Falklands - Post Script

I keep remembering things I meant to blog about…

I met Anthony Smith on Carcase Island and again on Sea Lion Island – he is an artist, now living in Amsterdam.  He had spent 8 months on the “Stad Amsterdam” sailing ship as artist in residence on a Beagle Voyage filming expedition and subsequently been granted a Shackleton scholarship which enabled him to spend February/March working with the children in the school in Stanley.  There they made penguins (like the cows in London and the gorillas in Bristol) for positioning around Stanley - I never found out how they would fix them down to stop them being blown away, I also left before they were placed in situ.  However if you go to “anthonysmithart.co.uk” and open the Workshops page there are pictures of the penguins at the bottom of the page.  His photos are really worth looking at too.

The guys I met in Darwin were making a film about the war.  This is to be broadcast on 1 April on UKTV’s history channel and is called Return to the Falklands.  I met he 2 Para John Geddes, the director Jeremy Freeston and the sound engineer Nick.

I also met a town planner.  He and his family had moved to Stanley on a fixed term contract and is enjoying it.  The work differs from UK planning in that he is involved in drafting legislation.  One of his bigger planning matters is the clearance of land mines, both tank and personnel – agreeing in what order they should be cleared and setting out the parameters for clearance.   18 Zimbabweans make up the de-mining team, using specialist mechanical equipment including an armoured remote control tractor fitted with a flail.  Their first job was  Sappers Hill Corral, once a popular picnic spot for Stanley residents, unvisited for 30 years.

The UK Government has the legal responsibility for the removal of the Argentine landmines - 20,000 anti-personnel mines and 5,000 anti-tank mines  in 117 locations in variable terrain but mostly not valuable, wanted or needed.   All areas of mines or suspect mines are well fenced and marked and there is no/little risk.  In 30 years the only casualty has been a cow.  However there is a UN convention setting out a time limit for their removal which the UK has breached and which Argentina is making a fuss about the UK not complying.  The islanders don’t the enormous financial cost of full scale de-mining or the environmental damage that it would cause.  And - just maybe - a deterent to any future engagement… (my view solely!)

Fishing – the Falklanders sell a licence to fish in their waters.  Currently Spain does this.  So all the fish, squid etc  gets hoovered up and taken to Spain and if Spain doesn’t get what it paid for the Falklands have to give them some money back.  So the only place I had fish was at the Malvina House Hotel – the only hotel.  I had squid, followed by Patagonian toothfish (aka Chilean seabass), both very nice.  The squid is becoming a problem because it migrates south from the River Plate and the Argentinians have started a Squid War encouraging their fishermen to fish it before it gets to Falklands waters.

The sun – I kept thinking the sun was going the wrong way.  But it is only because I can’t adjust to it being to the north rather than to the south and I kept on having to re-reason this.  Most confusing.

That’s all for now…