June 2008

Tonight I was able to witness something you only can only appreciate as an expat living abroad.  I watched Spain play Germany in the Euro 2008 football (Americans can read that as soccer) competition.  On one side you had all of the English people who live here rooting for Spain because every proper Englishman still hates Germans for WWII and on the other side you had the Gibraltarians who hate Spain with a special passion. 

What makes it amusing as an outsider looking in is that your average Gibraltarian is more Spanish than British.   Gibraltar is officially an overseas territory of England.  The official language is English and they have the Gibraltar pound which trades 1:1 with the English pound as their currency.  In fact all of their currency features the Queen of England on one side and something Gibraltarian on the other side.  I get paid in sterling and my bank makes no distinction between British sterling and Gibraltar sterling.  English and Gibraltarian pounds pretty much are the same here and even my bank will dispense a mixture of Gib pounds and English pounds in the same transaction.  Though it must be said that if I take Gib pounds to the UK I often get a confused look as many English people have no idea where Gibraltar is or that they are still a territory of the UK.  Thus is the plight of a country that only has 30,000 residents. 

The thing is that the Gibraltarians hate the Spanish with a passion.  This is despite the fact that your average Gibraltarian learns Spanish as their first language and English as their second.  This is also despite the fact that your average Gibraltarian would be more at home in Malaga than London in terms of being able to acclimate to the culture.  They relish their independence from Spain and whenever it is put to a vote as to whether or not Gibraltar should like to remain a English territory or come under rule of Spain the polls are 99.999999999999999999999999999999% in favor of staying British. 

So on one side you have the English who detest the Germans for bombing them nearly into dust during WWII and on the other you have the Gibraltarians who detest the Spanish as if they were a lower life form.  It’s certainly a strange site to see two people who profess to have the same interests to be on such opposite sides of the spectrum. 

And here I am the lowly American with no horse in either race.  Sure my grandfather was in the 82nd Airborne and fought against the Germans in Italy and Holland but I never met the man (he died before I was born) so I hold no grudge against the Germans.  Perhaps he might.  I’ve also lived in Germany while stationed there during my own tour of duty in the US military and I don’t see them as better or worse than anybody else. 

I could care less pro or con about Spain.  It’s a beautiful country with many fascinating people but I don’t love or hate the Spanish more or less than I do any other country.  In effect I’m a neutral observer of this German/Spanish love/hate relationship. 

It’s just fun to watch in a pub when the biggest football match of the year is the main focus of everyone in Europe and you have no horse in the running. 

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