Fresh Kills

It is relatively easy to start a forest fire, often a stray cigarette butt is enough, but it is incredibly difficult to put out.

Incendiary Geopolitics has been lighting fires across the world for centuries. Sparks fly on the wind and light new fires, and now there is little left to burn. 

The endless tit for tat of attack/retaliation, the suicidal policy of scorched earth, will leave us all with third degree burns and nothing to eat.

Today it is Syria, tomorrow….

After the 9/11 attack, the USA sought revenge. Those who suffered that reaction sought a vendetta of their own. And so on.

After the 9/11 attack, the rubble from the destruction of the twin towers was taken to the municipal landfill site aptly named Fresh Kills.

How long will this song be relevant?

Rock

Gibraltar, the gateway to the Mediterranean, a majestic rock crowning the bay of Algeciras, often shrouded in mist as if trying to hide from the curious gaze of Africa.

Gibraltar, the most Spanglish place on earth, a town of Bobbies with thick regional accents and perfect English, tapas and fish and chips, where corned beef becomes ‘carne con bif’.

Gibraltar, the border town, the tax haven, the military base, the foreign territory.

Gibraltar, the bone of contention.

When it could be so different. Imagine a Gibraltar with no frontier, no customs, no high fences. Imagine Gibraltar with no naval base, no military buildings, no streets full of uniformed young squaddies. Imagine the whole bay of Algeciras, with La Línea and San Roque, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, with its beaches and scenery, studded with hotels, a casino perhaps, a marina.

Gibraltar could be the jewel of the south. The history, the geography, the mixed cultures of Spain, Africa and Northern Europe. The Barbary apes, the amazing cave systems in the rock itself, the weather, the cuisine….

Maybe one day the nostalgic imperialists will all have faded away, and the people of Gibraltar, Los Llanitos, and their understanding neighbours  (they know each other, respect each other, without the need for political intervention), will be able to give back to the area the dignity and beauty it deserves.