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The 2,500 people who live on the Falklands are among the most isolated in the world and are getting more so.
The editor of the local newspaper, whimsically called Penguin News, wrote in her editorial this week about being asked again and again by visiting journalists to express the islanders' excitement about the presence here of Prince William, on a six-week tour of duty as a helicopter pilot.
She described instead a call she had received from a friend who was bubbling over with joy not because of Prince William - and all that his stay here symbolised about the all-important bond between these islands and Britain - but because she managed to grow a pepper and a cucumber.
Like eggs, fresh vegetables are increasingly hard to come by. The islands - acre for acre - aren't much smaller than Wales, but the land is rocky and unyielding.
Penguin News The local newspaper says the big issue is food, not Prince William
You can drive for mile after mile across peaty moorlands of black and pale yellow. There are no trees, for wind comes in at you with such a force from the cold Atlantic that nothing stands a chance. I visited a sheep farm - 19,000 acres to sustain 2,500 sheep.
In other words, each individual sheep needs seven acres of land to get through the year. That's how ungiving this land is. And yet the Falkland Islanders make it work.
But you can't get eggs and you can't get vegetables. South America once traded happily with the islanders, supplying all their needs. But Buenos Aires has been working hard to cut the islands off.
Recently, Argentina persuaded other South American countries to turn Falklands-flagged vessels away from their ports. Ships rounding Cape Horn heading for the Falklands are routinely stopped, searched and delayed, so much so that merchant vessels have largely given up trying.
Argentina has also restricted air traffic. There is one flight a week from Chile. Argentina won't allow more than this to pass through its airspace. Now Argentina is threatening to close even this last link with mainland South America.
Falkland Islands: A shortage
The editor of the local newspaper, whimsically called Penguin News, wrote in her editorial this week about being asked again and again by visiting journalists to express the islanders' excitement about the presence here of Prince William, on a six-week tour of duty as a helicopter pilot.
She described instead a call she had received from a friend who was bubbling over with joy not because of Prince William - and all that his stay here symbolised about the all-important bond between these islands and Britain - but because she managed to grow a pepper and a cucumber.
Like eggs, fresh vegetables are increasingly hard to come by. The islands - acre for acre - aren't much smaller than Wales, but the land is rocky and unyielding.
Penguin News The local newspaper says the big issue is food, not Prince William
You can drive for mile after mile across peaty moorlands of black and pale yellow. There are no trees, for wind comes in at you with such a force from the cold Atlantic that nothing stands a chance. I visited a sheep farm - 19,000 acres to sustain 2,500 sheep.
In other words, each individual sheep needs seven acres of land to get through the year. That's how ungiving this land is. And yet the Falkland Islanders make it work.
But you can't get eggs and you can't get vegetables. South America once traded happily with the islanders, supplying all their needs. But Buenos Aires has been working hard to cut the islands off.
Recently, Argentina persuaded other South American countries to turn Falklands-flagged vessels away from their ports. Ships rounding Cape Horn heading for the Falklands are routinely stopped, searched and delayed, so much so that merchant vessels have largely given up trying.
Argentina has also restricted air traffic. There is one flight a week from Chile. Argentina won't allow more than this to pass through its airspace. Now Argentina is threatening to close even this last link with mainland South America.
Falkland Islands: A shortage
