With Miss Gibraltar winners over the last two years pledging that the most important thing is to be themselves and not be concerned about what other people think of them, it is perhaps appropriate that such a message is getting out to other walks of life. Their belief is that if you are happy with yourself and confident in the person you are you can achieve a lot of good in your particular environment. This is a message being picked up by Jayne Wink and extending it to children, some of them in very vulnerable positions, who will be participating in a Summer Pageant to be held at the King's Bastion Leisure Centre on Sunday 20 September.
"My main reason for doing the pageant is to celebrate equality and respect," said Event Organiser Jayne Wink. "I communicate better with children than with adults, having three girls and being an entertainer for 15 years. Children are beautiful because they have no malice and whatever they tell you comes from the heart while an adult disguises the truth with their own merits.
"I do the pageant making sure to get as many kids as possible so rather than being ten contestants they're around 30, being boys and girls from all walks of life and an array of racial origins. My main aim is quality and respect for others no matter the background or status because in the end we are all equal."
Her desire to give kids these values arises from her own negative experiences through childhood when she was bullied and had her own fair share of problems at home during a parental divorce.
"During those times 30 years ago people saw families as dysfunctional if they didn't have a father and mother." said Wink. "Parents saw that as abnormal so while in school it wasn't a problem their children weren't allowed to play with me outside school.
"That was my situation at the time but I believe things happen for a reason as God is my best friend so even those mothers who didn't let the children play with me have come to me for help and I've helped them because I believe in forgiveness."
FULL TEXT OF INTERVIEW IN OUR PRINTED EDITION
24-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
Does Ocean Village have anything against the Gibraltar flag?
August 24, 2015
When Voice of Gibraltar Group spokesman Julio Pons came face to face with those three flags in Ocean Village he said: What on earth is this?
Indeed, he is quite right in getting upset in seeing a huge EU flag, another huge Union Jack and then a small Gibraltar flag.
Julio doesn't miss anything, and spotting that small Gibraltar flag was good work on his part.
Because many people will be asking what does Ocean height have against Gibraltar, because allowing such small flag of Gibraltar flying their patch is not a sign of goodwill.
Anyone who walks in to Ocean Village will not fail to see the disparity in the sizes of the flags that hit your eyes.
Is there nobody at Ocean Village who ensures that the local people are not offended? After all, Ocean Village isin Gibraltar - or where do they think they are?
24-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
GOING BALONEY ABOUT BALLOONS
August 24, 2015
Talking point
The GONHS wants to get rid of the release of balloons on National Day. They said so on August 13, always an unlucky number. But while everyone would agree to be as environmentally friendly as possible, the release of ballons is very much an integral part of our National Day festivities.
In fact, some might say that National Day without those red and white ballons is not National Day, because the balloons are something that everyone looks forward to. And they do send a political message, reinforcing the vitally important message of National Day.
Obviously, it is the Government who must govern Gibraltar, and not any small unelected sectarian group, and let's face it, the majority of the public are with the balloons being released as always.
Already, the SDGG has taken significant steps to reduce the environmental impact of this facet of the celebrations by reducing the number of balloons being released and using the most environmentally friendly type of balloon presently available.
The SDGG says it is committed to continuing to further mitigate the environmental impact of its actions but it is also very keen to provide the Gibraltarian public with what it wants on what is a very special day and, to date, the feedback received is overwhelmingly in favour of the balloons being released.
Every effort, however small, might assist the environmental drive to perfection, but little Gibraltar, almost an invisible spec on any map, cannot be seen as the centre of the universe.
In the United States alone there are millions of balloons sent up every year. Their National Weather Service releases 50,000 five-foot diameter balloons each year.
It is said that the rate of ascent for a large balloon is 320 metres per minute or over 17 feet per second. A large balloon released at sea level would reach its bursting height in 26 minutes.
Released 11 inch helium-filled balloons explode at a height of about 30,000 feet.
