Beauty pageants are they sexist and outdated?

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For as long as I can remember beauty pageants have been under scrutiny. Critics have told us that it degraded, objectified and sexualised women. That there was no place for them in modern society, that women should be treated as equals. Those who opposed such views were branded sexist, old-fashioned and ignorant amongst other things.

I for one never understood this and maybe it is because I am a man.  Surely the young women who participated in these contests were consenting adults who were making a conscious choice to do so?  Why should their opinion carry any less weight?  Why should anyone deem them incapable of making their own decisions?  And even more worryingly why should a group of pretty young ladies parading themselves in different outfits offend anyone? The idiom ‘live and let live’ instantly came to mind.

I will acknowledge though that modern society is obsessed with beauty and glamour.  It is a fact and something that simply cannot be ignored, but this is a worldwide fad and certainly not unique to pageants as such. 

As a father to both a girl and a boy I must admit that I wouldn’t want either of my children to ever enter any of these contests, especially not the girl.  I do understand though that at the end of the day it’s their choice and not mine.  If my daughter for example decided she wanted to be ogled and rated on her looks alone then so be it, it’s her choice after all.  I guess there are far worse things that she could decide to do.

Anti-pageant crusaders usually refer to beauty pageants as meaningless, disturbing, cattle auctions, which send a poisonous message.  Now I am aware that these people have as much of a right to express their views as anyone else, even it does mean targeting and lambasting a specific sector of our society.  But if pageants send out a ‘poisonous’ message what kind of message do these same people send out when they knowingly choose to stereotype all beauty pageant contestants and refer to them as mere cattle?  Not a great one that’s for sure.  How do you think these young women would feel if they ever came across or heard such comments and saw their efforts/accomplishments ridiculed and belittled in such a blatant manner?  Far from empowered I guess.   

This past Saturday during our annual beauty pageant, Maroua Kharbouch the 2013 winner made an impassionate speech whilst handing down her crown highlighting how her tenure had, had a very positive impact on her life.  It was something that I was glad to hear especially after seeing so many negative pageant related comments on social media.  There stood an intelligent, young woman telling everyone who was willing to listen about her enjoyable reign, which had helped her develop as an individual.  Kaine Aldorino another native and previous winner who even went on to take the Miss World crown a few years ago would surely agree with such a notion, she is now our deputy Mayor!

 People tend to forget that for many of these contestants it is not only about competing but also about socialising, gaining confidence and encouraging personal growth.  There is much more to a beauty pageant than meets the eye, pardon the pun.

 Additionally many of these ‘queens’ usually get heavily involved with a number of different charities and do their fair share for their respective communities.  Visiting schools, inspiring young girls and raising awareness on a number of issues which would have never, have gotten as much publicity if it were not for their efforts.  Whether such actions are part of the Pageant Queen persona or not is irrelevant in my opinion as at the end of the day the good deeds get done and that is what really counts.   

I doubt it’s just me who fails to see the irony behind the demeaning comments usually spewed by those who frown upon such competitions.  Those who in their infinite wisdom profess to know what’s best for the world’s female population yet refuse to take into account the democratic wishes of those who choose to partake in such events.  I guess the fact that pageant competitors are real people with real feelings does little to discourage some.

As a good friend of mine once said, I don't know what's worse rating someone on their beauty or insulting them when they win. That's someone’s daughter.

Gibraltar the perfect Smokescreen

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The Government of Spain finds itself in the midst of a massive corruption Scandal.  The treasurer of the governing party (the right wing Partido Popular) has been jailed for alleged charges of money laundering and fraud.  Shortly after Mariano Rajoy the Spanish Prime Minister himself was accused of taking illegal payments from slush funds.  There seems to be plenty of proof to suggest this could be true and the jailed treasurer has even supported these allegations.

This is the moment when British Gibraltar suddenly comes in handy

Spain has long used smokescreens to divert attention from more important issues and this is no exception. Spain’s foreign minister Jose Garcia-Margallo has repeatedly made the headlines this week by threatening to close Gibraltar’s airspace, charge extortionate fees to enter Gibraltar, hound Gibraltarians living in Spain and cut off all telephone lines.

In addition to this the people of Gibraltar and all those who work there have been subjected to inhumane border queues, up to 7 hours long.   Pregnant women, children, the sickly and elderly have all been made to wait in the scorching summer heat for hours on end.

The irony of this all is that most of the people in these queues are actually Spanish nationals.  Gibraltar employs over 10 000 Spanish workers from across the border not to mention a substantial about of Brits and other EU nationals.

The excuse being that Gibraltar had dropped 70 cement blocks in order to create an artificial reef in British Gibraltar waters were Spanish fishermen were illegally raking for shellfish and clams.  Fortunately there are those who saw past this charade and have come to Gibraltar’s aid, such as the Mayor of La Linea Gemma Araujo, Verdemar (Spanish environmental group) and even the Partido Popular fraction in La Linea.   Especially as the Junta of Andalusia also dropped cement blocks around their coastline only two years ago for the same reason and nothing much was heard of it.

They too are probably wondering why should 10 000 Spanish nationals suffer for the sake of 3 fishing boats?

