MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Film portraits of Falkland Islanders released on-line
A two-man American and British film-making team is releasing the first of six video portraits of Falkland Islanders on-line today, Monday June 25th. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesAt last a film about the Islanders and there lives, should be interesting.
Jun 25th, 2012 - 07:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/falklandislands/9354879/Falkland-Islands-behaviour-of-Argentina-is-unacceptable-says-David-Cameron.html
Jun 25th, 2012 - 07:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Unbiased honesty. Will CFK dare watch it?
Jun 25th, 2012 - 08:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Seems like a key point: “Falkland Islanders don’t feel they have a voice, and if they do it is about the war and self determination,” said Gallant. Sometimes they get a little weary of this.” Would be good to see stories of how Falkland Islanders get by in a challenging place: families, businesses, community development. Not to leave out the folks posted to Mount Pleasant Base - they must have some interesting stories too?
Jun 25th, 2012 - 09:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Interesting stuff, think I'll watch the whole series.
Jun 25th, 2012 - 09:43 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Hi John
Jun 25th, 2012 - 09:46 pm - Link - Report abuse 0How's life in PEI? (I saw your previous posts - I have folks in Charlottetown and was over myself in 2010 - I've sunk a few in the Triangle as well)
The point you raise is a good one as the islanders being seen to have a “voice” is the thing that Argentina fears most as the world will see real people living real (and peaceful) lives rather than being cartoon “pirates”. Films like this can only help in this and I look forward to seeing all the episodes. My son will be jealous as he has just left college and wants to make documentaries and I'm sure he would have loved to do this one.
Nice...
Jun 25th, 2012 - 11:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Though I was expecting to see military uniforms and weapons... given the fact that the islands are one of the most militarized places in the world in terms of military personel per inhabitant, and considering the importance of the military base for the islanders...
The one thing that's struck the Argentine youths who've made the trip to the Islands is how British they are, how unlike the Argentine mainland.
Jun 25th, 2012 - 11:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The audience we have to reach is the Americans and the English-speaking world. The Commonwealth knows that the Falklands are British. They know and understand that Britain is respecting the rights and freedoms of the Islanders and their choice to be British.
The best way to persuade the rest of the world that the islanders are not transplanted and deserve the full rights of self-determination is for independent American film-makers to interview the islanders - as many as possible. From every nationality on the islands - even the Argentines.
It would certainly be an eye-opener for many at the UN, if they could see that although the Chilean nation supports Argentina, the Chileans on the Falklands do not - because they know better.
It would help if the history of the islanders, those living right now and the ones living in 1833 could be traced.
It would help a great deal if the history of the Vernet settlers could be traced, to show that most of them were not Argentine and most left because they were unhappy living with Vernet and wanted to return to their homelands.
What we need to do is burst the bubble of the Argentine propaganda that they've put before the UN. Show the world that their claims were empty. Show the world the French/Spanish diplomatic transfer documents dating back to 1766/1767 which show that the transfer was conditional on Spain maintaining the colony, a condition that Spain broke in 1811, which meant that the islands could not become Argentine, because Spain did not own them when Argentina declared independence in 1816.
Bursting the Argentine bubble is what Pascoe and Pepper have been doing so successfully for some time now. The Argentine propaganda machine cannot refute the truth. We must burst their bubble and show them for the liars that they are.
7 Islas Malvinas
Jun 25th, 2012 - 11:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You actually don't have to parade your ignorant assumptions for our entertainment, but I'm glad you do.
Why is the military base important for us? I mean, I know why I think it is (although we don't see many uniforms around). But why do you think it's important?
1 “At last a film about the Islanders and there lives, should be interesting”
Jun 25th, 2012 - 11:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0If you say so..
Preview
http://www.falklandia.com/Swams/HTML%20Files/Cross%20Dressers%20or...%20some%20night%20at%20the%20Opera..!.htm
10 Marcos Alejandro:
Jun 26th, 2012 - 12:58 am - Link - Report abuse 0Thanks for pointing out another great Falkland Islands website, now bookmarked: http://www.falklandia.com
Your link was broken, so here it is corrected:
http://www.falklandia.com
and another “cross-dresser” photo from the same “South West Atlantic Mid-Winter Swim”,
http://www.falklandia.com
At least they probably don't have any sharks to worry about!
No doubt that public event cross-gender dressing, or female impersonation, might seem peculiar to the Argentine mind, but its an entertainment in cultures of British origin. Dame Edna probably the most well-known entertainment cross dresser?
