Much has been done according to the Gibraltar news and Government press releases on the issues of Tabaco smuggling, but living in the North district, I am faced daily with hordes of people buying large quantities of cigarettes and then stripping down and strapping the boxes about their person in front of Notre Dame School.
When you mix adults in various states of undress, in front of a first school where the children’s ages range from four to eight years old, I kind of get a shiver down my spine.
November 2010 saw the conviction of the former care worker Mario Cassano, 73, for sexually abusing two girls in his care. Yesterday saw the opening of the trail against an 83 year old local man, also accused of sexual abuse and gross indecency again with two young girls, who are now adults.
Both these cases occurred over many years of almost daily abuse, with the children only coming forward after many decades of living with the terror and shame of having been sexually molested.
I went with a friend to the Cañada on Saturday to shop for some clothes and even though I had a big German breakfast, nothing could have prepared me, for what is the horror, of Hollister.
Don’t be fooled by the faded blue surf shack façade, or the totally random chandelier at chest level, its just eye candy bait for the Justin Bieber wannabes and, their equally vacuous girlfriends. Any establishment that refers to males and females, as Dudes and Bettys, deserve nothing but a Molotov cocktail through the window.
Not being one, to normally wear clothes with some bloke or company’s name emblazoned all over my attire, against my better judgment I went in at my mates persistent cajoling. He needed some sweat pants. (I could not agree more)
Its great to see how customs and police are tackling the tobacco smuggling problem, this week alone has seen several arrests and the seizure of hundreds of thousands of cigarettes, in what appears to be a tougher stance, on the trafficking of cigarettes across the border.
In recent years we have seen an increase of persons coming over the frontier with the sole idea of taking a couple of cartons back to supplement their income. But more disturbing than that, are the organised groups of people being run by some really shady characters both locally and by our friends to the North.
At present there are something in the region of thirty on going, armed conflicts around the world, some of which have been going on for since 1953 (North Korea, no peace deal signed).
Most of these are not official wars, as they are not being fought by or on behalf of a state or legislative state but rather by the people. To wage war it takes money in order to arm and equip the people doing the fighting.
