Commentary: Falklands and the Gurkha Issue
Satis Shroff
March 11, 2009
Twenty seven years ago, the British and the Argentineans fought over the Falkland Islands and turned, the otherwise peaceful and serene South Atlantic into an inferno. The Malvinas were claimed by the Argentineans and the British. Nurse Nicci Pugh was a witness to the hostilities from a safe distance on board the hospital ship HMS Uganda. The conflict began on April 2,1982 after Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands. Britain´s PM Margaret Thatcher sent a task force which resulted in the death of 1,000 people, after which the Falklands (Malvinas) were liberated on June 14, 1982.
Much like Florence Nightingale, who left England on October 21,1854, and started caring for the wounded soldiers at Scutari, Turkey, on November 5,1854, and took a large group of women as nurses (38 women, including 18 Anglican and Roman Catholic sisters), Nicci Pugh was one of 40 nursing officers on board the hospital ship Uganda. Ms. Pugh´s job was x-ray units to provide modern hospital care facilities for the injured British Tommies, civilians and also possible Argentinean soldiers wounded in the conflict. In the ship were operating theatres, 120 beds, burn-units, labs, x-ray units, a blood bank, in addition to a helipad. The Uganda was anchored a mile south-west of San Carlos Water, where there was heavy fighting. With the knowledge that hospital ships had been sunk in previous wars through shelling or torpedoes, the ladies had to go through the angst of being bombed by the Argentinean aircraft which frequently made sorties over the Royal Navy armada.
The British staff on board the Uganda have gone on record as having treated 700 patients. Among the patients were also injured Argentinean soldiers. It might be mentioned that the ship HMS Sir Galahad was shit by enemy fire, whereby 120 patients were treated in the burns unit on board the Uganda. Some 500 surgical operations were performed. Most of the injuries were caused by gunshot, shrapnel and mortar. Amputations were also carried out due to the anti-personnel mines deployed and hidden by the Argentinean soldiers. Even the injured Argentinean soldiers were treated with the same respect and dignity.
After the war, Ms. Pugh returned to her old job in Cornwall as an OP theatre nurse, but wasn´t able to talk about her experiences for years. That was her coping method. Life had to go on. But unlike the Lady with the Lamp, Nicci Pugh didn´t have to face medical ire, and works as a voluntary carer to help injured servicemen to re-visit the Malvinas to pay their respects to their own fallen comrades, and visit the killing fields of the Falklands. But for the Gurkhas who have fought for Britain since the times of Queen Victoria till Queen Elizabeth II since 200 years, there´s no noteworthy memorial in Britain. Are the Gurkhas merely guest-workers or ´cannon fodder´ only? Britain laments that there´s no memorial for the courageous Lancaster Bomber Command which lost 55,573 out of 125,000 pilots during their deadly missions to bombard German towns and industrial complexes, collateral damage notwithstanding. But no one speaks of the courage and sacrifice of the sturdy, dedicated, loyal Gurkhas from Nepal, who laid their lives for the Glory of Great Britain, and are still doing the same for the United Kingdom. After World War I and World War II, the Gurkhas were ignominiously booked a passage to Nepal via India. Even today, instead of integration, education and service in the UK for the extraordinary service to Britain and the Queen of England since generations. They are not even tolerated when their service, i.e. unfair contract, with the Arbeitsvermittlungsagency MoD is over. The MoD is treating the Gurkhas similarly as the German government did with the so-called ´guest workers´ from Turkey, Italy, Spain and Portugal during the fifties, only to realise that they hadn´t invited guest workers but human beings, who had families, dreams, hopes of a better quality of life, the same education as their own children. Under Angela Merkel there´s a new integration model for migrants which is showing a positive trend and in accordance with the European Union´s ideas of a better world. The Gurkhas must be given the same status as their British counterparts and comrade-in-arms, the same buying power and dignity in the United Kingdom, and the UK government would do well to put and end to the discrimination that has been meted out to the Gurkhas and their families. They must be accepted and welcomed as old and new migrants and the UK´s loyal, historical allies, instead of being discriminated on flimsy grounds. If the Gurkhas have to go to the European court it is indeed a shame for Brown´s government, which has been trying to save precious sterling pounds on the integration of the Gurkhas and has been diverting the common man´s money for other purposes.