Just another reason to cherish Falkland Islands' culture!
JohnN
Jun 26th, 2012 - 01:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0You are welcome! I am glad that you like your red dress.
12 Marcos Alejandro: Nope, its a brave man wearing that red dress and trying to swim, but I'd go for the Santa Claus bikini - more aqua-dynamic so to speak.
Jun 26th, 2012 - 02:00 am - Link - Report abuse 06 Steveu: The Old Triangle pub in Charlottetown, PEI, but I'm now over on Vancouver Island - Victoria, British Columbia :-( If you're in London, we're now about same distance from TOT pub!
13 JohnN
Jun 26th, 2012 - 02:55 am - Link - Report abuse 0If you walk to the harbor and look closely over one of the walls, you will see the name of the British colonies, get your ladder ready to replace one of them with the real name, Malvinas Argentinas of course.
MPA is thirty miles from stanley and is only that size because you invaded and have continued to make veiled threats ever since.
Jun 26th, 2012 - 05:00 am - Link - Report abuse 0.
Though I was expecting to see military uniforms and weapons... given the fact that the islands are one of the most militarized places in the world in terms of military personel per inhabitant,
Jun 26th, 2012 - 09:04 am - Link - Report abuse 0Too close to call what with the Argie military to civillian ratio on Antarctica 230
http://en.mercopress.com/2010/10/26/argentine-population-in-antarctica-230-including-nine-families-and-16-children
The Argentines in (British)Antarctica are an “implanted” population.
Jun 26th, 2012 - 09:19 am - Link - Report abuse 0Just watched some of the films and the Prologue in particular has been put together with fantastic shots of the Islands and its people and a cracking sound track!!!
Jun 26th, 2012 - 10:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0Well Done Guys!
Watch and Enjoy.
@9 Your presence in the islands is all about the Military base.
Jun 26th, 2012 - 12:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@16 As per the Antarctic Treaty, countries can use military personnel and equipments to support operations in the most hostile place in the world for human activities. It´s only about logistic support. No weapons to maintain a colony, like in Malvinas.
@17 No one in Antártida Argentina is pretending to have a right they can´t enjoy , like malvinenses do.
@19 lslas M,
Jun 26th, 2012 - 09:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Antarctica was claimed as British territory long, long before Argentina & Chile claimed it.
Your government even flew a pregnant woman to Antarctica so she could give birth to an Argentine citizen & so strengthen another of your ridiculous “claims” to non-Argentine land.
The whole idea is to have your citizens there so you can say “its our land”.
So you are an implanted population.
Does the truth hurt your feelings? Tough.
#19
Jun 26th, 2012 - 10:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Before your heroic and glorious military leaders (or murdering bastards to the rest of the world) invaded the Falklands, there were about 50 Royal Marines there. The only reason that there is now a larger garrison is because the UK, having once been caught with its guard down, does not trust Argentina. In other words, its your own fault that the military base is there.
@ 20 Mr Islode
Jun 26th, 2012 - 10:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The UK formaly claimed sovereignty over antarctic territories win 1908 and 1917, while Argentina did it in 1842. So you`re right.
Don´t forget, though, that the first political negotiations about antarctic territories were held between 1906 and 1908 between Chile and Argentina. Argentina maintains a permanent presence in the continent since 1904, more than any other country.
Argentine claim is based on multiple facts.
There were a few argentines born in Antartica. What`s the problem? They were born with the Antarctic Treaty in force... that prohibits using actions performed after it came into effect to claim ro reinforce territorial claims...
Why would that truth hurt? We haven`t expelled anybody from Antarctica... and these births you complain so much about took place complying a treaty signed by the UK.
#22
Jun 26th, 2012 - 10:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“while Argentina did it in 1842”
More argentinian lies - it was 1942.
Oh! C´mon! That was a typo!
Jun 26th, 2012 - 10:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The entire Argentine claim is a typo!
Jun 27th, 2012 - 09:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0How can you possibly reconcile the claim on the Falklands based on the Treaty of Tordesillas, when;
1. That treaty was not recognised by any nations other than Spain & Portugal; and;
2. That South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands would under this treaty be Portuguese territory, yet Argentina claims it all the same
Argentine claims are simple colonial expansionism. You see someone else's land and then seek to acquire it by conquest. Hence the wars with Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay and Brazil.
All the territories that Argentina still tries to claim belong to other nations with far older claims. Indeed, Argentina conquered and colonised the lands belonging to the Amerindians.
