MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Crucially different from Hong Kong
By Steve Tsang (*) - Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher fought a war with Argentina to defend the Falklands, but she negotiated with China over the future of Hong Kong. Should the apparent success of British diplomacy in securing an acceptable future of Hong Kong be a shining example for a similar solution for the Falklands? Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesJust beating Raul to the punch with his copy&paste post:
Apr 11th, 2013 - 03:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“””The Argentine government maintains Resolution 2065 represents an endorsement by the UN General Assembly of their sovereignty claim. While there was support for their position during the debates in the Special Committee on Decolonisation and in the Fourth Committee of the General Assembly, there is nothing in the text of the Resolution that directly sustains such a conclusion. There is no explicit reference to operative paragraph 6 of Resolution 1514 (see above) nor to maintaining “territorial integrity” of a divided country. Resolution 2065 merely invited the Argentine and British governments to proceed with negotiations “with a view to finding a peaceful solution”. The strongest point made by the Argentine government is that reference to the “interests of the population” implies “leaving aside the principle of self-determination” (see A/66/696, p. 7), but in the light of diplomatic practices of constructive ambiguity this is insufficient to be regarded as endorsement of the Argentine claim to sovereignty.
The UN is willing to accept independence, integration with a neighbouring country, integration with the colonial metropolitan country or free association with another country, as outcomes from decolonisation. In each case, this has been done with the explicit approval of the people of the territory, through an election or a plebiscite. The only exception, since the establishment of the Special Committee on Decolonisation, has been the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule. “””
Maggie of the Maggots was also a chemist. With the Chinese, she turned those iron balls into cotton :)
Apr 11th, 2013 - 03:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0There was a lease on HK which expired, there is no lease on the Falkands. Britain honoured the lease. Argentina has shown itself to be very aggressive totally untrustworthy there is no possibility that Britain or the Islanders will ever trust Rgland again. No deal!
Apr 11th, 2013 - 03:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Why become a colony of Argentina, it would ruin the economy and lead to racist suppression just like the Amerindians have suffered.
3
Apr 11th, 2013 - 03:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0What about self-determination?
Hahahahahaha!!!
“”Argentina has shown itself to be very aggressive totally untrustworthy there is no possibility that Britain or the Islanders will ever trust Rgland again. No deal! “”
Apr 11th, 2013 - 03:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I suspect that long-term it will be Independence.
Certainly oil-wealth will contribute significantly to their options and ability to become Independent.
Its also something the UN will back and conveniently solves the sovereignty dispute between the UK & Argentina: neither get it.
Until then they've voted to be a BOT, so... not much to talk about.
Argentina have absolutely no way to pursue their colonisation goal... they've simply run out of options (and B-list celebs).
@4
Apr 11th, 2013 - 04:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0That's a matter for the people of Hong Kong to think about.
#4 What about it? Just another nail in Rglands coffin. At the rate you lot are going, soon you won't have any electric and everything will shut down including the internet (as it already does all over the place in your fourth rate country). Then, you won't be able to post your horseshit on here. You are losing, little by little, you are going backwards, you are stuffed and there is nothing any of you can do about it except pathetic rants, insults and whingeing.
Apr 11th, 2013 - 04:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Go home to Argentina and use your energy to solve its problems, you have plenty. I would describe them but I only have 2000 characters...
Ding-Dong! The witch is dead!
Apr 11th, 2013 - 04:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Which old witch?
The wicked witch...
Wicked witch? Has CFK died then?
Apr 11th, 2013 - 04:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 06
Apr 11th, 2013 - 04:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0No military sent to assure them their right of self-determination? Or did the Cotton Lady disapprove?
I understand you though, the Chinese aren't the Argentines. They would've kicked you so far back in history, you'd be speaking Goidelic :)
♪ Ding-Dong! The witch is dead! ♫
Apr 11th, 2013 - 04:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0♫ Which old witch? ♪
♪ The wicked old witch ♫...
haha a genocidal less in this world...
@2 Stevie
Apr 11th, 2013 - 04:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0ROFLMAO THUMBS UP
@10
Apr 11th, 2013 - 05:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Why would we send military? The lease expired. China had a legal right to the return of the territory. Fail to see the connection.
Argentina of course does not have any such right.
