The Spirit of the Anzacs versus The Spirit of ANZUS: Remembrance Day thoughts

 Picture above from here

THE SPIRIT OF THE ANZACS

-versus-

THE SPIRIT OF ANZUS

Picture below from here

As I write, we are remembering the fallen of Australia as part of Remembrance Day 2011 - the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh year of the 21st century.  We particularly remember the signing of the armistice to end The Great War of 1914-1918.

This far on from the outpouring of national grief following the end of the First World War, there are mixed feelings and many war dead to uphold in our national memory not the least the latest deaths/assassinations of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Wars - and our gladness to participate in them - are still with us.  We have not yet learned the ways of peace and how to beat our swords into ploughshares.  We proclaim our great alliance with the USA. This has meant a great deal to Australia and Australians but it has also meant that we have embarked on American adventures which are not of our making or our decision. Vietnam was distasteful and ill-judged and the readiness to join the USA in Afghanistan is similarly qualified.

In Australia, to change our constitution it takes a double majority to vote yes to a question in a referendum.  A double majority means a majority of people in a majority of states.  A double majority is not an easy thing to obtain. However, my view is that - if there was a vote to-day for Australia to become the 51st state of the United States of America - it would be overwhelmingly successful.  America is not only the dominant party under the ANZUS Treaty, It dominates popular culture. The Australian language has changed because of the dominance of American news, views and culture. Some children speak with a slight American accent.  The owner of most Australian newspapers and media is a man born and bred Australian but who forsook his country for US citizenship - Rupert Murdoch. Most of his children were raised in New York and speak with an American accent ... even Lachlan who now resides back in Australia.

Australia has been colonized by the USA.  It succumbed when it needed help in World War II, sought assistance from the USA, and General Douglas MacArthur arrived with American forces who were described as overpaid, overdressed, and over here. Now another step in the colonization process seems set to take place. President Obama is expected next week in Australia for a long-awaited and twice-postponed visit.  It is reported that he will announce that the US will begin rotating marines through an Australian base in Darwin in a permanent new military presence, intensifying the alliance in a sign of heightened concern about China.

It has long amazed me that I can look around the world and find places where the USA has been ... but has never left.  In some sense, this is true of the USA in Australia.  This is not the first defence or defence-related establishment in this country. Pine Gap and Exmouth Gulf are two examples which come to mind. 

Further reading:
Not just waving poppies, drowning thought
Gillard finds a friend in  Obama
5 Lessons of  U.S. Plan for a permanent military presence in Australia
Paul Keating's Speech at the funeral of The Unknown Soldier , 11 November 1993

Look beyond Gallipoli

On the 11th remember the living

The odd   couple: Blamey and MacArthur at war

The last call of the bugle - the long road to Kapyong
Photos from Ringwood Remembrance Day Service 2011

From @CairnsOneDay

Lockheed Martin more than a defence contractor? Now into Public Administration it seems #armstrade #defencecontracts #oztax

Tweet

The following post comes from this site.

A Census Dilemma

March 7th, 2011 

by admin in Uncategorized

In a few weeks time a 32-page questionnaire will land on doormats throughout the Watford area. Like it or not, you must complete all 32 pages or you could face a £1,000 fine and be saddled with a criminal record. Completing the census is a civic duty – the data it provides is vital for planning our future housing, education, transport and health needs – so why would anyone want to risk a hefty fine and criminal record by refusing to cooperate?

That’s where Faith comes in. Some members of faith communities hold strong beliefs about the use of violence to achieve any purpose, good or bad. The conscientious objectors of both world wars faced bitter shame and rejection because they held firm to their convictions. But what has all this to do with a harmless census?

You may think that the Office for National Statistics will be running the census and they are – up to a point. But they will be receiving a bit of help: a contract worth £150M has been awarded to an American company, Lockheed Martin, which happens to be America’s largest arms manufacturer. The company makes Trident nuclear missiles, cluster bombs and F-16 fighter jets, not to mention its involvement with the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, where it provided private contract interrogators. Not the kind of firm, some people think, we want handling our sensitive data – quite apart from the financial support it gives to the arms trade.

So, for some local folk of many different faiths and none, the census this year will pose a difficult ethical problem. Where do you stand?

Chris Pettit, as published in the Watford Observer on 4th March 2011. 

Lockheed Martin in Australia

(other than in a defence related capacity)

Australian Tax Office