MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
?British roots run deep in Argentina'
Giving his first-ever interview in Bs. Aires to the Herald on the occasion of the Queen's birthday today, British Ambassador John Hughes dwells on his enjoyment of his first five months in Argentina and looks confidently forward to his future work.
Never before has he encountered so much British heritage outside the English-speaking world as in Argentina. Thus in Venezuela there was a highly active British ladies' group but it drew its ranks largely from expatriates linked to the oil industry. Here he is fascinated by the roots and traditions of an Anglo-Argentine community which has often been here for four generations or more ? a people who know their country deeply but with a different perspective. He feels proud to be involved with them and is sure that his Embassy can learn a lot from them.
Hughes was speaking to the Herald just three days after the Argentine-British Community Council fête on embassy residence grounds ? "a wonderful event, lucky with the weather even if a bit damp underfoot." Over 2,000 people attended, which is "good for the community, good for the Embassy and good for charities like BABS (the British-American Benevolent Society)."
Yet Hughes is convinced that he will never encounter the totality of British heritage, not to mention Argentina as a whole, by staying in Buenos Aires ? "you cannot generalize from Recoleta." This conviction has already taken him on two provincial trips (with many more to come), both of them southward ? to Río Gallegos (with its British Club in the heart of the city as testimony to hundreds of British families who did so much to settle the area a century ago) and to Chubut.
In the latter the Welshman had what he calls a "humbling experience." Although his Welsh-speaking father (a Baptist chapel deacon who died when he was young) gave him a smattering of Welsh including the ability to sing some hymns, he was utterly unprepared for the "torrent of beautiful pure Welsh" with which the Patagonian Welsh answered his set phrase in Welsh: "How are you today?" and he was forced to admit to an inability to reply. Argentina is very special to the Welsh ? a people who have travelled the world far less than the English or the Scots.
The Welsh advent in Patagonia (dating back 140 years to the arrival of the Mimosa in Puerto Madryn on July 28, 1865) will be commemorated during British Day (April 30) at the Book Fair with Félix Luna's presentation of the book Rocky Trip by Sergio Sepiurka and Jorge Miglioli (Sala Leopoldo Lugones at 4pm). On the same day the music of Celtic Underground (Sala José Hernández at 6pm) will further boost the Celtic factor while there will also be an illustrated lecture by Alicia de Arteaga on "Counterpoint: Tradition and Contemporary Art in the United Kingdom" (Sala Alfonsina Storni at 5pm). At the fair Britain will be occupying Stand 1913 in the Yellow Pavilion on the Rural Society exhibition grounds (Sarmiento 2704).
But that is not all Britain will be offering the Book Fair starting today. There will also be a compendium of keynote papers delivered in various seminars organized in past years by the British Embassy as part of an ongoing effort to improve the quality of Argentine institutional life. This effort will continue under Hughes with a 1.5-million-dollar programme on economic governance and sustainable development bringing together the public and private sectors, civil society and NGOs.
This programme is "not overtly political," Hughes explained ? Argentines must necessarily define their own institutions but the embassy can help to create the framework.
Hughes will not have to wait too long to return to his native Wales ? May 23rd will find him in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff alongside Welsh chief minister Rhodri Morgan watching the British Lions take on the Pumas at rugby (talking of rugby, Hughes feels pretty "smug" that Wales not only swept this year's Six Nations tournament but won it in style).
Hughes muses on how many sports at which Argentines today excel were brought to this country by the British ? soccer, rowing, rugby, tennis and golf. Not so much cricket perhaps ? this Saturday he will be joining his embassy (whose trade attaché Dave Prodger is a star batsman in the local circuit) against Hurlingham.
So where does the Foreign Office's change manager propose to introduce changes at the outset of his mission? Hughes does not feel the need for haste, partly because his "top-rate" embassy staff has never been averse to the idea of change.
He would like to use his private-sector experience to develop business for mutual benefit and is highly optimistic that the economic cycle in Argentina, Britain and the world will provide ample opportunities. People-to-people exchanges and interaction should not be underestimated towards these aims but are very much ends in themselves.
While Hughes is anxious to see whether the European Union (whose trade commission is headed by Britain's Peter Mandelson) and Mercosur can work out an agreement and while he has a healthy respect for the importance of the World Trade Organization (WTO), there is plenty of room for bilateral work at many levels and no danger of his being idle during his mission.
By Michael Soltys ? Buenos Aires Herald
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