MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Thirty years after the war, Falklands under siege by a volatile Argentina
A book published this week in Britain takes an in-depth look at the Falkland Islands 30 years on from the short but deadly conflict of 1982. “Fortress Falklands – Life Under Siege in Britain’s Last Outpost”, is written by journalist Graham Bound. Although normally resident in the United Kingdom, Bound is an Islander, and he returned to the Falklands to report on a situation that he says is more volatile and dangerous than it has been at any time since 1982. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesSounds like it may be a very interesting read, especially the views of the Islanders themselves.
Apr 09th, 2012 - 11:43 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I hope it is published in South America, in Spanish. It will allow ordinary Argentines a chance to read about a different view, other than the one their government seems hell bent on screaming about, to anyone that could be bothered listening.
Are they still banning foreign import books? Or have they finally put that bit of lunacy to bed?
“Fortress Falklands(Malvinas) – Life Under Siege(since when?) in Britain’s Last (Colonial) Outpost”
Apr 10th, 2012 - 12:51 am - Link - Report abuse 0The translated version has a different book cover...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/English_imperialism_octopus.jpg
I plan to order the book via Amazon. Unlike on the other side of the Andes, Chile allows you to import books freely without harassment. “Resolution 453” has been quietly cancelled, but they’d never knowingly allow the book into their country. It would sell quite well however in Montevideo, Punta del Este and Santiago…
Apr 10th, 2012 - 01:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0The worst possible nightmare for a Chilean would be to live under the occupation forces of Argentina and therefore I can emphasize that no matter how difficult the mostly Southern Italian immigrants in the La Plata region make the Falkland Islanders, no one wants to live under the unsightly blue and white flag of San Martin.
What's good about the émigré population living in the southern cone you might ask? Although they run their country worse than Sicily, they do a rather decent asado, and their Malbec wine is fairly good although I refuse to buy another bottle. The women look great on the beach until their mid-twenties and then they turn into the typical mustached Italian mamas with balloon torsos. Watching the Tango is interesting for about 5 minutes and then you get really tired of the drama.
Marcos,
Apr 10th, 2012 - 01:55 am - Link - Report abuse 0Brilliant picture! You must be jealous that your sad little piss-pot of a country doesnt have such a rich historical background as the UK!
shame you wont be able to get it in Argentina due to the blocks on all imports into the country!
Apr 10th, 2012 - 04:14 am - Link - Report abuse 0@Marcos Alejandro (2)
Apr 10th, 2012 - 06:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0I've noticed that you Argentines like to through that word around (colonialism). It's a convenient slur, but it's a shame you have NO idea what that word actually means, else you'd quickly realise that it is Argentina's actions today which more closely mirror the negative aspects of colonialism.
British actions (past and present) with respect to the Falkland Islands more closely resemble the legal practice of acquiring territory (which, incidentally, is equally legitimate 400, 14,000 or 1,000,000 miles from the colonising nations borders). Whilst such practices are colonialism in the main, they lack the essential negative aspects (which the word connotes) of stealing resources from an entitled NATIVE population and subjugating the native and/or colonist population(s).
In fact, those latter (most negative) aspects of colonialism (stealing resources from, and subjugating a NATIVE population of aboriginals) pretty much describes the history of Argentina (and the rest of the Americas). The United Kingdom isn't entirely innocent in that regard, as I'm sure you're aware. However, most of our naferious acts of colonialism are long in the past (and have since been restituted, to varying degrees) and the Falkland Islands never was one such act.
Also, that lovely satirical illustration you linked to pretty much describes Argentina's own attitude towards territorial acquisition (see Argentine claims on British Antarctica, South Georgia and the Shetlands, Sandwich Islands, Chilean territory and probably much of South America someday).
Regards,
Anubeon; an evil, left-wing, anti-imperialist, colonialist?~ :-?
@ Anubeon (6)
Apr 10th, 2012 - 08:17 am - Link - Report abuse 0Spot on there mate. Yet another beautifully worded, sensible and logical argument that will ultimately be ignored and bad mouthed by the Argentine keyboard warriors.
'Warriors' ???? C'mon thats way too flattering!
Apr 10th, 2012 - 08:39 am - Link - Report abuse 0@ Brit Abroad (8)
Apr 10th, 2012 - 08:47 am - Link - Report abuse 0Touche. In hindsight, I suppose 'trolls' is a more appropriate term.
Poltroons,
Apr 10th, 2012 - 09:33 am - Link - Report abuse 0as my Dad says.
Argentine Poltroons.
