Today, The Grandma has returned to her normal life without families. Living with The Stones has been a wonderful and unforgettable experience and she has been very lucky of having the possibility of spending time together.
She has read a little about latest news and take a look at the ephemerides and she has paid attention to one of them especially: on a dayliketoday FC Barcelona was founded by Swiss, Catalan, Irish and Englishmen becoming one of the most popular clubs around the world thanks to its history and its players.
One of the most important and known
players who defended Barça's t-shirt was Diego Armando Maradona, the
Argentine player who has passed away this week after a life full of
lights and shadows. Maradona, considered like God by Argentinian and
Neapolitan people, had a short staying in Barcelona but his football was
so great that he will be always in our minds. Rest in peace, Diego.
Diego Armando Maradona (30 October 1960-25 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the 20th Century award.
Maradona's vision, passing, ball control, and dribbling skills were combined with his small stature (1.65 metres), which gave him a low centre of gravity allowing him to manoeuvre better than most other football players; he would often dribble past multiple opposing players on a run.
His presence and leadership on the field had a great effect on his team's general performance, while he would often be singled out by the opposition.
In addition to his creative abilities, he possessed an eye for goal and was known to be a free kick specialist. A precocious talent, Maradona was given the nickname El Pibe de Oro, a name that stuck with him throughout his career. He was also a troubled character, who was banned in both 1991 and 1994 for abusing drugs.
An advanced playmaker who operated in the classic number 10 position, Maradona was the first player in football history to set the world record transfer fee twice: first when he transferred to Barcelona for a then-world record £5 million, and second when he transferred to Napoli for another record fee of £6.9 million.
He played for Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla,and Newell's Old Boys during his club career, and is most famous for his time at Napoli and Barcelona, where he won numerous accolades.
In his international career with Argentina, he earned 91 caps and scored 34 goals. Maradona played in four FIFA World Cups, including the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, where he captained Argentina and led them to victory over West Germany in the final, and won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.
In the 1986 World Cup quarter final, he scored both goals in a 2–1 victory over England that entered football history for two different reasons. The first goal was an unpenalized handling foul known as the Hand of God, while the second goal followed a 60 m dribble past five England players, voted Goal of the Century by FIFA.com voters in 2002.
Maradona became the coach of Argentina's national football team in November 2008. He was in charge of the team at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa before leaving at the end of the tournament. He then coached Dubai-based club Al Wasl in the UAE Pro-League for the 2011–12 season.
In 2017, Maradona became the coach of Fujairah before leaving at the end of the season.
In May 2018, Maradona was announced as the new chairman of Belarusian club Dynamo Brest. He arrived in Brest and was presented by the club to start his duties in July.
From September 2018 to June 2019, Maradona was coach of Mexican club Dorados. He was the coach of Argentine Primera División club Gimnasia de La Plata from 2019 until his death in November 2020.
The Stones and TheGrandma are spending their last days in Tierra delFuego. The family is preparing their next travel to Las Vegas, Nevada.
Before leaving this awesome part of the planet, they have wanted to known more about the ancient inhabitants of these lands, about their culture and language and about the current situation of them.
The family has travelled to PuertoWilliams in the Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego to visit CristinaCalderón, the last living full-blooded Yaghan person.
Every time the last speaker of a language dies, with him/her dies a whole culture and we lose an essential part of us. We must protect languages, we must protect minorities, we must be proud of ancient cultures, we must protect them and their peoples. They are the best heritage we can offer to the future generations -respect the past, to live the present and build the future.
The Yaghan, also called Yagán, Yahgan, Yámana, Yamana or Tequenica, areoneof the indigenous peoples of the Southern Cone, who are regarded as the southernmost peoples in the world. Their traditional territory includes the islands south of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, extending their presence into CapeHorn.
In the 19th century, they were known as Fuegians by the English-speaking world, but the term is now avoided as it can refer to any of the several indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego. For instance, the Selk'nam inhabited the northeastern part of Tierra del Fuego.
