Gibraltar, Falklands, Hong Kong

[Eric]

Three potty little bits of Britain, one now given back to the original owners.

But Hong Kong is now part of a totalitarian state.

Kirchner in Argentina wants the Falklands (Malvinas). But hasn't this got more to do with the fact that Argentina, a country that has been run in a fascist way, and not so brilliantly economically either, wants the oil around the islands?

And Spain is also a country that was run for a long while by a fascist, Francisco Franco. People are now calling for Queen Sofia of Spain to boycott Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee. But hasn't this got more to do with the fact that Spain is one of Europe's disaster areas with regard to finances and unemployment and the Castilians, in their pride, want to distract the nation from the fact that it is nearly as bankrupt as Greece? And, erm, wasn't Queen Sofia born in Greece, another country that is the pride of Europe?

Maybe the British citizens on Gibraltar and the Falklands don't want to run by fascists or bankrupts...

[Liam]

I had no idea who owned Gibraltar. I thought Hong Kong was not going back to China until 2046?

But yeah, one bloated monarchist boycotting the diamond jubilee of another--something Alice forgot to witness down in the rabbithole.

[Eric]

Here's a pretty sober comment from a newspaper that is made in Spain:


La Reina cancel·la el seu viatge a Londres pel malestar del Govern davant la visita del príncep Eduardo a Gibraltar

L'esposa de Juan Carlos estava convidada a les celebracions pel 60º aniversari d'Isabel II en el tron (Madrid)

La Reina Sofia ha decidit cancel·lar el viatge que tenia previst a Londres amb motiu del jubileu de diamants d'Isabel II. Segons fonts de la Casa del Rei, el motiu de l'anul·lació és el malestar del Govern davant la pròxima visita a Gibraltar del príncep Eduard d'Anglaterra.

Les mateixes fonts han explicat que l'assistència de Sofia a un dinar previst en el marc de les celebracions del 60è aniversari de la monarca anglesa en el tron ha estat suspesa perquè, "en les circumstàncies actuals", l'Executiu de Mariano Rajoy ha considerat "poc adequada" la presència de la Reina en el jubileu. El Rei hauria d'haver-la acompanyat a Londres, però l'operació recent de maluc a la qual es va sotmetre ho desaconsellava.

El 8 de maig passat, el Ministeri d'Exteriors va convocar l'ambaixador britànic per traslladar-li el seu "disgust i malestar" per la visita al Penyal que el fill petit d'Isabel II té prevista el juny vinent.

A aquest episodi s'ha unit en les últimes hores la ruptura de les negociacions entre els pescadors de la badia d'Algesires amb les autoritats de Gibraltar. El nou ministre principal del Penyal, Fabian Picard, ja no permet als pescadors espanyols que pesquin en les aigües que Gibraltar considera com a pròpies tal com havien fet en els últims anys, en virtut d'un acord de 1999.

La cancel·lació del viatge de la Reina va tenir un precedent en el casament del príncep Carles i Lady Di, al qual no va anar cap membre de la família reial espanyola. El Govern de llavors va considerar una provocació que la lluna de mel de la futura parella comencés a Gibraltar, des d'on va partir el iot reialBritannia.

[Eric]

The monarchy comes in many shapes and sizes. They are very much theatre nowadays, but can occasionally sober up the more rabid politicians. Royal families tend to be linked. So, as you have seen, the Spanish and Greek royal families are linked by marriage. And in the olden days Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, and Nicholas the Czar of Russia were all cousins. That did not however stop the First World War.

However, King Barack von und zu Hussein Obama is a worthy king of the US of A, as are Czar Vladimir and Queen Angela... May God give the King of All the Americas the chance to repeat his perfect ritual oath to the Constitution and whatever else he's supposed to swear to, or by, on TV to please the plebs. We wouldn't want all that pomp and circumstance over the pond, now would we?

But my point still stands: should the Brits, endlessly accused of being imperialists, give up their two remaining "silly little islands" and present them to fascists and bankrupts?

