May 7 will be the 75th anniversary of the unconditional German surrender that brought World War Two to an end in Europe. A couple of days later, on May 9, the British Channel Islands, including my other home of Jersey, were at last liberated after nearly five years of Nazi occupation.
The plans drawn up to commemorate those momentous events, across Europe as well as in Jersey, are now cancelled or on hold, as the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic is tackled.
In learning about the history of Jersey during the occupation, I have, of course, read books that relate the official stories and record the public events. I have perhaps learned more though from the few slim volumes of memoirs written by ordinary people who lived on the island throughout the War.
If memories, diaries and photographs are deposited in the Archives, they will be of enormous value to historians and social scientists in the future
Amongst my most cherished possessions is a diary covering several years of the occupation written by my great-aunt. It is not a document of huge historical significance – far from it. Instead, it records in detail the minutiae of daily life, food shortages, an ever-increasing list of regulations, little things to keep up her spirits when news of the wider war was gloomy.
The value of such personal memoirs is well understood in Jersey. It is through them that it is best possible to understand the real history of the occupation and how it affected everyone’s lives.
Jersey is not isolated from the coronavirus, with 170 positive cases so far and a few deaths, in a population of only 106,000 I am following the news there through telephone calls to my family, emails and via government messages posted on social media.
The other day, Chief Minister John Le Fondre, having provided an update on the growing number of cases on the island and on the need to abide by tighter rules on social distancing, made a rather unusual appeal.
The island’s archives, he said, were urging people living through the lockdown to record and collect information, impressions, pictures, anything at all that would tell the tale of how normal life had changed.
As has been shown from studies of the occupation years, if such memories, diaries, photographs and the like are deposited in the archives, they will be of enormous value to historians and social scientists in the future.
Indeed, if there are major changes in society that we cannot yet see or predict, perhaps some of the clues to how they began will lie in data placed on record by ordinary members of the public who have lived through the current crisis.
I wonder what thought is being given to the creation and management of such an approach here in the UAE in terms of recording for posterity the impact of the coronavirus?
It is not too difficult to devise a way in which all official material can be collected, stored and later made available. Public statements, videos, text messages, online newspaper articles, all of this is easy.
How about other examples of ways in which messages and instructions are communicated to the public, however? Samples of some of the notices being pasted onto shop doors and windows, or at the entrance to blocks of flats? Internal notices sent around in offices, both government and private, about reduced hours, or working from home? These, too, are important. I wonder if such a collection of material is being put together.
All of the above, however, relate to one half of the equation – the messages being transmitted to the public or within government departments and companies, to employees.
What about the other side, the response of the intended recipients? In the future when researchers look back on how the UAE dealt with this pandemic, they will need information about the public’s reaction.
What did people think? How did they change their lifestyle to accommodate new conditions of lockdowns or working from home? How did they view the social distancing rules? How did students feel about being suddenly plunged into online learning from home?
All this and much more can be recorded in written form, in photographs, in archives of email and social media posts.
With the ease of internet communication, I suspect that many UAE residents will already have produced all kinds of material to send to friends and relatives about the impact that the Covid-19 coronavirus is having on their lives.
Before that material and much else gets forgotten, lost or deleted, an institution here could make an appeal for some of it to be deposited for long-term preservation, as the Jersey Archives have done.
The next few months are likely to have an enormous impact on the UAE, a period that will be the subject of future studies of our economic and social development.
It is important that ephemeral evidence of the way in which we adapted, and are adapting, is preserved for those studies.
We are in the middle of an unprecedented period of time in the UAE and beyond. We should ensure that future generations understand how we coped with it.
Peter Hellyer is a consultant specialising in the UAE's history and culture
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'Laal Kaptaan'
Director: Navdeep Singh
Stars: Saif Ali Khan, Manav Vij, Deepak Dobriyal, Zoya Hussain
Rating: 2/5
What is a black hole?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
In Full Flight: A Story of Africa and Atonement
John Heminway, Knopff
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
SUZUME
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MATCH INFO
Asian Champions League, last 16, first leg:
Al Jazira 3 Persepolis 2
Second leg:
Monday, Azizi Stadium, Tehran. Kick off 7pm
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
Why seagrass matters
- Carbon sink: Seagrass sequesters carbon up to 35X faster than tropical rainforests
- Marine nursery: Crucial habitat for juvenile fish, crustations, and invertebrates
- Biodiversity: Support species like sea turtles, dugongs, and seabirds
- Coastal protection: Reduce erosion and improve water quality
Company profile
Company: Eighty6
Date started: October 2021
Founders: Abdul Kader Saadi and Anwar Nusseibeh
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Hospitality
Size: 25 employees
Funding stage: Pre-series A
Investment: $1 million
Investors: Seed funding, angel investors
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
Hunger and Fury: The Crisis of Democracy in the Balkans
Jasmin Mujanović, Hurst Publishers
Afghanistan squad
Gulbadin Naib (captain), Mohammad Shahzad (wicketkeeper), Noor Ali Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Asghar Afghan, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Najibullah Zadran, Samiullah Shinwari, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, Hamid Hassan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
The specs
Engine: 3-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 400hp
Torque: 475Nm
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Price: From Dh215,900
On sale: Now