There are no Malvinas, never have been, never will be.
13
Apr 11th, 2013 - 05:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0So, no right of self-determination there?
Borrate ;)
Yep - I can relate to this article. I first visited HK in 1987 when it was still under UK administration and returned again last year - I was expecting big changes between my two visits.
Apr 11th, 2013 - 05:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The deal with the handover is that there is a fifty year period of grace until HK fully integrates into China. Let's just say that that this integration is happening none too fast. We still have the “Princess Margaret Hospital” and other relics (remembering that there is absolutely nothing to stop people changing these names), the traffic still drives on the left and the educated HK Chinese are only too happy to speak to you in their perfect English (Keith Ho at the Kowloon Metrople Hotel was a case in point and a great chap) . There are a number of mainland Chinese immigrating into HK - a lot seem to be taxi drivers as they have absolutely no English (which makes life interesting)
It's not just the older people too, we got talking to a student who sat next to us on the waterfront and we broached the question - he said that young people were generally fearful of 2047 (when the integration into China is complete)
It is a shame that our hands were pretty much tied in allowing them their full right of self determination - I think a fully independent HK along the lines of Singapore would have been a force to be reckoned with. I sincerely hope the Chinese government goes as far as possible in allowing this. Fantastic place.
you only fight the battles you can win.. argies lack of stomach for the fight was proved , thus the islands were returned to their rightful owners.
Apr 11th, 2013 - 05:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Interesting article
Apr 11th, 2013 - 05:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Maggie and her enemies
A majority of Argentines appear to share the feelings of those ghoulish Britons who are subjecting the Iron Lady to a post-mortem lynching. It would seem that, if they were asked to choose between several, perhaps many, more years of military rule plus the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands and democracy without them, they would be more than happy to get the former. They feel Thatcher should have done the decent thing by surrendering to Galtieri and abjectly apologizing for having let the dispute drag on for so long. Instead, the Iron Lady lived up to the soubriquet a Russian journalist had bestowed on her six years earlier and sent an expeditionary force south, ordering it to retake the islands, which they proceeded to do in the traditional fashion. She has yet to be forgiven for the decisions she made by the bellicose souls who had cheered Galtieri on and thought war was just a game in which nobody — no Argentine, that is — need get hurt.
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/128428/maggie-and-her-enemies
@17
Apr 11th, 2013 - 06:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0A well written article.
@15 Steveu I agree that the most striking thing about Hong Kong since the handover is not how much has changed, but how little. It's worth mentioning that China got Hong Kong and Macau removed from the UN list of non-self-governing territories in 1972 on the grounds that they were not colonies at all, but parts of its national territory occupied by Britain and Portugal, questions to be settled when time was ripe, but not before. Their inclusion on that list implied that they had the right to self-determination. Argentina has never sought to do the same with the Falklands, nor Spain with Gibraltar.
Apr 11th, 2013 - 06:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I couldn't trust Argentina to behave honourably in the Falklands. For a start, it is defined under Argentine law as a part of Tierra del Fuego, which suggests that it would just be a municipality with no more autonomy than anywhere in Argentina. All the things that have been preserved in Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region post 1997 would be taken away from the Falklands - choice of official language, legal system, currency, rule of the road, you name it.
China gets worked up about Taiwan being a 'breakaway province', and makes threats to nuke it if it declares independence, but other than that, it's happy for it to stay the way it is. For a political pariah, it's doing pretty well economically - even Argentina has a de facto embassy in Taipei, just as Taiwan does in Buenos Aires.
I've lived in Singapore, where according to Argentina's suspect logic, most of the people would be termed a 'planted population', having come from China, and totally different from Malays. It isn't a Western liberal democracy, and the press is less free than Hong Kong, even now, though it's loosened up since I was there.
Why is Mercopress
Apr 11th, 2013 - 06:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Showing all these academics,
They all conclude you should give it all up.
Soddy offy.
.
10 Stevie,
Apr 11th, 2013 - 06:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0”They would've kicked you so far back in history, you'd be speaking Goidelic :)”
I think your Galtieri make the same miscalculation. The last time they went to war a small British expeditionary force utterly humiliated the Chinese empire. It is quite remarkable that such a small force, so far from home was able to route the massive Chinese Imperial army again and again on its home turf.