Some are reputed to still speak the Yaghan language, also known as Yámana,which is considered to be a language isolate; however, most speak Spanish. As of 2017, Cristina Calderón, who lives in Chile territory, is known as the last full-blooded Yaghan and last native speaker of the Yaghan language.
The Yaghan were traditionally nomads and hunter-gatherers. They traveled by canoes between islands to collect food: the men hunted sea lions, while the women dove to collect shellfish.
Yaghans share a series of similarities with the more northern tribes of Chonos and Alacalufe. These are a traditional canoe-faring hunter-gatherers lifestyle as well as shared physical traits such as being of short stature, being long-headed (dolichocephalic) and having a low face. Despite similarities, their languages were completely different.
In 1871, Anglican missionaries Thomas Bridges and George Lewis established a mission at Tierra del Fuego, where they both raised their families. Bridges hadlearned the language starting when he lived on Keppel Island at the age of 17. Over more than a decade, he compiled a grammar and a 30,000-word dictionary of Yaghan-English.
Bridges' second son, Lucas Bridges, also learned the language and is one of the few Europeans to do so.
In his 1948 book, which was a history of that period, he writes that in Yaghan,their autonym or name for themselves was yamana,meaning person (though modern usage is man only, not woman) -the plural is yamali(m).
The name Yaghan (originally and correctly spelled Yahgan), was first used by his father Thomas Bridges from the name of their territory, Yahgashaga, or Yahga Strait. They called themselves Yahgashagalumoala meaning people from mountain valley channel -lum means from, -oala is a collective term for men, the singular being ua.
It was the name of the inhabitants of the Murray Channel area (Yahgashaga), from whom Thomas Bridges first learned the language.
Yagán (originally Yahgan, but also now spelled Yaghan, Jagan, Iakan), also known as Yámana, Háusi Kúta, and Yagankuta, is one of the indigenouslanguages of Tierra del Fuego, spoken by the Yaghan people. It is regarded as a language isolate, although some linguists have attempted to relate it to Kawésqar and Chono.
Yahgan was also spoken briefly on Keppel Island in the Falkland Islands at a missionary settlement.
Following the death of 84-year-old
Emelinda Acuña (1921-October 12, 2005), only one native speaker remains,
Cristina Calderón of Villa Ukika on Navarino Island, Chile. Calderón,
often referred to as simply Abuela, is the sister-in-law of Acuña.
In 2017, Chile's National Corporation of Indigenous Development convened a workshop to plan an educational curriculum in the Yagán language, and in June 2019 it plans to inaugurate a language nest in the community of Bajia Mejillones. The government is also funding the publication of a concise and illustrated dictionary of the Yagán language.
Despite the cold climate in which they lived, early Yaghan wore little to no clothing until after their extended contact with Europeans. They were able to survive the harsh climate because:
They kept warm by huddling around small fires when they could, including in their boats to stay warm. The name of Tierra del Fuego was based on the many fires seen by passing European explorers.
-They made use of rock formations to shelter from the elements.
-They covered themselves in animal grease.
-Over time, they had evolved significantly higher metabolisms than average humans, allowing them to generate more internal body heat.
-Their natural resting position was a deep squatting position, which reduced their surface area and helped to conserve heat.
The Yaghan may have been driven to this inhospitable area by enemies to the north. They were famed for their complete indifference to the cold weather of Tierradel Fuego. Although they had fire and small domed shelters, they routinely went about completely naked. Women swam in cold waters hunting for shellfish.
They often were observed to sleep in the open, completely unsheltered and unclothed, while Europeans shivered under blankets. A Chilean researcher claimed their average body temperature was warmer than a European's by at least one degree.
Mateo Martinic, in Crónica de las tierras del sur del canal Beagle, asserts that there were five groups under the Yahgan people: Wakimaala on both shores of the Beagle Channel from Yendegaia to Puerto Róbalo and at the Murray Channel; Utumaala from today Puerto Williams to Picton Island; Inalumaala at the Beagle Channel from Punta Divide to Brecknock; Ilalumaala in the south west islands, from Cook Bay to False Cape Horn; and Yeskumaala in the Islands around the Cape Horn.