If any people deserve justice under the UN Committee for Decolonisation, it is these people. What we should be proposing to the UN is that 98.2% of the Argentine population should be sent back to the European countries they came from to leave the native people of South America with their homeland.
Being an indian or even mixed race in Argentina means you are still treated as a second class citizen. Mixed race people are called Mestizo. In the Casta system mestizos had fewer rights than European born persons called “Peninsulares”, and “Creoles” who were persons born in the New World of two European-born parents, but more rights than “Indios” and Negros. There are some well known mestizo, such as Tevez and Maradona. They are accepted because they are football stars, but being Mestizo still has a socially unacceptable taint.
What we should campaign for is:
GIVE CONTROL OF ARGENTINA BACK TO THE NATIVE AMERINDIANS.
#25
Jun 27th, 2012 - 11:29 am - Link - Report abuse 0The argentinian response to this (as posted elsewhere on this site) seems to be that the right to self determination is not retroactive and only applies to colonial occupation first ocurring after 1945.
Now, on that basis, they keep their land, we keep the Falklands - oh, and by the way, we'll have back all those colonies that we mistakenly gave independence to because of our mis-reading of the right to self determination.
The Argentinian riposte to this is pretty incoherent, but usually seems to boil down to an argument that international law does not bind Argentina - at least, not if it goes against them!
Surely it would be worth exploring the possibility of supporting the Amerindians to gain back the lands that were stolen from them? It would certainly blow the wind out of the Argentine sails if the Committee on Deccolonisation were to hear representations from the native Amerindians of Patagonia, asking for the majority of Argentina to be handed back to them.
Jun 27th, 2012 - 02:52 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You cannot claim to be backing decolonisation if it also means that you would lose a significant portion of your own country which was stolen from the natives! The hypocritical nature of the Argentine claim would be exposed for all to see if they denied their own native people the right to govern the lands stolen from them by mass murder and massacre.
Most of Patagonia by all accounts. It also happens to be the land adjacent to the coastal areas where most of the presently unexplored oil deposits are believed to be located. It would be extremely ironic if the Falklands oil revenues were to assist the native Patagonian Amerindians to re-establish control of their destiny and self-determination.
After all - isn't 'self-determination' written into the Argentine constitution? Isn't it therefore the right of the Amerindians to declare independence from Buenos Aires and exploit their own oil reserves for the Amerindians only?!
Please join this new fb page - Falkland Islands Desire The Right - dedicated to Falkland Islands current affairs, keeping the islands free and poking fun at the loonacy of the Argentine government and their various claims and their internet trolls - https://www.facebook.com/Britain1592
Jun 27th, 2012 - 03:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0nigel nigel ¿Qué te pasa Nigel?
Jun 27th, 2012 - 04:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0South american is of southamericans, Nigel. We, the people of south america got independence of our colonizators from europe. And colonizators mixed a lot with indegenous, and the mixed and the indegenous, all are with rights over this land, recoignized in the constitution. Get your facts right. South america is one, and in history, culture, geography, people, we share the pride of who we are, southamericans.
There's the proof. Just mention the Amerindians reclaiming the land stolen from them by the European settlers and they go bananas trying to suggest that they are 'all one together' when in fact they still discriminate against the mestizo and pure amerindians.
Jun 27th, 2012 - 06:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Anyone in Argentina of European heritage are colonists. The purpose of the UN Committee on Decolonisation is to return lands that were colonised to the original native inhabitants. The full official name of the Special Committee is the Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
The Amerindians are colonised people. The country which conquered Patagonia and colonised their land was Argentina. Therefore, they have a perfect right to demand the decolonisation and return of their land.
Such a pity for Argentina, because if they continue to attempt to claim the Falklands, then the British will have to support the Amerindians right to the return of their land AND ALL THE OIL UNDER IT AS WELL!
nigel, nigel, lets see when you go to study to UK if you learn to think a bit more.
Jun 27th, 2012 - 07:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“british will have to support the amerindians right to the return of their land”
a pity for you, amerindians are already argentinians with all the rights of this country, like every argentinian.
Well according to the internet, the Mapuche do NOT feel Argentine. They feel like a native people displaced from their lands by the Argentine colonialists from Buenos Aires.
Jun 27th, 2012 - 07:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0They want their land back and have a perfect right to it. The United Nations passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the United Nations General Assembly during its 62nd session at UN Headquarters in New York City on 13 September 2007. Although this resolution is non-binding (just like the declaration of the Committee for Decolonisation on the Falkland Islands).
