Thursday, 16 May 2013
Maison de Ville in the sloppy news
Does the basic journalism of "Who, what, why, when, where?" no longer apply to our local media?
It's here on Google Maps (Streetview), up La Pouquelaye.
(btw, look at the website for the home at www.sthelier.je and compare the photo they've used with the view Streetview - looks familiar?! Can we wonder "copyright theft"?)
Oh, and as for the "nearby" St.Ewold's (maybe on the map, but it's still a long-ish indirect walk for even the fittest youngsters) that involves taking a right from Trinity Hill here (Streetview) and it looks like this (Streetview).
Friday, 5 October 2012
It's good, it's bad, it's good, it's bad
It seems that every couple of weeks there's a story about how the numbers of jobless have fallen, and then a few days later the opposite comes along with job losses, gloom and doom.
For instance, just 9 days ago on 26th Sept, the JEP headline was "Drop in number of jobless".
http://www.thisisjersey.com/news/2012/09/26/drop-in-number-of-jobless/
"UNEMPLOYMENT fell last month with 70 fewer people out of work than in July - one of the biggest drops in the last two years."
Good.
Then along came The Bad last night, with Condor Logistics closing, and
"THE number of job vacancies in the private sector hit a 13-year low in June, according to figures released today."
http://www.thisisjersey.com/news/2012/10/03/labour-figs/
MAKE YOUR FREAKING MINDS UP! It's been flip-flop for the last couple of years. First it's hopeful, then it's not. Can you stick to the truth for once?!
Look, we all know it's bad. The media told us a recession was coming, so we all tightened our belts and stopped spending, firms laid people off or stopped hiring in preparation, and voila - a self-fulfilling prophesy came to pass.
There are a couple of thousand people looking for work, wondering how they will manage, many with no experience of life without a job before, hoping against hope that they can still provide for their loved ones while fearing losing everything that they have worked for all their lives. Homes at risk. Relationships under massive stress. Income Support not forthcoming until you've lost it all and you're on your knees. Social Security contributions grudgingly covered but with the threat that your entitlements may be hit in years to come.
Jobseekers are told off weekly by smug Social Security staff (from the comfort of their safe desks) for not trying hard enough despite competing against 2000+ other hopefuls for every job available. Ignorant idiots (with a nice comfy lifestyle so **** the rest of us!) post comments online about 'benefits culture' as if it makes any difference whatsoever until we every have full employment. Until there's a job for everyone, all it means when one person finally gets a job is that someone else has to go without!
Employers increasingly insist upon a degree for jobs where aptitude and experience would be far more likely an indicator of value, leaving those without further education on the scrap heap. And if you're past a Certain Age, forget it. You'll be in a menial job (unless you know the Right People of course and your face fits) on terrible pay for the rest of your life. Probably Part-Time, or even a Zero-Hours Contract so there's no obligation to give you work on a dependable basis.
Some jobs are advertised when the post is already filled, and they're only going through the motions of making it look like it's fair, when in fact they already knew all along that their old friend has the job in the bag.
People are scared. No wonder the spending is going down, making things worse of course, a self-perpetuating cycle of slippery slope - something like that - so typical of bad government. Even people with relatively safe jobs are cutting back, just in case, and prices are rising, taxes biting hard, is there any way out?
And all the time the idiots in charge of this mess believe that pouring petrol on the fire is the best way forward! Poor economy? Bring more people in! Come on in, Europeans, Jersey's lovely! Jobs galore, the locals don't mind!
So that's even more outsiders placing even more demands upon the infrastructure, more traffic, more use of publicly provided services, making things more expensive and crowded for everyone and taking away jobs that the locals could do!
When will we learn that Jersey is FULL, (stupidly congested now) and we should sort out life for our own people before letting in even more to make things worse? How hard can it be to licence each job and insist upon x years of residence before anyone can apply? Immigration is killing Jersey, because it's leading to mass unemployment, the FEAR of unemployment, lack of spending is taking fuel from the fire of the economy, and the whole thing is slowly imploding!
And the happily-wealthy just shrug - they are OK - and they simply assume it will get better.
I despair.
Monday, 7 November 2011
Coastal crash - more sloppy reporting
"Three teenagers are being treated in hospital after the car they were in plunged over a cliff in St Martin.
It went over the side of the road between Anne Port and Archirondel just before midnight.
It came to rest upside down against a tree - which stopped it rolling over the sea wall onto the rocks below.
Paramedics and firefighters attended, and two boys aged 19 and 17, and a 15 year old girl were taken to A&E.
The driver suffered a suspected broken wrist but the two passengers are believed to have suffered more serious injuries, although Police have told us they're not critical.
Watch Commander Chris Love said. "These 3 youths have been involved in a very serious incident. However, it would have been a lot worse had their vehicle rolled from its final resting place onto the rocks below."
"Had that been the case specialised rescue equipment and extra resources would have been called for. Emergency crews would have been faced with a more difficult and prolonged extrication, increasing the risk of injuries already sustained"
BBC Jersey also says "between Archirondel and Anne Port".
Only Channel TV correctly reported "near Archirondel".
If you're a radio listener you'd think it had happened near the BBQ area on the headland near La Crete quarry. The only recent damage to the roadside banks that I can see is actually well before that area.
It looks like, heading from St.Catherine's towards Gorey, the driver took this bend (by the old Les Arches) too fast, over-corrected, and failed to straighten up quickly enough to stay on the road.
It's actually on a straight, just after the left-hander, and not where previous accidents have happened at the headland farther on, or just past Jeffrey's Leap on the other side of Anne Port!
On some news website comments pages people are criticising the lack of barriers here, and it does appear to be in the same place (from the same direction) as another from 2010 (BBC).
All in all I'm left with the sour taste of sloppy journalism again - there was no mention of the direction in which they were travelling, or the precise location. And it's sensationalism again too, accidents happen all over the island, but just because it's on a coastal road and NEARLY ended up in greater fall onto rocks, this somehow seems more spectacular and may be more likely to lead to knee-jerk over-reaction.
The fact that several accidents in this region in recent years have all been survived without death shows how much safer it is to crash here compared to hitting walls and large trees at the roadside elsewhere!