Colonialism is not dead

(Pardon the late mention.)

Here is the location of the Islands mentioned below.

It was interesting, back on the first of June, to see on the front page of LaNacion that the British nation - specifically, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - was introducing a coin collection commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War. In this brief war, British troops fought off the Argentine invaders and freed the islands.

2 April is a national Argentine holiday, officially named Día del Veterano de Guerra y los Caídos en las Islas Malvinas -- Day of the War Veterans and the Fallen in the Malvinas Islands.

On the Islands themselves, the day to celebrate is 14 June - "Liberation Day".

It is very kind of the British to commemorate this special event, especially for the sake of the Argentines. They'll want to remember that cruel military dictatorship of the '70's and '80's, during which going to war to defend the Malvinas Islands gave them something to live for, even if it was just the old political ploy distract the people from difficulties at home with wars elsewhere.

In my German class at Grace, a girl whose parents were missionaries to Argentina devoted one of her German speeches to explaining this part of South Atlantic history. She refused to call them the Falkland Islands. They had been and always would be the Malvinas.