O Pinions!

Ignorance and the Brits..

Ecuadorian Embassy crisis
2012, August 17

Ignorance can lead to irrational behaviour. But... there is strength in that. It's unpredictable and can lead to unexpected results. It is extremely dangerous.

Facts do not always count when people become emotional.

Fact: Britain was the legal sovereign government of the 13 colonies in 1770. The Americans when they overthrew the Brits didn't fight fair ...they fought to win. During the potato blight, the Brits took their God-given-right-to-food and left the Irish to starve. The lucky ones fled to America. During the 1930s and 40s the Brits thought India was part of their empire; they ignored the Indians and were shocked that a humble man called Gandhi could free his people.

Today, someone tried to tell me that the British no longer have an empire ...to hell they don't! How many bank crises do we need based in London? And ask the Irish... Their opinion, my opinion or anyone's opinion wouldn't matter though... you see... truth doesn't matter.

Then he went on about how wrong the Argentinians were in Patagonia and the Falklands ...as if a history lesson was in order. As if anyone in Latin America reads history-according-to-the British. As if the bloody Brits have a corner on the Truth.

Then he put me down.

I snapped back that I lived in Latin America and that he didn't. That the facts didn't matter. The continent is tired of bullies and meddlers, both the U.S. and Britain and any other foreign power, but mostly the U.S. and Britain.

The situation with the Ecuadorian Embassy would become an international incident if Britain doesn't follow international law. It would be in fact an act of WAR and would have reverberations throughout Latin America. Although it would be far-fetched that Argentina would take this opportunity to reassert its sovereignty over the Malvinas (Falklands to the British...) it might get support from its trade partner Brasil and Ecuador is aligned with Venezuela and Bolivia and ...the situation could just get worse from there.

The bloody Brits thought they once ruled the world. They didn't; they don't and they never will. They need to be very careful about saber-rattling. Latin America is not known for its rationality and the cold-as-a-dead-tit Brits always underestimate emotion...

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