But you have to admit that these Indians were the original inhabitants of Argentina before the Europeans turned up and it was the colonialists in the United Provinces and Buenos Aires who decided to displace the Indians - murdering tens of thousands of them by ethnic cleansing, to steal their land.
I believe the Amerindian's claims are very strong, since they were the victims of mass murder and ethnic cleansing by ARGENTINA.
How is CFK going to deny that the Amerindians were not massacred when all the historians around the world agree that ARGENTINA COMMITTED MURDER?
Mapuches have rights over the land, they need to make laws work, and polititians put in jail.
Jun 27th, 2012 - 08:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Patagonia again, Nigel?? Everytime explainning the same. You know we got independence, when we the mixed and amerindians where much more than the spaniards that were governning and subjugating us. We expelled them and killed them, and then yes we fought for land. yes very terrible and murdering. brothers against brothers, amerindians against amerindians and mestizos, etc.
Internal problems and affairs, nigel. always in wars participated amerindians, they were victims unfortunatelly.
They have the right to form their own independent country. They tried, but the nasty Argentines tried to crush them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Araucania_and_Patagonia
Jun 27th, 2012 - 08:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Maybe now that Argentina is trying colonial expansionism again, trying to steal the land belonging to the Falkland Islanders, those Falkland Islanders will support the rights of the Mapuche to get back all of Patagonia and all the oil located beneath it too.
It's about time the people of Buenos Aires realised that you cannot steal land and get away with it. You tried to steal the Falklands in 1826-33 and again in 1982, but those Islands belong to the British. Even Spain recognised that the islands were British, because they didn't relinquish their claim on their islands until 1863. But when they did, they agreed that the Falklands were British.
Time for Patagonia to be handed back to the mapuche indians. Next time Argentina goes to the UN, we'll send a letter to the chairman to ask him to allow the Mapuche indians to make representations for their land back, from Argentina - the colonials who stole it from them.
Maybe we'll bring some pots and pans for the Indians to bang whilst CFK is speaking as well - just to make her feel at home!
l would have no problems supporting the Mapuche against Argentina if they supported us in return.
Jun 27th, 2012 - 09:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0We could help fund them with our oil money.
All l ask from them is that they be good neighbours.
Hey, Cher Think.
lf you want to stay in Patagonia, you'd better start learning Mapuche language.
lol
That's it Isolde.
Jun 27th, 2012 - 09:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I'm sure a Mapuche Patagonia would love to trade with the Falkland Islanders and they could share expertise and assist each other to extract the oil for the benefit of the Patagonian indians and the Falkland Islanders ONLY.
It would be sweet justice if after all this time, the Argentines in Buenos Aires found that their bullying of the Falkland Islanders lost them any rights to the oil in Patagonia too.
There may be less than a million Amerinidians and maybe 8 million mestizo, but it would be amusing to see the 31 million Argentines of European ancestry lose the oil royalties because they bullied the Falkland Islanders into supporting Amerindian independence.
If the amount of oil estimated to be in Patagonian and Falkland Islands waters is true, then the Islanders and Patagonian Amerindians would become some of the richest people on the planet, per capita.
nigel, nigel, nigel, amerindians already live in an independent country, thanks we all fought for independence.
Jun 27th, 2012 - 10:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0second nigel, nigel, nigel, (what name is it in spanish?) have you read the article of kingdom of araucania and patagonia??
well see it as a COLONIAL SITUATION, of a crazy foreign (french) KING “supporting” amerindians to create a NOUVELLE FRANCE in SAMERICA, it seems, that concept you have of conquering what is not yours. Old history of an adventurer that never happened. It had been discussed before. Come with sth new.
Maybe you ought to read this article about the repressed Amerindians.
Jun 28th, 2012 - 12:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0http://upsidedownworld.org/main/argentina-archives-32/2510-argentinas-bicentennial-indigenous-tell-another-history
They say that they are unhappy with Argentina. They say Argentine colonialists committed genocide to steal their lands and still steal it today.
Would not look too good if the indigenous natives of Patagonia turned up at the United Nations when CFK attends to say that she and the other Argentines stole their land.
Projects of mines and desforestation and buying land at Patagonia at low prices because of “influence traffic” like did K & friends or selling it in big extensions to foreigns like Benetton or other oligarchs, is sth that not only argentines indigenous are against, also many many argentines not indigenous. Its a damage to all of us.