The Yaghan established many temporary, but often reused, settlements within Tierra del Fuego. A significant Yaghan archaeological site from the Megalithic period has been found at Wulaia Bay
The Yaghan left strong impressions on all who encountered them, including Ferdinand Magellan, Charles Darwin, Francis Drake, James Cook, James Weddell and Julius Popper.
Portuguese explorer Fernão de Magalhães came upon the area around Tierra del Fuego in the early sixteenth century, but it was not until the 19th century that Europeans started to be interested in the zone and its peoples. The Yahgan were estimated to number 3,000 persons in the mid-19th century, when Europeans started colonizing the area.
The British officer Robert FitzRoy was made captain of HMS Beagle in November 1828, and continued her first survey voyage. On the night following 28 January 1830 the ship's whaleboat was stolen by Fuegians, and over a month of fruitless searching to recover the boat he took guides and then prisoners who mostly escaped, eventually taking a man (renamed York Minster, estimated age 26) and a young girl (renamed Fuegia Basket, estimated age 9) hostage. A week later he took another youth hostage (renamed Boat Memory, estimated age 20) and on 11 May captured (estimated to be 14) Jemmy Button.
As it was not possible to easily put them ashore, he decided to civilise the savages. He taught them English... the plainer truths of Christianity... and the use of common tools and took them with the return of the Beagle to England.
Boat Memory died, but the others were considered civilised enough to be presented at court in London in the summer of 1831. On the famous second voyage of HMS Beagle, the three Fuegians were returned to their homeland along with a trainee missionary.
They impressed Charles Darwin with their behaviour, in startling contrast to the primitiveFuegians he met when the ship reached their native lands. He described his first meeting with the native Fuegians in the islands as being without exception the most curious and interesting spectacle I ever beheld: I could not have believed how wide was the difference between savage and civilised man: it is greater than between a wild and domesticated animal, in as much as in man there is a greater power of improvement.
In contrast, he said of the Yahgan Jemmy Button: It seems yet wonderful to me, when I think over all his many good qualities, that he should have been of the same race, and doubtless partaken of the same character, with the miserable, degraded savages whom we first met here.
The mission was set up for the three Fuegians. When the Beagle returned a year later, its crew found only Jemmy, and he had returned to his tribal ways. He readily still spoke English, assuring them that he had not the least wish to return to England and was happy and contented to live with his wife, in what the English thought a shockingly primitive manner. This encounter with the Fuegians had an important influence on Darwin's later scientific work.
The Yaghan were decimated by the endemic infectious diseases carried by Westerners. The English established missions at Keppel Island in the Falklands, and Ushuaia on Tierra del Fuego, in an effort to teach the natives English, Christianity, and farming.
The Yahgan suffered disruption of their habitat starting in the early-to-mid 19th century when European whalers and sealers depleted their most calorie-rich resources, forcing them to rely on mussels chopped from rocks, which provided many fewer calories for the effort needed to gather and process them, in the late 19th century when waves of immigrants came to the area for the gold rush and a boom in sheep farming.
They did not understand the British concept of property, and were hunted down by ranchers' militias for the offense of poaching sheep in their former territories.
In Sailing Alone Around the World (1900), Joshua Slocum wrote that when he sailed solo to Tierra del Fuego, European-Chileans warned him the Yaghan might rob and possibly kill him if he moored in a particular area, so he sprinkled tacks on the deck of his boat, the Spray.
In the 1920s, some Yahgan were resettled on Keppel Island in the Falkland Islands in an attempt to preserve the tribe, as described by E. Lucas Bridges in Uttermost Part of the Earth (1948), but they continued to die off. The second-to-last full-blooded Yaghan, Emelinda Acuña, died in 2005.
As of 2017, the last full-blooded Yahgan was Abuela (grandmother) CristinaCalderón, who lives in Chilean territory. She is the last native speaker of the Yahgan language.
Cristina Calderón (born May 24, 1928 at Robalo, Puerto Williams on Navarino Island, Chile) is the last living full-blooded Yaghan person after the death of her 84 year-old sister Úrsula in 2005.
