The Falklands today: between millionaire and Argentine sailors traveling to "return home silently" – 01/04/2019

From the sad image of war to the color image that prevails today, updating the photo of the Falkland Islands 37 years after the attacks and deaths can be hurtful. There is no print Argentinaalmost nothing refers to the neighboring coasts. There is a place where the one who arrives feels alien and a sedentary global diversity. There is wealth and prosperity and Anglo-Saxon behavior this seems self-evident, even if it is possible to rub shoulders with Chileans or Filipinos, migrant cultures that predominate. The most common habits, the prosaic life, speak of a small south of Brittany, with its own flag, tea at 5 o'clock and wishes for total autonomy. Of course, the islanders have no chance to launch a sovereignty debate, because on the other side of the sea, everything seems clear: they feel that There is nothing to discuss.

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This is a cold bone piercer and a hundred people have just entered the Municipal Theater of Ross Road, the main street of Puerto Stanley / Argentino. The Island Marathon is over and the awards ceremony has begun. The director of Standard Chartered Bank – the only bank – runs the act soberly, without however avoiding the emotional words. He uses them especially to thank the relatives of 20 Argentines who competed "Islanders are celebrating the arrival of more and more Argentinian athletes," he said. Remember that the former British and Argentine soldiers who fought in the Monte Harriet fights in 1982 ran and asked that "more of these meetings occur".

The anecdote serves to explain what he could see Clarin after spending a week living here. Let the war be there, like a dream coming and going, and the islanders agree to play host, but only if the Argentineans respect certain conditions and recognize them as owners. They do not despise arrivals for tourism, marathons or Darwin's tombs, but they also do not expect open hugs. If there is a possible connection, it seems to be linked in a fragile way.

Port Stanley / Argentino – the combined name proposed by Google, Facebook and the UN – looks like the suburbs of London, with windy streets, red telephone booths fallen into disuse and a small kiosk with fish and chips served, like many shops, by a Chilean couple. It is a discreet city, with houses that do not reveal the wealth that they cherish. Through the sale of fishing licenses, a company created after the war, Malvinas is one of the most prosperous places on the planet. There are 2,700 inhabitants and the minimum wage – that of a maestranza – is $ 20,000 a year.

Argentina is a recurring theme in the pages of Penguin News, the main media, printed once a week. Argentine travelers are news because of their visits to the site where the remains of fallen soldiers rest. Darwin has been the scene of emotions in recent months, when the mothers of hundreds of conscripts hitherto "only known to God" came to meet the tombstone and the name of their children, after the identification made by the team Argentine forensic anthropology. But most of the time, it's a tough place. Travelling you feel the weight of the desolation that crosses the crosses, maintained by a local park company that pays the Argentine Parents' Commission. Darwin, 90 kilometers from the capital of the islands, is the real celestial and white trace of the Malvinas. Then, there is no, if you prefer, Argentina in sight: neither culture nor products for sale.

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Everything is British of pure stock. Elton John and Amy Winehouse listen to radio and hotels As in Buenos Aires, Calamaro would ring. The bars follow the manual of good English, a late pint and the television that pbades in front of European football. At 11 am at the latest, they close. There are six pubs and only one, called The Victory, "the one of the nationalists", there is something that speaks with Argentina: a photo of Galtieri framed by a toilet lid, on the wall of the bathroom, with the caption "rot in hell you hole" ("rot in hell, badhole").

Islanders do not accept that visitors wear Argentine flags or patriotic shirts. The idea terrifies them to fall on this picture and to point it out. As soon as you enter the Mount Pleasant airport, which is a military base, immigration officers tell you, "Be respectful of the feelings of the 1982 conflict. Do not carry flags or legends. Do not sing the hymn. Do not pick up in the war camps any of the objects that are in the open air … a flag raised above the waist is considered a provocation and is forbidden, "he says, among others.

The case of ex-fighter Luis Escobedo and seven other companions, delayed ten days ago for waving an Argentine flag and sang the anthem, upset the mood of many locals. The stay of Clarin This coincided with the last meeting of the Council which administers the islands. In this document, several neighbors have asked for hardening of the rules to the 8 advisers of the body. "If they are sweet, change them," shouted an angry woman. They asked all the Argentineans who arrived to open their luggage and confiscate any nationalist symbol.