This article again raises the prospect of the LAN flight between Punta Arenas and Mount Pleasant being cut off by the Argentinian Government. I have never understood this- my questions are:
Apr 10th, 2012 - 12:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 01. Why “must it traverse Argentine air space” ? I did an excercise with Google Earth and found that a flight that goes around the bottom south of Terra de Fuego and does not enter AR airspace would be about 20% longer than the direct route- an inconvenience and added expense, but certianly doable (the planes that LAN usually flies on this route certianly have sufficient range). Why is this not an option?
2. Argentina and Chile have an agreement that permit's each other's traffic through the Strait of Magellan- surely this also applies to aircraft above it, which would be an almost straight line route?
3. What do the Chilean Government and LAN think of their aircraft routes being talked about by the Argentinian govt as if they had no say in the matter?
I have never heard any of these questions addressed and would appreciate sensible, factual answers.
My interest is as an Australian who has visited both Argentina and the Falklands (using the LAN flight) and who loves Argentina- but can't understand why these wonderful people, who I have observed value freedom and democracy so much for them selves, have such a double standard in relation to the people of the Falkland Islands.
11 Justthefacts:
Apr 10th, 2012 - 01:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I'm afraid I can give you no answer to your very sensible questions, but as regards your final paragraph I would say that most of us don't really take the Falklands question nearly as seriously as our Government does. We are too busy trying to survive with 30% inflation, lack of security, a very bruised Judiciary, a very degraded educational system, run away political corruption, etc.
Most of us would be happy to have areally good relationship with the Islanders with all the benefits of interchange with a go ahead people in a small nation that is well educated and peaceful.
I hope that one day we may elect a real Government which wishes to bring us back into the real world instead of the ridiculous dream world of the Kirchner administration.
All the best from Argentina.
Justthefacts: It requires a great deal of accepted risk to fly to Mount Pleasant as the weather is terrible. The pilots that fly the old Lockheed Tridents from Ascension Island have no alternative legal airport in case of an emergency. Adding flights from Chile via the open airspace South of Terra de Fuego would void the current agreement allowing the LAN 767 service. Puerto Williams’ airport cannot accommodate large aircraft. Potential service from Montevideo would be very welcome, but I expect Argentina to strongly discourage it. That’s why the situation is so complicated. Simon is right about trying to survive as inflation is killing the middle class there. Also, all of Patagonia would benefit by open and friendly relations with the Falkland Islands. Instead, they turn away cruise ships, and discourage international development of their own resources.
Apr 10th, 2012 - 02:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Chile remains wary about our Eastern neighbor as we still remember 1978.
13 Chicureo The real Chile doesn't worry about their neighbors nor care about the 1978 farse, a tiny few worry about their pockets because they are having a hard time to send their products to Malvinas.
Apr 10th, 2012 - 03:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 02 Marcos Alfuckwit
Apr 10th, 2012 - 03:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0When is your country going to engage in land redistribution?
Most countries in Africa have engaged in a programme of land redistribution. Bolivia and Venezuela have also engaged in land redistribution. You live on a continent dominated by a minority of European colonials. There is only so much time left for you people before land is forced to be returned to its rightful owners.
The hypocrisy of you people is truly sickening. Your obese unemployed, uneducated, morons flag burning probably don't even know the other side of the Falklands dispute because like North Korea the people of Argentina are brainwashed. The latest argument is the Belgrano was a hospital ship, well if the Belgrano was a hospital ship, the Sheffield had Mother Teresa on-board and was engaged in a mercy mission!
I really would like to see you in street someday so I can take your fucking head off and kick it up your fat ass you moronic clown.
(13) Mr. Chicureo
Apr 10th, 2012 - 04:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Your English is excellent.
And your stereotypes of Argentina are very… stereotypical :-)
I must therefore assume that you are a well travelled and educated Chilean.
But…………….............. Please tell me……..
How did you manage to make two (2) mistakes in the only 3 Spanish words in your comment?
You wrote ”Terra de Fuego”………
I’d say that ”Tierra del Fuego” would be more correct…
Wouldn’t you agree ?
It’s a bit like if an educated Englishman wrote “ Stratord-upo-Avon”, if you get what I mean……
Chuckle chuckle®
Think, I'll forgive your sarcasm. I'm currently at home suffering from some virus. Actually, third and fourth generation passport carrying Chilean of mixed race Welsh, English, German, Irish and Catalan parentage residing in Chicureo. Chilean Grange School with studies in Edinburgh and San Francisco. I lived as a teenager through the UP period of Allende and served in the navy during the early 80's. I'm a mediocre speller and in my previous post on another subject, I just misspelled “which” as “witch” The score is three Spanish and one English words misspelled. (Almost ALL Chileans are well travelled as we live at the end of the world.)
