Argentina, full of confidence at home and abroad, including the Malvinas Islands
Argentina formally appealed to the British government to discuss sovereignty over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands in a column signed by Foreign Affairs minister Jorge Taiana, published Tuesday in The Guardian in coincidence with the commemoration of Argentina’s bicentenary.
The column, “The Spirit of Argentina” with a brief introduction of the events of May 1810 when the people of Buenos Aires disregarding Spanish colonial authorities established the first autonomous government council, then unravels a long eulogy of current Argentina and the achievements of the Kirchner couple’s seven years in office consolidating democracy, human rights and the economy.
The column also outlines Argentine foreign policy identifying Falklands’ sovereignty as one of its pillars.
A paragraph is dedicated to current Argentina’s foreign policy, full respect for international law and an effective multilateralism to address the challenges of the modern world. There is a mention to regional integration, Mercosur, Unasur and Argentina’s participation as a member of G-20.
Taiana before ending the column calling for “the people of the world to join our celebration as we share the best of our own people, our culture and our history” makes the invitation to the British government.
“And so our appeal – formally supported by the United Nations – to the British government to discuss sovereignty over the Malvinas islands, reflects the spirit of the Argentine people, and is one of the pillars of our foreign policy”.
Follows the complete text:
The spirit of Argentina
Our nation is full of confidence at home and abroad – including over the Malvinas Islands.
Argentina is turning 200 years old today. The commemoration of the bicentenary is a time in which celebration goes hand in hand with reflection. On 25 May, 1810, in Buenos Aires, the then capital of the Viceroyalty of the River Plate, a group of patriots decided to disregard the Spanish colonial authorities and establish the first autonomous government council. This challenge to the colonial order set in motion the process that would eventually lead to the declaration of independence, and we pay tribute to those heroes who founded our nation.
So where does Argentina stand in this bicentennial year? Our democratic political system has prevailed for nearly three decades and has now reached maturity. The commitment to human rights has received new impetus after the repeal of amnesty laws and the reopening of trials of civilians and members of the military responsible for crimes against humanity.
Since 2003, Argentina's economic growth has been higher than in the whole of the preceding period that began in 1810. Its exceptional growth rate and positive balance of trade has made it possible to service external debt commitments. Over the last seven years, public education and health have received the attention they deserved, regaining their priority status as institutions for social integration, trebling their share of public expenditure. Reversing poverty is a priority for President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who has introduced measures to help create jobs, and social policies to protect children.
The state has resumed its leading role in the promotion of research in science and technology, earmarking substantial amounts to pay teachers and researchers in the public university system, which in the 20th century trained the five Argentine citizens who went on to become Nobel prizewinners.
The Argentine people are the result of a meeting of highly diverse cultures. The coexistence of migrants from all over the world has been a feature of our history that we continue to embrace. In spite of the global economic crisis, we have implemented the Greater Homeland program, based on state-of-the art legislation for the regularization of foreign workers.
We also advocate full respect for international law. Multilateralism is the most effective instrument for promoting peace and security and winning the fight against poverty, disease, drug trafficking and environmental degradation.
The promotion and defense of human rights is a state policy that strengthens our national identity and our leadership in the international community. We are actively integrated into trade within Mercosur – the “common market of the south” – and believe in the need to advance towards greater institutionalization of this bloc. We politically support the Union of South American Nations as a key forum for maintaining peace and democracy. We also take an active part in the G20.
And so our appeal – formally supported by the United Nations – to the British government to discuss sovereignty over the Malvinas islands, reflects the spirit of the Argentine people, and is one of the pillars of our foreign policy.
Our country still has unpaid debts. They go back a long time, and we are intent on achieving recognition of the rights of vast sectors of our population that have been relegated. Foreign commitments remain, however, a priority for the Argentine government.
Today we invite the people of the world to join our celebration as we share the best of our own people, our culture and our history.
Suggested Stories
-
May 25th 2012
Three former presidents admit Mercosur has failed and has Uruguay ‘trapped’
-
May 25th 2012
Argentina extends dollar purchase control to residents travelling abroad
-
May 25th 2012
Argentina revokes commuter railway concession involved in crash that killed 51m and injured 700
-
May 25th 2012
Argentina attacks WTO and US on trade issues at OECD ministerial round
37 comments Feed
Note: Comments do not reflect MercoPress’ opinions. They are the personal view of our users. We wish to keep this as open and unregulated as possible. However, rude or foul language, discriminative comments (based on ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality, sexual orientation or the sort), spamming or any other offensive or inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated. Please report any inadequate posts to the editor. Comments must be in English. Thank you.
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/25/the-spirit-of-argentina-malvinas
I notice they carefully chose The Guardian to make this statement. Readers of the Times and Telegraph would have just laughed at it.
I can pretty much guess how the conversation would go:
Arg: “All of your islands are belong to us”
FI: “**** off”
UK: “we support the position of the Falkland Islands Government”
leaving us absolutely no further forward than we are now.
Perhaps the British and Falkland Islands Press ought to start screaming and yelling and demanding that Argentina complies with resolution 1514 and formally abandon their (frankly dubious) claim on the islands and allow them to pursue their right to self-determination; by virtue of that right to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
In reality we need to have such publications that take this tone as it demonstrates our democratic principles and the right for people to determine for themselves which paper to purchase. Self-determination an honourable concept; pity the Argentine leadership don't think so!
I you see something on the shelves that you want, you buy it... it may not be there tomorrow...