As flights arrive once a week, all visitors complete the seven days on the spot. That's why it's inevitable to see the Argentineans hurtling down Stanley's main avenue every day, after strolling through the mountains of battle: Harriet, London, Dos Hermanas. In the grbadlands of these sites, the remnants of war are intact by decision of the local government and many veterans return to the trenches they occupied to reconnect with their petrified elements of fajina.

The Argentine traveler, who practices a memory tourismhe is practically not tied to the kelper host for nothing. But it ends up being paired with the experience of their fellow flying: in short, they create a world apart from silent patriotic slogans.

Falklands social today

On the islands there is no crime. Unemployment is zero and they do not use drugs either. The workforce is needed to build houses and infrastructure, good wages and development opportunities are also guaranteed. "I can be good, send money to my family and have projects," says Yanis, born in Cebu, Philippines. She is 27 years old and is a waitress in a charming hotel. "Here are tools to develop and all those who want to use them. We are an equal societyAlex Chilien, Alex Olmedo, arrived in 1990.

The high taxes paid are returned in the form of quality services. Health and education are free. At age 16, young people begin their studies in Britain. For this reason, there is a generational leap. They do not look to be in their twenties, and the average age is 37 years The complexities of health are discussed in Santiago, Punta Arenas or Montevideo. An emergency transfer is made by private jet, financed by the government.

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Children can not be photographed without the permission of their parents. Two brothers, a man and a woman, can sleep together in the same room until the age of twelve. Then the local government forces families to have Separate rooms. If a parent comes to visit, he can not sleep in the children's room. There were cases of pedophilia and he acts preventively.

The food changes. Islanders are provided. Going to the supermarket is a global experience. There is nothing Argentinian industry. But the gondolas are riddled global products. The cuts of meat of local production are premium and cheap. A kilo of mutton steak or lamb rib may cost between 200 and 300 Argentine pesos.

They are literally rich. From 1987, the inhabitants of the island have not stopped growing and now rub their hands: from 2020, the beginning of oil and gas extraction in the islands. This will bring more royalties and more population. The dilemmas they face are the dilemmas of growth.

Those born and raised, as well as those who come and stay, receive a special fund to buy tickets. The weekly flight that arrives via Punta Arenas should be added to the one arriving every Tuesday from London, with a stopover in Cape Verde. It is a charter funded by the UK Department of Defense, with impeccable, old-fashioned service: spaced seats, carriers that offer all the time.

The happiness index must be high. Social life is very strong. People are moving with their latest Land Rover 4×4 model to dine in refined venues. During the cruise season, between October and April, 60,000 people from all over the world come down to see the islands. Very few are Argentinian.

A political fact: They despise Néstor and Cristina Kirchner. They suggest that during the management of CFK, all means have been tried isolate them from the continent, with a tough speech to the UN claiming territories. They consider Mauricio Macri favorably for two things: he has promised to cancel the measures taken by Cristina (which he has not yet done, they specify) and his strategies of approach based on the proposal to increase flights from Argentina.

The Argentine people

There is a mixture of nostalgia and fascination in the face of Argentines who they arrive for the first time. Some are veterans, others are children of veterans. They come to close a wound, they feel strong enough to recreate a memory. Mariano López, 40, his father was in the hospital of Puerto Argentino during the war. "I'm coming because I close the circle to have grown up with my father's silences, I feel like I can finish telling your story, but I'm also discovering an unexpected and new world of economic autonomy, very different from Argentina, which is nothing from Argentina, it is something strange and new, "he says. Clarin.

But they are also trying to make a mark. Oscar Alvarez is a dentist. He looks like a metalhead with a good face and runs marathons. Last Sunday, he traveled the 42 kilometers of the island and left with three other friends. "The feeling is that the Falklands are Argentinian, but we see something from abroadOf course there are the war fields and Darwin that affect us, but we see a life of people from another country. I think we should accept it and think about how we can get close to it. It would be a healthy exercise of sovereignty"Say one morning.

Thus, the Argentine testimonies succeed one after the other. The encounter with an unexpected universe, which reached extraordinary levels of development after the war, but which does not register this traumatic experience in the foreground. Many kelpers, who refuse to lend themselves to notes with Argentine journalists, badume that the "war saved them", but without boasting. An old local joke says that instead of making a monument to Margaret Tachert, they should have made one in Galtieri. The person who says it smiles and when he hears it, it seems that the Malvinas, here, where everything is extremely English, become more and more distant.

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