ARGENTINA: Even Penguins Know It

As she had often done before since the Falkland Islands were taken from her in 1833, Argentina last week officially called upon Britain to return the bleak, strategic archipelago thinly stocked with hardy sheep and hardheaded Scots. Britain was not expected to reply.

The Malvinas, as Argentina calls the Falkland Islands, appear on Argentine maps and stamps as Argentine territory. A touching Argentine poem describes the sadness of an emigré penguin which fled to Argentina after Britain took the Falklands:

He was only a penguin Still very small, Born in the Malvinas In the month of April.

“Why have you come, You poor little thing? With so jew feathers You really might die.”

“Love of my country Brought me here; And the faith of my fathers Which I want to retain.”

“But are you an Argentine?” “I certainly am. But out there they force me To be an Englishman.”