An e-mail from Argentina
Hello Satis,
Thanks for your message. Nice to meet you. Well you're from Freiburg,
I have a mp3 file of an audience recording from a Roxette concert
that took place in Freiburg. Very funny...
Regarding the Falkland war, we all Argentineans feel some kind of
impotence, Imagine if one day some people broke into your house and
take you away from your own house. We cannot do anything and I don't
think Argentina will get back the islands. UK is a very strong country.
Well, that's the position of Argentina. UK claims that they were always of
their own. I don't really care who's the owner. The main point is that
the war was pointless and it was not about the islands. There were
many purposes besides these events, the war was just a disguise.
In 1982, the government in Argentina was in charge of the military, people
didn't have the right to express what they felt, everything was banned.
People was really tired. so the military government
NEEDED something to give an incentive to the Argentineans. Something that
proves they had the power. They made us believe that we could get back the
islands that once were occupied by the British. That was the main purpose of the war.
UK hadn't any interest on these islands, but it was like a war trophy for
them. Obviously, it was like a fight between 2 kids, a 5 years old boy
against a 15 years old boy. As we usually say "the bad events show the
best and the worst from people". And the war was not an exception.
The TV always reported that we were about to win the war, they
were always lying in order to calm down us. The media was controlled,
including the radio, some songs were prohibited or edited.
A certain censorship. During the war, the songs sung in English were not
allowed to be played. And the soldiers were 18 years old teenagers,
who were recruited by the law, they didn't know what war was really all about,
they didn't have the right to decide what to do with their lives. It was an
order and they must obey "the call of the country," so they were sent to the war.
In 1982 I was just a 7 years old boy, I didn't know what was happening
to my country. In all schools, there was a campaign called "A chocolate
for the soldiers". We had to write a letter to the soldiers and we
had to give them away a chocolate, that's because of the low temperature.
There were another campaigns in order to collect warm clothes and food
because the army only gave them the basic elements. And even worse
they were treated badly. Most of our hopes never arrived and those chocolates
never were sent, in fact some people stole and re-sell them later.
That's why I wrote that "Some events show the worst and the best from people".
Of course there were very nice people who helped a lot. We usually are very
kind.
The UK military also took advantage of these events. Furthermore, a retired
Chilean military recently admitted that the Chilean military helped the UK army
telling them the position of the Argentinean ships and soldiers and the
strategies they had. Everybody wanted a piece of this cake.
Besides this, the General Galtieri, the most hated person in Argentina,
was drinkin' whisky while 600 young Argentineans kids were dying.
Very sad to be true.
To sum up, there were many events and I could write pages and pages
about this. The war was pointless, I think nobody won this war,
it was a big lost for 2 countries and a benefit for a few people.
Arnaldo Mariano S., Jul 6, 2007, 10:21am EDT
http://www.zfs.uni-freiburg.de/zfs/dozent/lehrbeauftragte4/index_html/#shroff
Dear Arnaldo,
I can now understand your feelings about the Falkland War. I found your metaphor of the 5 year old boy fighting against the 15 year old a very appropriate comparison. Your story really moved me, even though I come originally from Nepal, the land of the Gurkhas.
Thank you very much for sharing a part of your autobiography. You really ought to write "pages and pages about this war" as you said, and let us read them at www.Gather.com.
I think it's very interesting reading. For me it was a fantastic experience to hear how the people suffered and what they thought about in those days in Argentina. This helps us to understand each other.
Even a Gurkha or Nepalese and an Argentinean can be friends. I reach out my hand to you, dear Gather friend. If more Argentineans went to Nepal on their holidays to see how the Gurkhas live and what everyday problems, dreams, hopes they have, then they would be certainly friends and understand each other. Duty, obedience and discipline take on a bitter taste after the war. Many GIs visited the former battlefields (Germany, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Japan, Burma) and met their former foes, which is a good thing, for men are not murderers when they are forced to do their duty as soldiers.
