It’s ANZAC Day. The day we become flag blinded and worship the glorious dead. No questions of why we sent so many of our best and brightest into the jaws of war, no questions of military and political incompetence, no questions of what exactly we have learned weeping beside the graves of the fallen, just a wide eyed desperation to ‘commemorate’ and hold that up as our national identity.
If we want to respect the glorious dead, then surely it is as the current generation promising the next generation that we won’t ever waste their precious lives for the obscenity of war. That is how we remember the dead, by demanding from ourselves that we never make the same broken mistakes of the past.
It seems incomprehensible to me that we commemorate the dead but ignore our own history in the Land Wars. I don’t understand why the land confiscations that occurred against Maori who went to war isn’t widely known. I believe the post trauma so many men were exposed to has helped create a toxic legacy for mental health in NZ and the manner we have failed to protect veterans flies in the face of our Dawn Service attendance.
The Gunner’s Lament
A Maori gunner lay dying
In a paddyfield north of Saigon,
And he said to his pakeha cobber,
“I reckon I’ve had it, man!
‘And if I could fly like a bird
To my old granny’s whare
A truck and a winch would never drag
Me back to the Army.
‘A coat and a cap and a well-paid job
Looked better than shovelling metal,
And they told me that Te Rauparaha
Would have fought in the Vietnam battle.
‘On my last leave the town swung round
Like a bucket full of eels.
The girls liked the uniform
And I liked the girls.
‘Like a bullock to the abattoirs
In the name of liberty
They flew me with a hangover
Across the Tasman Sea,
‘And what I found in Vietnam
Was mud and blood and fire,
With the Yanks and the Reds taking turns
At murdering the poor.
‘And I saw the reason for it
In a Viet Cong’s blazing eyes –
We fought for the crops of kumara
And they are fighting for the rice.
‘So go tell my sweetheart
To get another boy
Who’ll cuddle her and marry her
And laugh when the bugles blow,
‘And tell my youngest brother
He can have my shotgun
To fire at the ducks on the big lagoon,
But not to aim it at a man,
‘And tell my granny to wear black
And carry a willow leaf,
Because the kid she kept from the cold
Has eaten a dead man’s loaf.
‘And go and tell Keith Holyoake
Sitting in Wellington,
However long he scrubs his hands
He’ll never get them clean.’
James K Baxter
1965
Thanks Martyn for a well summed up blog.
There is one word which stands out here for me. It’s in James K Baxter’s poem. It hit me in the face like a hard stinging slap! I’m still smarting from it!
“Like a bullock to the abattoirs”
That particular word is ABATTOIR. Because that’s what imperialistic driven, man made conflict is, an ABATTOIR, where human kind send their own, as a sacrifice to prove superiority and wield power!
And we consider ourselves to be THE more civilized intelligent species? Geeze really?
[Comment deleted. Consider that remark (and others) cause for your permanent exit from this forum. – ScarletMod]
maui on The Standard posted this very relevant link:
Toby Morris – The Pencilsword – Lest We Forget.
Lest we forget, meaning never forget why this happened and all that went wrong because if we do we will repeat it all again. It is not a celebration to be seen at, to say you were there.
Yes, what cost to mental health were these wars. I recall it was always swept under the rug and medicated with alcohol. The long term ruin it caused is probably incalculable.
And the questions should be asked why were these men’s lives so carelessly squandered by toffs who had even less respect for their own troops than that of their so-called “enemies” God knows in WW1 war crimes of titanic proportions were committed by the officers of the British Army upon their own men. Gallipoli is a very good or more aptly a very bad example of their utter indifference and cavalier disregard for the lives of the working class who filled their armies to fight for their elites empires.
I think I read or heard somewhere that the most of the people of Great Britain, the greatest empire the world has ever seen, were treated worse than those they had conquered. Lest we forget the so-called benevolent rich who will shit on anyone they can to get their next million.
A must read. “For the Sake of Example” by Anthony Babington.
I thought today we had have National Radio off as we potter around our garden but then we heard Mihinirangi Forbes talking about the Māori wars. About time! Everyone should listen to the programme. I cannot bare ANZAC DAY and this on-going business about the war dead, they were commanded in the main to go and honestly never thought they would have shoot at people as innocent as they themselves were and never thought they wouldn’t come home again. Fighting another people’s war so foolish and so terribly wrong. But we continue to be tied up in this sort of slaughter because we are so entrenched in the club.
The question to ask is “who profits from war”. Massive profits are made and resources snatched to enrichen the few at the cost to the many.