China is not as big and powerful as some think,
Apr 11th, 2013 - 06:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0She is very very dependent on the west and the rest to survive.
To put this in jeopardy is to put her future at risk.
@2,4,10,14 Are you congenitally stupid? What is it about the word “lease” that you don't understand? If you lease a house and, a few years down the line, the owner wants it back and isn't prepared to renew the lease, there is no choice. You have to give it back. That's what you agreed to when you signed the lease. No matter how determined you are to continue living there. So the greater part of Hong Kong had to be given back to China. That's law. The part that was legally British was indefensible. Lots of Hong Kong Chinese could have died. The Falkland Islands are different. Indisputably British. Defensible. Determined to BE British. Until independence.
Apr 11th, 2013 - 07:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@8,11 You remember about ghosts and spirits? They go with witches. She could be looking over your shoulder right now. Just imagine, everything that goes wrong in your life from now on could be down to Maggie's spirit. All those aches and pains. Is she sticking needles in you while you're asleep? Or on one of your drug “trips”? Immaterial needles, of course. Similar to voodoo. What about the tumours? The cysts? The haemorrhoids? The genital herpes? Don't worry, I'm sure it will be something to make you even more repulsive. Just think. Someone decides that they don't HAVE to look at the boils on your face and they take your trousers down. Cysts, haemorrhoids and genital herpes. Just imagine the thrilling sensations as they all start popping.
@12 “THUMBS UP”? Is that new? I thought you queer people used something else. Or are you shy and just prefer to give a “hand-job”? Get together with “Searinox”. There's a really bumpy experience to be had there. Think of it as a “Thatcher experience”. There's all that extra “lubrication” as buboes and the like explode.
It is sheer nonsense to compare the situation of Hong Kong with that of the Falkland Islands. The UK had a 99-year lease for that Chinese territory. And on top of that the majority of its population was and is Chinese.
Apr 11th, 2013 - 07:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The situation of the Falklands is exactly the opposite. The Falklands never belonged to expansionistic and far away Argentina. The two or three “Argentinians” residing there hold British passports!
Mr. Tsang, you seem to be utterly confused about the Falklands; please try to keep out of the subject Falklands until you learn a little bit more about them!
Philippe
24
Apr 11th, 2013 - 07:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0So, as for HK you can agree on leasing, regardless of what the population wants? But for the Falklands/Malvinas, it's self-determination?
Say as it is, you didn't have the (iron) balls to defend your interests against the Chinese. Something you most surely did against the Argentines and Guatemalans.
Just like today, stop the hypocresy...
25.
Apr 11th, 2013 - 07:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It is called self-determination. Not 3rd-party-determination.
If the residents of HK want self-determination they need to start working towards that. It is not that hard to understand, or at least it shouldn't be.
26
Apr 11th, 2013 - 08:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Why didn't Britain send troops to HK to ensure they got their right to self-determination then? Did the British ask HK if they wanted to be leased, maybe?
27
Apr 11th, 2013 - 08:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0They didn't send troops to FI either as part of the referendum.
HK was on a lease it was never sovereign GB. They gave it back when the lease was up. Not before, not after. If the people living there wish to seek self determination they will need to work out.
Why would it be the UK's job to arrange self-determination for people living in China?
Stevei- I know you are Argentine therefore common sense and logic and reality are incomprehensibles to you.
Apr 11th, 2013 - 08:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0But, can even you not understand:
1 There was a Lease on the biggest land area of “HongKong” - it Expired in 1997- that means it ran out - and as the landowner - China - did not want to renew it - it reverted back to their control.
2 - Without the “New Territories”, modern day HongKong was impractical and idefensible - you cannot very easily have a national boundary down the middle of the street with all the water and other essential supplies one part need - across the boundary on the other side!
3 The people who lived there were ethnically Chinese - exactly the same as those over the border. Same language and family customs etc etc.
Even you should be able to work out that noe of the above are applicable to the Falklands case!
Searinox - Please tell us what genocide you are talking about - and who caused it? Please tell us - or crawl away.
Why can't Argies understand that Hong Kong was leased and returned at end of lease? The Falklands never belonged to Argentina, but with their revisionist history, they can't see the truth.