In my opinion Madrid has never cared much for those in the Andalusia region (bar Seville) and the Partido Popular seems to care even less.  The unemployment rate has reached a staggering 40% and these statistics are even higher for the youth.  Every day dozens of Spanish nationals come to Gibraltar looking for work and fortunately for them they are embraced and given the opportunities which their Government ceases to do.

Spain should be grateful to Gibraltar for ensuring that most of Andalusia does not spiral into poverty and misery but instead it chooses to vilify it in order to distract their people from other more important matters.  Such as corruption scandals, high unemployment rates, ever increasing taxes and an economic crisis that only seems to deepen.

Unfortunately nationalistic propaganda will always have a set target audience especially when people are hungry, desperate and looking for someone to blame.   The PP Anti-Gibraltar sentiment seems to have instigated attacks on British citizens in Spain.  Only last week a Gibraltarian national was beaten and arrested at the frontier by Guardia Civil Guards for no apparent reason.  The whole sordid affair was captured on camera and uploaded onto Youtube.  Furthermore Gibraltar registered cars have been vandalised and even set on fire as of late.

I cannot help but acknowledge the similarities between a modern day Spain and Hitler’s Germany Pre-Nazi era.  A country in dire socio economic turmoil, governed by a Nationalist Socialist party masquerading as democrats, who see fit to implement laws to target a specific minority.

I sincerely believe that now is the time for Europe to stand up and take action before it is too late.

Is Spain waging a cyber war against Gibraltar

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Recently Julie Girling a British MEP was insulted and harassed via social media sites by Spanish trolls for standing up for the people of Gibraltar. In a world where the lines between reality and cyber reality blur and are hard to distinguish at times, such threats should not be taken lightly. The internet is a powerful tool people are able to distribute information whether factual or not with the simple click of a mouse. Intelligence agencies across the world are aware of this and use the technology appropriately. Elements of these aforementioned agencies are easily able to masquerade as “normal” users whilst successfully spewing their propaganda of choice across the globe whilst not suffering any repercussions as such.

The increasing tensions between Spain and the UK have set off the Spanish Anti-Gibraltar propaganda machine on permanent over drive. An avalanche of misinformation in regards to Gibraltar has been circulating all over the web as of late. For example Spain claims that Gibraltar is a tax haven and a fiscal paradise yet it is white listed by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Something it would not be if this were a fact. Such lies are spread continuously and via all means possible including major social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. It very much seems like Spain’s propaganda machinery has opted to employ Nazi Germany’s ideology of “if you tell a lie big enough and often enough, people will eventually come to believe it”.

I think it is worth noting that the Centro Nacional De Inteligencia (National Centre of Intelligence), once a military dominated agency known as CESID (Centro Superior de Informacion de la Defensa) now directly reports to the Vice president of the Spanish state. Additionally one of José María Aznar's (Prime minister of Spain 1996-2004) key objectives was to gain access to US technologies for espionage. He wove this objective into the negotiations for the review of the 1988 bi-lateral defence agreement with the US. Many believe that this objective was indeed achieved and once this technology was understood it would have probably been used for collection purposes rather than counter-terrorism.

In my opinion the very existence of the Gibraltarian entity angers Spain’s right wing ruling party and if they could they would obliterate them from the face of the earth. Its main objective is to attack the pillars of Gibraltar’s economy and thus force a political capitulation. It is purposely and aggressively targeting Gibraltar and it may even be getting assistance from the most unlikely of sources.

Graham Watson a liberal democrat MEP has always staunchly defended Gibraltar. Unfortunately his colleague Andrew Duff has been far from supportive. He has launched his very own cyber-assault on Gibraltar’s reputation via his twitter page and called us a fiscal paradise (a la Spain) amongst other things. It is hard to understand how two MEPS’ from the same party can have such opposing views on the same subject. Duff might perceive Gibraltar as a stumbling block in his crusade to create the United State of Europe. Duff loves the “we are one” EU notion and vehemently fights for such a cause. That he is quite paly with Raül Romeva i Rueda (a Spanish Green MEP) does not bode well for Gibraltar either.

There are many factors that need to be taken into account and even those who spread blatant lies behind the cloak of anonymity should not be underestimated. Such is the case of Emilio Esteban a self-proclaimed “friend of Gibraltar” whose website friendsofbritishgibraltar.weebly.com was responsible for posting the faces of Guardia Civil guards on the internet. These actions predictably portrayed Gibraltar in a negative light and were even given air time by the Spanish TV channel Tele Cinco. Emilio uses both Twitter and Facebook to attack the inhabitants of the rock whilst falsely claiming he supports a British Gibraltar, when in reality all he does is instigate hate and deceive. He even goes as far as infiltrating social media groups in an attempt to coerce Gibraltarians into providing him with information and photographs. Recently he lambasted the Gibraltar Government for being ‘Anti British’ and claimed that Spanish flags were being flown around the rock. This could not be further from the truth as the people of Gibraltar are proud to be British and in 2002 over 98% of the population voted in favour of remaining British.

People must be educated to understand that not all that they read on the internet is true and that the detrimental effects of cyber intelligence and war fare should be acknowledged and respected. Especially when those using it to their advantage are fully aware of what can be achieved by such means.