In Nepal there's no compulsory military service. The Gurkhas are professional soldiers because they never had someone to motivate them and pay their school, college and university bills. If someone is ill, one goes to the local shaman (dhamey-jhakri) for he can be paid with some eggs and a chicken. Money is scarce in the hills of Nepal. That's why the Nepalese youth from the hills join the Gurkhas. Many are school drop-outs but many can't afford to go to school. They have to do child-work in their parents' farms in the terraced, craggy hills of this beautiful Himalayan country.
That's life, Arnaldo. Let us nevertheless try to make this world a better place to live in, despite our cultural differences.
Sincerely,
Satis
Satis Shroff, Jul 6, 2007, 11:13am EDT delete
News: Brown´s government: arrogant & indifferent to the Gurkhas
Former Gurkha soldiers from Nepal have won the right to sue the British Government in the High Court for alleged racial discrimination. The Gurkhas allege that they have been discriminated against in at least 20 different ways while serving with the British army and subsequently during retirement.
Lawyers for the troops filed a claim for damages at the High Court in May in an action that could cost the Ministry of Defence £2bn. Their case is to be argued by Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife, Cherie Booth, a prominent barrister.
Nepalese soldiers have fought alongside British soldiers since 1815, and have served in recent years in the Falklands, the Gulf War, Kosovo, Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan.
Equal pay demand: The soldiers argue that since a 1947 Tripartite Agreement between India, Nepal and the UK, the Gurkhas have been linked to the Indian Army's pay scale instead of the British army's.
They say this has resulted in a disparity between British pensions and those paid to the Gurkhas, Phil Shiner, a solicitor with the Public Interest Lawyers group which is acting for the Gurkhas, said they were hoping for a decision from the High Court before Christmas.
"So far, this government has acted with arrogance and indifference," he was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.
"I hope even at this late stage that sense will prevail."
In declaring the case admissible on Tuesday, the High Court gave the Defence Ministry until 9 September to put forward its arguments in the case.
British defence: A Defence Ministry spokeswoman told Reuters that the military would "robustly defend our position in court".
"The Gurkhas are treated well and will continue to be. We value their services and treat them in a good manner," she said.
But the Gurkhas' lawyers say they have 20 test cases, claiming that 30,000 Nepalese retired from the service with inadequate or no pension, and that widows had not been properly compensated for their loss. Aside from financial complaints, they say they have been subjected to different rules on family leave, food, dress codes and religious practices.
It is not the first time that Ms Booth, who specialises in human rights abuses, has tackled her husband's government in court. In May 2000, she argued on behalf of trade unions that the government needed to offer more leave benefits to parents of young children.
That case is before the European Court.
Much like Florence Nightingale, who left England on October 21,1854, and started caring for the wounded soldiers at Scutari, Turkey, on November 5,1854, and took a large group of women as nurses (38 women, including 18 Anglican and Roman Catholic sisters), Nicci Pugh was one of 40 nursing officers on board the hospital ship Uganda. Ms. Pugh´s job was x-ray units to provide modern hospital care facilities for the injured British Tommies, civilians and also possible Argentinean soldiers wounded in the conflict. In the ship were operating theatres, 120 beds, burn-units, labs, x-ray units, a blood bank, in addition to a helipad. The Uganda was anchored a mile south-west of San Carlos Water, where there was heavy fighting. With the knowledge that hospital ships had been sunk in previous wars through shelling or torpedoes, the ladies had to go through the angst of being bombed by the Argentinean aircraft which frequently made sorties over the Royal Navy armada.
The British staff on board the Uganda have gone on record as having treated 700 patients. Among the patients were also injured Argentinean soldiers. It might be mentioned that the ship HMS Sir Galahad was shit by enemy fire, whereby 120 patients were treated in the burns unit on board the Uganda. Some 500 surgical operations were performed. Most of the injuries were caused by gunshot, shrapnel and mortar. Amputations were also carried out due to the anti-personnel mines deployed and hidden by the Argentinean soldiers. Even the injured Argentinean soldiers were treated with the same respect and dignity.
