Don't cry for me, Sean Penn

Just like China's communist regime keeps dreaming of swallowing up Taiwan regardless of what its citizens want, Argentina's president refuses to let go of her yearning to own and occupy the British Falkland Islands.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner could care less what the 3,000 or so English-speaking British citizens living on the islands prefer.

It just so happens they all want to remain British, and abhor the notion of coming under the authority of what they view as inept and corrupt Argentinean politicians.

Fortunately for President Fernandez, Sean Penn, star of many movies and former husband of Madonna, is publicly supporting her controversial quest.

After visiting Mrs. Fernandez in Buenos Aires the other day, the 51-year-old Penn castigated Great Britain at a news conference. He asserted: "The world today is not going to tolerate any kind of ludicrous and archaic commitment to colonialist ideology."

The Falklands are a group of islands in the southwest Atlantic Ocean, east of southern Argentina, with a total land mass slightly smaller than Connecticut. The islands' main natural resources are fish, squid, wildlife, calcified seaweed and sphagnum moss. They are about 300 miles from Argentina.

The Falklands' history is complicated, including various treaties and ownership at one time by Spain.

The British established a naval garrison there in 1833 and since have kept the islands as an overseas territory. The Argentinians call the islands by their Spanish name, Islas Malvinas, after the inhabitants of Saint-Malo, in France, who attempted to colonize the islands in 1764.

As is well known, Argentina's military dictatorship impetuously tried to resolve the long-simmering territorial dispute by military force, invading the Falklands in 1982.

They were humiliated by British expeditionary forces, which crushed the invaders in just over two months. Nonetheless, the Argentinean Constitution was amended in 1994 to declare that the Malvinas are part of the national territory.

The 30th anniversary of the failed Argentinean invasion is April 2. In advance, President Fernandez has unleashed an international war of words — and economic pressure — to try to get her way. Among other pressure moves, she has prohibited ships flying the Falklands flag from docking at Argentinean ports, and has convinced other Latin American countries to join the boycott.

The new Argentinean hostilities coincide with recent progress in drilling for oil in a 200-mile exploration zone around the Falklands.

Preliminary surveys suggest reserves capable of producing 500,000 barrels of oil per day.

The Falklands/Malvinas dispute is regularly debated at the United Nations. Argentina maintains that the U.N. Charter's principle of the right to self-determination does not apply to Falklanders, because the islands are on the South American continental shelf, adjacent to the Argentinean coast, and therefore a "contiguous" part of Argentina's land mass.

However, according to Dr. Barry Elsby, a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Falkland Islands, "The people of the Falkland Islands remain a British Overseas Territory by choice. We are happy to talk, but our sovereignty remains non-negotiable."

While the debate rages on, Sean Penn should add a trip to the Falklands to his itinerary, and ask around whether the people there want to become citizens of Argentina. He won't need an interpreter.