“We have enough land – but We want YOURS, too!”
Dear Fellow Earthlings,
On the 1st of April 1982 the people of the Falkland Islands were coming to realize that their homeland was about to be invaded by forces from their neighbor to the west: Argentina. Argentine officials had long coveted the Falklands, an island nation about the size of Wales. They had claimed that those islands, located some 480 kiilometers east of the Patagonia region of Argentina had been "part of the package" when Argentina won independence from Spain in 1816.
The fact that native Falkland Islanders are now in their 8th and 9th generations since their ancestors from the British Isles settled the Falklands carried no weight with the majority of the Argentine people, who claimed that the Falklands (known to them by a completely different name) were an integral part of Argentina that had been wrested away from them by the British.
Argentina in the early 1980s was suffering under a military dictatorship headed by President Leopoldo Galtieri. It seems that Galtieri hoped that by recapturing the Fallklands, he would be able to secure a place in Argentine history as the person who recaptured the long lost islands from the British. Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as March gave way to April in 1981 -- and it was she who would forever make a place in history for herself by ensuring that the Falklands remained British.
The Falkland people themselves are, as I learned from my 27-day long stay there back in 2013 (See Installment 57 through Installment 83.) very decidedly are not Argentinian. They don't look like the predominantly Italian people who inhabit Argentina, do not profess to be Roman Catholics, do not speak Spanish, do not want to speak Spanish, and do not want to be part of Argentina.
They just want to be be Islanders or Falkland Islanders. They want to enjoy the serenity of their land, to send their children off to the British Isles to complete their higher education, and to remain forever independent.
That's right!
On the evening of 1 April 1982 the Falkland Islanders knew that Argentine forces were out at sea only a few miles from Stanley and that they were preparing to come ashore.
Steve Walker Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.