Malvina's Island, the stupid War

Language level: Intermediate

Standard: British accent

Source: Speak Up

25 years ago a bizarre event took place. The Argentine military junta decided to invade the Falkland Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. The Argentineans believed that this territory, which they called “Las Malvinas,” belonged to them. In actual fact they were inhabited by 800 people –mainly sheep farmers – with British passports. The British prime minister at the time was Margaret Thatcher and her popularity was at low ebb. She immediately sent a task force which, after several bloody battles, took back the islands.

Argentineans surrendered on June 14^th. Defeat spelled the end of the military junta, while British victory meant huge popularity for Mrs. Thatcher, who stayed in power for another eight years, prior to being removed from office by fellow members of the Conservative Party. Back in 1982 Tim Phillips was a 10 years old schoolboy in Britain. Today he runs a design company in Buenos Aires, where he live with his Anglo-Argentinean wife and their children. We asked him for his views on the Falklands War:

Tim Phillips (standard British accent):  

My view, I suppose, is that the Falklands…the inhabitants of the Falklands should decide what they do with the Falklands Island but, as for whether I think that the war was sensible thing to do, of course not, I think it was absolutely stupid. I can’t believe that nearly a thousand people died trying to protect some tiny little islands that very few people live on. I think it was Borges who said that the Falklands War was “two bald men fighting over a comb”. I think that’s a great quote about Falklands war, it was a stupid, stupid adventure, it was a political war and I think everyone in Argentina agrees with that as well, that most Argentines I talk to about the war say it was a stupid political war, it was a battle between a military government here and Margaret Thatcher, both of whom were needing to be re-elected and wanted political power.

“LAS MALVINAS SON ARGENTINAS”

We then asked him about Argentinean people opinions:

Tim Phillips:

The attitude in Argentina surprised me when I first got here, it’s one of the only topics I think – one of the only political topics – in Argentina that everybody agrees on, which is that “Las Malvinas”, or the Falklands Islands, as we call them, should belong to Argentina, and there is absolutely no question about that and to give you an example, if you buy a map of the world here in Argentina, then the Falkland Islands don’t exist, there are some islands which are called Las Malvinas and they are…they’re in brackets “(owned by Argentina)” and that is always the case in Argentina, there’s no question that these islands are owned by Britain. And so it’s very interesting, coming from the UK, where the attitude is, of course, that the Falklands are British and should remain British, or at least should remain whatever nationality that the occupants of Falklands decide they want in the future. The attitude is very different here and so it’s one of those topics that is slightly difficult to talk about in an objective way.

Back in 1982…(no audio)

Although war was never officially declared, the events known as “The Falklands war” (or “La Guerra de Las Malvinas”) began on March 19^th, 1982, when 50 men landed on the Island of South Georgia and raised the Argentinean flag. On April 2^nd, General Galtieri, head of the military junta, ordered the invasion of the Falklands. The British government sent a task force and Argentina surrended on June 14^th. 258 British and 649 Argentinean servicemen died during the conflict.