GOTCHA: Argentine athlete exercises on Falklands war memorial
THE Sun says that the “Argies” are dancing on “our graves”.
Not your grave. The graves of Our Boys.
The Sun sees the advert featuring a hockey player named Fernando Zylberberg using everyday objects on the Falklands adverts as training aides. He runs on Our pavements. He crunchers his triceps on Our cycle racks outside Our Globe Tavern. He runs past the offices of Our Penguin News. He jogs by a red telephone box, un-Britishly refusing to urinate freely inside.
He poses by penguins – nine out of ten of which prefer life under the British. He holds a fistful of Our sand, and looks whimsical as the motto purrs “To compete on English soil, we are training on Argentine soil.”
It’s so heavy-handed that the Great British reaction should be to laugh. But we live in changed time, and taking offence is the default position. Having sought out something to be offended by, the Sun says the advert was broadcast last Wednesday on the 30th anniversary of the sinking of Argie warship General Belgrano during the Falklands conflict.
How offensive is that? Very, says the sensitive Sun, which yelled “GOTCHA” as 323 died when that ship was holed.
The Sun is well versed in history, telling readers:
Today is the anniversary of the devastating Argentine Exocet missile attack on HMS Sheffield. The ad, filmed WITHOUT permission of island authorities, triggered outrage in Britain last night.
Blimey! Are we now the fascists who would seek to licence free speech? Why would he need permission to film on a beach?
And then know that the two steps you can see on the video are part of the Great War Memorial “honouring British sailors who died battling the German fleet in 1914”.
Lest you think were all a lot of nonsense and that Fernando Zylberberg is just a fitter version of Charlie Gilmour – the bell end who dangled from the Cenotaph, the Sun gets a few quotes:
Falklands War survivor Simon Weston, who paid his respects at the memorial during a visit in March, called the film “tawdry and cowardly”. Derek Cole, head of the Falklands Veterans Foundation, said: “It is disgraceful. The athlete is on a war memorial. They are dancing on our servicemen’s graves.”
And then an MP named Andrew Rosindell, secretary of the Falkland Islands Parliamentary Group, tells the locals what to think and how to feel:
“It’s offensive to islanders and to those who lost their lives. We should make a complaint to the Olympic authorities and Kirchner. But she isn’t the sort of person who will listen.”
A spokesman for the Foreign Office adds:
“The Olympics are about sport, not politics.We are dismayed at the insensitivity and disrespect demonstrated by the film makers in their use of a war memorial as a prop.”
Sport is not about politics says a man from the, er, Foreign Office.
Posted: 4th, May 2012 | In: Reviews Comments (5) | TrackBack | Permalink