Apr 10th, 2012 - 05:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0(17) Chicureo
Apr 10th, 2012 - 05:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You say:
“The score is three Spanish and one English words misspelled”
I say:
“The score is ”fou“ Spanish and one English words misspelled”
You wrote “Christina” in another of your posts..........
We know it is spelled “Cristina”, don't we?
Anyhow, very kind of you to forgive my irony........
Ex-alumno del Grange and bad speller... I wonder.
A last correction .....
Almost ALL (well off) Chileans are well travelled as we live at the end of the world.
@2 Marcos.
Apr 10th, 2012 - 05:52 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It's not a colonial outpost, just a few rocks in the south Atlantic that have an 'Anglo' population that want to remain 'British Subjects'. Those same people have been on the 'Falkland Islands' before Argentina tried to make a claim on the islands by twisting historical facts and brainwashing their population.
16 Think, Good eye! :-)))
Apr 10th, 2012 - 05:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Hey Chicureo neighbor, sorry about the virus you got from those unsanitary Anglo people, wash your hands with lavandina after touching those creatures :-)
Where you there “neighbor”?
“Argentina should adopt us, say Chile protesters”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/21/argentina-adopt-us-say-chile-protesters
(20) Marcos Alejandro
Apr 10th, 2012 - 06:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I am, maybe, a bit over-sceptical but as I remember we have had:
One Argie from “Buenas Aries”,
Another Argie,very angry about his government policy towards “Los Malvinas”
A Yoruga from “Urugay”.
Do you remember them? ;-)
A Shileno from Terra de Fuego wouldn't be so strange.....
:-))))))
Apr 10th, 2012 - 06:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Chile is far from perfect. Actually I agree with the complaints of people living in the south. HidroAysen is a disgrace to the country. I remember traveling to Punta Arenas my first time and then on to Ushuaia. I felt so demoralized. The Argentinean government treats their Patagonian residents far better than Chile, but saying that, only a fool would want to be governed by the Argentinean political system. Speaking of “washing your hands” I'm doing the same of this subject. Please feel free to count my misspelled words
Apr 10th, 2012 - 06:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I let Mr Think count that Brit, my inglishh sucks.
Apr 10th, 2012 - 06:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0(23) Chicureo
Apr 10th, 2012 - 07:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0As you yourself say……..Argentina is far from perfect…............
Let me put it this way….. Compared with the governments I have had the pleasure to “survive and suffer” under since becoming “politically conscious”, be it during the 50’s, the 60’s, the 70’s, the 80’s, the 90’s, or the first nastyyears of the 00’s; the present government is,”BY FAR” the best one.
We couldn’t agree more about HydroAysen. It’s simply criminal.
If you “Think” Chilean Patagonia is neglected by Santiago today, you should have seen it in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.
And I am not speaking about “El Frutillar”….
Anyhow a pair of well written lines in Spanish would spare me the nagging feeling of being dialoguing with a British troll :-)
Respetuosamente
El Think, Chubut, Argentina
11 Justthefacts
Apr 10th, 2012 - 08:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Your point about LAN just flying around Argentine airspace is a reasonable one but such a plan cannot be relied upon. You have to appreciate that LAN operates 100s of flights a week in Argentina and only the one per week in the Falklands.
The potential for commercial pressure to be applied, through one of several possible avenues, to LAN by Argentina to stop the flight is too great.
The plans of an alternative link are now quite well advanced and I wouldn't be surprised if Argentina's trump card gets removed before its very eyes and the Falklands initiates the replacement of LAN itself.
21
Don't forget the Argie who had terrible grammar and spelling who turned out to be the slightly famous and very Argentine lawyer AG Cowes. Keep clutching.
I've never visited your region, but I'm told its very nice. Since you asked respectfully: Soy de una familia de emigrantes que a vivido en chile por 3 y 4 generaciones. A pesar de que estudie en un colegio británico, mi mentalidad y escritura es americana ya que viví ahí muchos años. I might add that I write like a huaso. Saludos
Apr 10th, 2012 - 08:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The nagging feeling of being dialoguing with a British troll has dissapeared :-)
Apr 10th, 2012 - 08:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@3 - Chicureo, I've already tried ordering this book from Amazon UK, but it's sold out. I hope you have better luck.
