Las Malvinas years on.

by an t-uasal ó foghlaí Sun Oct 04, 2009 20:58

Argentina lost 649 of its armed service personel in the Malvinas / Falkland war. 231 Argentinians many as of yet unidentified occupy 230 of the tombs in the graveyard. Yesterday the first large scale group of relatives of the dead finally got to hear mass con-celebrated by an Argentinian priest and the RC curate on the islands and unveil their own memorial cenotaph which actually looks like a big cross rather than the usual cenotaph shape which most people might think of being so familiar with the one which commemorates the "glorious dead" of all of Britain's wars, which incidently when erected was intended to be merely a temporary structure for the WW1 walk past. But Britain never gave up her warlike ways and so the original wooden structure was replaced with the identical block of portland limestone. Given enough time, the English cenotaph will either erode away or they shall be a peaceful people.

Before the Argentinian mourners left, the Argentinian president, Cristina Kirchner spoke to each one and then in a short speech declared that "in this century an Argentinian president will go the islands, as president of those islands as well". Those words may be interpreted as historically legimate, defiant, fighting, revindicative, irridentist - whatever you fancy as long you don't spell it out in terms of Oil & Gas reserves.

The family members stayed a mere 5 hours on the inhospitable islands and arrived on a Chilean LAN airline jet which had flown from the southernmost province of Argentina. They sat crying ona few rows of chairs in the company of the British officer in charge of the "Falklands" and the British governor of the archipelago who were in the front row (quite probably wondering when they should kneel, bow their head, shake hands with people, munch the wafer & whatever other worries go through people unfamiliar with RC liturgy when suddenly expected to hear a mass). Thereafter some of the mourners left keepsakes at the names and on the graves of the Argentinians which included copious sets of rosary beads and bunches of flowers.

For those who can read or listen to Argentinian Spanish, here is short written report with audio files of both a daughter of one of the fallen and the speech by president Kirchner. http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1182217

You don't have to fight for it, believe in it, or hang from it to get one plonked close to your name.

by an t-uasal o foghlaí Sat Sep 22, 2007 18:18

Anyone going to "The Guardian" today who hadn't much of a clue about deep sea hydrocarbon exploration treaties or the continental shelf expansion precedents set by Ireland & reported here in over a 3 year period complete with maps of what everyone interested in the material really ought to have noticed would of course think there's a shock in the news that the UK wants to "annexe" hydrocarbon resources in the south Atlantic and Rockall area. But thankfully this website can get you past the weekend enthusiasms of that noble newspaper "The Guardian's" declaration of a new "British Empire" & explain the whole thing has been sewn up a long time. The Rockall zone has been agreed between Ireland and the UK for years and the South Atlantic has been agreed between the UK and Argentina for years.

- map http://indymedia.ie/article/62544?&condense_comments=fa...55308
more data - http://www.indymedia.ie/article/81849
latest data - http://indymedia.ie/article/83786

The Argentine government signed the first treaty which carved up the continental shelf around the Malvinas & South Georgia islands in 1995, that's not as long ago as the miners' strike but still within history of an anti-establishment laureate nominated poet who uses the word Fuck & Cunt.

here's a copy - http://www.falklands.info/history/95comm.html

As Hugo "the man" Chavez demanded the UK return the malvinas during this year's war commemorations, many people tuned their thoughts to his ambitions to assist the Argentinians in exploitation of those resources. But at end the Spanish company REPSOL won the day perhaps thinking that this new pearl would compensate for lost profits in Bolivia. But then again most people don't know that Hugo allowed the Argentinians to open new wells in the Orinoco after he nationalised it as part of a "practise learn on the well" exercise which will help them get the most of their South Atlantic resources which they are opening in 2008. Repsol hda previously disclosed plans to invest US$4.6 million for exploration and production in Argentina in 2007-2009 but that relied on finalisation of the next treaty between the UK and Argentina.

