A television was interview aired in Chile with the rock star in which he asserted that in his opinion the islands should be Argentine. Waters certainly didn’t mince his words, in a rant against the Conservative party and Britain’s colonial past.
Chilean journalist Amaro Gómez-Pablos asked Waters “Falklands? Malvinas? What is your take? Is it British or is it Argentine?”
Waters replied “I think it should be Argentine. My concern as an Englishman is that they’ve been used and the argument has been used for narrow political ends in England, first by Margaret Thatcher and now by David Cameron.
“There’s nothing they like more than to toe the line in the Houses of Parliament and stand there with hand on hip and say: the Falkland Islands are British and they always will be and the Falklands islanders’ wishes are paramount and as long as they want to be British….bullshit!”
Gómez-Pablos then asked Waters the question “Don’t you fear betraying your flag?”
“No, I don’t,” he replied “By and large I’m as ashamed as I possibly could be of our colonial past. I take no pride in the fact that 150 years or so the sun never set on the British Empire and that we were out raping and plundering and stealing as much we could from everybody all over the world as possible. That kind of imperialism is not something that as an Englishman I’m proud of.”
The interview was also aired in Argentina. Fans of Pink Floyd in Argentina were quick to register their approval of his words on Twitter – the phrase ‘According to Roger Waters’ became a trending topic in the country.
“Roger Waters was categorical: Las Malvinas belong to Argentina.” tweeted interviewer Gómez-Pablos.
He joins actor Sean Penn in the argument, who recently spoke in support for Argentina, saying “I hope that diplomats can establish true dialogue in order to solve the conflict as the world today cannot tolerate ridiculous demonstrations of colonialism.”
Pink Floyd have in the past condemned the Falklands war, with their 1983 album The Final Cut influenced lyrically by the controversial conflict.