By 2004, Calderón (often referred to as simply Abuela, Spanish for grandmother) and her sister-in-law Emelinda Acuña were the only two remaining nativespeakers of the Yaghan language.
With her granddaughter Cristina Zárraga and her sister Úrsula Calderón she published a book of Yaghan stories called Hai Kur Mamashu Shis (I Want toTell You a Story) in 2005. Zárraga, along with her husband Oliver Vogel, published Yagankuta, a dictionary and storybook of the Yaghan language, in 2010, based on interviews with Calderón.
She is still alive and residing in her hometown of PuertoWilliams. She is the mother of ten children and grandmother to 19 as of 2017.
Cristina Calderón has been officially declared Illustrious Daughter of the Magallanes Region and Chilean Antarctica. She also has been recognized by the National Council of Culture and the Arts (Chile) as a Living Human Treasure in the framework of the Convention for the Safeguard of Immaterial Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 2003. Likewise, she was nominated to be one of the fifty heroines in the celebration of the Bicentennial of Chile.
Today, The Stones and The Grandma are visiting Fagnano Lake, a lake whose lands are shared by Argentina and Chile.
Fagnano Lake, also called Lake Cami, is a lake located on the main island of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, and shared by Argentina and Chile.
The 645 km² lake runs east-west for about 98 kilometres, of which 72.5 km (606 km²) belong to the Argentine Tierra del Fuego Province, and only 13.5 km (39 km²) belong to the Chilean Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region. It has a maximum depth of 449 meters.
The southern bank is steep compared to the northern, and expands in a considerably wide and flat piedmont from which both levels of the plateaus can be appreciated.
From its western end, the Azopardo River drains towards the Almirantazgo Fjord. On its eastern end is the town of Tolhuin.
The lake is located in a pull-apart basin developed along the Magallanes-Fagnano Fault zone.
Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains.
The Stones and TheGrandma have just arrived to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina. It has been a long travel from Hawaii Islands crossing the Hemisphere and flying over the Ocean but it has been very exciting, too. During this long flight, the family has had enough time to revise PresentPerfect and For/Since.
Tierra del Fuego, officially Provincia de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur, is the southernmost, smallest, and least populousArgentine province.
The province had been inhabited by indigenous people for more than 12,000 years, since they migrated south of the mainland. It was first encountered by a European in 1520 when spotted by Ferdinand Magellan. Even after Argentina achieved independence, this territory remained under indigenous control until the nation's campaign known as the Conquest of the Desert in the 1870s, after which Argentina organised this section in 1885 as a territory.
European immigration followed due to a gold rush and rapid expansion of sheep farming on large ranches in the area.
Tierra del Fuego is the most recent Argentine territory to gain provincial status, which occurred in 1990.
The effective extent of the province is the eastern part of the island of Tierra delFuego, Isla de los Estados and adjacent islands.
However, Argentina has made a territorial claim over the two British Overseas Territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and over a segment of Antarctica, which overlaps with the British and Chilean claims on that continent. Despite international recognition of the British territories and Argentina exercising no authority in said territories -other than in Argentine Antarctic bases- nevertheless those territories have been nominally included in the province since 1990.
The youngest of the Argentine provinces was first inhabited around12,000years ago. When the first Europeans arrived, they encountered a population of about 10,000 indigenous people belonging to four tribes: Yámana, Alakaluf (now known by their autonym of Kawésqar), Selk'nam (Ona) and Manek'enk (Haush).
Within fifty years of discovery, only about 350 natives remained due to high fatalities from the endemic diseases carried by Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, as the natives had no immunity to these new diseases.
In addition, in the late 19th century, ranchers and settlers committed genocideagainst the Selk'nam. The provincial capital city is Ushuaia, from a native word meaning bay towards the end.
The territory was first seen by Europeans in 1520 during Ferdinand Magellan's expedition. He named the area Land of Smokes, later changed to Land of Fire, as he saw what were probably the fires produced by the local Amerindian peoples for heating. Juan de Alderete in 1555 and later Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa intended to found settlements in the area. The harsh weather and the constant attacks of British pirates, who took Sarmiento de Gamboa prisoner, frustrated their ambitions.