It is also pointed out that a release without ribbons can be accomplished using biodegradable cotton string.
There would appear to be ways and means to mitigate the use of balloons to ensure a more environmentally friendly release, but the issuing of balloons in Gibraltar is for a very important purpose in respect of Gibraltar and its people. That is also what the majority of the public wants. So, what comes first?
Besides, there are millions and millions of ballons of every shape and size going up every year throughout the world, which reduces to insignificance what we do in Gibraltar once a year. Let us be as helpful as we can but let us not think the environment is going to survive because of what we do or not do in Gibraltar.
Let us not go baloney about balloons.
24-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
>Mucho cacarear for nothing...
August 24, 2015
My dear Cloti, cuando empieza la guerra otra vez, porque esta todo rather quiet on the political front.
Verdad, que los political missiles have stopped, Cynthia mia, sera poque el Patasjamon se ha dado cuenta que esta todo el mundo en la playa, panza arriba, y con pocas gana de politiqueo.
Or it could be que he and others have gone on holiday themselves, I imaginate.
Es que el que mas tiene mas quiera, y el que no tiene, como our neighbours, ahora quieren meterse hasta en duty free, to compete contra nosotros, how about that?!
Y lo dijo el que esta encargado de las zonas franca in the Cadiz area, mira que franco el.
What a cachonfinger, I must say. Y el Seacock en plan chistoso con Ia malaje que tiene.
Verdad que la cosa no esta para chistes, pero este cada vez que habla he puts his foot in it, y eso lo dice hasta los del PSOE.
Es que esto del cooperation tiene guasa, I mean, they see cooperation as us helping them, porque mira lo que esta pasando in the waters, el RGP le ayuda and they don't recognise it.
That is why que el Police se debe dejar de hablar tanto de cooperation, porque where there is genuine cooperation they should also recognise that we are being helpful.
Lo que pasa es que la banda esta borracha y todo esto se convierte en un cuento chino, for local consumption in our Gibraltar.
Claro, y ellos ni se enteran, porque if you ask anyone in Espain if el Gibraltar police cooperates, they will say that we don't.
Lo mas grande, como dice my darling husband, es que hasta el union de la Guardia Civil dice que el RGP does not cooperate, conque what more can one say.
Anyway, we should stop looking the other way and instead highlight what goes on in our Gibraltar donde our young people pasando los 'A' levels and other levels.
Digo que si, y ya hay nearly 1,000 Gibraltarian students out in the world, algo de orgullo - pero if you tell el Seacock y los suyos estoy segura que no se lo cree, poor soul.
Bueno es como esto de los territorial waters, they keep saying the waters are theirs pero they do not offer any convincing arguments.
Claro que no, porque they don't have valid arguments, if not que miren los legal files in the ministerio donde dice that Espain no tiene razon and that the waters are British.
That is the truth of the matter, my dear, mucho cacarear pero nothing else.
Lo peor de la cosa is that we are right y los del Foreign Office ni fu, ni fa. Bueno, no me voy a tomar un sofocon,so I'll sayta,ta.
Adios blancaflor.
Spain issuing permits in foreign waters? That's the question
August 24, 2015
Dear Sir,
The communiqué from the European Commission Spokesperson asking that UNCLOS is respected is highly significant, but that the incidents at sea should be dealt with "bilaterally" between the UK and Spain is flawed.
The numerous incursions by Spanish survey vessels (one of which is fully recorded), claiming they are "carrying out oceanographic works which are of European Community interest", adding that "they have all the necessary permits from spain (!!!) to perform such work", HAS involved the EC and made it a trilateral matter so long as the false designation of our waters under the SCI by the EC remains.
The EC needs to clarify what permits it has empowered Spain to issue in foreign waters under the false SCI designation, unless unsurprisingly there is no truth to the pretext of the spanish survey vessels.
For the moment it cannot therefore be described as a bilateral but "trilateral" issue.
Yours faithfully,
Isabella Caruana
24-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR