Feb 16 - Your Gibraltar TV At GibTalks
It was another successful year for GibTalks as 17 speakers took to the stage at the John Mackintosh Hall Theatre to share personal anecdotes, insights and share ideas on Saturday morning.
The audience peeked into the lives of others, laughing, crying, and putting themselves in their shoes.
Based on the idea of TedTalks, speakers had 15 minutes allocated to them, with a countdown reminding them of how long they had left to speak, and a traffic light system indicating when to go and when to stop.
GibTalks organiser Julian Felice said last year’s event proved there is a demand for listening to people speak “with intelligence, with openness, and with honesty”.
After the event Julian thanked those who participated. He said: “It is not easy to come up here and share some of those moments, it is not easy to reveal an aspect of your personality, it is not easy to stand here and speak.
“We are all very grateful for their talks and their participation and thanks to you – the audience – because if there’s no one listening, there’s no point in talking.”
What did they say?
Former teacher Kenneth Cardona took to the stage at the start of the event to speak of his greatest teaching tool, initially known as a black board, then the chalk board, followed by a white board and his struggles with the smart board.
Mum to four children, Tiffany Button-Reyes, gave a brave account on her everyday battle with depression, and how she sought to overcome it. She said she was on a road to destruction before she stopped and realised she needed help, and during the time her husband, friends and family were her saviours in her road to recovery.
Professor Daniella Tilbury, the Vice-Chancellor at the University of Gibraltar, spoke about creating a future vision for Gibraltar, touching upon the idea of decolonising the mind, decolonising our thinking, and reaching for the opportunities to be original thinkers.
For someone who spent years on our television screens and on our radio, Richard Cartwright spoke of his youth, singing alongside Albert Hammond and how he overcame his shyness.
Davina Barbara drew on the magical qualities of The Wizard of Oz as she described her love for the theatre and the performing arts, and her role as a broadcaster, a mum, a wife, and daughter.
The Chief Minister Fabian Picardo spoke of his journey to Chief Minister – he wanted to become a priest when younger, and was disappointed to be told he couldn’t become a pilot because he wore glasses. He told his mum he’d like to be a lawyer and she set up a meeting with Sir Joshua Hassan for the first time. He was overcome with emotion as he described his experience of becoming Chief Minister, when he first walked into No6 with his friend and confidante as his Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Joseph Garcia.
Dr Keith Bensusan, Director of the Gibraltar Botanic Gardens, shared his experiences of his search for the elusive dragon trees in the Berber region in Morocco.
The audience were taken to India under the British Raj, as Rebecca Faller shared her family’s Anglo-Indian heritage from the 1800s, settling in Bombay, before moving to Madras, and then Karachi, in the Sindh province in Pakistan, before moving to a council flat in England, where the family struggled to come to terms with their British identity, and how her father ended up in Gibraltar where “he could smell coriander as he walked down the street and knew he was home”.
John Gonçalves spoke of a chance encounter, when he happened to be standing behind Renato William Jones, the founder of FIBA, in a buffet line, which led to Gibraltar’s participation in international basketball.
For Opposition MP Edwin Reyes, politics was never not an option as he kept being elected to represent the interests of others, whether it was during his time as a student in the Vatican City, or as a teacher in Gibraltar and a member of the Gibraltar Teacher’s Association, which led to him entering the political arena on the Rock.
Artist Paul Cosquieri looks to the Rock of Gibraltar as a muse and a source of inspiration for his creativity and his art, which he describes as his beacon, his comfort zone and his home.
New mum Polly Lavarello has brought the world of social media mummy and baby sites to Gibraltar with her new website Mum On The Rock as a platform to bring mothers together to share their experiences and become a one-stop shop for tips, recipes, advice or news.
Fabian Vinet rounded off this year’s talk with a moving account of his son James' birth, who was born 11 weeks prematurely. James was a fighter and eventually went home with his mum and dad. Fabian said that perhaps James was born at the right time as this is an experience that has shaped them as a family, and shaped James into the little boy he is today.
Vox Pops
There was an additional vox pop feature, where four speakers from the community applied for the opportunity to speak at the event, and were chosen out of a ballot and had the chance to speak for 10 minutes on their chosen subject.
Geri Cummings spoke of EQ as the new gauge, detailing how emotional intelligence will help you get further in your field.
Philip Vasquez touched upon failure, and questioned why is it that we find failure so difficult to cope with.
Eyleen Sheil shared her insight into the environment, and the effect our current behaviours as consumers can have on the world.
Tomasz Zakrzewicz encouraged everyone to get on their bikes as an easier and quicker way to move around Gibraltar.
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