Wednesday, May 07, 2008

One "Mis-Named" Set of Islands, 30,000 Destroyed Books

I've made clear before how stupid I think the Falklands/Malvinas War was, and it's clear through monuments and such that the war and the islands themselves continue to play an important part to at least some sectors of the identities of Argentines.

That said, I find the trashing of over 30,000 school textbooks simply because they said "Falklands" rather than "las Islas Malvinas" ridiculous. Whether Argentina likes it or not, the British state administers the islands, not Argentina, and "claims" on the islands don't undo that fact (though the spokesman for the Islands still comes off as arrogant, too). Wasting paper, funds, and resources to destroy and replace 30,000 books over one name that you don't really like is definitely one of the more ridiculous things to do. Chalk another one up to misplaced nationalism.