was only as a result of that Inquiry's work that the Convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified for Jersey.
Sadly, I am not at all convinced that Deputy Martin has grasped the scale of the problem that exists in Jersey or the potential funding that will be required. But I wish her well.
My video recording of Deputy Judy Martin follows below;
I welcome comments and will record video interviews with those who express an interest.
Contact me as Mike Dun by PM on Facebook
The "Lord Nelson" is in St Helier for a few days and is open to the public. I went down to have a look since she is a fine vessel and always delights the eye....
but this time I was a bit unlucky because she is always moored in the least visible place and it was a low spring-tide due and she was already a long way down from the quayside...
However, by chance I met a couple on holiday who had also come down to see her and had a particular interest since the "Lord Nelson" flies under the flag of the Jubilee Sailing Trust and is specifically designed for people with disabilities to enjoy.
This elderly couple had managed to reach the quay - the wife pushing her husband in a wheelchair from their hotel near the Howard Davis Park - a considerable distance - on a very hot day.
The ship was not open until 2pm for the public (it was about 12.30pm when this was recorded) so no on-board visits were possible but I was very saddened at the poor access standards on-shore and the lack of information or directions.
Access down to the vessel is via a very steep ramp to the pontoon which could be very dangerous to many and if this couple had managed to get down, I don't think they would have climbed up again without the help of a crane.
It is all very sad especially since this vessel is all about access for all and the new Disability Discrimination laws are arriving in Jersey soon.
Also very sad is the state of the whole quay under management of the Ports of Jersey. This is certainly not a location to spend any time to enjoy the ships - a family day out at little cost. Parking is a nightmare if the signs are to be believed. This is potentially a great place for people to come and spend a few enjoyable hours....the couple of holidaymakers were last seen hurrying back towards St Helier....
21 Jersey residents are known to have died in Concentration Camps during WW2 and about 300 more were deported to continental prison camps for such offences as listening to the radio
Jersey's Holocaust Memorial Day is centred upon their memory but with a world-wide perspective.
Every year there is a guest speaker, readings, prayers and the laying of wreaths by officials of the Island and many groups and individuals.
Unfortunately, Jersey has not ratified such important UN Conventions as CEDAW - to Eliminate All forms of Discrimination Against Women - and the government does not treat human rights and the elimination of discrimination in all its forms as a priority.
Discrimination on the grounds of Disability has not yet been enacted for example and the relevant UN Convention has also not yet been ratified.
Very little information about the application of human rights and related international treaties and obligations is published by the Jersey administration.
Chief Minister Ian Gorst laid a wreath today on behalf of the Government of Jersey but declined to be interviewed.
This year Bob Le Sueur MBE delivered the keynote speech which is presented in full here;
Sandra and her daughter have featured in several previous blog postings and even the JEP and other "accredited media" have reported on her housing and related problems.
The "black mould" of condensation was the most recent focus of attention but her difficulties are even more profound because Sandra has disabilities which require her to have specially adapted accommodation.
It's quite simple really. For example, if you cannot open windows because they cannot be reached or are too stiff to operate - then good ventilation cannot be achieved and condensation results....
There is no point in blaming the tenant - the simple fact is that the flat is poorly designed for her specific needs - and after all, we all need to have windows that can be opened whether we are classed as "disabled" or otherwise....
Yet there are more specific design needs that follow from disability - such as grab handles in appropriate places - especially around toilets and baths - and there is a need for extra space to accommodate wheelchairs or other disability aids...and to use the toilet or bath or even to move around other rooms.
As we say now, its not rocket science - but you would think that the Jersey Housing Department has never had to consider such matters before because they have offered Sandra the key to the door of the flat as shown on the videos that follow...
The departmental staff seem to think that it's an improvement but in fact it offers worse accommodation than Sandra's current flat in Liberation Court (which is less than 20 years old).
As can be seen the latest flat is just simply not suitable for a person with her severe disabilities and as we have already told Minister Deputy Green many times before ( and he has personal knowledge of disability in his own family) - standard issue flats are just simply not suitable for this tenant or others with similar needs.