Apr 11th, 2013 - 09:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Falkland islanders there 1st. Argentina not, Argie claim is false.
“”“It is called self-determination. Not 3rd-party-determination.
Apr 11th, 2013 - 09:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0If the residents of HK want self-determination they need to start working towards that. It is not that hard to understand, or at least it shouldn't be.”“”
Ah, but it really seems, that for some, it is incomprehensible!
Even odder, to my thinking, is that the very same people keep telling us how much more intelligent they are than everybody else...and yet ...
--
Anybody else noted the “freaky” absence of “Both” DOver & THink at the same time (again).
odd that eh? ;-)
Did HK chose to be leased, or did someone else chose for them? No self-determination there?
Apr 11th, 2013 - 10:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0And did they chose to be Chinese again, or did someone else chose for them? No self-determination there either?
How do you “lease” people, anyway? Or do you just lease the land, and to hell with the self-determination of the people living there?
32 Stevie
Apr 11th, 2013 - 11:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Sorry, but I seem to have lost the thread of what you are saying. Are you saying that the people of Hong Kong should have be given the opportunity to exercise self- determination?
Unless you are of purely Yaghan descent, which I very much doubt, I think you are on shaky ground here. Britain might well have leased a territory, but it refrained from exterminating the inhabitatnts whose descendents were and still are mainly Chinese. Where was your ancestors' respect for Argenina's first inhabitants and their rights?
why oh why is 123 or ABC so hard to explain,
Apr 11th, 2013 - 11:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0look its simple,
yet again maybe not??
Stevee -the new territories were most likley unpopulated in 1897 - if they were then the folks living there would have either stayed or left - I am sure if you looked up records they would have had an option - the one controlling would have been China - their territiorty originally so was their responsibilty to offer any people living there the choice.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 12:10 am - Link - Report abuse 0One thing most Argentines fail to grasp in the 21st century though is that in the 19th-18th-17th-16th - nations often did resolve their disputes on the basis of force - all over the world.
Now - answer me this - logic says that if are to resolve the Falklands issues on the basis of who you claim did did what to who about 2 centuries ago-
Then by the same logic Arg gives land back to Chile- Paraguay etc. Chile to Peru and Bolivia, USA gives Alaska to Russia, and half of eaurope changes hands.
Ans that is just the 19th century! Carry on with your logic - and tell me why it should not - and EVERYONE in all latin American Countries who is not of indeginous descent has to bugger off back to Europe. Same in North America. Same in Africa. Same in Australasia- and lord knows who ends up where in Europe!
Simple reality is that in the 21st century Human Rights and wishes of the people in places now in the 21st cenbtury are what come first - end of.
Big differences between China and Argentina. The people of Hong kong have a degree of self determination in that SAR is exactly what it is called a special administrative region separate from Chinese Mainland. i.e. China recognises the people of Hong Kong exist and are different (and speak Cantonese not Mandarin and can continue to do so). Also China does not say they are implanted usurpers but rather says they are Hong Kong residents. Also, China has allowed Hong Kong drivers to keep driving on the left. Also, China hasn't renamed Kowloon or Victoria with names like Puerto China or Puerto Beijing. Also, and more importantly Chinese troops visiting Hong Kong don't have this rather peculiar habit of going to the toilet in the middle of post offices.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 03:18 am - Link - Report abuse 0Get used to it Brits.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 05:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0Hong Kong Handover Ceremony - 1997
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVZzRY0X6_g
News for you, so what!
Apr 12th, 2013 - 06:41 am - Link - Report abuse 0PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
Apr 12th, 2013 - 06:59 am - Link - Report abuse 0Following the death of world class politician St. Margaret of Finchley I have decided to rename Argentina. From today its new name in english is Thatchertina. Please use the correct new name from now on in your postings.
@24 If you read the article properly, you'll find that Professor Tsang said that the Falklands were crucially different from Hong Kong.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 07:18 am - Link - Report abuse 0One of the reasons why Britain never introduced elected government in Hong Kong was that conflict would break out between people supporting the Communists in mainland China and people supporting the Nationalists in Taiwan. In the 1960s, many Hong Kongers supported one or the other, and there were riots inspired by the Cultural Revolution. I don't recall the Falkland Islanders rioting in support of Juan Perón!