Spanish, Dutch, British and French explorers ventured on Tierra del Fuego island and the nearby seas. Gabriel de Castilla passed through before exploring the Antarctic islands. In the early 1830s, Commander Robert FitzRoy, and CharlesDarwin explored this land and other parts of Patagonia via HMS Beagle.
In 1828 Argentina established a penal colony at Puerto Luis on the Falkland Islands. In 1833 the British sent a naval task force to request that the Argentine representative of the islands, José María Pinedo, and Argentine forces leave the islands, and re-established their rule there.
Luis Piedrabuena installed a base in San Juan de Salvamento on Isla de los Estados. The British South American Mission Society Patagonia Mission, under its superintendent Waite Stirling, founded Ushuaia as an Anglican mission in southern Tierra del Fuego in 1869. Shortly after, Salesian missionaries founded Río Grande.
In the 1880s the Argentine government took a more active interest in Tierra delFuego. In 1881, the meridian 68°36'38 W was defined as the boundary between the Chilean and the Argentine portions of the island. In 1884 the Government of Tierra del Fuego was created, and a subprefecture was established at Ushuaia.
The southern part of the Beagle Channel was an issue of conflict between both states, which competed for control of three small islands, Picton, Lennox and Nueva. Finally in 1977, these were awarded to Chile by decision of the mediating British Crown, revised by Pope John Paul II and ratified by treaty in 1985.
When the crews of sailing-ships told of the notoriously dangerous voyage round the tip of South America, Tierra del Fuego became a byword in Europe for an inhospitable land, where life would be impossibly harsh for settlers. But, it is not the most sparsely populated province of Argentina. Its population density of 4.75/km² is higher than five other provinces, due to various waves of immigration.
Gold fever started in Tierra del Fuego around 1883. Many Croatians from the Dalmatian coast arrived in search of gold. In addition, the gold rush inspired new technologies and innovations, such as the telegraph. Although by 1910 the gold had run out, most of the pioneers stayed. The inauspicious-looking northern plains proved ideal sheep-farming country, and vast ranches were developed. Croatian, Scottish, Basque, Italian, Galician and Chilean immigrants arrived to work on the estancias, with the hope of eventually buying their own land and stock.
The Amerindians suffered high fatalities from disease and the outright warfare waged by ranchers and bounty hunters; by 1920 their population on the island had dropped to only 200. News of the atrocities and genocide reached the Federal Congress in Buenos Aires. It sent aid and tried to help the Salesian mission, the only institution working in the island to protect the indigenous peoples.
With the creation of the Gobernación Marítima de Tierra del Fuego in 1943, construction of naval bases began in Ushuaia and Río Grande. An airport and other infrastructure were also built. These projects attracted immigrants from other countries as well as other parts of Argentina.
It was not until 1990 that the National Territory of Tierra del Fuego, the Antarctic and the South Atlantic Islands was declared a province. Its first governor was appointed two years later.
Endings are scary and foreign. They split you up emotionally and put you in a place where you don't know what's going to happen next. But with every end of the world, there is a new world that follows.
Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Falkland Islands, an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf whose history and sovereignty is well-known by being a continuous centre of dispute between the UnitedKingdom and Argentina.
It is an old diplomatic conflict that started in 1774 between the United Kingdom and Spain; it had another important episode when the United Kingdom claimed sovereignty over the Falkland Islands on a day like today in 1833, during the 1960s, and in 1982 when the conflict finished in a war between the UnitedKingdom and Argentina.
The Falkland Islands, in Spanish Islas Malvinas, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about 483 kilometres east of South America's southern Patagonian coast, and about 1,210 kilometres from the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, at a latitude of about 52°S. The archipelago, with an area of 12,000 square kilometres, comprises East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 smaller islands.
As a British overseas territory, the Falklands have internal self-governance, and the United Kingdom takes responsibility for their defence and foreign affairs.
