It’s a great day, one because it’s Friday and two because I said so. Let’s face it, a weekend, actually it’s a weeeeeekend (that’s a long weekend) and everyone can’t wait for a bit of time off from work. If you happen to be working over the next three days, iIm sorry! Good luck with that!
So what am I going to rant and rave about today? Well if you read the title and you keep up to date with the news, then I am sure you will have a rough idea. NEW SUPERMARKET TO OPEN IN LA ROTUNDA! Whoop Whoop... I’m thinking this is great news, welcome competition for Morrisons and an alternative to Coviran... Who’s it going to be? I’m thinking Tescos, Sainsburys or maybe if we're lucky Waitrose or even M&S food... Drum roll please..............
There seems to have been a lot of issues with the Mega Concert announced nearly two weeks ago, by the Ministry of culture. Even to the extreme of the name of the event, the Mega Concert, which was subsequently changed to, the Gibraltar Music Festival.
I spoke about this in an earlier blog, when I had heard on political Social Media Groups that there was a lot of confusion over tickets, when they went on sale, free entry for children and so on and so forth. This is a huge event for Gibraltar. I think this is only the second BIG concert that I can remember, correct me if I’m wrong, Elton John and now Jess J.
Reading from one person's experience of trying to pick up their free children's tickets, there exact words were, “they haven’t got a clue!” It seemed like the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing. Whilst the Minister was talking about free entry for Children, the website for the Gibraltar Music Festival, said, “Everyone must purchase a ticket”. This has now been changed and a press release issued on the site.
The last few weeks, the news stream has been filled time and time again with the issues of British Gibraltar Territorial Waters. Spanish Fishermen breaking laws, fishing in our waters, Guardia Civil accompanying them, then, arresting Gibraltar vessels “illegally”. Why is it, a year ago, I don’t remember hearing about a fishing dispute, Spanish fishermen being served summons in the ocean or even Guardia Civil boats “invading” our waters?
Now I don’t pretend to be a political enthusiast, as I’m really not that into it. But I read something online earlier that made me think. Peter Caruana, leader of the opposition when asked about the so-called conflict with Spain over the fishing dispute, he was quoted as saying “an unnecessary provocation for the GoG to pick a fight with Spain” amongst other things. (I believe this was originally said on GBC and then rehashed on to the Political Social Media groups).
Is this a fight we just shouldn’t get into? People on the Social Media networks are going crazy, talking about all sorts of potential outcomes, including shortsighted comments such as “if they shut the frontier it will affect them worse than us”... Hmmnnn... Let’s look at that shall we? In today’s economy Gibraltar’s imports come mainly by road, this is true for food, drinks, supplies and even our workforce. Not just talking about Spanish workers that cross the frontier, what about all the Gaming employees that live in Spain, but still help support the Gibraltar economy?
Traffic wardens and speeding tickets! WTF is going on?
This is starting to get to me, so as it is my prerogative, I thought I would write about it this morning. We all know that parking is hard enough to find as it is in Gibraltar, yet for some reason we organise for Master Services to clean sections of the streets from 9am-11am... WTF? Why not do it from 6am - 8am meaning that people coming to work can then find a parking space.
Secondly, I understand that people are not allowed to park in these areas during those times to allow the area to be thoroughly cleaned. However, this morning as I walked past, I saw a master services van stopped, 3 master services workers talking to some passers by, 4 Highways Enforcement Officers, arguing with one man, a Tow truck, oh and guess what, still no where to Park!
There has to be a better way of organising this street cleaning malarkey... Surely! Any ideas? I don’t know, set dedicated times, make them away from office hours and general working hours and maybe just maybe, get the guys to do it as quickly as possible so as to disturb the parking ecosystem as little as possible. I call it an ecosystem because here in Gibraltar it seems to have a mind of its own.
Over the weekend there was some excitement, the Gibraltar Government Website was hacked! Dramatic Music - Dum Dum Dum Duuuuummmm! So what happened? Simple, the Government’s website was subjected to an attack by hackers who prey on websites with weak security. They are not necessarily trying to steal data, nor are they looking to defraud people necessarily, but what they do want, is public recognition of the damage they have done.
How do I know this? Well this weekend, after it happened, I had a chat with some friends of mine that work for Just Consulting, the company that keeps YGTV online and secure. They were explaining that the same thing had happened on some of their client sites just over a year ago. The sites that were targeted were relevantly simple, with little or no personal data (maybe some email addresses) but that the hackers were simply interested in publicising the fact that they had managed to hack in and embed a file, write something on the homepage or add an additional page of information.
Over the weekend there was some excitement, the Gibraltar Government Website was hacked! Dramatic Music - Dum Dum Dum Duuuuummmm! So what happened? Simple, the Government’s website was subjected to an attack by hackers who prey on websites with weak security. They are not necessarily trying to steal data, nor are they looking to defraud people necessarily, but what they do want, is public recognition of the damage they have done.