So It would appear Argentina has no problem in allowing the Falkland islands to democratically decide their own future in line with the human rights outlined in resolution 1514?
Or does promotion and defense of human rights, democracy and peace not apply to people who have consistently expressed a wish not to be part of Argentina?
one subject = same comment by too many commentators !
I'm not sure if it is due to a difference in cultures but the general response I can gauge in the UK towards the advert is one of hilarity.
for example , yesterday i saw an article about British Budget.. but
i didn't find any commentators to discuss ..!
I would be interested in discussing the current crisis in Korea but Mercopress doesn't even appear to have reported this story that is dominating the news in the rest of the world.
So why don't you and your pals shut up about it?
Beef is interested in same subject too..'ll have a conference there...
yu may discuss on Korean Economy here..why not !
if you stumble while discussion..i'm here to intervene !
we have seen this movie before.. just distraction..
www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2485&Itemid=179
FI: “**** off”
UK: “we support the position of the Falkland Islands Government”
lmao!
Your thought does not represent me!!!!
Malvinas Argentinas!!!! For ever!!!!!
we have seen this movie before.. just distraction.. ”
This is a very different escalation to what we have seen in the past. They sank a South Korean warship killing 46 sailors in an unprovoked attack and are now able to detonate nuclear devices. Combined with the pending demise of Kim Jong Il it is a precariously unstable situation. China is a very different state to that which supported it in the 80s when it bombed a civilian aircraft killing 105 passengers and bombed a government delegation in Burma.
Even China is unable to control the situation and it could quite easily jump from a cold to a hot war.
I know exaclty what my risks are and quite like bubbles (when I sell at the top and buy at the bottom). Also going short in my spread bet account when the bubble is about to burst can make one very happy.
Stocktrufen - 6 units per day? In RKH I have nearer to 10,000 units!
noone can make lonely ...individual investors are out nowadays !
@19 jorge! Of course Alejo's comments don't represent you. He said “most”. He probably excludes ignorant, brain-dead, fascist, fanatical, militaristic morons. But be happy, I've already recommended that a portion of Falkland Islands oil revenues should be set aside for people like you. A nice padded room!
Ignorant!!!!!!
Ignorant!!!!!! ”
And yet we just can't seem to find the time to care.
It's interesting to note how in Professor Brescain's paper on Argentine nationalism it directly parallels spains massive drop in support for the Gibraltar claim which stands at roughly less than 40% of the population and about number 23 on a list of top 30 issues in Spain, about 15 behind Spain's apprent fall from grace in football, right after the fall of the Junta.
Extreme nationalism is strongly related with military or similar regimes, note how during 1850 until about 1930 not a peep from the democratic Argentine government, until like most other Europeanish states militaristic nationalism took ahold in the 1930's and suddenly issues of very little relevance to the countries well being dominated domestic and international issues.
Now Argentina's claim although roughly 73-6% beleive teh islands are theirs, apparently only 24% of those asked considered it to be of pressing concern and less than 4% listed it as within their top 10 concerns.
A trend is being followed here, like with all nationalist irredenta claims, they slowly lose much support over time, especially when the country becomes democratic.
Jorge we are grateful to know represents a slowly dying breed: the die hard racist extreme ultra far right nationalist Malvinist. I safely predict that with current trends his ilk and opinions would be restricted to the angry nutter next door, and that Argentina's claim will follow a low level expression of displeasure within a tripartite forum like Spain and Gibraltar, and by about 2033 I can safely say both claims will be dropped.
You could try making up your own figures, but since your arithmetic is probably on a par with your ability to conduct a courteous reasoned discussion, we won't believe that either.
Tough, son.
Rarie, you are full of sh*t, at least 80% of argentines support the claim, that's why the government insists, otherwise it wouldn't do it, very simple (for thinking people) and very complicated to understand for some idiots totally ignorants like you.
I'm a little leftist and have nothing to do with the ultra right, a person in favour of abortion and gay marriage is hardly from the right, your assertion is nonsense and demonstrates you know nothing about me nor my country, but please continue with your stupidity, I can learn from first hand what kind of ignorants some british are.
I tell you one thing, you will not find ANY newspaper article in the ARG media saying we should drop the claim. Now you can't really say the same about UK, right? Like or not the Guardian is a massive media, I even recognize is a crappy source for information most of times... but still massive.
I just settle for now with a resolution to ban oil extraction in the islands, which should be easy specially with BP screwing up completely like a bunch of amateurs. Timing is perfect :)
It may help you to be interested in other things!!
Cristina tells so....
Rhaurie's argument is backed by some evidence although his figures still show a majority of Argentine's believing their governmen't unrelelnting propoganda. Hardly surprising really. What is more surprising against that backdrop, is the fact that dramatically fewer of them think the issue is important.
Argentine newspapers may not demand that the Argentine claim be dropped, but they don't seem to try to promote the issue either. Reporting if anything seems a little flat. I think most intelligent Argentines recognise the flaws in the claim and would rather devote their energies to other matters.
While the print run for the Grauniad is tiny (289k monthly avge),it was only recently pipped into 2nd place by the Daily Mail when it comes to online readers, that's a shade under 30 million unique readers per month, which I think could easily class as “massive”, well, relatively massive at least. See the Press Gazette for details.
Where MAP might be wrong is believing that the left-wing, sandal wearing, beardy, Guardianistas are all in full support of their preferred newspapers position regarding the Falklands. Just reading through the comments at the link below might put paid to that little notion:
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/25/the-spirit-of-argentina-malvinas
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!