Jun 28th, 2012 - 01:47 am - Link - Report abuse 0The indeginous laws exists, they must be used on their right.
Those Mapuche indians who desire independence from Argentina will get it in the end.
Jun 28th, 2012 - 10:24 am - Link - Report abuse 0The Mapuches want their land back. They say:
“Our leaders have been dismembered and tortured during the nation’s history. To squash our consciousness and rights our communities have been terrorized so that we never raise our voices again. Years go by and centuries have passed, and the Pachamama is boiling with grief, and is crying for help.”
They go on to say:
“the stolen land will be recuperated,”
The mourning of the Pachamama and the tears of genocide of indigenous peoples will echo in the halls and rooms of the United Nations as Argentina is exposed for the genocide they committed and continue to do.
@40 nigelpwsmith (#)
Jun 28th, 2012 - 10:29 am - Link - Report abuse 0Jun 28th, 2012 - 10:24 am
Yes. Maybe Britain should approach their leaders to see if there is anything we can do to help them?
nigel the mapuches are living in their land of SA.
Jun 28th, 2012 - 11:34 am - Link - Report abuse 0300 years of colonization, and of mixing. Indeginous couldnt fight with spanish colonizators alone, we did it united.
and get facts there are 22 or 24 indeginous communities in Arg, they live in a different way, so you will find difficulties, but their rights must be respected.
The problem is also they are forgotten people by our government.
And remember that many arg, 56 % have some genentic trace with indeginous.
Arg is not the big cities.
@41 War Monkey
Jun 28th, 2012 - 01:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I quite agree. The Falkland Islanders ought to invite the Mapuches to make joint representations with them when the United Nations holds the next Committee on Decolonisation.
It would be devastating for the Argentine delegation (including CFK) if people from her own country were making representations concerning their colonised homelands in Patagonia. Indeed, the Mapuches ought to organise themselves with the other disposed Amerindians to fight for the return of their land and their own nation.
Nobody could deny that they have been subjected to genocide by Argentina and it would be hugely embarrassing for the Argentines to make claims to possess the Falkland Islands, when the Falkland Islanders and Mapuche indians can show that they've been the victims of Argentine aggression.
There are numerous Mapuche organisations in Argentina and Chile. It would be extremely beneficial for the FIG to make contact with these organisations and invite the Indians to a conference on the Islands, so they can coordinate the campaign against Argentina.
About time we turned the tables on Argentina and make them squirm with embarrassment at admitting the murders and massacres of the native Amerindians to steal and colonise their lands.
Attack does sometimes turn out to be the best form or defence and this could prove the best way to make the Argentine claims on the Falkland evaporate.
I'll contact a few people from FIG on-line to ask them about this.
Are you getting worried now, malena?
Jun 28th, 2012 - 01:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Hopefully the Mapuches will get their own land & we can have good neighbours at last .
The Argentines are good at stealing other people's land, now the bill comes.
Now, of course, all the malvinistas will have Amerindian blood!
Transparent liars, all.
Letter sent Isolde.
Jun 28th, 2012 - 03:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Let's see how CFK explains away the genocide Argentina committed against the Mapuche.
Let's see hundreds of native Mapuche indians at the United Nations, explaining that their land was colonised by the nasty Argentines who massacred and murdered the indigenous people to steal it.
Let's see the embarrassment of CFK and her delegation as they have to face the claims of their own countrymen who were oppressed by Argentine colonialism.
HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT ARGENTINA?!
nigel, nigel, we are ALL free in Arg, no squatters like you........
Jun 28th, 2012 - 08:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0good luck with the mapuche language......burunbumbun
@46 Spanish and Italian squatters in a foreign land colonised by Argentina the would be great colonial power. Oh yes plus the Nazis like Eichmann you invited over after WW2
Jul 02nd, 2012 - 10:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0These 51º South portraits of Falkand Islanders are terrific. Loved The Stuffer and looking forward to upcoming episode of award-winning soldier Samantha Brownlee.
Jul 03rd, 2012 - 12:18 am - Link - Report abuse 0But ya know - I wish it was a Falklands-Argentine team that had done something as good?
In a way, a bi-national film team would help make up for the trashy drivel of “Fucklands” (2000) that the conniving Argentine film-makers/actors had secretly made without knowledge or permission of Falklanders. Also for Argentina to atone for that Olympics training video, made likewise without knowledge or permission.
References:
51º South: https://www.facebook.com/51South
Fuckland: https://www.facebook.com/51South
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