[Galatea92]

I was trying to read this, thinking, 'God, Spanish has changed since I was at school!'. Then I tried to translate the words I didn't recognise, like 'motiu' and 'amb', and Google Translate suggested that maybe I was looking at Catalan rather than Spanish. You sly dog, Eric! (Though I suppose your flag should have given me a clue.)

[altai]

I had no idea who owned Gibraltar. I thought Hong Kong was not going back to China until 2046?

But yeah, one bloated monarchist boycotting the diamond jubilee of another--something Alice forgot to witness down in the rabbithole.

Oh, shite, the title of Wong Kar Wai little masterpiece has just acquired a whole new dimension to me.

[Eric]

Yes, Galatea, I was just taking the piss. But, of course, since that nasty old Castilian dictator died, the Catalan language was taken out of mothballs and its dignity and use were restored. It is now a very respectable literary language again, as it was in the Middle Ages. The fact that you can access (even if you don't understand them) lots of daily Catalan newspaper articles on the internet shows how Spain's attitude to minority languages has changed over the past 30 years or so. And it is, of course, symbolic that you can read about the Greek-born Spanish Queen snubbing the Brits in what is a very republican (in the European sense) language. Catalan is, in fact, halfway between French and Castilian Spanish. So if you know something of both those languages, Catalan is not too difficult.

[Eric]

To interpose in Altai and Liam's little spat about monarchies, I'm glad we've got harmless theatrical ones in Sweden and the UK, unlike the monarch they now have in Russia...

[Eric]

Spain is in big trouble financially. People have begun withdrawing their money from the fourth largest bank, Bankia, that was nationalised only a week ago. So snubbing the old diamond-studded lady in London is a good way for Spanish politicians and economists to distract the attention of ordinary Spaniards from their dire financial situation. It's the same with Argentina. President Kirchner is all abluster about the islands because of the oil and because Argentina has a pretty disastrous history of financial and currency failure, if you examine the past few decades of Argentine history. (Apart from the decades of fascism.) So what's better than for two half-bankrupt countries to start raging at the way British imperialists are holding on to a few islands in order to keep the plebs on the streets from rioting against their own governments?

[Eric]

By the way, those of you who did not realise that Gibraltar still belongs to Britain, as did Hong Kong until recently, should have a look at the complex relationships between various countries (often English-speaking) and Britain over the past 150 years or so, and how these have evolved. The Wikipedia has several articles on such things such as:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Nations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_realm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_...y_Elizabeth_II

Also, if you look at the flags (Gibraltar has its own which is posted here), you will find odd anomalies such as the fact that the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark) do not technically speaking belong to the United Kingdom, nor does the Isle of Man. This is why dodgy businessmen set up companies there to avoid various aspects of British tax.

British overseas territories have their own flags as well. The tiniest of these is indeed Gibraltar which is only 6.5 square kilometres in size, whereas the Falklands are some 12,000 square kilometres including, presumably, a lot of sea. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbols...he_Isle_of_Man

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British...as_territories

Such things are indeed all rather weird, and came about because Britain was such a huge empire a century ago or so.

[altai]

Spain is in big trouble financially. People have begun withdrawing their money from the fourth largest bank, Bankia, that was nationalised only a week ago. So snubbing the old diamond-studded lady in London is a good way for Spanish politicians and economists to distract the attention of ordinary Spaniards from their dire financial situation. It's the same with Argentina. President Kirchner is all abluster about the islands because of the oil and because Argentina has a pretty disastrous history of financial and currency failure, if you examine the past few decades of Argentine history. (Apart from the decades of fascism.) So what's better than for two half-bankrupt countries to start raging at the way British imperialists are holding on to a few islands in order to keep the plebs on the streets from rioting against their own governments?

Yes, it's because of oil, and no, it's not because of whatever happened in the last few decades.
Argentinian economy has actually grown 8% last year while the British economy grew 0.6%.
I am more interested in Argentina's nationalizing YPF oil company, quite a precedent of robust nationalist economic policy. The EU is waving fists on Spanish behalf and it's very interesting how it's gonna end. Meanwhile a new young Che Guevara is having cool speeches in the Argentinian parliament. I am quite impressed by Kicillof and Kirchner. Cool rhetorical skills.
Here is one example on YPF, oil, neo-liberalism, and many other things in Spanish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSWA2SAgZno

[Eric]

Altai, statistics mean very little unless you know what the base figure for growth is. A desperately impoverished country can start boasting about 10% growth. But if they were completely broke (like Greece now) at the start of this measurement, the percentage is an indicator that they've realised the problem and got a bit more sober. But it means next to nothing unless this fancy figure is consistent and measured against where they started.