Even with border controls still in place, Hong Kongers are fed up with mainlanders coming over, and acting like savages - or locusts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueNr7mfFZu8
@32 You lease territory, not people, that's the point. When people from mainland China settled in Hong Kong, they knew that the New Territories were on a lease.
@37 Douglas Hurd, the former British Foreign Secretary, was with Guido di Tella on the day of the handover in Hong Kong. He said 'I know what you're thinking, but you will never see this happen in Stanley'. Di Tella never did, because, sadly, he died, but you never will.
chinese had over a million troops and nukes.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 09:11 am - Link - Report abuse 0Argentina cowards and incompetant braggards who are only good for torturing and raping the tied up and prefebably unconsious.
Iv'e climbed tumbledown and the two sisters my 10yr old could make a better job of holding that.
goose green is a billiard table given a month I could make that a killing zone.
Argentina you cant fight you cant run a country you can play football but even then you cheat when you have no need to.
Hong Kongers are using the old British Blue Ensign to upset the Chinese - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpPv8EQObXk - and it's working!
Apr 12th, 2013 - 09:27 am - Link - Report abuse 0“Should the apparent success of British diplomacy in securing an acceptable future of Hong Kong”
Apr 12th, 2013 - 09:27 am - Link - Report abuse 0lol....
ok mercopress.
its called going quietly btw
@42 Britanico - LOL, I think this backs up my comments (@15) perfectly
Apr 12th, 2013 - 10:16 am - Link - Report abuse 0I knew the pro British sentiment in HK was still strong but I had no idea that it was *that* strong.
43
Apr 12th, 2013 - 10:33 am - Link - Report abuse 0Indeed it's called going quietly.
Even if these lot are trying to make it as the HK people wanted to be leased, and self-determination as something that doesn't apply to leased people...
@31 Anbar,
Apr 12th, 2013 - 10:36 am - Link - Report abuse 0Maybe señors Think & DoD are on a fishing trip somewhere.
Of course maybe they're the same person, too.
Who knows?
Who cares?
“Should the apparent success of British diplomacy in securing an acceptable future of Hong Kong be a shining example for a similar solution for the Falklands?”
Apr 12th, 2013 - 11:38 am - Link - Report abuse 0No
exactly if the argentines were a threat maybe so.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 12:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0but as they are a joke we can mock them mercilessly
and enjoy a sweet topping of argentine tears over a delicous oil desert.
international law tends to be set by people with the bigger guns.
which leaves argentina out in the cold
@46 Isolde
Apr 12th, 2013 - 01:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Are the really away ?
“she gave up this idea only after seeing the boundary between the two – which would have been completely indefensible”
Apr 12th, 2013 - 02:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Decoded into plain English:
“she gave up the idea only after seeing that the British were too damn chicken to ever stand up to the Chinese”.
Fixed.
@43 Lovely irony that the colonial ensign is being used as a protest symbol! Personally I don't like the Blue Ensign and think that the Falklands should adopt a distinct flag of its own, just as Gibraltar has. But their right not to change it is a right I respect.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 02:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0China hasn't insisted on Hong Kong changing its name to Xianggang, which is the Mandarin name. By the way 'Malvinas' is not even a South American name, just a Spanish version of the French 'Malouines'.
@45 What the hell are 'leased people'? Indentured labourers? Slaves? I don't own the property where I live, I rent it, does that make me a 'rented person'? The people who were living in the New Territories in 1898 didn't become 'leased people' - ridiculous argument!
@48
Apr 12th, 2013 - 02:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“international law tends to be set by people with the bigger guns.
which leaves argentina out in the cold”
I like your honesty, better than the rest.
This reality you eloquently stated means two other things besides your sore mocks at Argentina:
1. The UK has NEVER in its history done anything honorable worth mentioning, since everything was based on “we have bigger guns” and not the rule of law and the rights of other people's around the world.
2. You are about to get a taste of your own medicine: your military is a fraction of what it was 50 years ago, and in 50 years it will be well into third rate status compared to China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia and all the other nations that will have far bigger armies and economies. Furthermore, you are about to get kicked out of the EU (or do it yourselves), which means you will have no say in the slightest and the Europeans will simply strangle your banking city to death, since you will have to play by their rules like it or not. That will be the end of the UK economy pretty much.