What is Sandra supposed to do with her (two) disability scooters - where can they be parked and charged from the electricity supply?
They are her legs after all so cannot be dispensed with at a whim....and they are very heavy and her daughter has already injured her back by trying to move them about ....and we have already complained to the Fire Department about the danger of parking these to block escape routes because there is nowhere else...
So please look at these fours parts of our video and try to put yourself in Sandra's seat....
...and bear in mind that "Social Housing" is soon to be handed over to the private company called Andium from July and that Deputy Green the Housing Minister has already announced his intention to quit this office with his eyes on the Health Department - where the declared new policy is that people should care for themselves "in their own homes"...!
With Andium under the Chair of a UK resident receiving £40,000 for his 30 hours annual attention to the problems of Sandra and thousands of others with real housing needs and the Health service already reeling from shortages and inadequacies and a similar planned "user pays" policy - the future looks ever more grim for those with specific needs and limited resources of their own....
And whilst we have your attention - why is Sandra's 18 years old daughter not treated as her carer and rewarded financially and given the appropriate support too...?
The "States Building" in the Royal Square is Jersey's most important public building.
It is not only the seat of government but also houses the offices of the Bailiff and the Royal Courts, Judicial Greffe and Scrutiny Offices and their administration....but of course it is not really a "public" building at all because we - the paying public - are only admitted "under sufferance".
Moves are afoot to make public access even more restricted soon with stricter surveillance at the entrances with body and baggage searches following some organisation or other's "Report".
Of course this will inevitably be another excuse to employ yet more "private" security officers who are not answerable to us and will cost a great deal of money - although they will probably be employed on minimal wages under Zero hours "contracts."
How much better it would be to spend the money to address the ancient problem of poor acoustics within the Courts for most people - especially in the museum piece that is Royal Court No 1 - or to improve the ridiculous and restrictive circular stairs that are the public's only means of access to the "Gallery" of the States Chamber.
If the same "organisation" that reported on the security of States Members etc was equally concerned about the welfare of the public, that "Gallery" would have been closed years ago on safety grounds. Never mind that it is totally inaccessible to those with mobility impairments or who experience "vertigo" and there are no public toilets of course.
It may be appropriate that the well named "Cock and Bottle" pub in the Royal Square is generally happy to provide the "necessary" that our government is not...for those that can face the descent and climb back up the stairs....
Meanwhile from now until mid- May this most important public building is shrouded in scaffolding for the purposes of redecoration.
Usually this activity precedes a Royal Visit or some other jolly occasion but, once again the money would probably be better spent on improving facilities for the paying public...
As it is, the scaffolding serves to further reduce access to the building for many - as the interview with newly elected Deputy Le Cornu here explains...
Yours truly spoke with about half a dozen others from our elected reps in the Royal Square and none would agree to be recorded but it is truly amazing, that on the very same day that the feeble Anti-Discrimination Regulations were being debated, none of our States Members or the Law Officers, or Bailiff or Dean or any others in authority had even noticed that the scaffolding was a barrier to access for so many members of the public who might want to engage with the government, or the courts etc etc
The ramp upon which the scaffolding is erected is the only means of access for many and there is no attempt to give information about alternatives or assistance.
The Minister with responsibility for this building through TTS is Deputy Lewis. We were not able to find him to ask about this although he did appear before a Scrutiny Panel yesterday but no questions or concerns were raised about this matter there...
Several States Members today promised to raise the matter when prompted in the Square....we will report again in due course.
Once again Holocaust Day has been marked in Jersey with some short speeches, a few prayers and wreath-laying.
For the families of the 21 with Jersey origins who died in the “death camps” there are personal and painful reasons for participating in these proceedings but why members of the government and other VIPs turn out each year is not so clear.
This year we were told that MIND was laying a wreath for the first time in recognition of all the physically and mentally sick people who were persecuted by the “Nazis” and Senator Routier, who has a disabled son, was chosen to represent them.
Quite why his son or any other disabled person was not allowed to lay the wreath was not explained and it may not be relevant because the Senator has had his own health challenges.
