MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas Islands claim, an act of “epic stupidity” says El Pais from Madrid

Leonel Messi and his epic command in football hopefully represent the other Argentina

John Carlin, the British writer and journalist who works for Spain’s leading newspaper El Pais, with a high degree of irony strongly criticized Argentina’s claim over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands as an ‘epic idiocy’.

In an article under the heading of “Football vs Stupidity” which he wrote from the Falklands Carlin spells out how he lived the Barcelona victory over Milan 4-0 (for the European Cup) and at the same time describes Argentina’s historic struggle to claim sovereignty over the Malvinas as an “epic stupidity”.

Describing Barcelona’s recovery from a 0-2 first match with Milan as ‘epic’, he then warns he will not talk about “the epic idiocy of the historic claim from a large country with 40 million people to the sovereign right of planting their flag in a bunch of small islands in the distant South Atlantic where 2.400 souls live next to 490.000 sheep and a million penguins”.

Before writing about the match Carlin insists that “we will also not refer to the miserable decision of that same country to go into war 31 years ago after the said Islands with the frenzied support of the majority of its population”.

“We underline the match Barca- Milan this (last) week because what we saw was precisely the opposite pole of the maniac monologue on Malvinas proclaimed tirelessly from the land where the star of the match was born” points out Carlin in reference to Leonel Messi.

After writing abundantly about the exploits of the Argentine player during the match, Carlin proposes: “let’s compare this with the mist of irrationality which envelops the minds of his fellow countrymen when the Malvinas Islands come into the game”. And then adds the Malvinas case: “concentrates in an especially clear way the inexorable stupidity of the species, its ability to generate problems and conflicts and even wars where there was no need for one”.

Carlin also criticizes the ‘avid hysterics’ of Argentina to get hold of the Islands “promoted since the times of Mussolini by his admirer General Juan Domingo Perón” and which are “based on the alleged exceptional illegal usurpation of that inhospitable land in the South Atlantic by the ‘pirates’ from the British Empire in 1833”.

“Mexico does not claim Texas; France does not claim England; Morocco does not claim Spain” argues Carlin. He underlines that “the whole population from infancy has been submitted to brain washing under the hypnotic repetition: ’las Malvinas son argentinas; las Malvinas son argentinas; las Malvinas son…’ to the extent that it becomes an almost quasi-religious act of faith, a sign of national identity”.

And when a military dictatorship with Nazi impulses invades and ‘recovers’ the Islands on an unfortunate day of 1982, the population responds with a ‘pavlovian’ jubilation celebrating the heroism of those who tortured, killed and disappeared 20.000 of their compatriots”, claims the El Pais journalist.

He further criticizes arguing that “they lost the war and that is when all could have ended. But no: they continue, again and again, puppets in the hands of cynic media, and the half nutty rulers of the moment”.

Finally, “thank goodness we have football which is honest and exists in the real world. And let’s hope the Argentina of Messi wins the 2014 World Cup. So they can get over it for a while”.