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Every month in Connect magazine, ViewPoint puts forward a key question facing one of the island's main industry sectors - and then a group of leading practitioners give their take on the answer, and what it means for Jersey.
This month, Claire Malkoun, Amanda Overland and Carl Parslow comment about the one aspect of life in Jersey that they would like to improve.
"My great grandfather of French and Jersey origin and roots inspired me from a very young age to learn French, and live and breathe everything that is great about both Jersey and France. In so doing, he instilled within me a thirst for everything French and everything Jersey all at the same time. I really believe we need to further celebrate Jersey’s special relationship with France and encourage the next generation to have even more of a passion by understanding the close connections and links, and the added value this brings to Jersey and vice versa.
"We are ‘so near yet so far’ from France in many respects. How can we encourage more French links for education, tourism, business and lifestyle? With this in mind, I would love to encourage even more of an appreciation of our shared culture and ensure that we celebrate it at every touch point.
"How about attracting some French supermarkets and other retailers (fashion springs to mind also) to come to Jersey and open up the market so that we have a greater selection of high quality, healthy, great value alternatives to those from the UK? Or expanding on the parish twinning programmes and bring back a form of the old French-exchange programmes lots of us did when we were younger?
"We need to continue to develop and grow our special relationship with France, and the value we bring to it and the value it brings to us."
"I would create an island buzzing with art and culture. “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls," Picasso.
"Art can inspire us, emotionally, spiritually and academically, unlocking feelings that we didn’t even know we had in us. Who hasn’t been moved by a beautiful painting or a piece of music that stirs the soul. We don’t have the population to be considered for many national exhibitions and shows, so we shall have to generate this artistic and creative energy ourselves and use it as a basis to draw the visitors in, as well as to sate the locals.
"We have a number of talented artists in Jersey, an undistracted community and the infrastructure in place. Combine that with a backcloth of outstanding natural beauty and you have the materials to create something quite special. We have made some progress over the years, Branchage ran for a time, gaining great momentum and a strong following locally with substantial national recognition before sadly disappearing in 2014. The Jersey Festival of Words has attracted some huge names in the literary world and seems to be gaining traction year on year.
"We need more of these events throughout the year, working with our seasons, engaging and encouraging creativity and freedom of expression from people young and old and all backgrounds. Imagine constantly evolving, non- commercial spaces alive with all forms of art, colour and beauty, washing the daily dust away."
'Our over reliance on private cars. Those who use their own car to travel or to commute to work and or to drop their children to school are in the majority. The bus system is clearly not the commuter's conveyance of choice. Cycling, for many, is just too dangerous.
"In an island 9 miles by 5 miles, this dependence on the private car leads to a range of problems which simultaneously affect islanders, our health and the environment. One of the most evident negative consequences is congestion. In temps passé, traffic was heavy during the rush hour, and then it waned. We now have heavy traffic on an almost constant basis. The obvious consequence is developing diseases such as asthma and bronchitis - the less obvious is the impact of stress, anxiety and frustration.
"Government needs to change its laissez-faire attitude and do better than merely suggesting that we buy fold-down cycles to take on the bus. It is, however, too simplistic to merely blame government for the problem - we drive the cars!
"Perhaps the solution is to charge congestion fees, hike up parking fees to discourage use of private cars and create parish public transport hubs feeding into St Helier. Perhaps not. But in this technologically advanced world there is a solution and in my opinion we need to get out there and find it. We need to give politicians the mandate to make the changes."
If you would like to be included in a further panel of experts, click here.
Read the full 'Viewpoint' column and CONNECT magazine's other features here.
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