The Falkland Islands' capital is Stanley on East Falkland.
Controversy exists over the Falklands' discovery and subsequent colonisation by Europeans. At various times, the islands have had French, British, Spanish, and Argentine settlements. Britain reasserted its rule in 1833, but Argentina maintains its claim to the islands.
In April 1982, Argentine forces occupied the islands. British administration was restored two months later at the end of the Falklands War.
Almost all Falklanders favour the archipelago remaining a UK overseas territory. Its sovereignty status is part of an ongoing dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom.
The population, 3,398 inhabitants in 2016, consists primarily of native-born Falkland Islanders, the majority of British descent. Other ethnicities include French, Gibraltarian and Scandinavian. Immigration from the United Kingdom, the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, and Chile has reversed a population decline. The predominant and official language is English. Under the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983, Falkland Islanders are British citizens.
The islands lie on the
boundary of the subantarctic oceanic and tundra climate zones, and both
major islands have mountain ranges reaching 700 m. They are home to
large bird populations, although many no longer breed on the main
islands because of competition from introduced species.
Major economic
activities include fishing, tourism and sheep farming, with an emphasis
on high-quality wool exports. Oil exploration, licensed by the Falkland
Islands Government, remains controversial as a result of maritime
disputes with Argentina.
The Falkland Islands
The name Falkland Islands comes from Falkland Sound, the strait that separates the two main islands. The name Falkland was applied to the channel by John Strong, captain of an English expedition which landed on the islands in 1690. Strong named the strait in honour of Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount of Falkland, the Treasurer of the Navy who sponsored his journey. The Viscount's title originates from the town of Falkland, Scotland -the town's name likely comes from a Gaelic term referring to an enclosure, but it could less plausibly be from the Anglo-Saxon term folkland. The name Falklands was not applied to the islands until 1765, when British captain John Byron of the Royal Navy, claimed them for King George III as Falkland's Islands. The term Falklands is a standard abbreviation used to refer to the islands.
The Spanish name for the
archipelago, Islas Malvinas, derives from the French Îles Malouines
-the name given to the islands by French explorer Louis-Antoine de
Bougainville in 1764. Bougainville, who founded the islands' first
settlement, named the area after the port of Saint-Malo, the point of
departure for his ships and colonists. The port, located in the Brittany
region of western France, was named after St. Malo or Maclou, the
Christian evangelist who founded the city.
At the twentieth session
of the United Nations General Assembly, the Fourth Committee determined
that, in all languages other than Spanish, all UN documentation would
designate the territory as Falkland Islands (Malvinas). In Spanish, the
territory was designated as Islas Malvinas (Falkland Islands). The
nomenclature used by the United Nations for statistical processing
purposes is Falkland Islands (Malvinas).
Although Fuegians from Patagonia may have visited the Falkland Islands in prehistoric times, the islands were uninhabited when Europeans first discovered them. Claims of discovery date back to the 16th century, but no consensus exists on whether early explorers discovered the Falklands or other islands in the South Atlantic. The first recorded landing on the islands is attributed to English captain John Strong, who, en route to Peru's and Chile's littoral in 1690, discovered the Falkland Sound and noted the islands' water and game.
The Falklands remained
uninhabited until the 1764 establishment of Port Louis on East Falkland
by French captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville, and the 1766 foundation
of Port Egmont on Saunders Island by British captain John MacBride.
Whether or not the settlements were aware of each other's existence is
debated by historians.
In 1766, France surrendered its claim on the
Falklands to Spain, which renamed the French colony Puerto Soledad the
following year. Problems began when Spain discovered and captured Port
Egmont in 1770. War was narrowly avoided by its restitution to Britain
in 1771.
Both the British and
Spanish settlements coexisted in the archipelago until 1774, when
Britain's new economic and strategic considerations led it to
voluntarily withdraw from the islands, leaving a plaque claiming the
Falklands for King George III.
The Falkland Islands
Spain's Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata became the only governmental presence in the territory. West Falkland was left abandoned, and Puerto Soledad became mostly a prison camp.
