2012-01-19

When even the Guardian commentators lose sympathy

Argentinian and Amsterdam-dwelling hip chick Flavia Dzodan decides to write a comment piece in the Grauniad on how colonialist David Cameron appears to be about the Falklands:

With this comment Cameron did a bit of historical "re-arranging the furniture". He conveniently forgot to mention that the inhabitants of the Falkland Islands were expelled by an act of force in 1833, and the current population descends from the people brought by the British to replace the Argentinian inhabitants. By definition, this is an act of colonialism.

The CiF commentators aren't as sympathetic to her point as she might have hoped. It turns out that other people such as bangorstu can use Wikipedia too, and read out the bits she left out:

The original inhabitants WERE NOT evicted in 1833.
The original inhabitants were French colonists in 1764.
A year later the British arrived in the islands and established another colony, in ignorance of the French presence.
Note all of this happened six decades before Argentine independence...
The French agreed to leave in 1766, and there was a diplomatic tiff with Spain which nearly led to war.
The British left around the time of the American War of Independence - but left a plaque noting that they had not given up sovreignty.
The Spanish ruled part of the islands from Buenos Aries until 1811 whereupon they left - again, leaving a plaque.
On independence the Argentinians attempted to annex the islands - leading to the 1833 incident. They had no right to do so, and the colonsits were evicted.
But this Argentine whinng about their 'orignal inhabitants' ignores three separate colonies from three different nations which had existed before they were even independent.

Quote of the month from commentator slimpanatella:

Galtieri waved his cock and got it bitten off. Deal with it.

The comments are a treasure trove of colonialism, in the unlikeliest of venues:

Im not very patriotic (being of immigrant stock) but a few years ago whilst staying at a backpackers hostel in Buenos Aires I was so incenced to see on a big wall map "Islas Malvinas (Ar.) I took my biro and crossed out the (Ar.) and wrote (G.B.).

Poor Flavia must be thinking she posted to the Daily Mail by accident. A word to the wise, darling: don't fuck with the Falklands. Argentina had its chance, and blew it.

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