04/04/2022
This weekend, April 2nd to be exact, marks the fortieth anniversary of Argentine forces occupying the Falkland Islands, a British territory in the South Atlantic.
That triggered the Falklands War, which lasted 74 days and cost over 900 lives — more than 300 of them on the Argentinian navy’s cruiser General Belgrano, which the Brits torpedoed.
I don’t have anything original to say about the war itself, only a personal reminiscence from shortly after it.
The Falklands War made Margaret Thatcher known all over the world, even in some quite surprising places. That summer I left England to spend an academic year in northeast China. It was a provincial posting: a small town up there, surrounded by villages.
My college supplied me with a bicycle. In my spare time I liked to ride out into the countryside and practice my very low-level Chinese on the peasants.
One day I was cycling along on the narrow raised path between some fields when I saw a peasant riding towards me. There wasn’t room for us to cycle past each other, so we both dismounted. Conversation was unavoidable. What country was I from? this old peasant asked. "England," I replied.
That got me a big, sunny, snaggle-toothed grin. "Aaah," he said. "Tie furen!" Which, being translated, means "The Iron Lady."
Now that is fame.
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