Tag Archives: remembrance

Somewhere in my neighbourhood, there is a bagpiper. I hear him more often than see him: at sporadic intervals throughout the year, kitted out in full tartan he plays through a selection of tunes. When I hear him, I know it is the lead-up to one of Australia’s days of remembrance. He’s been out again […]

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“There never was a good war, or a bad peace.” – Benjamin Franklin (July 27, 1983) Last Tuesday was ANZAC Day: a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that commemorates those “who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations” and their contribution and suffering. The date, however, was specifically […]

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Peace. Is there such a thing? At the moment – at least in my corner of the world – there is an absence of war. Given the current political climates internationally, this absence of war does not feel like “peace”. It feels like a precarious balance of competing tensions: a temporary truce, while one holds […]

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Do you ever have those times when you get so busy you almost forget to breathe? In a country like Australia, you get used to covering a lot of ground to get from A to B and to C. Since arriving in Sydney from Bangkok a week ago, I’ve spent most of my time in […]

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  For The Fallen Laurence Binyon, Cornwall, 1915 With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea. Flash of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit, Fallen in the cause of the free. Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres. […]

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