Enjoy being out in the cold. It is your new normal.
“The UK has NEVER in its history done anything honorable worth mentioning”
Apr 12th, 2013 - 02:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Unlike Argentina, which has made no contribution to international affairs, because it's too busy gazing at its navel. At least Cuba is more internationalist, training doctors.
“China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia and all the other nations that will have far bigger armies and economies.”
Funny how the only thing these countries have in common is a hatred of countries like Britain. The paradox is that they have more to do with countries like Britain than with each other - the G20 and 'south-south' cooperation are just talk, talk, talk...
Indonesia is the Brazil of Asia, it is not a serious country. I've seen their legacy in East Timor, buildings torched after the 'ungrateful' Timorese people voted for independence in 1999.
Switzerland has never been in the EU and it's just fine.
@53
Apr 12th, 2013 - 03:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Why do you bring Argentina here? I was talking about the admission by Woodhead that the UK only follows the rule of the cannon, not the rule of what is right and decent.
Why do you think “all those countries” hate you? Are you like the Americans who believe it's because of jealousy? hahahahaha... its because of what you and the rest of Europe did in the past, and the fact you even refuse to just say a simple, sincere “sorry”.
You will be eliminated, all you europeans, soon enough. Nice ethnic cleansing in reverse, as you caused all over the world in the last 500 years.
Yes, we HATE you. You are scum. Happy?
Switzerland is fooked. They are getting politically isolated from all sides: Germany, France, Italy, the USA... and many more countries, that are fed up with their “privacy” excuse to hide criminals and tax dodgers. They are being pressured diplomatically (and behind the scenes it is 10 times as worse). Already they have had to acquiesce and give in to demands by Germany, France, Italy tax officials and disclose accounts at once, and have been threatened by the USA with being excluded from international banking.
Go ahead follow Switzerland into financial and economic irrrelevance. The days of banking are over.
@54 John Troll the 3rd
Apr 12th, 2013 - 03:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Back posting under one of your older aliases, the name may change but the content is just as pathetic.
I only post under ONE name at a time and always has the “Troll” trollmark in it. Get over yourself, you make an awful inspector just like the lot of you.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 03:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0John, I've made this comment before, but, in virtually every way Western and Northern Europe is a far better place today than South America. Lower crime, greater income equality, better health diagnostics, lower corruption, ... the list goes on. The only possible place where South America trumps Europe is football (and even then Europe has 10 world cups compared to SAs 9), and Europe dominates in virtually every other *important* sport (i.e. Rugby, Cricket, the Olympics).
Apr 12th, 2013 - 03:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@56 I don't care WHY “all those countries” hate Britain, I just find it hilarious that they have more to do with Britain than they do with each other. That's what makes Third World countries what they are - divided and ignorant of each other. Most Brazilians couldn't find Suriname on a map, let alone Indonesia.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 04:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0So Europeans are scum, are they? Better give up your Spanish language and Italian passport, and start speaking Guarani or Selk'nam - that would be a fitting tribute to the people of Patagonia who you killed off.
@57
Apr 12th, 2013 - 04:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You are a hellhole. Get used to hearing that. 50 years of inlerlude does not a history make. Before 1960 and I suspect since 2010 again, you were always and will always be a hellhole people have tried to escape from by the millions FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS.
John, uh...huh, well reasoned argument there.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 05:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Even before 1960 Europe was leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the World in terms of human development. Yes there were devastating wars but there were equally devastating wars throughout asis and the Americas (especially in terms of deaths per total population). Europe is the cradle of civilisation and the source of most advancements in human history. It is only rivalled (though not surpassed) by the first millennium Arab world and early second millennium China.
South America on the other hand has achieved what?
Nothing, thanks to the Spanish exterminating the indigenous population and driving their languages to extinction (except in Paraguay, where Guarani is more widely spoken than Spanish and is an official language) and planting Spanish settlers who then opened the floodgates to Italian immigrants.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 05:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0boy the things that drag up against us,
Apr 12th, 2013 - 05:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0HEY ARGIES
what about the 13 colonies,
ceylon brittany ,
mmmmmmmmm
@ stevie wonder, Raul, stink, and John Troll the turd....
