All they want is a day off
Tuesday 9th February 2010, 2:59PM GMT.
From Pauline de Ste Croix.
YOUR paper of 5 February had a big headline ‘Angry Islanders demand Liberation Day holiday’. I would like to know who these people are.
I am a ‘liberated Islander’. I was a child at junior school when Liberation occurred and I can clearly remember the actual day with great joy.
The majority of people living in Jersey now were not resident in the Island at that time and therefore would not know what Liberation on 9 May meant after five years of German Occupation.
You would have to be at least 66 years old, and I would venture to suggest that most of people who were here then are either retired or very near retirement.
I suggest that those who are ‘angry’ are just wanting a day off to extend a weekend, and have not earned a celebration of the Liberation on 9 May 1945.
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You make a valid point. What I would add though is that in 50 years time when it is highly doubtfull any liberated islander is still alive should we just forget about celebrating it altogether?
Personally I dont care one way or the other for the bank holiday as it is not a day i care to remember for personal reasons but I hope this is not a step towards forgetting celebrating the day altogether.
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Well PP if we think about this head on, while we do celebrate Rememberance day, we don’t have a day off for the countless millions that have died for our freedom. Nor do we have a Trafalgar or Waterloo day though we appreciate their historical significance. We also need to have some pause for thought that not only were the majority of people in the island not in Jersey at the time of the Liberation, they are not even Jersey folk.
As such, we have to ask why three quarters of the population (myself included) need a day off to celebrate something which happened in a different country, to people they never met before they were even born?
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Hear hear well said I should also like to know who all these people are who want an additional day off. You can’t just go by a pole on a web site Many are not on line, and many of us were at work or busy coming in from work when the vote was open. Place a phone number for people to vote or a coupon in the paper that way you will have the voice of the real people of Jersey
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Hi Nathan
If i understand your comment correctly, then there is no need for a bank holiday. I was not here in the occupation but my grandparents would have been and I am sure they would have, if still alive, appreciated the bank holiday to celebrate it.
However, it is time to move on. I wonder, do the bosnians or the serbs have a day off to celebrate the end of that war? I dont know myself and haven’t looked it up but lets say they did. In that case, will the Afghans and Iraqis have a bank holiday to celebrate their liberation from us when and if it happens. Thats another potential 2 bank holidays on the worlds calendar of days off. If we continued like that then we would have a few problems when it comes to trading on a worldwide basis, and I mean goods not financial markets.
To be honest, and I might sound harsh but it really annoyed me when, after the twin towers where flown into we had a two minutes silence the following year, same with 77. Why are these events so more deserving of the extra minutes silence than, for instance the bombings our uk government inflict on others.
Frankly, I have become so dissappointed with our double standards that I simply want to leave Jersey and also dont want to live in UK either. I am not some idiot fundamentistmentalnutcase fool but seriously how can we all get along when we live with double standards
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Whilst I can see your point about wanting to keep liberation day on the 9th for the people who remember it historically – as someone who is paying your pension I would quite like the day off! We (the people who don’t remember the occupation) will be getting NO PENSION until we are either dead or too old to actually walk and enjoy the fruits of our hard earned labour. Not only are we paying more for a pension we are also paying it for a longer amount of time and to top it all off the average joe worker will never own their own home unlike the old folk that worked before us…
If we the workers want an extra bank holiday in lieu of liberation day (a bank holiday to spend with family and friends! Which is how it is meant to be celebrated) then what is your issue? You don’t even have to work so it doesn’t affect you either way – it just means instead of having marching bands and entertainment on Sunday – you can have it on a Monday as well!? Yes it’s bad for the economy for people not to work on that one day but come on the states are bad for the economy– we work hard all year round knowing we aren’t going to be looked after when we are your age – time to think of us young folks instead I mean I don’t hear you whining when we get an extra day off for Christmas (and that was a day to celebrate… what exactly? Birth of Christ four months early or the pagen festival of yule? I mean surely your liberation day is more important an occasion… ?
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My wife and I have visited Jersey a number of times a year for the past twenty years, but last year was the first time we visited in May, specifically for the Liberation Day celebrations.
We attended the service in Liberation Square and found it on one hand very emotional, but very uplifting on the other. We were standing near a group of people who lived through the occupation, and some of their emotions transferred to us. We can understand how important this event is to celebrate, buw why a Bank Holiday? Remembrance Sunday is celebrated as near to November 11th without a Bank Holiday. Surely Liberation Day can be officially celebrated on the nearest Sunday to May 9th, then I would assume most people who are asking for this bank holiday would attend. Or would they? It would be interesting to hear if – when Liberation Day has fallen on a Sunday in the past – lots more people attended the celebrations in Liberation Square than when it falls on a weekday. Just a thought………..
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Typical lazy Jersey folk demanding something they don’t deserve. The UK liberated you in 1945, today it has liberated you from a life of either picking potatoes, serving tourists and marrying your second cousins – by making your island a financial centre attracting inteligent and hard working people from across Europe. Be grateful and like in 1945 thank the rest of Europe (particularly the British & Polish) for your good fortune.
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