Amid the British invasions of the Río de la Plata during the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, the islands' governor evacuated the archipelago in 1806; Spain's remaining colonial garrison followed suit in 1811, except for gauchos and fishermen who remained voluntarily.
Thereafter, the
archipelago was visited only by fishing ships; its political status was
undisputed until 1820, when Colonel David Jewett, an American privateer
working for the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, informed
anchored ships about Buenos Aires' 1816 claim to Spain's territories in
the South Atlantic. Since the islands had no permanent inhabitants, in
1823 Buenos Aires granted German-born merchant Luis Vernet permission to
conduct fishing activities and exploit feral cattle in the archipelago.
Buenos Aires attempted
to retain influence over the settlement by installing a garrison, but a
mutiny in 1832 was followed the next year by the arrival of British
forces who reasserted Britain's rule. The British troops
departed after completing their mission, leaving the area without formal
government.
In 1840, the Falklands
became a Crown colony, and Scottish settlers subsequently established an
official pastoral community. Four years later, nearly everyone
relocated to Port Jackson, considered a better location for government,
and merchant Samuel Lafone began a venture to encourage British
colonisation.
Stanley, as Port Jackson
was soon renamed, officially became the seat of government in 1845.
Early in its history, Stanley had a negative reputation due to
cargo-shipping losses; only in emergencies would ships rounding Cape
Horn stop at the port. Nevertheless, the Falklands' geographic location
proved ideal for ship repairs and the Wrecking Trade, the business of
selling and buying shipwrecks and their cargoes. Aside from this trade,
commercial interest in the archipelago was minimal due to the low-value
hides of the feral cattle roaming the pastures.
Economic growth began only after the Falkland Islands Company, which bought out Lafone's failing enterprise in 1851, successfully introduced Cheviot sheep for wool farming, spurring other farms to follow suit.
In 1881, the Falkland
Islands became financially independent of Britain. For more than a
century, the Falkland Islands Company dominated the trade and employment
of the archipelago; in addition, it owned most housing in Stanley,
which greatly benefited from the wool trade with the UK.
In the first half of the
20th century, the Falklands served an important role in Britain's
territorial claims to subantarctic islands and a section of Antarctica.
The Falklands also played a minor role in the two world wars as a
military base aiding control of the South Atlantic.
After the WWII ended,
the Falklands economy was affected by declining wool prices and the
political uncertainty resulting from the revived sovereignty dispute
between the United Kingdom and Argentina.
21 May 1982, Argentina surrendered to the UK
Simmering tensions between the UK and Argentina increased during the second half of the century, when Argentine President Juan Perón asserted sovereignty over the archipelago.
The sovereignty dispute intensified during the 1960s,shortly after the United Nations passed a resolution on decolonisation which Argentina interpreted as favourable to its position. In 1965, the UN General
Assembly passed Resolution 2065, calling for both states to conduct
bilateral negotiations to reach a peaceful settlement of the dispute.
From 1966 until 1968, the UK confidentially discussed with Argentina the
transfer of the Falklands, assuming its judgement would be accepted by
the islanders.
An agreement on trade ties between the archipelago and
the mainland was reached in 1971 and, consequently, Argentina built a
temporary airfield at Stanley in 1972. Nonetheless, Falklander dissent,
as expressed by their strong lobby in the UK Parliament, and tensions
between the UK and Argentina effectively limited sovereignty
negotiations until 1977.
Concerned at the expense
of maintaining the Falkland Islands in an era of budget cuts, the UK
again considered transferring sovereignty to Argentina in the early
Thatcher government. Substantive sovereignty talks again ended by 1981,
and the dispute escalated with passing time.
In
April 1982, the disagreement became an armed conflict when Argentina
invaded the Falklands and other British territories in the South
Atlantic, briefly occupying them until a UK expeditionary force retook
the territories in June.
After
the war, the United Kingdom expanded its military presence, building
RAF Mount Pleasant and increasing the size of its garrison.