Apr 12th, 2013 - 10:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Would Argentina be pursuing its bogus claim if the Falklands belonged to China or Russia, USA, or even Brazil for that matter?
@60
Apr 13th, 2013 - 12:14 am - Link - Report abuse 0You are comparing South America (190 year history on average), with China (6,000 year history), Arab world Mesopotamia (6,000 year history), and Europe (3,000 year history)?
What did Europe achieve between 620 and 790 AD? Or between 1130 and 1320 AD?
What a ridiculous tosser you and Britanico, who cries about the extermination of the natives but is a racist just like all the other anglos (read the rest of his Nazi commentary).
@63
Yes it would. Argentina has already made claims in the past on Uruguayan territory, Chilean territory, Bolivian territory, Paraguayan territory, etc.
#64 And yet North America with a similar historical timeline to South America (I'll ignore the fact you conveniently ignored the history of South America before independence from Spain) has had a tremendous effect on the cultural and scientific development of the world.
Apr 13th, 2013 - 05:54 am - Link - Report abuse 0”What a ridiculous tosser you and Britanico, who cries about the extermination of the natives but is a racist just like all the other anglos (read the rest of his Nazi commentary).“ I assume the irony of this statement passed you by. Undoubtedly some of the ”anglos“ who post hear are racist and homophobic but I'm not one of them.
Everything you say reeks of some kind continental jealously and inferiority complex. You continue to denigrate Europe and Europeans (especially us ”anglos”) but offer no justification in any way for claiming any kind of cultural superiority. You fail to offer any way whatsoever that South America (or anywhere else) is better in any way other than some vague prediction that “in the future...”.
Nazi commentary? This coming from a country that gave refuge to Adolf Eichmann. What's Nazi about having travelled to parts of the world Argentines couldn't find on a map? Hey, can any of you find the Chagos Islands on the map? And why the sudden interest in the plight of the people there? It's changing the subject because you can't win the argument.
Apr 13th, 2013 - 09:28 am - Link - Report abuse 0This loathing of Europe and Europeans by LATIN Americans just shows how ridiculous they are - they have an inferiority complex towards Europe that North Americans no longer have.
@JT the turd
Apr 13th, 2013 - 12:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0If everybody hates the Brits why does most of the world speak our language, listen to our music, play our sports, read our literature, use our inventions, copy our educational system, value our principles of democracy, use our judicial system & respect our 1000 year old history???
I suggest you read up on British contribution to Argentina & go back to your Campora handler for some new material!!!
64
Apr 13th, 2013 - 05:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Argentina has already made claims in the past on Uruguayan territory, Chilean territory, Bolivian territory, Paraguayan territory, etc.
Argentina in your own words—
A very aggressive nation,
And will never stop until either it goes under,, or until it expands into its very own CFK empire..
As you stated
Argentina has already made claims in the past on Uruguayan territory, Chilean territory, Bolivian territory, Paraguayan territory, etc
And again
Argentina has already made claims in the past on Uruguayan territory, Chilean territory, Bolivian territory, Paraguayan territory, etc
And then again,,
Argentina has already made claims in the past on Uruguayan territory, Chilean territory, Bolivian territory, Paraguayan territory, etc
A very aggressive nation.
And we brits should always keep our guard up…
Long live great Britain..
.
Fascists in Argentina have long had a role in the campaign against the Falklands, like Nacionalismo in the 1930s.
Apr 14th, 2013 - 09:31 am - Link - Report abuse 0http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8AoUz2G-GecC&q=malvinas#v=snippet&q=malvinas&f=false
'Young women, probably mostly upper-class, continued to join Nacionalismo. They formed such groups as Comisión de Damas de la Junta de Recuperación de las Malvinas in 1939.'
'The Alianza de Juventud Nacionalista (AJN) flag of a black condor... evoked the German eagle and an image of power. With its wide range in South America, it also suggested interest in enlarging Argentine influence, which the AJN wanted to achieve by recovering the Malvinas [sic] and strengthening the military and ties with Ibero-America.'
'More predictably, the AJN regarded the “Jewish problem” as “one of the gravest” in Argentina, and it hoped to end the Jews' “harmful influence in government, the economy and culture”.'
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!