Thread: Help Your Poor, Forget Falklands, Argentina Tells Britain

BUENOS AIRES—
Britain should spend more helping its own poor than on defending the Falkland Islands, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said Thursday, responding to a recently announced budget increase aimed at protecting the contested archipelago.

Britain's government said last week that it would reinforce its military presence on the Falklands to counter the "very live threat'' posed by Argentina.

Fernandez, in a speech honoring soldiers who died in her country's failed 1982 invasion of the South Atlantic islands, dismissed the idea of Argentina being a threat, telling Britain to focus instead on fighting poverty within its own borders.

"What a paradox,'' Fernandez chided, "when there are more than 1 million Britons eating at the food banks they have had to open in one of the most powerful countries in the world.''

"Don't spend another pound sterling on defending the Malvinas,'' she added, using the Argentine term for the Falklands. "Spend your money on feeding the English, on providing jobs for your young people and a better quality of life for the British, because we are not a threat to anyone.''

Tensions over the Falklands still simmer more than 30 years after Argentine forces seized the islands and Britain sent a task force to retake them in a brief war that saw more than 600 Argentine and 255 British servicemen killed.

Fiery orator Fernandez has stepped up her international campaign to get sovereignty over the islands as oil and gas exploration in the region increases the stakes. She vowed that Argentina would eventually win the Falklands back through diplomatic means, not military action.

Earlier Thursday, in a move Fernandez called "almost provocative,'' Premier Oil Plc and Falkland Oil and Gas Ltd. said they made an oil and gas discovery at a well in the archipelago, the first in a nine-month drilling campaign.

The islands lie 300 miles (480 kilometers) off the Argentine coast and 8,000 miles (12,870 kilometers) from Britain. About 2,800 people live on the islands, where the main industries are sheep farming, fishing and some tourism.

Britain said last week that it planned to deploy two Chinook helicopters to the Falklands beginning in mid-2016, upgrade communications and renew the surface-to-air missile defense system that's due to come out of service in 2020.

Help Your Poor, Forget Falklands, Argentina Tells Britain

help Your poor (there are many more of them) and forget Los Malvinas, Britain tells Argentina.

oilfields have just been found around the Falklands, we're keeping them

What possible moral right do you Brits think you have to islands far away from your own poxy little country? say home and deal with your own problems.

Originally Posted by Kurgen

oilfields have just been found around the Falklands, we're keeping them

They found them some time ago around the late 90's or so if memory serves. Harsh weather semis have been working down there for a while.

Why don't you tell Bobo there is some oil down there and a country that needs invading.

Nice of Cristina to voice such concern for the starving poor in Britain...obviously a great humanitarian.

Maybe she should take a look out her window once in a while to see how the folks in Argentina are doing.....oh dear, they are out demonstrating in the street against her and her approval rating is a whopping 30%....how can that be?



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Originally Posted by peterpan

What possible moral right do you Brits think you have to islands far away from your own poxy little country? say home and deal with your own problems

They have been continuously occupied by people who consider themselves British for 250 years. Possession being 90% of the law and one of the basic factors in the determination of sovereignty it would seem the UK's claim is a good deal stronger than anything the Argies have come up with.

Geography has little or nothing to do with it. France has sovereign rights over two islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence which one would expect to be Canadian territory being as they are well inside the territorial limits, but occupancy and possession are the determinants....not location. The sovereignty of these two small islands also extends to include fishing and mineral rights.

By comparison the Falklands are a slam dunk for Britain and no amount of rhetoric, false claims and posturing at the UN is going to change that.

Originally Posted by peterpan

Why don't you tell Bobo there is some oil down there and a country that needs invading.

They're already aware. Work boats and crew changes depart regularly from Rio Gallegos.

Originally Posted by peterpan

What possible moral right do you Brits think you have to islands far away from your own poxy little country?

A British population that has been there for centuries, and unanimously wishes to stay British, and the fact that the Falklands were never a part of Argentina, to put it briefly. Look at the map- it is hundreds of miles off the coast of Argentina, in the middle of the Atlantic. Brazil and Uruguay could just as (in)credibly claim it as theirs. When it comes down to it, the Argentinean claim is based on the fact a few whalers used to temporarily camp there. It only became a cause celebre' to divert attention from the abuses and appalling performance of Argentina's then military Junta- and you now how easily people are suckered in by jingoism.

Originally Posted by sabang

Originally Posted by peterpan

What possible moral right do you Brits think you have to islands far away from your own poxy little country?

A British population that has been there for centuries, and unanimously wishes to stay British, and the fact that the Falklands were never a part of Argentina, to put it briefly. Look at the map- it is hundreds of miles off the coast of Argentina, in the middle of the Atlantic. Brazil and Uruguay could just as (in)credibly claim it as theirs. When it comes down to it, the Argentinean claim is based on the fact a few whalers used to temporarily camp there. It only became a cause celebre' to divert attention from the abuses and appalling performance of Argentina's then military Junta- and you now how easily people are suckered in by jingoism.

Well the Argies do have one master stroke in their claim, apart from camping whalers. The Malvinas were supposedly given to what was then Patagonia, by Papal edict sometime in the 16th or early 17th century.....the question that arises, is how did the Pope manage to acquire ownership of the islands in the first place, so he could give them to Patagonia.

It was not unusual for some newly discovered bit of rock to be claimed in the name of the Pope by devout catholic Portuguese or Spanish explorers, much in the same way Cook claimed Australia for his completely crazy King...... so maybe there's a record somewhere.

Even if there is, the Falklands changed hands a few times between French, Dutch and British, before they were finally settled properly and established as British territory for 200+ years before the Argies got all excited about "getting them back" even though there is no real history of them substantially occupying them in the first place.

One of the strongest determining factors in establishing sovereign rights is continuous occupancy over a long period, and the British clearly have that in spades....not to mention the clearly stated wishes of the population of the place.

Originally Posted by koman

Nice of Cristina to voice such concern for the starving poor in Britain...obviously a great humanitarian.

Maybe she should take a look out her window once in a while to see how the folks in Argentina are doing.....oh dear, they are out demonstrating in the street against her and her approval rating is a whopping 30%....how can that be?
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Election time nears in the UK + a massively unpopular government in Argentina = Falklands Crisis.

Shades of 1982.

quite

As mentioned before jingoism is a great vote winner.... when done right

Fuck off dago losers, Briton tells Argentina.

The Brits are like the Israeli cnuts , steal the land ,

Nah they run the UK.

Originally Posted by snakeeyes

The Brits are like the Israeli cnuts , steal the land ,

Lots of oil in them parts. It's all about the money.

We have some nice old family photos from the Falklands my father was on the island many years ago.
I know we have some old whale bone carvings plus sailors art work painted on whale bone from the old whaling station.
So Fernandez,
https://www.facebook.com/royalmarines40

^
England is being overrun by Muslims , Polish and Romanians the Brits are fooked and it's great to see , the Brits are a bunch of cnuts steal the land ,

Originally Posted by snakeeyes

^
England is being overrun by Muslims , Polish and Romanians the Brits are fooked and it's great to see , the Brits are a bunch of cnuts steal the land ,

Gobshite.

Originally Posted by snakeeyes

The Brits are like the Israeli cnuts , steal the land ,

yeah but people like you are more than happy to live in and emigrate to countries Britain nicked .
Hypocritical Irish.