MISS WORLD SPARKS RARE MOMENT OF UNITY IN PARLIAMENT
Posted by Brian Reyes on Dec 18, 2009, 17:54
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Kaiane Aldorino’s “stunning” personal success at the Miss World contest has delivered “celestial justice” on those who would deny Gibraltar its rightful place on the global stage, Parliament was told yesterday.
In a rare moment of cross-party unity, Gibraltar’s elected politicians came together to recognise Kaiane’s achievement and underscore its wider importance.
“The explosion of popular joy that Gibraltar has been gripped by transcends the importance…of a beauty pageant,” said Chief Minister Peter Caruana.
“I believe that the reason is that this community see this enormous achievement for Gibraltar as almost a relief from the constant attempts by others to deny this community its rightful place on the international stage.”
“This community constantly lives under the feeling that it is denied the same opportunities to prosper socially and politically as other peoples of the world [do].”
“And then, as if to do celestial justice, along comes Miss Gibraltar not just to do astonishingly well in the Miss World contest, which would have been enough, but to win it.”
Mr Caruana said Kaiane’s win was a formidable achievement and brought into sharp relief Gibraltar’s incredible pool of talent in all walks of life.
Gibraltar, he joked, has “even the odd decent trade unionist and perhaps the odd not-too-bad politician.”
He dismissed as sour grapes some press reports in Spain and the UK that described Gibraltar’s Miss World as ‘the fifth UK contestant’.
“Gibraltar had one entry in its own right, and Gibraltar won in its own right,” Mr Caruana said.
The Chief Minister offered Kaiane Parliament’s “enduring acclamation, gratitude and appreciation for placing Gibraltar in the position in which she has placed us all today.”
He added that Parliament would consider other motions or resolutions to “more fully, properly and appropriately” recognise Kaiane’s achievement.
BOSSANO
The Chief Minister’s message was also echoed by Opposition leader Joe Bossano during a brief intervention at the start of parliamentary business yesterday morning.
He said Kaiane’s Miss World win had sent a clear message to anyone who thought that Gibraltar was just “one small, unimportant town in one corner of Andalucia.”
Mr Bossano said Gibraltar’s 305-year history had made its people into a nation that felt a collective sense of pride when one of its own succeeded on the world stage, “as if it was our flesh and blood that has been successful.”
“We identify because the essence of our culture, of being Gibraltarian, is that we are interconnected as a family,” he said.
“Like any family we can have bitter disputes amongst ourselves, but we take collective pride when one of our people, one of our family, shines in the world.”
Like Mr Caruana, Mr Bossano also found it impossible to resist a light-hearted quip.
“We produce many women that are very beautiful in Gibraltar [because] like everything else, we do this better than anybody else in the world,” he said.
“It’s just taken the rest of the planet a little bit more time to recognise what we’ve always known.”
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