| Author |
Message |
Anon
Guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 - 02:12 pm: |   |
I HAVE just returned from holiday and my family is saddened to learn that the Environment Department has stopped children aged over 10 from cycling in Saumarez Park.
My son is 11 and has difficulties with his fine and gross motor skills. Because of his coordination problems, learning to ride a bike has not come easily to him. However, he enjoys bike riding and is improving with the practice that he undertakes at the park.
While many of his peers are now confidently able to ride their bikes on the road, among the very busy traffic that we experience here in Guernsey, my son is not at that level yet. It seems such a shame that children such as he, and I’m sure there are others like him, cannot continue to improve their bike riding in the safe environment of Saumarez Park.
Children develop at different stages and some have more difficulties than others, and I feel disappointed that Environment have not taken this into consideration and have chosen such a young cut-off age. After all, most schoolchildren do not take their cycling proficiency test until they are 11. Are the 10 year-olds therefore expected to be cycling on the roads before they have received formal road safety training?
Name and address withheld. |
Anon
Guest
| | Posted on Monday, August 23, 2010 - 02:44 pm: | |
ONCE again we see the relevant departments with no clue as to what the local people need. The children of this island have little to do as it is and they decide to restrict all of their fun at Saumarez Park. In all these years that the park has been open, when have we seen an accident reported? What is the point in imposing restrictions when they are not policed?
If you see a gang of youths over the age of 14 in the play park or an 11-year-old riding a cycle, what are you meant to do? Call the police station just to be told, sorry we have no one available to deal with this ‘major incident’? And if they do manage to send an officer, by the time they arrive, the perpetrators will be gone.
From past knowledge I do not know of anyone who walks the park enforcing these ridiculous laws. For heavens sake, leave the locals to what little they have left in this island to do.
The flumes at Beau Sejour – another popular pastime for children and parents. They claim that they are little used any more. Is it any wonder when they are hardly ever open and even when the timetable says they are, they have no staff to man them so are not operating?
Priorities, don’t make me laugh. No budget to maintain flumes at £40,000, yet £400,000 voted for amenities at the prison says it all.
Libetybel@ cwgsy.net.
Name and address withheld. |
Anon
Guest
| | Posted on Monday, August 09, 2010 - 02:55 pm: | |
I ADMIRED David Jones’ recent rant about anti-social behaviour and the closed mind of our States to addressing these problems, or at the least being open about them.
I and my neighbours have lived with two examples of such behaviour for many years, where nobody seems able to seriously attempt to correct matters.
We live by a school – the very place where society should be educating its future citizens in how to behave and disciplining them if they misbehave.
One of the problems and probably the lesser of the two is speeding and noisy scooters and motorbikes. It has been so bad and dangerous that neighbours would not leave their house when school was coming out.
The second problem is that during term time, our lane is a ‘river of litter’. On average I pick up litter close to my house two or three times a week, with between 20 and 50 items being a typical quantity. I have complained to the school on many occasions over the years with no improvement, so, more recently, I wrote to Carol Steere, our minister of Education. I do not, however, anticipate any change in the situation, which seems to be as follows: the school has no powers over children outside school premises and are most reluctant to attempt any sort of control because of the trouble they could get from the parents of little Johnny or little Lizzie.
The best they can do is to instruct the children at assembly not to throw litter (you can imagine how effective that is) or to send the caretaker to pick up the litter when he has time (at the taxpayers’ expense). I have the impression that if a child threw a crisp packet in the road in front of the headmaster, nothing would be done.
I can think of many common sense approaches to improve this without further regulation but if the teachers’ hands are tied, why doesn’t the Education Department give them greater powers over pupils in the vicinity of the school and over awkward parents as well?
I do not wish to identify the school as I am sure similar problems exist at other establishments.
Name and address withheld. |
Kim Pattimore
Guest
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2010 - 01:11 pm: | |
MAY I through this column let the people of Guernsey know what the young people at Dee-Caf have been doing since the threat of closure emerged at the beginning of this month. It is to show that they are so passionate and so upset with the possible closure, they have been in overdrive.
Three older members were on BBC Guernsey, firstly to talk about Dee-Caf and then on the phone-in a couple of days later. All were very open and honest about their life stories and why they attended.
From that, many people telephoned with support to continue. And one woman aged 83, who listened to the boys and feels we are a worthwhile and much-needed project, donated £25, for which we are truly grateful.
Guernsey Youth Theatre, which put on its 24-hour project on the weekend of 31 July, is donating the takings to Dee-Caf.
The boys were very pro-active sprucing up the building, Officeworks kindly donating and fitting new ceiling tiles upstairs that had been water damaged, but the boys painted the outside with paint bought with their own money.
Young people have organised a sponsored football match against the team Band of Brothers on Saturday. Young people aged 13 to 15, going out with sponsorship forms over two evenings, have raised £652 so far.
Girls have written letters to the Guernsey Press.
An older member is organising a mufti day and cake sale at her work and is organising an under-18s night at Fusion nightclub.
One of our 18-year-olds, who has recently become unemployed, is going to focus his time while job hunting to make a DVD about Dee-Caf.
We hope islanders will get on board with a Blue Day on 27 August, with everyone wearing blue and donating to our cause. We are also planning an over-18s night, with groups/singers (former members of Dee-Caf) to participate.
I hope that by reading this someone, an individual or business/company, can see that the young people are trying to help themselves but that we do need a main sponsor to keep us going as we now have a new core group of young people attending regularly who are under 16 and who need our help and support.
KIM PATTIMORE |
Sabrina Bishop
Guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 03, 2010 - 01:33 pm: | |
Why I go to Deecaf:
* It’s a place to hang out.
* It’s like a family.
* Everyone is relaxed.
* Fun every time I’m down Deecaf.
* You can chat to the staff and they have helped me with my understanding of my family and social relationships.
* It’s a place I go if have nowhere else to turn.
* It’s a place I go to stay out of trouble.
* To get away from the ‘bad crowd’.
* To help out and to work out things.
* To meet up with friends without getting in trouble.
* To socialise with new people.
* A lot of respect within.
* The new people feel welcomed, befriended and respected.
* It’s gotten me off the suicide feeling/mode.
* Helped me find the error of my ways.
I found out about Deecaf through the Link Centre. The people came to the Link and explained what Deecaf does and the afternoon after I came down and I couldn’t stop coming down; it’s like a family to me now.
SABRINA BISHOP |
Lisa and Anthea
Guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 03, 2010 - 01:31 pm: | |
Why we go to Deecaf:
* It keeps us out of trouble (off the streets and that), e.g. drinking.
* When we are bored it gives us something to do and not cause trouble.
* To meet new people and socialise more.
* Everyone’s really nice and we get on with them.
* If we’ve any problems or are worried about something, we can talk to people there.
* They help us with trouble at school.
* If you’re excluded from school, it gives us somewhere to go.
* You’re all treated as equals.
* No one’s bullied or anything.
* Good things to do like pool, music, table football, Playstation. There are drinks and stuff.
* Good place to just chill out and chat with your mates.
* They always give good advice and understand us and what we go through.
* Activities like football and other things.
* In the winter, somewhere warm and good to go.
* Makes you realise what other people go through.
* Gives you a chance to help others and understand other people’s feelings.
* If it closes down we won’t have as good advice and won’t have anywhere to go and this could cause more trouble.
LISA AND ANTHEA |
Vicky Gruber
Guest
| | Posted on Friday, July 30, 2010 - 02:40 pm: | |
DEECAF is a charity drop-in centre for young people. They offer friendly advice and support, careers advice, help with drug and alcohol problems, support with family, friend and schooling issues and anything else they can help with.
The staff and volunteers are a great bunch of people. The majority of the volunteers have been going to Deecaf since they were teenagers and the 'caf' has helped them in a mass of different ways. There are a great bunch of young people who go there on a regular basis and when they heard about the threat of closure, they were as sad as we older ones are.
Deecaf is a place for them to come and hang out with friends, meet new people, get advice or even just a place to be safe. The regulars say they don't know what they would do or where they would go if Deecaf wasn't there any more. The young people are working as hard as the staff and volunteers to keep the place going because once the door is shut, we will have lost the 'caf' forever.
Basically, we are asking for your help, whether it be a donation, however big or small, or fund-raising ideas - we would be so happy and appreciative. You won't just be helping us but will be helping Guernsey's youth of the future too.
VICKY GRUBER |
Anon
Guest
| | Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 03:13 pm: | |
HEY HO, another day in paradise.
