ANZAC Day 2011
In an article about ANZAC Day in Good Weekend (a supplement to the Sydney Morning Herald), Mark Dapin reminds us:
"In the 1930's, April 25 was a funeral mass for the 60,000 (Australians) who died in WWI. Solemn marchers walked through the silent cities, with thoughts of the butcher, the postman, the railway man whose names were engraved on the memorial plinths at the crossroads in every country town."
A very different vibe to the propaganda circus we have today...
"In the 1930's, April 25 was a funeral mass for the 60,000 (Australians) who died in WWI. Solemn marchers walked through the silent cities, with thoughts of the butcher, the postman, the railway man whose names were engraved on the memorial plinths at the crossroads in every country town."
A very different vibe to the propaganda circus we have today...
posted by The Editor at
2:44 PM
2 Comments:
Very true. To put it into context, in the period 1914 - 1918 the population of Australia was just under 5 million, the number enrolled in the AIF was approximately 417,000, and 60,000 died. That means a little over 1% of the entire population of the country died in World War 1. No wonder mourning was still widespread 20 years later.
By contrast, the war in Afghanistan, which looks set to eclipse Vietnam as Australia's longest war, involves approximately 1,500 ADF personnel and so far 22 Australian soldiers have died.
Inevitably Anzac Day has ceased to be a kind of funeral mass, and become something less admirable.
It's now all about cheering and glorifying. It's become a recruiting tool.
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