This is why I keep saying (what you will interpret as Russia-bashing, no doubt) that Russia is simply living on oil and gas pumped up out of the ground, plus a few casino-style gambles that oligarchs make. No country will ever get out of a mess by endless borrowing, or by simply using up raw materials heedlessly, unless the government tries to balance the books without simply taking things that it gets for free, and selling them. One day these days the resources to be sold to foreigners will run out, however many billions of barrels of whatever lie under the ground. Then the economy will collapse.

The Argentinians (and the Russians and Greeks!) are excellent at blustering, threats, and rhetoric, but it is ultimately the USA and Europe (i.e. the EU, plus Switzerland and Norway for the most), plus New Zealand and Australia that have to figure out how to solve major economic crises, because the rest haven't a clue when it comes to long-term stability.

Che Guevara lookalikes or no, didn't the whole of the Argentinian currency collapse about a decade ago? They should have an excellent economy, given all that corned beef and wine they sell internationally. But like most Latin American nations, they get into the most terrible of crises and then, no doubt, blame scheming European capitalists for what are their own abject failures. And then they massacre left-wing protesters, as if that will help the economy. Argentinian politics is probably good theatre, but people don't eat, drink, and live during permanent theatrical performances and pompous posturing acts. That's why a country has to earn money abroad by exports, so that its people can prosper. But if there is wholesale corruption, and the money earnt goes to buying fancy cars and huge villas for a tiny élite, then you're done for.

[altai]

I don't care about Russia bashing as long as it is well informed. Russian elite does live on gas and oil rent, but Russian people at large don't. Pelevin, a good modern Russian writer, has written some nice pages about this oil sucking parasite that has nested on the breast of mother Russia. For all I know, Putin might be the richest man on the planet. The privatization of the 90s was conducted in a way that virtually donated all Russian industry to a handful of people, who still in their 30s or early 40s suddenly became billionaires and joined the ranks of world's capitalist elite. People could forgive Putin and Co their authoritarian politics and mass looting of Russian resources in the 00s because Russian economy grew steadily and the level of life, at least in Moscow and SPb, grew exponentially, but after 2008 and the crisis it's obvious the economic growth can't be sustained much further without reforms, so people expected changes but instead they got the same old this, so now with the prospects of 12 more years of Putin, you see mass protests, not on the scale as in the US or Europe but still. And if Russian economy continues to stagnate, there's gonna be an explosion of protests.

Argentina, as most Latin American countries, has a long sad history of genocides, wars, dictatorships and economic crises, but after the last default, which showed only too clearly the role of IMF and the practice of predatory lending on behalf of the world financial capitalism, Argentina has been recovering steadily. Their economy has been growing every year and it's getting better, like LA overall. I think they're doing right things, but definitely they have a lot more problems to cope with than Europe.

As for Europe we are in for a long long period of stagnation. And politicians use this to crack down on social security, labour laws, trade unions, basically trying to dismantle all the European achievements of the XXth century in the area of social justice and just distribution of capital. Almost in every EU country the politics has been radicalized to both left and right, although the left parties are actually quite weak in the EU at the moment, and the left movement has gone to the streets. At the same time all kinds of right wing parties are gathering strength all around Europe, which is quite alarming.

[Eric]

I hope that Argentina is getting better, but the news about the mothers of the "disappeared", and the way the money has been embezzled, do not bode well:

http://internationaljusticeathunter....-embezzlement/

The news is mostly confined to the Spanish-language online press, but is seeping out to the English-language websites too.

I always find it sad that some of the most stimulating literature comes from countries that make a real mess of their politics, economics, governance and human rights, leaving it to a few dissident individuals to tell the truth and risk imprisonment or murder.

[altai]

Isn't corruption charge the sign that thing are getting better?