I finished work at 2pm and came outside by the Town Church. Beautiful sunshine, a lovely day and what do I see? A crowd of youngsters hanging around the church – lounging around on the benches, some with their feet up on the benches and babies in their buggies in the hot sun. Suddenly the boys are squaring up to each other, threatening each other and shouting swear words across.
In case you’re wondering, it wasn’t playing around, it was serious.
Their bad language did offend me and would offend other people walking past – local or visitors.
Is this really the picture we want to paint of Guernsey?
The litter left behind every day is terrible too.
The police have told me there are cameras on that area and if anyone drops litter they will do something about it. Well Guernsey Police, where are you? Please do something sooner rather than later.
Name and address withheld. |
Pete Durham
Guest
| | Posted on Monday, July 05, 2010 - 02:28 pm: | |
I WRITE in response to your article, which appeared on page three of Guernsey Press on Tuesday 29 June, ‘There’s nothing to do in Guernsey’ and ‘Shoppers being “intimidated” by crowds of youths’. I have met, and do so regularly, the featured youngsters and many of their friends and feel compelled to say that they are a fantastic bunch. Not once have I felt intimidated or threatened by them individually or as a group.
I am humbled and privileged that they have allowed me into their world, even to the extent that they allow me to pray with them and for them and just chat in the places we meet.
Each and every one of this group are special and have gifts and talents which they can offer to each other within their group and to society if only they were given the opportunity to unlock, explore and be nurtured in using them. What these youngsters need is love and encouragement – not judgement and condemnation – to release the potential in every one of them.
Is it not time to stop attempting to change cultures to fit in with our own clean, tidy and neat worlds and create a culture, where every person is loved, valued and worthy but also where social values and justice are maintained?
This is the underlying principle of the Christian faith.
PETE DURHAM. |
A. P. Le Page
Guest
| | Posted on Saturday, July 03, 2010 - 10:32 am: | |
WHERE in the world for an area only nine by four miles in size would be found more hobbies, pursuits and sports facilitated than in Guernsey? Yet, in this paper, youths are complaining they only hang around being a pain 'because there's nothing to do in Guernsey'.
What are they really saying?
Across the board all hobbies, pursuits and sports require at least a bit of effort and commitment. Myself, I think that's more the issue, sadly.
A. P. LE PAGE. |
William Audoire
Guest
| | Posted on Monday, April 19, 2010 - 02:19 pm: | |
AS I wrote of my theories in the 80s, in my father's house there are many mansions. In my belief there are many heavens, there are many a universe outside our own.
Sciences will tell you that the first life on this planet was self-reproducing - which in some animal forms still exists to this day - even in the Christian religion the Virgin Mary gave birth.
Look around you - any doctor or vet will tell you that we are all the same in flesh, two eyes, nose, brain, birth. The male which we are of today is a graft from the female - it has been proven worldwide that the male can become pregnant and give birth by a caesarean.
There are no homosexuals or lesbians on this planet Earth, just one of many age-old sexual rituals we humans have given a name to. Ask today's world military, they will tell you, it matters not who you fall in love with. If you are smitten, you are smitten. Sex is the escape valve for true affection.
Education breeds quality. (If I may add, reclaiming land from the sea could be tomorrow's revenue.) It's wake up time.
WILLIAM AUDOIRE. |
Andrew Le Page
Guest
| | Posted on Monday, April 19, 2010 - 02:16 pm: | |
RECENTLY, we've been told that Dr Paul Williams' views are 'dangerous'. Maybe it's high time we began to put on our hard hats and green vests before entering the opinion page?
In future, so as not to upset the likes of Martin Gavet and the 'thought police', the editor should consider printing only letters that are deemed to be 'politically correct'.
Everybody's entitled to their opinion. At least they were before PC came along. The extreme views of Dr Williams are a touch disturbing, but concerning any subject aired in an opinion page worthy of its column inches, is it not key to have freely available the fullest range of views possible?
Officially complained about 'Dr Williams said such and such in the Guernsey Press', it smacks of I'll tell teacher and Pippa McCathie suggesting he should consider his position, surely it is ultimately down to the loyalty of his patients or not to judge his worth as a doctor?
Personally, I always prefer the truth if I can find it, but I've observed with horror how with the political correctness, which has come to the fore under 'the third way', the latest incarnation of Labour government, how quickly the truth succumbs to political expediency. We pay a price for political correctness, which comes at the expense of a fuller truth.
