Welcome to Gibraltar News and Views!

A warm Welcome to my new Blog Gibraltar News and Views! Thanks for visiting!

This is my first post! After interminable fiddling with my Blog template, I am finally happyish with the way it looks and can get round to making my very first contribution to it!

Ok, first of all why a News Blog about Gibraltar? Well, basically because I realised there isn't one available on the net... till today! There are a number of sites with lots of news content, including some very good Gibraltarian newspapers, such as The Gibraltar Chronicle and Panorama, who publish their content online as well as physically. I also found a very good News Feed, Topix.net which collates news items, from over 9,000 sources worldwide and makes these available on the net. You can see these via my Links on the right sidebar. But, as I said, there wasn't a Gibraltar News Blog... bringing Gibraltar news, views and commentary to the Blogosphere! Now there is!

So, what can you look forward to in this Blog. Well, I hope to troll around the web, finding interesting bits of news and comments about Gibraltar and bringing them to you here, with plenty of links for you to explore. I shall, when inspired, make my own comments and also hope my posts will inspire you the reader, to also comment if the urge takes you. With this in mind, I have enabled Blogger.com's comment feature. Very easy to use. You don't have to subscribe to me or anything like that. Just click on the "Comment" feature at the end of each post and away you go. I get notified of any comments and we can communicate, if necessary, should you require a response. Feel free to ask me any questions. Can't promise I will know the answer but the chances are I may know where to find it. I will welcome any and all input, so long as it is not abusive or otherwise unwelcome. You know what I mean, I'm sure!

OK, a little about Gibraltar, for those who are not familiar with our little piece of limestone Rock at the western end of the Mediterranean Sea, on the tip of the Iberian peninsula. (That's the southern end of where Spain and Portugal are on the map!)

Here's what Wikipedia says about our Culture:

The culture of Gibraltar reflects Gibraltarians' diverse origins. While there are Spanish and British influences, the ethnic origins of most Gibraltarians are neither British or Spanish, including Genoese, Maltese, Portuguese, and Germans. Others are Jewish of Sephardic or North African origin and Hindus.

Historically, cultural ties with Spain have been strong. Intermarriage between Gibraltarian men and Spanish women resulted in many people having relatives in Spain.

British influence remains strong. Although Gibraltarians mostly speak to each other in an English-influenced Spanish dialect called Llanito, English is the language of government, commerce, education and the media. Gibraltarians going on to higher education attend university in the UK, not Spain, as indeed do those requiring medical treatment not available on the Rock.

For more in depth information, visit Wikipedia, a free online encyclopaedia and / or my information links about Gibraltar, again on the sidebar on the right of this post. Wikipedia in particular, offer quite a comprehensive page full of information about Gibraltar's history, geography, economy and much more!

I hope to update this Blog regularly, daily, even more if possible, as time allows, with interesting morsels for readers. For now, here's a funny story I came across recently, in Panorama!

British submarine goes aground off Gibraltar

A British submarine has gone aground off Gibraltar, reports NEILL RUSH. It was being towed to Turkey.

The Hamburg based tug, Fairplay XIV, left Portsmouth on the 30th October towing the former ‘O’ Class submarine HMS Oracle.

The submarine had been laid up at Pounds Scrap yard for a number of years and despite many failed attempts to save her for preservation, was finally sold as scrap to a Turkish breakers yard.

On the 7th of November the tug was noted going Eastwards on radar through the Strait of Gibraltar en-route to her final destination, the only thing was that she appeared to be going too fast to have a vessel in tow. more...

It's a funny one!

Politically, there's quite a lot going on in and about Gibraltar just now. In today's papers, more news on the current discussions on the new proposed Constitution about to start in London tomorrow. You can find News reports using the News links on the sidebar along with some good commentary about this on Alt.Gibraltar, a discussion /newsgroup over at Google Groups.

Well, that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed my first post... more to follow! Thanks for visiting.

GGR say New Constitution gravely deficient

In a statement today, Equality Rights organisation Gibraltar Gay Rights (GGR) has said that whilst it has always fully supported and will continue to support the fundamental right of Gibraltarians to determine their own social and political future, it considers the text for proposed Constitutional reform for Gibraltar to be “gravely deficient” and, as such, in the same manner that, as Gibraltarians we refuse to agree to measures which ignore our rights, GGR will not subscribe to the text of the proposed new Constitution for similar reasons, and we have made our views known to the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. GGR feels that it would be hypocritical for us as an Equality Rights organisation to stand silent and unprotesting as the systematic exclusion of gay and lesbian people from the proposed new Constitution takes place and for precisely the reason that they, too, are Gibraltarian! We will play no part in such an injustice and for this reason wish to make this a matter of public record for Gibraltar´s history books in order that “lest they forget” future generations of Gibraltarians may learn the full truth of what happened in this process.

Although we fully understand the various arguments regarding political expediency on the matter, we will not collude with the quiet and systematic exclusion of the rights of Gibraltarian citizens of diverse sexuality from exercising an equality of citizenship which should be theirs by birthright and which the new Constitution proposes to deliberately and intentionally deny,” the statement added.

One thing is for the present Constitution, written over three decades ago, to have established such an order, but quite another is that a future democracy should perpetuate it. We will not defend the indefensible by supporting both a document and a process which go out of their way to exclude minority citizens from first class citizenship. From the very beginning, we have made it very clear that what we´re asking for on behalf of alternative sexuality people in Gibraltar is neither more nor less rights than any other citizen would expect for themselves. It is the dignity of all Gibraltarians which is on the table and at stake at this point in time with regard to any new Constitution and, as Gibraltarians, this dignity is a paramount and vital component of Constitutional Reform. However, contrary to what the new Constitution text specifically sets out to do, we see no justifiable reason for renouncing that on behalf of gay and lesbian people on the Rock and equality-seeking politicians, political parties, local associations and individuals of conscience who disagree with Government´s position on this issue should say so now and say so publicly for the record, just as GGR is doing. We believe it is important to learn from History, and this is a matter of historical and social conscience and we ask you not to collude with silence but to make your voices heard publicly now!

In February 2001 Chairman Felix Alvarez made a submission to the Constitutional Reform Committee arguing for the category “sexual orientation” to be added to the new document. It is our understanding that whilst the Constitutional Reform Committee overruled Mr Alvarez, this was done on a substantially less than unanimous basis. There is a long parliamentary tradition of allowing free voting on matters of this nature and we are not confident that use was not made of a majority whip on this occasion. Such a forced vote, in our view, would not reflect the true feeling of our community on issues as basic as equality and non-discrimination. This is particularly so on a matter as historically significant as the agreement over a new Constitution setting forth fundamental principles and rights of citizenship for future generations of Gibraltarians. In short, as GGR's slogan says on this: “New Constitution? YES! Only for some? NO!"

Gibraltar Gay Rights Press Release - 24th January 2005 - "GAY IS A CITIZENSHIP ISSUE"