Hello Spain, France, Indonesia and of course Aotearoa (New Zealand)...welcome to the blog and to ANZAC Day 2014...I agree that it is a very important occasion but probably for different reasons to many people and I am deeply concerned with the increased sense of pageantry and jingoism that accompanies ANZAC Day.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott's 'speech' didn't do anything to alleviate any of those concerns...the first half sounded like a list of statistics downloaded by an office intern off Wikkity Wikkity Peadia, and then some general platitudes about sacrifice and how super our soldiers are, etc...there's a basic respect to be afforded those who have lost their family or friends, soldiers, etc, and I fully support the right of the individual to express that however they choose, but my concern remains always the way that Mr Abbott and some of his colleagues behave around these sort of events and where the general debate is headed...
Today's post title is a very famous Latin phrase translating roughly as 'It Is Good And Glorious To Die For King And Country'...it is also the title of the famous World War One poem by British soldier Wilfred Owen, 'Dulce Est Decorum Est'...(actually it is a direct quote from Roman lyrical poet Horace's Odes, done cha' know?-Ed)...oh yes, and after doing the same Googlage I also read that it translated as "It is sweet and right to die for your country", but I think that sells it well short because if my Latin serves me which it doesn't then my English what is based like loosely on Latin, then that tells me 'Patria' relates specifically to 'the King'...(where?-Ed)...stop saluting...Patriarch for the male, Matriarch for the female, etc...I'm guessing, but under Queen Elizabeth I would suggest that the phrase may be 'Pro Matria Mori'.
I had the great good fortune to grow up with the privilege
of knowing both of my grandfathers and have inevitably inherited their
disposition toward ANZAC Day...neither chose to commemorate in any way and never attended any events and I absolutely defer to their beliefs and conduct...my grandfathers were amongst those who had no-one left to gather with and no desire to do it for the sake of doing it...but they both recognised that others really did need to get together because that's what worked for them.
My own scything cynicism of politicians is surely sourced in the deep distrust that my grandfathers taught me, if then honed by a decade of the St Martins Issue...speaking of which...(which we weren't-Ed)...until now...a recent comment on this blog asked why I stay in Mt Gambier...just because stuff isn't particularly going your way as you would have it doesn't mean that you stop trying...in a certain context I do use the memory of my grandfathers to grind through certain days bouyed by the knowledge that I ain't got no frickin' idea and praise the lord if She exists that it may stay that way...
For The Record: both my grandfathers were World War Two
veterans and I have covered this in posts from this time last year but why not again a bit differently...one
was a decorated Kiwi fighter pilot and the other a 'Rat of Tobruk',
either would have been an honoured guest at any ANZAC Day event,
particularly Papa who was a Group Captain, combat veteran in the Battle of France and the period immediately prior to the Battle of Britain at which time he served as a test pilot, and he later flew 21 combat missions in the Pacific whilst running the airbase and received the DSO
(Distinguished Service Order) for that and a bit later an OBE (Order of the British Empire).
Pops served in Tobruk (possibly El Alamein), Malta and/or Crete, New Guinea, spent time in Gladstone Gaol for going AWOL (Absent Without Leave) and was promoted and demoted several times from Private to Corporal and back again...he was apparently a bit of a larrikin but a fine soldier...a Scottish child immigrant who wound up back in Africa, etc, fighting for Empire and each time his Corporal was killed he was promoted and then I think twice demoted again...sorry I don't know the exact chronology but there was a doco/movie on late a few weeks ago and it had a lot of stuff in it about Australian units in North Africa and it did seem to be very similar to the little bit I do know.
I reckon he was in one of those Australian units that was moved from one debacle to another across North Africa and the Mediterranean either after coming from (Papua) New Guinea or was sent to PNG after...I will do a quick search and maybe give him his own post as an historical document as such...as a child I just assumed everybody's grandpas were a 'Rat of Tobruk' and a 'Spitfire Ace'...I sort of knew what it meant but took it all for granted, as you do when you're a child.