Dr Williams was talking through his own personal convictions on the most emotive of subjects. It doesn't stretch the imagination to understand that his argument is unpalatable for some, but then surely all the easier to deconstruct his views with some sane, balanced reasoning, as opposed to all the personal stuff?
In future, those offering a different or outspoken view may think twice about contributing to this column for fear of the personal abuse. It would be a shallower item for it and that maybe the time when I finally decide daily to place my brain on the mantelpiece before I go and collect my Sun.
ANDREW LE PAGE. |
Trevor Butcher
Guest
| | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 02:46 pm: | |
ON THIS very controversial subject of homosexuals, gays as some people call them, they have not got a disease, illness, habit, craving, or anything at all like that. I have always been informed that they are born with an extra 'gene' given by the mother, and only her, to the unborn child, the father has nothing to do about this, and has no control over it whatsoever. Too many people put gays and paedophiles in the same bracket. They are not.
Most gays are very nice people. Paedophiles are very, very horrible nasty people, and if they don't know that they are doing this awfully wrong act on young, vulnerable children, they should be locked up for life out of harm's way. If they do know they are doing this (which they do, without a shadow of doubt, in my mind) including some so-called priests etc, etc, the list goes on, accept the truth, admit it, and do the time. It's the only way out for you. You will not live it down in my book no matter what excuses you want to make. I am amazed that you can live your 'life' with that on your mind, and even to preach to good people the proper way of life, when they believe in you.
I have heard of 'fathers' who have interfered with their own children. That is not a father, or even a man, or human, or animal. I would not like to say how, or what I could call these nasty 'things'.
It makes my blood boil to even hear about it. By the way I am not a devout Christian, I am an agnostic person, and do not have anything against anyone in their own religious faith or belief.
TREVOR BUTCHER.
t.butch@ cwgsy.net. |
Paul Le Page
Guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 - 02:42 pm: | |
I WOULD like to commend those deputies who, in a recent debate, called for the introduction of a universal age of adulthood. We presently have a system so ludicrously inconsistent that it permits a 16-year-old to legally impregnate his girlfriend, yet not be mature enough to marry her without parental consent, drive her to the hospital to give birth to their baby or buy a celebratory beer and cigar.
More seriously perhaps, in the same debate one deputy reminded the Assembly that we consider a 16-year-old mature enough to make adult decisions, yet protect their identity when they are convicted of a criminal offence.
What message does a society send to its young adults with a legal system so inconsistent it considers someone - old enough to have children but too young to drive a car; old enough to vote but too young to smoke; old enough to marry (albeit with consent) but too young to buy alcohol; old enough to have sex but too young to be named if convicted of rape?
It is time the States stopped sending confusing messages to our young people and introduced a universal age of adulthood.
Be this 16 or 18, the important thing is consistency and the clear message that when you reach that age you are an adult, with adult liberties and adult responsibilities.
PAUL LE PAGE
Paul@ le-page.co.uk |
L. Hooper-Nicolle
Guest
| | Posted on Friday, March 26, 2010 - 02:20 pm: | |
MY LETTER is short but hopefully to the point.
Dr Paul Williams, I am just wondering if maybe a cat has got your tongue? You seem to have gone silent regarding all the letters written about you and your attitude. This man is not, in my mind, humane in any way, shape or form, but very quick to point the finger at who he chooses.
As a GP you are here to help people, not judge them.
L. HOOPER-NICOLLE (Miss) |
Yvonne Ozanne
Guest
| | Posted on Friday, March 26, 2010 - 02:18 pm: | |
AMONG some of the letters to the Guernsey Press about lowering the age of consent for gay males to 16, I detect a whiff of persecution. My friends of longstanding include more than 30 gay people, mostly male couples. In fact whether someone is gay or not is no longer an issue for us and I forget half the time who is what, it is of such little importance.
The debate I read of reminds me of a lunch I was invited to some years ago by a Christian group of nurses and a doctor (not Dr Williams). When the subject was introduced, I was the only person (of 12) around the table to defend gay men. I was absolutely appalled by the bigoted accusations made by supposedly Christian people.
Some of the claims made are unprintable in this family newspaper but included: homosexuality is not natural, homosexuals are sick, male homosexuals are paedophiles who prey on young boys, and homosexuals are evil and anti-Christ. I was staggered by these ignorant opinions, held by members of the medical profession, who surely studied biology, chemistry and genetics and who were also members of a minority evangelistic sect.
