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CLARIN

Sad Farewell To Margaret Thatcher In Falklands - Silence In Argentina

Margaret Thatcher only went to the Falklands twice
Margaret Thatcher only went to the Falklands twice
Natasha Niebieskikwiat

STANLEY, FALKLAND ISLANDS – In nearby Argentina, President Cristina Kirchner and her ministers offered not a single word after the death this week of Margaret Thatcher. Absolute silence was the strictest order of the day in the halls of government in Buenos Aires.

Still, some veterans from the 1982 war did react, including the head of the Falkland’s Fallen Family Member’s Commission, César Trejo, who lamented that the former British prime minister died without being brought to trial in the Hague for the Royal Navy's sinking of the Argentinian war ship Belgrano, which killed 323 sailors during the short-lived conflict.

Meanwhile, Thatcher's memory was duly honored in the Falklands, where she has long been viewed as a singular heroine. Shortly after word spread of her death, the British-run administration of the Islands issued a statement. “It is with great sadness that we received news of the death of Baroness Thatcher this morning,” read the text signed by advisor Mike Summers. “She will forever be remembered in the Islands for her decisiveness in sending a task force to liberate our home following the Argentine invasion in 1982.”

He added that the islanders expressed their “sincere gratitude," concluding that Thatcher's “friendship and support will be sorely missed, and we will always be thankful for all that she did for us. The thoughts and deepest sympathies of all Falkland Islanders are with her family and friends at this sad time."

Thatcher is the only British Prime Minister with a Falklands street named after her, located behind the monument to British soldiers who died in the war with Argentina where Islanders gather every June 14th to mark what is known here as “Liberation Day,” the date Argentina surrendered in 1982.

Thatcher was on the archipelago only twice. She arrived for a surprise visit during the summer of 1983, then she was there for the local celebrations ten years after the victory in the war.

Recently, declassified documents from the UK show a surprising level of flexibility from even Thatcher's administration had regarding claims of sovereignty before the Argentine invasion, which may have caused a slight dent in the island's love affair with the ex Prime Minister.

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Society

Genoa Postcard: A Tale Of Modern Sailors, Echos Of The Ancient Mariner

Many seafarers are hired and fired every seven months. Some keep up this lifestyle for 40 years while sailing the world. Some of those who'd recently docked in the Italian port city of Genoa, share a taste of their travels that are connected to a long history of a seafaring life.

A sailor smokes a cigarette on the hydrofoil Procida

A sailor on the hydrofoil Procida in Italy

Daniele Frediani/Mondadori Portfolio via ZUMA Press
Paolo Griseri

GENOA — Cristina did it to escape after a tough breakup. Luigi because he dreamed of adventures and the South Seas. Marianna embarked just “before the refrigerator factory where I worked went out of business. I’m one of the few who got severance pay.”

To hear their stories, you have to go to the canteen on Via Albertazzi, in Italy's northern port city of Genoa, across from the ferry terminal. The place has excellent minestrone soup and is decorated with models of the ships that have made the port’s history.

There are 38,000 Italian professional sailors, many of whom work here in Genoa, a historic port of call that today is the country's second largest after Trieste on the east coast. Luciano Rotella of the trade union Italian Federation of Transport Workers says the official number of maritime workers is far lower than the reality, which contains a tangle of different laws, regulations, contracts and ethnicities — not to mention ancient remnants of harsh battles between shipowners and crews.

The result is that today it is not so easy to know how many people sail, nor their nationalities.

What is certain is that every six to seven months, the Italian mariner disembarks the ship and is dismissed: they take severance pay and after waits for the next call. Andrea has been sailing for more than 20 years: “When I started out, to those who told us we were earning good money, I replied that I had a precarious life: every landing was a dismissal.”

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