Based on Lord Shackleton's recommendations, the Falklands diversified from a sheep-based monoculture into an economy of tourism and, with the establishment of the Falklands Exclusive Economic Zone, fisheries. The road network was also made more extensive, and the construction of RAF Mount Pleasant allowed access to long haul flights. Oil exploration also began, with indications of possible commercially exploitable deposits in the Falklands basin.
Argentina and the UK re-established diplomatic relations in 1990; relations have since deteriorated as neither has agreed on the terms of future sovereignty discussions. Disputes between the governments have led some analysts to predict a growing conflict of interest between Argentina and Great Britain... because of the recent expansion of the fishing industry in the waters surrounding the Falklands.
The United Kingdom and Argentina both claim the Falkland Islands. The UK bases its position on its continuous administration of the islands since 1833 and the islanders' right to self-determination as set out in the UN Charter. Argentina's position is that it acquired the Falklands from Spain when it achieved independence in 1816, and that, in 1833, the UK expelled Argentine authorities and settlers from the islands with a threat of greater force and, afterwards, barred Argentines from resettling the islands.
In 2009, the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, had a meeting with the Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and said that there would be no further talks over the sovereignty of the Falklands.
In March 2013, the Falkland Islands held a referendum on its political status: 99.8% of voters favoured remaining a British overseas territory. Argentina does not recognise the Falkland Islanders as a partner in negotiations.
René Goscinny (14 August 1926-5 November 1977) was a French comics editor and writer, who is best known internationally for the comic book Astérix, which he created with illustrator Albert Uderzo, and for his work on the comic series Lucky Luke with Morris, considered the series' golden age, and Iznogoud with Jean Tabary.
Goscinny was born in Paris in 1926, to a family of Jewish immigrants from Poland.
His parents were Stanisław Simkha Gościnny, the surname means hospitable in Polish; Simkha is his Jewish name meaning happiness, a chemical engineer from Warsaw, Poland, and Hanna Bereśniak-Gościnna from Chodorków, a small village near Żytomierz in the Second Polish Republic, now part of Ukraine.
Claude, René's older brother was born six years earlier, on 10 December 1920. Stanisław and Anna had met in Paris and married in 1919. The Gościnnys moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, two years after René's birth, because of a chemical engineer post Stanisław had obtained there. He spent a happy childhood in Buenos Aires, and studied in the French schools there. He had a habit of being the class clown, probably to compensate for a natural shyness. He started drawing very early on, inspired by the illustrated stories which he enjoyed reading.
Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny
In December 1943, the year after he graduated from school, 17-year-old Goscinny lost his father to a cerebral hemorrhage, forcing him to find a job. The next year, he got his first job, as an assistant accountant in a tire recovery factory, and when he was laid off the following year, he became a junior illustrator in an advertising agency.
Goscinny, along with his mother, left Argentina and went to New York in 1945, to join her brother Boris. To avoid service in the US military, he travelled to France to join the French Army in 1946. He served at Aubagne, in the 141st Alpine Infantry Battalion. Promoted to senior corporal, he became the appointed artist of the regiment and drew illustrations and posters for the army.
In 1955, Goscinny, together with Uderzo, Jean-Michel Charlier, and Jean Hébrad, founded the syndicate Edipress/Edifrance. The syndicate launched publications like Clairon for the factory union and Pistolin for a chocolate company.
Astérix and Obélix
Goscinny and Uderzo cooperated on the series Bill Blanchart in Jeannot, Pistolet in Pistolin and Benjamin et Benjamine in the magazine of the same name. Under the pseudonym Agostini, Goscinny wrote Le Petit Nicolas for Jean-Jacques Sempé in Le Moustique and later Sud-Ouest and Pilote magazines.
In 1959, the Édifrance/Édipresse syndicate started the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote. Goscinny became one of the most productive writers for the magazine. In the magazine's first issue, he launched his most famous creation, Astérix, with Uderzo.
Goscinny died at 51, in Paris of cardiac arrest on 5 November 1977, during a routine stress test at his doctor's office. He was buried in the Jewish Cemetery of Nice. In accordance with his will, most of his money was transferred to the chief rabbinate of France.
