"A Matter of Honour!"

Dear Fellow Earthlings, On the 4th of June 1982, at the United Nations Security Council, Great Britain made clear that it was not interested in granting any concessions to Argentina regarding the Falkland Islands. The invasion of British territory (the Falklands and South Georgia) two months earlier by Argentina, even as negotiations between Argentina and Great Britain had been going on, had been flagrant and unjustified and was not going to open an avenue for Argentina to flaunt international law or British authority. As British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher put it when she addressed the British Parliament on the 2nd of April 1982, the day after the Argentine invasion of the Falklands: "We cannot allow the democratic rights of the Islanders to be denied by the territorial

ambitions of Argentina." The circumstances under which the Falklands had come into being as a geopolitical entity not tied to the South American mainland or to Argentina remain partially shrouded in the clouds of history. It can be argued that Argentina was the first to land settlers in the Falklands. So too, can it be argued that the French did the same! Similarly, it can be argued that the Pope of Rome either had the authority to demarcate points west of a certain line as Spanish and east of that

line as Portuguese -- or he did not! But the fact of the matter is that in 1982, the Falkland Islands were no more a part of Argentina

than Kaliningrad, Russia was still Konigsberg, Germany, or that that the Seneca Nation did not

exist under the duress of having its villages destroyed by President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's

signature authorizing the construction of the Kinzua Dam to begin. The mudhole that Port Stanley had become in the aftermath of the Argentine invasion reflects

the worst side of humanity: That you take what you can take, regardless of the hurt it causes

others, and then you change history books to back you up and consolidate your so-called gains. The whole of British resolve in their efforts to win back the islands that were so brazenly stolen right from under their noses (despite the long distances involved) was backed not so much by

military superiority as by -- the use the motto of the Falkland Islands: "Desire the Right" Steve Walker Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.