And of course today we welcome to the post Turkey which is where the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corp) force was sent in April 1915 to effectively invade their sovereign nation to help support England's Empirical aspirations by distracting Turkish bullets with Aussie, Kiwi, Indian, etc, soldiers landed at Gallipoli, whilst English troops were landed elsewhere, all courtesy of a plan by Winston Churchill...these conflicts were repeated through the Second World War in a continuation of Empirical conflicts that criss-cross that region across centuries, millenia, even dare I say it, across the recorded history of humanity...and much the same with Afghanistan...and the band played Waltzing Mathilda.
And it is a truly gracious and extraordinary thing that Turkey not just allows but supports the ANZAC traditions based on the Gallipoli area and associated ceremonies, etc, and includes fallen Australians, Kiwis, etc, as being like their own sons.
And I know that I went a little off the path late in yesterday's post, but it remains a daily taunt to me that we as a society continue to suffer for the behaviours of people like former Member for Mt Gambier Rory McEwen, key player in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up, and all his mates in the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, and right across South Australian society who are by definition co-conspirators, whilst these people flourish.
And that they would then roll-out their trite platitudes and confected empathies and deeply felt, carefully practised compassions, blah, blah, blah...it is gut-wrenchingly sickening...the hypocrisy, the self-service and self-importance, the keen need to be seen to be saying the right thing regardless of gross personal indifference...and again with the Mike Rann example because here's a man who would show up at all these events excreting solemn well-rehearsed solidarity and empathy and then go straight back to parliament house for a fresh slice of the canteen lady's pie and a busy afternoon of rampant Fascocracy...
Royals "show respect" at ANZAC Day ceremony at Canberra...I absolutely have nothing personally against Kate and William but who was it repeatedly sent our forefathers to slaughter and be slaughtered in the name of the British Empire...(and foremothers were in the factories, on the farms, etc, and working as nurses, etc, on airfields re-fueling planes and shizzle-Ed)...I don't think they had shizzle in WWII...(rubbish...there's always shizzle, always has been, always will be-Ed)...you sure know a lot about shizzle...(yeah I know a lot of shit about a pile of other crap as well-Ed)...well now that shizzle's uncalled for...
Just For The Record: the British Empire wrote off Australia at the fall of Singapore in February 1942...the only argument is when that decision was officially made, and/or the unavoidable realisation dawned, whatevs...the British Empire made a conscious decision to 'cut it's losses' and not send re-enforcements to Singapore in late 1941 because those troops were needed closer to home...and then continued to use Aussies as 'gap-stoppers and decoys' where and when it suited them...not my story, it's what happened...which segues back beautifully into the Royal visit, particularly their appearance at the Canberra Dawn Service today...
No Charm, All Offensive: as far as I'm concerned, if you want the monarchy so much, move back to England and you can have one...don't send them over here to clog up my media thankyou very much...and they just happen to end their tour of New Zealand and Oz on ANZAC Day morn in Canberra...what a coincidence...and then their outta' here...must admit though that I am having a bit of a lend because I had this discussion with my own English-born mother this morning and she is a WWII child and a staunch Monarchist and a very hard-working Australian for 50 years...I'm a first generation Pomstralian...
Very unfortunate timing on yesterday's TV news feed on Channel (?) when they moved from a story about several attempted child abductions in the Wallaroo area to footage of William and Kate meeting and greeting some kids at some stroll-by, meaning it had footage of them with the back-voice "...parents are concerned about strangers approaching their children...", before then moving on to the "Kate and Will..." story...deadset true...I always like to try and close with a joke or a jape...
Yes we should always remember and never forget and acknowledge the truths about what we have done and what we have had done to us...
Tomorrow: Rubbed It Hard But Just Can't Budget
More luminary tales about the Magic Lantern that Council rubs everytime they want a casual 1/2 a mill to flick at some indulgent flippancy, the Rail lands, the Old Hospital stuff, etc...and lots of feedback...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog ...cheers and laters...
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