A war is being fought, a war that has been raging for hundreds of years. It’s not fought with cannons or with muskets or even with Assault rifles and grenades. No, this war is being fought with words and as of recently with a keyboard and an Internet connection.
This is a war that is not being fought by soldiers either, at least not any soldier worth his weight. Soldiers seldom require words to carry out the task that have been issued to them.
Armchair warriors will call to arms, hiding behind their computer monitors, as do politicians and the more vociferous militant racist waste of skin that exist solely in the ethereal world of the world wide web.
Did you know that during the average life span, you would have produced enough saliva to fill a swimming pool? These and many facts that circulate on the Internet may sound amazing, but don’t hold up to scrutiny. For example, how big exactly is this swimming pool?
Fact, is something that unless you can confirm it through at least three reputable sources, is nothing but an anecdote that you can tell your friends, but be prepared to a chorus of “bullshit” from your listeners or readers.
Oh, there are some facts that have been confirmed, like your eyes will be always the same size from the moment of birth but your ears and nose never stop growing. I just wonder that if you lived to a very old age would you start looking like a pachyderm?
Again I am amazed at the naivety of some of the people that write on the walls of Facebook political groups, the latest one being about the rumour of a Spanish fisherman blockade of the border this morning. Timings were given as 10:00hrs so we sent a team down there nice and early and as of 12:00hrs all seems quiet.
Rumours like this start as just whispers, which are fanned by the breath they are carried on which eventually hit a spark and catch fire. Like all fires, it requires three elements to keep burning, fuel, heat and oxygen.
Commenting, many people are on the verge of panic, others are saying well close the border and see if we care, we can manage on our own. But can we really? We rely heavily on the importation of food which most of it comes overland, we rely on our Internet which is funnelled from Madrid, we need to get rid of our rubbish which we do so in Spain (LOL).
More nationalistic fervor plastered all over the Internet and Spanish News papers with calls to invade Gibraltar.
A video with some stills and catchy music is calling for just that, made by some ultra right wing nutter going under the name Bioman1001.
Bioman’s video is laughable, until you find that there is a growing and disturbing trend in the last couple of weeks by the Spanish media to portray Gibraltar as the aggressor.
On the cover of the Razon newspaper on Friday, it had in bold letters Gibraltar En Pie De Guerra, with a large photograph of what appeared to be the Ark Royal, fully loaded for operations in the Gulf.
It’s a well-known fact that the Spanish love their seafood. It is also a well-known fact that the Spanish fishing industry gets massive EU handouts to prop up what the Spanish fishing industry says is an industry in decline.
It is a well-known fact that the Spanish fishing industry uses methods to rape the sea, that have been largely been made illegal. Even though it has been estimated that the Spanish fishing flotilla has been almost halved since Spain joined the European community, from some 21000 boats to about 11000 today, they still get subsidies to the tune of eight billion euros. That’s right EIGHT BILLION EUROS.
The EU is financing these pirates to go wherever they please and fish using illegal methods. Locally things are heating up faster than a junkies spoon and its no longer about a few boats coming in and breaking Gibraltar law.