Yet he declined to be interviewed for this blog on the ground that it was too emotional and he would not be drawn into the wider deficiencies of the prevailing and active discrimination against disabled persons in Jersey.
Nor would he comment on Jersey’s continuing failure to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People or the fact that even Guernsey has now agreed to a whole Strategy on Disability which includes Ratification of International standards and many other progressive measures for that Bailiwick….
Jersey’s Chief Minister, Senator Gorst also declined to be interviewed in order to update last year’s somewhat inadequate Human Rights message as did the Dean who spoke at the indoor ceremony, said a prayer and lit a candle as usual. His brief address included the rhetorical question – What am I doing here?
The Dean meant at the ceremony rather than here on earth (I presume) but if there is any confusion he still refused to be drawn into a discussion in front of my little camera on the ground that he had to leave to attend a meeting.
Strangely he was talking to influential friends in the miserable outside weather long after I had retreated to somewhere warmer but I still failed to find anybody prepared to speak on camera…
It was the “history” aspect that I particularly wanted to examine since a special wreath laying guest was an historian who had only recently discovered that his grandfather from Jersey had died in a prison camp for failing to surrender a radio. His “crime” had been revealed by the Jersey Attorney General and the St Saviour Police during 1943 and so his fate was sealed along with others of the 21 who died because information was supplied by locals to the occupying forces….
It was this omission from the 2014 Memorial proceedings that bothered me because it is evident that more and more information is leaking out from restricted archives and other sources in Jersey and elsewhere. So just when and how will Channel Islanders deal with the more unpleasant facts of collusion? Who will ultimately decide whether the names of collaborators should be made as public as the identities of those who died or were persecuted as a result of their unfortunate actions?
Channel TV a few years ago, named the two sisters who shopped a whole family for listening to a radio during the Occupation. Their selfish action caused a brother and sister to be sent to the death camps and only the man returned.
In other countries there was immediate post-war justice and rough retribution for those who collaborated. Trials are still taking place for those few ancient survivors who have long-concealed war crimes to answer for.
But nothing has been done so far in the Channel Islands.
As always, it is easier to blame somebody else for the ills in society rather than looking too closely at ourselves.
Thus The Germans aka NAZIS are a very convenient label to stick on the wrongs that occurred during and after the 1930s and it is interesting at least that the various speakers listed the victim groups – Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Freemasons, Disabled and Sick, Gypsies, Homosexuals – but in every instance could not utter the word - Communists….
It was the Communists after all who started this particular deathly and discriminatory ball rolling in the 1930s and the rest of the world did little or nothing then because their extermination satisfied a wider capitalist game plan….
Unfortunately, after a brief dalliance with respectability it is the Communists who are once again even more “despised” than all the other groups put together in our Capitalist dominated world.
So, although the speakers such as the Dean claimed that we are ALL children of the same God and that we have to respect the rights even of those that we do not agree with – he and they do not really mean it….
History has a strange ability to reveal itself. Secrets have a habit of seeping into the public domain.
Last year there were 22 names on the Jersey Holocaust roll-call but one has now been removed because the person did not die.
Even a trained historian did not realise that his grandfather was a victim along with so many millions of others from diverse groups and world-wide origins.
The record – officially or otherwise – is constantly subject to revision.
Jersey’s Holocaust Memorial ceremony needs to extend its terms of reference soon if it is to be taken as seriously as the subject deserves.
Here (above) is the latest interview with Sam Lally.
This is the fourth such interview published here or on other blogs and we promised from the outset to follow his progress....
The godd news from Guernsey is that the States there has voted to accept the Disability Strategy for that Island (on 27 November).
This followed intense lobbying from the Guernsey Disability Alliance and the "We all matter,eh?" campaign which posted many short interviews with many people with "disabilities".
Sam is a pioneeer in Jersey because he willingly participates on this blog - but of course it should not be necessary. Our States Members will ignore this latest interview just as they have ignored the previous ones and just as they ignored Evelyn's posting here a couple of weeks ago...
