Trafika Europe 6 - Arabesque

auricula

initiated an all out mutual smugglery to Gibraltar. This r ema r k a b l e En g l i s h - dominated cliff is connected to the Spanish mainland by a mere three-kilometer-wide isthmus of shifting sand, which rises but a few meters above the sea. Because smugglery of a less self- contradictory nature had once t a k e n p l a c e w i t h dispropor tionately large succes s , the Spani sh government ordered a low rampart (La Linea) built right across the isthmus. Within a short period of time it was equipped with blockhouses, small, primitive wooden sheds, where the isthmus’ guards could shelter from the daily sun and where a coal brazier dauntlessly warded off the nightly sea fogs. Since these measures effectively eliminated what they had

been erec ted against, however, the guards now faced a dilemma, namely, their purpose there was now meaningless, though if they retreated back to their cozy homes in shadow-filled La Linea, the activity precluded by their presence would undoubtedly blossom up again. Uneasy at the negative task imposed upon them by their country, many of the guards simply broke, and a number, suffering under the situation’s impact, turned to booze, which they liberated under cover of darkness and their official status from the more formal Englishmen. Besides supplying them with gin and tonic, this activity was also useful, indeed one might say it had a direct galvanizing effect, since it served to maintain the guards ’ awareness of why they were

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