Wednesday 22 February 2012
Give Patagonia to the Indians!
This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of Argentina’s illegal invasion of the Falkland Islands, a fiasco which turned out to be a political gift by a gang of fascist thugs to Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister at the time. Argentina has never lost it’s hankering after a group of islands it calls Las Malvinas, though its connection is tenuous at best and the local people, all English speaking, want to preserve their link with Britain.
Now, in this anniversary year, the Argentinean government has upped the ante by lodging a protest in the United Nations over Britain’s ‘militarisation’ of the Falklands. Apparently the military bases on the islands have been modernised to such an extent that they could be used to attack the whole of South America, including Brazil and Chile, notwithstanding the fact that the latter was a valuable ally of Britain during the conflict!
It’s a fantasy, of course, dismissed as ‘complete rubbish’ by Mark Grant, Britain’s ambassador to the UN. But fantasy plays a big part in the politics of Buenos Aries. Fantasy allowed the government to describe Prince William, who is in the Falkland’s at the present as part of a Royal Air Force search and rescue team, as a ‘conquistador.’
Cristina Kirchner, Argentina’s president, Madame Botox herself, has said that the presence of British warships in the islands “poses a grave danger to international security.” Hector Timerman, the country’s foreign minister, not to be outdone by the president, says that the population of the islands is not indigenous.
Yes, an interesting point of view, given that many of the inhabitants have roots in the islands going back well over a hundred years, given that there is no native indigenous Argentinean population. Perhaps we should extend the principle to Argentina itself, perhaps that country should restore the territory to the south of Buenos Aeries it so rapaciously seized from the indigenous inhabitants in the nineteenth century during the so-called Conquest of the Desert which wasn’t a desert at all. Yes, that’s right. Patagonia belongs to the Indians!
Britain has a duty to the people of the Falkland Islands, a duty of defence, a duty to secure the islands from the vagaries of Latin American politics and neurotic governments, fascist at one turn, democratic at the next. As long as they wish us to remain we will remain, no mater how much Botox Christina or Fidel Castro, that pathetic old dinosaur, disapproves.
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The incompetence in Argentina, Christina got her thyroid removed for no good reason! Patagonia is a German colony, that is where Hitler retired after WW2. The real problem with Argentina is that there are too many Italians.
ReplyDeleteHitler went to Patagonia! Now that is news. :-) Actually, Anthony, I was under the impression that there is a strong Welsh element to the place.
DeleteI'm somewhat indifferent to the controversy but I guess the Argentines at least acknowledge that the fact that virtually the totality of the archipelago's population favors British control is at least a _very_ strong argument for the British, do they?
ReplyDeleteThey should somehow try to make to the inhabitants of their offshore archipelago Argentine citizenship appealing, but it's really hard for me to imagine something like that happening anytime soon.
Deino, the government seems indifferent to the feelings of the local people. The issue is being whipped up partly to compensate for Kirchner's growing unpopularity and partly because there are thought to be large oil reserves in the area.
DeleteCan you read Spanish Ana? You might be interested in this news regarding this very subject:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lanacion.com.ar/1450787-una-vision-alternativa-sobre-la-causa-de-malvinas
Several intellectuals published a sort of open letter regarding this conflict and what they had to say differs a great deal from what is politically correct to say in Argentina. It might have caused a greater political storm than it did if it hadn't been for that terrible railroad accident that's taken over the media cycle in Argentina.
I can tell you this much: younger people don't really care that much about this topic, so I think it won't as much of an issue in the future as it has until now between our countries.
Wilson, yes I can, though not with a high degree of fluency. My well-thumbed Spanish dictionary is always to hand. :-) Thank you for the link, which I shall read with interest. I certainly hope it's not an issue in time to come. I was in Buenos Aires over the Christmas period a few years ago and I had a really super time. People were unfailingly hospitable.
DeleteYes, Hitler made it to Argentina via U-Boat under the protection of the then Peron nationalist government.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anthony. I'm afraid that I take the conventional view - he committed suicide in Berlin in 1945.
DeleteIt's odd that Argentina keeps falling under the spell of venal, incompetent charismatics. The country has so much going for it, yet every 30 years or so, they get caught up in some bizarre enthusiasm and it all comes tumbling down. Perhaps there is a toxic mix of nordic and latin culture that creates an explosive atmosphere over time: one spark and BANG!?
ReplyDeleteIt has an odd history, Calvin. Once the most advanced nation in the South American continent, it went through successive loops of decline throughout the last century.
DeleteA few comments, Ana, about beloved Argentina as additions to your post and the comments of your readers: What is the definition of an Argentine? An Italian who speaks Spanish and thinks he's English (there are many, many other jokes) . . . In 1939 Argentina had the same GDP as France, with a comparatively tiny population; I believe it is still the case that no other country has fallen so far economically, from such a lofty pinnacle of success to such an abyss of dysfunction and disaster, there are many poorer countries, but none with the educated population (which includes a highly unusual mix of Jews and unrepentent ex-Nazis), the installed capital investment, and the superb culture . . . one key to understanding Argentina, in my view, is La Recoleta, which unlike Pere-Lachaise remains a living part of the ordinary lives of Portenos . . . a related key is the bizarre history of what happened to Eva Peron's embalmed body under various regimes until it was finally interred in the Duarte family sepulchre in La Recoleta . . .
ReplyDeleteThat's a very useful addition, Chris; heaps of thanks. Oh, I visited Evita in Recoleta. :-)
DeleteZhukov was afraid to tell Stalin the truth, you will find that conventional history is full of convenient fabrications ask MI6.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I would believe anything MI6 told me. :-)
DeleteWhat do you know of the post war Odessa SS support organization?
ReplyDeleteI know of it, though I'm not an expert.
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