After the war, Ms. Pugh returned to her old job in Cornwall as an OP theatre nurse, but wasn´t able to talk about her experiences for years. That was her coping method. Life had to go on. But unlike the Lady with the Lamp, Nicci Pugh didn´t have to face medical ire, and works as a voluntary carer to help injured servicemen to re-visit the Malvinas to pay their respects to their own fallen comrades, and visit the killing fields of the Falklands. But for the Gurkhas who have fought for Britain since the times of Queen Victoria till Queen Elizabeth II since 200 years, there´s no noteworthy memorial in Britain. Are the Gurkhas merely guest-workers or ´cannon fodder´ only? Britain laments that there´s no memorial for the courageous Lancaster Bomber Command which lost 55,573 out of 125,000 pilots during their deadly missions to bombard German towns and industrial complexes, collateral damage notwithstanding. But no one speaks of the courage and sacrifice of the sturdy, dedicated, loyal Gurkhas from Nepal, who laid their lives for the Glory of Great Britain, and are still doing the same for the United Kingdom. After World War I and World War II, the Gurkhas were ignominiously booked a passage to Nepal via India. Even today, instead of integration, education and service in the UK for the extraordinary service to Britain and the Queen of England since generations. They are not even tolerated when their service, i.e. unfair contract, with the Arbeitsvermittlungsagency MoD is over. The MoD is treating the Gurkhas similarly as the German government did with the so-called ´guest workers´ from Turkey, Italy, Spain and Portugal during the fifties, only to realise that they hadn´t invited guest workers but human beings, who had families, dreams, hopes of a better quality of life, the same education as their own children. Under Angela Merkel there´s a new integration model for migrants which is showing a positive trend and in accordance with the European Union´s ideas of a better world. The Gurkhas must be given the same status as their British counterparts and comrade-in-arms, the same buying power and dignity in the United Kingdom, and the UK government would do well to put and end to the discrimination that has been meted out to the Gurkhas and their families. They must be accepted and welcomed as old and new migrants and the UK´s loyal, historical allies, instead of being discriminated on flimsy grounds. If the Gurkhas have to go to the European court it is indeed a shame for Brown´s government, which has been trying to save precious sterling pounds on the integration of the Gurkhas and has been diverting the common man´s money for other purposes.
An e-mail from Argentina
Hello Satis,
Thanks for your message. Nice to meet you. Well you're from Freiburg,
I have a mp3 file of an audience recording from a Roxette concert
that took place in Freiburg. Very funny...
Regarding the Falkland war, we all Argentineans feel some kind of
impotence, Imagine if one day some people broke into your house and
take you away from your own house. We cannot do anything and I don't
think Argentina will get back the islands. UK is a very strong country.
Well, that's the position of Argentina. UK claims that they were always of
their own. I don't really care who's the owner. The main point is that
the war was pointless and it was not about the islands. There were
many purposes besides these events, the war was just a disguise.
In 1982, the government in Argentina was in charge of the military, people
didn't have the right to express what they felt, everything was banned.
People was really tired. so the military government
NEEDED something to give an incentive to the Argentineans. Something that
proves they had the power. They made us believe that we could get back the
islands that once were occupied by the British. That was the main purpose of the war.
UK hadn't any interest on these islands, but it was like a war trophy for
them. Obviously, it was like a fight between 2 kids, a 5 years old boy
against a 15 years old boy. As we usually say "the bad events show the
best and the worst from people". And the war was not an exception.
The TV always reported that we were about to win the war, they
were always lying in order to calm down us. The media was controlled,
including the radio, some songs were prohibited or edited.
A certain censorship. During the war, the songs sung in English were not
allowed to be played. And the soldiers were 18 years old teenagers,
who were recruited by the law, they didn't know what war was really all about,
they didn't have the right to decide what to do with their lives. It was an
order and they must obey "the call of the country," so they were sent to the war.
In 1982 I was just a 7 years old boy, I didn't know what was happening
to my country. In all schools, there was a campaign called "A chocolate
for the soldiers". We had to write a letter to the soldiers and we
had to give them away a chocolate, that's because of the low temperature.
There were another campaigns in order to collect warm clothes and food
because the army only gave them the basic elements. And even worse
they were treated badly. Most of our hopes never arrived and those chocolates
never were sent, in fact some people stole and re-sell them later.
That's why I wrote that "Some events show the worst and the best from people".
Of course there were very nice people who helped a lot. We usually are very
kind.
The UK military also took advantage of these events. Furthermore, a retired
Chilean military recently admitted that the Chilean military helped the UK army
telling them the position of the Argentinean ships and soldiers and the
strategies they had. Everybody wanted a piece of this cake.