The age of consent is, obviously, needed to protect young children from being abused by adults and of course there must be a law protecting innocent children. But to label all homosexual men as potential child-abusers is frankly insulting. Taken to its logical conclusion, that argument must mean that all heterosexual men are potential rapists of little girls (yes, that includes you Dr Williams and Mr Sarre), purely based on your gender.
It is dangerously simplistic to claim that all human beings are born to reproduce. Many people change from being 'straight' to 'gay' and even back again during their lifetimes. Some people are bisexual and enjoy friendships with men and women. If this is by mutual consent, so what? Your inclinations are governed by who you are and have been present from the time you were conceived. Most gay people have known that they are from a very early age.
It is not a sickness to be gay. Gay people cannot 'cure' themselves. One woman at the lunch I attended said that if her son told her he was gay, she would be disappointed, horrified and ask him to leave home. Try 'coming out' in that particular family. It is no wonder that the suicide rate for gay people is higher than the average.
Jesus Christ lived the life of a good man who didn't judge others. I suggest those who profess to hold the high moral ground for the rest of us poor sinners on Earth, and those who have taken oaths to heal patients, look to their own moral behaviour. For to persecute any of God's children is evil.
YVONNE OZANNE |
Stuart Ingrouille
Guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - 02:04 pm: | |
I WAS both surprised and dismayed to read in the Guernsey Press recently that Dr Paul Williams has once again felt it necessary to weigh in on the subject of the homosexual age of consent.
In his most recent letter, Dr Williams makes a number of schoolboy howlers, not least of which is his assertion that 'homosexuality is a sexual act'.
He then goes on to describe the sexual act uppermost in his mind, which, as I understand it, is not the only form of sex available to a homosexual couple and, dare I say it, is also available to heterosexual couples as well. In any case, anyone who knows anything knows that homosexuality, like heterosexuality, is not just a form of sex, but also a form of love, and it deserves our respect for that reason.
Dr Williams' reduction of homosexuality is therefore not only incorrect but I should have thought offensive to the homosexual community.
Moreover, his egregious conflation of homosexuality and paedophilia is quite beyond the pale. They are entirely different things: the former being a perfectly legitimate expression of love between consenting adults, and the latter being, to put it at its mildest, a destructive aberration leading to the worst kind of child abuse imaginable. Dr Williams' claim that some paedophiles are also homosexual is therefore a nonsensical one: the two terms are mutually exclusive.
Furthermore, the fact that he needs to resort to referencing outdated and discredited religious propaganda to support his medieval views is rather telling, is it not?
Remember, too, that this is not the first time that the good doctor has put his foot in it.
I seem to recall a Guernsey Press article some years ago concerning an unfortunate woman who had ill-advisedly succumbed to the pseudo-science of homeopathy in order to treat some complaint or other. When she happened to mention this to Dr Williams, she was promptly informed that if she had been cured by homoeopathy then she had been cured by the devil.
Not only was this episode distressing for the poor woman in question, Dr Williams' comments only served to compound an already baseless superstition with the addition of another.
All this might be seen by some to be nothing but an unfair/ad hominem/attack on poor Dr Williams. And indeed it would be, were it not for the fact that he is a doctor and as such, ostensibly a man of science. Now, I am sure that Dr Williams is widely respected by his patients and I have no reason, apart from the above anecdote, to suspect that he does not generally treat them well. However, given that he obviously lets his religious leanings inform his science from time to time, I should have thought that this would cast his professional opinions on certain subjects in a very poor light.
It certainly would for me if he were my doctor.
All of this is rather academic, however, because the issue at hand has only ever been about one thing: equality. Dr Williams would have us believe that cries of equal rights are fatuous, that homosexuality is not normal and that this is a simple matter of right and wrong. I would purely love to hear Dr Williams back that one up without resorting to his religious beliefs, which, irrelevant as they are, should have no place in this debate. The only question on the table should be whether to lower the homosexual age of consent to 16, to raise the heterosexual age of consent to 18, or to equalise both at 17.
All other arguments on this issue amount to nothing more than unnecessary and counter-productive distractions.
STUART INGROUILLE,
goatboy78@ hotmail.com. |
|
Closed: New threads not accepted on this page