Interestingly no-one is talking about the Argentinians annexing the resources of the South Atlantic because the Chileans haven't complained yet......

by iosaf Tue Apr 03, 2007 22:12

The Americas are very long. That's one of the first things all explorers who came to them from any direction must have thought. More than one individual has set out to chart their length in a novel way. Che Guevara found fame with his mate by crossing the continent on a motorbike long before he became an icon. Two americans of the extreme sport variety have succeeded in driving from one tip to the other tip using only biofuel.
They smell of chips now. They arrived in the beautifully named Uahuaia on Sunday just in time to see the Argentine veterans remember their short northward crossing to the malvinas island 25 years before. It has taken them around 9 months. Enough time for a new life to begin.

you can read about it all on their blog "oil and water project".
http://oilandwaterproject.org/blog/ or just here (it's real skateboarder stuff I tell you. there the sort of yankees who go live with grizzly bears and do video diaries for youtube. here's an example :- " a top speed of 50 miles per hour, the O+WP began a long slow cruise southward in July 2006, from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska using a converted fire truck that can run on 100% vegetable oil. The Biofuels-only demonstration vehicle travels for up to 2,000 miles before needing to refuel the storage compartments. The legendary rig features an on-board vegetable oil seed press, [They use Bio-fuels (soy, palm, fish, and pig oil) without a single drop of petroleum] a large Plexiglas demonstration window, 180-gallons of fuel storage, and an expandable side tent and rooftop two-room tent."

un-American yes but don't worry - they won't squat the malvinas.


You'll all be glad to know Maradona is on the mend. He was hospitalised a short bit back. "the usual" he should never have left Cuba. (a reminder of the fun things of life and my "stand strong Diego!" articles http://indymedia.ie/article/66700 )

not the fuel they used. it's never be done before.

by an t-uasal foghlai Tue Apr 03, 2007 20:11

5 Argentinian veterans given permission by London to visit Darwin the same day Buenos Aires decided not to sign a hydrocarbons exploration agreement. They put their flag on the memorial stone and then waved it about a bit and by surprise a Scottish piper Brian Donalson himself a veteran of other side came along to play. He saluted his ex-enemy. They saluted him back. Today the man with the Argentine flag veteran Mario Oscar Núñez denied it had been his intention to provoke but that the cemetery is an embassy of Argentina and he had the right to cover the list of 649 Argentinian dead with the Argentinian flag.
This is what it is all about.
Listing dead - tidy white crosses - flags - surprise global appearances of the Scottish rather than (Irish, Asturian or Bulgar) pipes. & hydrocarbon exploration obviously. Now you understand why we needed Chavez to send that letter. You'll notice it's very cold & inhospitable looking in the Malvinas. Only a snipe could profit from that.

note the flag on the left hand side at memorial - 1st time in 25 years.

by iosaf mac diarmada Tue Apr 03, 2007 18:49

Yesterday the Argentinian president Kirchner didn't attend the ceremony at Uahuaia the little city at the tip of the world whence a conscripted army of seventeen-year-olds or older were sent by the Argentinian military government 25 years ago to The Malvinas .
But his vice-president did & had this to say amongst other things "We have never stopped to revindicate our legitimate rights, neither the war not the passing time change the conditions. The Malvinas are and always will be Argentinian.

as of on cue - Hugo "the man" Chavez our caudillo of the century - sent off a fierce revindication of his ally's claim in a beautifully worded letter of unquestionably well wrought diplomatic english. There may have been some grammatical slips - but we know that's all part of it.

That continent and a half of the world we call varyingly Latin America, The Americas or our base of operations & soul of our revolution showed Margaret Thatcher with her head bowed in a black dress and an unhappy look on her sour puss of a face.

Blair of course was reported for everyones' eyebrows to arch a few days ago. "It was all about principle" or "principal". you can't tell. I suggest being the class we are we never forget that the English invented squatters' rights not to keep the homeless warm but to allow them pitch up their ridiculous flags all over the planet. As an t-uasal foghlai I sometimes wonder was it a sign of how bad they really were at navigation and sea-craft. They were crap on the waves so at every turn of a difficult to sail coast they needed somewhere they didn't have to pay rent & could put their dogs to worrying sheep.

Of course I would be a hypocrite and I would be thought prejudiced if I did not express my feelings on the British losses. It was I believe the last war or military engagement the crown forces of HMG UK ever returned from without mystery illnesses or syndromes.

RIP