Besides this, the General Galtieri, the most hated person in Argentina,
was drinkin' whisky while 600 young Argentineans kids were dying.
Very sad to be true.
To sum up, there were many events and I could write pages and pages
about this. The war was pointless, I think nobody won this war,
it was a big lost for 2 countries and a benefit for a few people.
Arnaldo Mariano S., Jul 6, 2007, 10:21am EDT
http://www.zfs.uni-freiburg.de/zfs/dozent/lehrbeauftragte4/index_html/#shroff
Dear Arnaldo,
I can now understand your feelings about the Falkland War. I found your metaphor of the 5 year old boy fighting against the 15 year old a very appropriate comparison. Your story really moved me, even though I come originally from Nepal, the land of the Gurkhas.
Thank you very much for sharing a part of your autobiography. You really ought to write "pages and pages about this war" as you said, and let us read them at www.Gather.com.
I think it's very interesting reading. For me it was a fantastic experience to hear how the people suffered and what they thought about in those days in Argentina. This helps us to understand each other.
Even a Gurkha or Nepalese and an Argentinean can be friends. I reach out my hand to you, dear Gather friend. If more Argentineans went to Nepal on their holidays to see how the Gurkhas live and what everyday problems, dreams, hopes they have, then they would be certainly friends and understand each other. Duty, obedience and discipline take on a bitter taste after the war. Many GIs visited the former battlefields (Germany, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Japan, Burma) and met their former foes, which is a good thing, for men are not murderers when they are forced to do their duty as soldiers.
In Nepal there's no compulsory military service. The Gurkhas are professional soldiers because they never had someone to motivate them and pay their school, college and university bills. If someone is ill, one goes to the local shaman (dhamey-jhakri) for he can be paid with some eggs and a chicken. Money is scarce in the hills of Nepal. That's why the Nepalese youth from the hills join the Gurkhas. Many are school drop-outs but many can't afford to go to school. They have to do child-work in their parents' farms in the terraced, craggy hills of this beautiful Himalayan country.
That's life, Arnaldo. Let us nevertheless try to make this world a better place to live in, despite our cultural differences.
Sincerely,
Satis
Satis Shroff, Jul 6, 2007, 11:13am EDT delete
News: Brown´s government: arrogant & indifferent to the Gurkhas
Former Gurkha soldiers from Nepal have won the right to sue the British Government in the High Court for alleged racial discrimination. The Gurkhas allege that they have been discriminated against in at least 20 different ways while serving with the British army and subsequently during retirement.
Lawyers for the troops filed a claim for damages at the High Court in May in an action that could cost the Ministry of Defence £2bn. Their case is to be argued by Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife, Cherie Booth, a prominent barrister.
Nepalese soldiers have fought alongside British soldiers since 1815, and have served in recent years in the Falklands, the Gulf War, Kosovo, Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan.
Equal pay demand: The soldiers argue that since a 1947 Tripartite Agreement between India, Nepal and the UK, the Gurkhas have been linked to the Indian Army's pay scale instead of the British army's.
They say this has resulted in a disparity between British pensions and those paid to the Gurkhas, Phil Shiner, a solicitor with the Public Interest Lawyers group which is acting for the Gurkhas, said they were hoping for a decision from the High Court before Christmas.
"So far, this government has acted with arrogance and indifference," he was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.
"I hope even at this late stage that sense will prevail."
In declaring the case admissible on Tuesday, the High Court gave the Defence Ministry until 9 September to put forward its arguments in the case.
British defence: A Defence Ministry spokeswoman told Reuters that the military would "robustly defend our position in court".
"The Gurkhas are treated well and will continue to be. We value their services and treat them in a good manner," she said.
But the Gurkhas' lawyers say they have 20 test cases, claiming that 30,000 Nepalese retired from the service with inadequate or no pension, and that widows had not been properly compensated for their loss. Aside from financial complaints, they say they have been subjected to different rules on family leave, food, dress codes and religious practices.
It is not the first time that Ms Booth, who specialises in human rights abuses, has tackled her husband's government in court. In May 2000, she argued on behalf of trade unions that the government needed to offer more leave benefits to parents of young children.
That case is before the European Court.