Of course its not just States Memebers who are lacking - there are thousands of people in Jersey who have first hand experiemce of disability issues but still do very little to change things - as they are doing in Guernsey - by lobbying and campaigning.
Today the focus will be on the "Soup Kitchen" in the Royal Square and a large number of our elected reps will be warmed by their hot soups in exotic flavours - but the fact is that homelessness is a growing problem in Jersey and more and more people are calling upon the various shelters and charitable groups for help.
In a previous year we linked the demise of "Roseneath" which failed just before Xmas and the somewhat hypocritical purposes of the annual soup kitchen.
Well here we are again. Roseneath is about to re-open so we are told but at Scrutiny last week it was revealed that sixteen "homeless" youngsters appeared from nowhere when two others were found accommodation through a spin-off from the Health service. They will be too young for Roseneath and the whole question of mixing young people with adults was raised - but without any prospect of a solution.
Soup is not the solution . It might help to raise awareness for some but our States Members dragged out from discussing the Budget need to look at the fundamental social problems that Social Security and Health Departments are failing to address. The "get tough" Social Security Minister has lost his way on so many basic problems that affect people in the real world.
Sam Lally's progress is a useful monitor of that process but he seems remarkably reluctant to criticise......
Above are two of the previous Sam Lally interviews. Spot the differences...
Here we return to an old theme because progress and improvement are so slow.
How is it possible that some buildings - especially important public buildings - are still so inaccessible in 2013?
This short video looks at the Planning and Environment HQ at South Hill which is where the minimum standards for new or altered buildings are laid down and administered. Yet this building achieves the worst standard of any government public building in Jersey.
It is simply scandalous of course.
But it is not just that disabled people find it impossible or at the very least, difficult to get past the front door but the facilities within are totally inadequate too. Thus, there is not even a hearing loop on the reception desk....and we must remember that disability can strike at the employees in this building just as much as the general public who might want to consult a planner or other building expert. There is no accessible toilet in this building for the use of employees or visitors - so the whole "employment of disabled persons" policy of the States of Jersey is reduced to a farce by such omissions.
We spoke with the chief Building Inspector but he would not be recorded which is a great pity - especially since he kept referring us to "others" with supposed responsibility for access.
We have asked the Minister for an interview and invited any architects to come forward too to show how Jersey is facing up to the challenges of an ageing population and so many injured people surviving accidents and illnesses with "disabilities".
Good design is not just about the way a building "looks"
It is no longer enough to accept only the minimum standards as laid down for new buildings. Architects and designers should be exceeding the basic and striving for much higher aspirations in ALL classes of buildings. Important buildings and public places need to be updated and modernised so that discrimination against those with disbilities or other differences is constantly challenged.
In a few years we are promised that anti-discrimination laws will apply in Jersey so that it will become illegal to provide services to the public from buildings that fail to achieve universal standards. This building like so many others will be fit only for demolition.
So here we are again with another Jersey Architecture Week being organised to look at the best of design in buildings - but who is really setting the pace on functional design in this Island? Will any architect or designer respond to this invitation and show the public the high standards of universal accessibility that can or should be achieved in the 21st century?
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?
Shelaine Green of the Guernsey Disability Alliance is interviewed here about some very positive progress regarding disability matters in Guernsey which make Jersey's achievements look somewhat meagre.
Shelaine is not so critical of Jersey but the simple fact is that Guernsey now has;
An elected representative in the States chosen by public election as the champion for disability issues - currently Deputy Gollop (see previous blog posting).
A dedicated civil servant for disability issues on a 5 years contract.
An agreed comprehensive Disability Strategy - which includes international obligations - to be submitted to the States for approval in May.
Shelaine Green came to the Disaibility Alliance via Headway Guernsey and the Disibility Forum.
The Alliance represents 34 different disability charities of all sorts plus individuals. It aims to speak with one voice to the States.
Show me anything remotely similar in Jersey and I will eat my hat.
Please come back Gill Curtis MBE - Jersey needs you.
Will any Jersey States member volunteer to be the champion for disabled people here?
Form a queue please....
