Lest We Forget

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day, the day we commemorate the debacle at Galliopoli, a World War I tribute to the lives lost, the lives destroyed, the waste and horror of war, and to declare that the sacrifices and destruction, terror, trauma, shall not have been for naught. But it has been. At memorials around the nation, as at Returned Servicemen’s Clubs daily, we will solemnly intone a stanza of Laurence Binyon’s poem, “They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old;/Age shall not weary them, not the years condemn./At the going down of the sun and in the morning/We will remember them”. A minute of silence will follow. And then we will resume. Tomorrow there will be parades, tomorrow there will be speeches. Tomorrow, after the ceremonies, there will be gatherings. And then there will be two-up at the pubs, meals consumed, poker machines pumped full of money. We have forgotten. We still send our young men into slaughter. We still stir up patriotic fervour and spend our treasure and the lives of those we hold dear in our hearts to kill and be killed, to maim and be maimed, to destroy and be destroyed. The politicians most likely to take offense at being questioned are those most likely to callously send our troops out, to tout the value of a standing military as a bulwark against outside forces who do not threaten us but seem fearsome, for whatever expedient these so-called leaders need to cement their place in power. They politicise the armed forces, not honour them. And it’s easy, because we have forgotten. They will proclaim the good our military do, the humanitarian relief efforts, and these are not false. The military are an incredible logistical resources, unlike anything else we can muster, but that’s an excuse, because we could, in fact, redirect our efforts to creating a humanitarian resource, instead of relying on one primarily focussed on destruction. When American went to war against Japan and Germany, it had no readily available resources to do so, but created them, urgently, and met the challenge. Since then, we’ve had the Cold War, and now the growing challenge of China, but these are challenges we should face without recourse to bellicose posturing. But we’ve forgotten, and often ignore even the reminders. Armistice Day is Veteran’s Day. Who observes the traditional minute of silence on 11 November at 11 a.m.? Who wears a poppy? And for those who do, who continues to vote in the politicians most likely to agree to wage war? Those who have forgotten, those who haven’t learned in the first place. We watch the movies, the television shows, telling us that this is wrong. Then watch the news with complacency as it shows us the failure we have enacted time and again. We make excuses. We turn away. We forget. War is failure. We need to remember that. We failed the ANZACs. We failed. We keep failing. We’re supposed to learn from our failures, fail better, maybe, but also fail less, if we can, but we don’t. They shall not grow old, but they should have. They should still.

Pandemic

So I got the first shot, AstraZeneca, felt great to be on the way to indoor dining, sports attendance, etc. The next day was rough, temp at 38.7 at its highest, but thank God for ibuprofen etc., by the next day I was only slightly above the acceptable temp for the scan at the front entrance for work. Luckily, I'm in a separate building, sparsely attended during the Easter break, so I went in anyway and was able to complete the full day of work, although I was certainly dragging my way home by the end. It's remarkable, isn't it, that these vaccines have been able to be developed so quickly, although I've learned that the technique was first considered when SARS was a thing, but dropped when that virus "disappeared", so it was more a matter of the technology becoming available and the will, so congratulations, Science. I've heard from the Buffalo herd that Pfizer produced a simliar reaction to mine, but I've also heard from colleagues here of longer-duration effects, three days being the max. Still worth it. We won't know for a long time whether this is flu-vax annual or just a one-off, pending the next coronavirus, and re: indoor dining and mask-wearing, etc., don't stop, the vax only means your body's been primed to fight infection, not that you're immune. I plan to spend my time on public transport with a mask and the time in between with hand sanitiser at hand. I'm also glad my local pub has a large beer garden and don't much intend to be going into indoor-only dining anytime soon. Still, glad to be on my way. Next shot is 30 June. In between, I'll get my annual flu shot.