The first casualty around war is truth and little of that is spoken of on Anzac Day.
As others have said, ANZAC day should be about WARS, not THE WAR.
There are others that changed New Zealand. What about the colonial government- Maori land wars, Massey Cossacks against trade unionists, the National government’s war against trade unionists in 1951, the 1981 National government sponsored war against opponents of the 1981 Springbok tours, the NZ Herald’s continuing war against liberal thinkers.
Roger Douglas’s war against state assets.
Ruth Richardson’s war against beneficiaries.
And last but not least, John Key’s war against truth and honest government.
Least we forget.
@ JOHN W….
‘The question to ask is “who profits from war”. Massive profits are made and resources snatched to enrichen the few at the cost to the many.’
………………………………………………………………………………………..
Funding of the destruction of the Royal houses of England and other European Royalty and replacement with their people
Bauer / Rothchilds
City of London bank buy up of shares due to false fabricated reports of Napoleons victory
Rothchilds
London Central Bank and usury system created
Rothchilds
Federal Reserve Bank Act passed 1913 of America and usury system implemented
Rothchilds
Creation, funding and installment of Bolshevik revolution with the deaths of over 9 million Russians 1917-1922. 20,000,000 under Stalin.
Rothchilds
Funded both sides of World War 1 – Balfour agreement to bring the USA into WW1 in return for the promise of the land of the Palestinians after the war .Gold bullion train passes through the western front to Russia unmolested to finance Bolshevik revolution.
Rothchilds
Funded both sides of World War 2.
66 ,000,000 deaths at conservative estimates.
Rothchilds
Funded the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 / also provided the funding for the construction of the Knesset . Aggressive land grabs through Kibbutzes and mass ongoing human rights abuses since before 1948 until present.
95 % of current Israeli nationals are of Khazarian ( Caucasus mountains,later West European) descent containing less than 4% ancient Semitic DNA. Whereas Palestinians are of 95% ancient Hebrew Semitic ( ancient Israeli ) DNA descent.
Rothchilds
Agenda 21
FEMA camps and detention centres ( USA )
Eugenics – fluoridation of potable water in the west leads to sterility , and many other health related conditions, sterilization programs in India , 1 child policy in China , fluoridation of salt in less developed country’s
World Bank / IMF loans to create global debt and create austerity programs
WHO immunity programs in sub Saharan Africa with HIV /AIDS virus contaminated products
World reduction in current population of 7 billion to 500,000,000 . Enshrined in Georgia Guidstones ( USA ) – same policy Bilderbergers, Club of Rome, Bill Gates, Trent , Kissinger and many other billionaires and world leaders have recommended since the mid 1960’s.
Reduction of welfare and medical availability to the elderly and the poor leading to natural eugenics ( death through lack of medical attention and malnutrition )
Encouragement of laws that criminalize parents and weaken the family unit – 3 strikes policy in the USA ( 2 felony’s and it is a mandatory prison sentence), criminalizing mild corrective discipline using physical punishment – ie smacking
Encouragement and funding of social movements that weaken the family unit whether it be sexual , substance abuse , societal confusion on gender roles etc
Introduction of legislation that creates a working poor class ( ERA/ECA in NZ ) which weakens the middle classes , privatization of prisons and police forces to protect the rich and destroy the lives and family’s of the poor – particularly of minority’s.
………………………………………………………………………………………..
ROTHCHILDS*KEY*ROTHCHILDS*KEY*ROTHCHILDS*KEY*ROTHCHILDS*KEY*ROTHCHILDS*KEY*ROTHCHILDS*KEY*ROTHCHILDS*KEY*ROTHCHILS*KEY*ROTHCHILDS*KEY*ROTHCHILDS*KEY*ROTHCHILDS*KEY*ROTHCHILDS*KEY*ROTHCHILDS*KEY*ROTHCHILDS*KEY*ROTHCHILDS*K
………………………………………………………………………………………..
And John Keys relationship appears intact in more ways than DNA.
Then their are other who swear allegiance so enter the fold. eg Murdoch
ANZAC words never mention the real enemy.
In the Great War our entire country was abused and misused by perfidious Albion in the most disgusting manner. Then, as now, we laud our oppressors and congratulate ourselves as being the best slaves and the top hit men for an imperial Murder Inc.
Tackling this subject, my wife bravely delivered a speech to a rural Anzac crowd that was adapted from this article: https://ongenocide.com/2016/04/24/the-shame-of-anzac-day/. The positive reception she got shows that people, deep down, are not comfortable with the militaristic narrative that is taking hold.
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