Stanley Pt 2

Here’s some weird stuff that goes on out here. Above, you will see some shoes on sticks. They're out by the road on the way to Stanley and have a tradition behind them: if you leave one boot, it means you’re coming back. If you leave a pair, it means that you’re not. Let’s be serious: all that happened was some dude lost a shoe and, in order to make himself not look like a complete tool, he put it on a stick and made something up about coming back. Yeah, he’s coming back, TO FIND HIS OTHER SHOE.



This is a highlight of Stanley. It’s a large pole with directions to other places. That’s a great bit for the tourist board. “Come to our island and find out how to get to other places.” Fucking brilliant.



Look at some of the places: Tinsley, Abroath, Colwyn Bay. Even Lincoln is on there (the blue sign below Prestatyn). It does make me wonder why there was an international conflict over ownership of this place. Of course, there were several hundred who gave their lives defending British ownership of these islands. They recently celebrated “Liberation Day” here (14th June, 1982). It’s one of the few places where foreign military isn’t shunned by the local population.






I’ve overheard conversations of soldiers that talk about how shit this place is. If it’s bad now, imagine how empty and desolate it would have been nearly thirty years ago. When there was no internet or mobile phone or TV. Throughout the countryside, there are small stacks of rocks to mark where someone died. Clearly, their deaths were for a good cause but what did it feel like back then? What’s the difference in experience between Tommy Gun, a Corporal on duty in the Falklands during 1982 and his son out in Afghanistan today? Does it all blur into one when you’re running from gunfire? Or does the heavy media presence today mean that modern soldiers have a much better knowledge of a situation than guys who were dumped in the South Atlantic and told to shoot some Argentineans?



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Ash