April 2020

Writing this one week before the end of March, knowing it’s not going to be published until April, is a surreal experience. I’ve been in the media business for 23 years now, in various guises, and it has shown me the best, and the absolute worst, in people, and situations.

But as I sit here to write this, I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen in the next week, as the crisis generated by covid-19 continues to escalate. Working in a newsroom each day for the last two weeks, our position as a community has steadily gotten worse, a bit like a retreating army in the face of an implacable, advancing enemy.

The war-time metaphors abound, because they are so apt, and seem to capture the spirit of how we are all feeling.

“Keep calm and carry on” has been over-exposed, cheapened and commercialised across mugs, t-shirts and social memes; but the thought behind the words could not be more apt.

Here’s another one: “careless talk costs lives” - it was conceived to frustrate war-time spies, but it could not be more applicable to some of the rubbish I have seen in the last two weeks on social media, from fake medical advice, quack remedies and misleading ‘facts’ to bare-faced rabble rousing intended to incite outrage, and potentially, mob violence.

To horribly paraphrase T.S. Eliot, when the world is spinning as quickly as it seems to be at the moment, we all need to find a ’still point’ to observe, process and respond carefully to what is happening.

I hope sitting and reading Connect allows you to find that space; please remember it takes a full month to produce, and so much of the content was set down before the covid-19 crisis engulfed the world.

It has been created to entertain, to inform, to help you understand and appreciate the world around you - it is also here to promote those who steadfastly continue to support both the magazine, and us as a local business. Thank you. It is at times like this that your support takes on a new dimension, as it demonstrates exactly what ‘keeping calm and carrying on’ truly means - and how that mentality will become our path back to normality.

That’s also why on the cover of this magazine we have chosen to focus on a trio of home-grown stars of Jersey’s business future - to remind everyone that once the crisis subsides, we must make sure we have a future local economy to ‘come home’ to.

Enjoy Connect.