Apr 10th, 2012 - 09:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Leprecon: I can't find it on Amazon either, but it is at: http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Fortress-Falklands/p/3404/
Apr 10th, 2012 - 09:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Think: Your comment about the present government is the best one, seemed at first ridiculous, but after considering what you've had for the past 40 years, it makes sense. Final comment, while active in the navy in the early 80's, I saw how bad the conditions were in the XI and XII regions of Chile. Poverty, neglect and exploitation sort of sums it up. On your side of Patagonia the roads and government infrastructure are much better and services are subsidized.
30 For some reason I think you don't have any relation whatsoever to Chicureo, Chile. Your writing is more from the town of Crapstone, England.
Apr 11th, 2012 - 02:32 am - Link - Report abuse 0@Chicureo - cheers, I'll try and fing it there.
Apr 11th, 2012 - 10:21 am - Link - Report abuse 0(30) Chicureo
Apr 11th, 2012 - 05:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0So now you may understand a bit better why millions of us vote for the present government and their many flaws......
And please..................... no XI and XII regiones here.
It sounds sooo..... Einz, Zwei, Drei, Ordnung musst sein! Colonia Dignidad kind off......
What's wrong with “Aysen” and “Magallanes”?
To: 3 Chicureo (#)
Apr 11th, 2012 - 09:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Re:
The women look great on the beach until their mid-twenties and then they turn into the typical mustached Italian mamas with balloon torsos.
Here we go again! More racist, sexist abuse. A great disservice to the Kelpers’ cause, especially that it’s patently obvious that so many young people of the Anglo-Saxon race are so pathologically obese. Scantily clad or otherwise– they’ll NEVER look good on the beach, NOR anywhere else!
Your ‘Italian’ women, probably become so formidably fat ‘cos, as victims of a male dominated society, marriage “chains them to the sink”. And when inevitably, they lose their physical charms, their “macho” husbands simply sally forth in search of more appetisingly youthful meat. BRAVO FOR THE BOYS! However, there ARE those economically independent Italian females who do not suffer unfortunate fate of their impecunious compatriots. Just take the case of those sculpturally spectacular sexual divas, such as Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobridgida and so many others. I reckon that –even when those erstwhile Glamour Queens were in their early 60’s– there would have been few red-blooded young males who could have resisted the seductive magic worked by those majestic matrons. To tell the truth I wouldn’t have kicked any one of them out of bed, myself!
Therefore, instead of unthinkingly uttering insulting, ill-conceived, incongruous opinions –why not TRY to adhere to OBJECTIVE FACTS?
Your gratuitous invective serves only to hurt and alienate those –who otherwise– might well be sympathetic to the justice of your cause. After all, one can hardly imagine an angry army of middle-aged Argentinean mothers mobilizing a taskforce to invade the Falklands! In these inordinately difficult times, they probably have far more important tasks in mind –such as trying to adequately feed a family, ensuring that the kids get a decent education and other ESSENTIAL etceteras!
Cheers!
Jim, in Madrid.
@34 JimHandley (#)
Apr 13th, 2012 - 07:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Apr 11th, 2012 - 09:15 pm
Good point, well made.
I respect his opinion but this is evident that he doesn't know anything about what he says, when he reffers about a soposed new invation by arg., perhaps he doesn't know that our constitution is very clear respecting our claim for the islands, it says that the argentine claim must be under the respect for the international right, it doesn't say absolutly anything about a soposed use of militar forces in order to recover the sovereignty. Unfortunatelly some times not even academic people or intellectualls like this man can separate the context of the dictatorship, from the actual context, that's why they express such absurds thoughts like what this man said respecting the suspect about a new invation by our country.
Apr 14th, 2012 - 02:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0On the other, beyond the tipical victimization that his side plays all the time, i hope he tells also in his book, about the sistematic rejection by his side and the u. k to resume the negotiations and find a peaceful solution, like the u. n and most international comunity manifest. If the u. n has never asked the u. k to transfer the sovereignty to arg., and if it neather invoked self determination for this cause, like it did for others colonial situations, nor expressed that the sovereignty must be discussed only if the islanders wish it, and if the decolonization committee has always considered this dispute like a special and particular situation, then it means that the islanders will reamain british if they wish it, but it doesn't mean that both sides can't find a fair solution for both people respecting the sovereignty issue, however as usual his side is going o continue playing the victim, and distorting what is expressed in our constitution regarding this dispute. I dony deny that maybe our government didn't act correctly respecting some issues, but at the same time, if the u. k and the islanders insist on rejecting the negotiations, then dont wait flowers.
@36Axel,
Apr 14th, 2012 - 08:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” could be:-
“Beware of Argentines bearing flowers”
Axel, just for you:-
THERE WILL BE NO NEGOTIATIONS ON SOVEREIGNTY.
Can't make it any clearer than that.
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