“We are now at step 10”. This is chilling really. We are watching it like a slow fall. Those of us awake that is. There are droves of folk however, quietly moving towards the cliff of no return and no amount of persuasion will convince them to turn back. They are the product of years […]

There are 10 steps that every tyrannical government has followed — Rangitikei Environmental Health Watch

Which is which? Article on the BFD. See also this Andy Tristram cartoon

Although pronouncements by the Wokeist Brigade, both here and overseas, are fast becoming self-parody, there are still times when you can’t help gasp with astonishment.

A story on sussexlive.co.uk :-

Environmental campaigners are trying to gather support for more plant-based meals in Brighton and Hove schools and venues.

One campaigner, Alison Plaumer, from Extinction Rebellion, has started a petition on Brighton and Hove City Council’s website which has attracted more than 240 signatures so far.

Ms Plaumer called for more plant-based school meals in a deputation to councillors backed by seven supporters at a meeting of the full council meeting last month.

The petition makes the same request, for two plant-based days at state-run schools as soon as possible – and for all council-run events to be plant-based once the pandemic is over.

In the petition, Ms Plaumer quotes Professor Michael Clark, from Oxford University, as saying: “Animal agriculture and fishing industries are leading causes of deforestation, ocean dead zones, water pollution, biodiversity loss and species extinction.

“Not only that, intensive animal farming poses a significant threat for the development of new pandemics and for furthered antibacterial resistance to emerge.”

Ms Plaumer also told the council last month: “Arguably, there is a racist element to serving dairy too much because 65 per cent of the world’s population are lactose intolerant, many from the BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) community.

Read the rest

It only needs a solitary classic car somewhere to create the impression of the Good Old Days, here a 1959 Chevrolet Impala with the famous ‘bat wings’ at the rear. 🙂 The 1960 model saw the wings flatten, with round individual taillights.

By Roger Childs

25 April 1915 is a day etched into our history. This was the second time New Zealanders saw action in World War One and whereas only one soldier was killed in the February 1915 skirmish against the Turks on the Suez Canal, the landing in Gallipoli saw 147 killed and hundreds wounded. This was the start of the ill-fated and ultimately unsuccessful eight month campaign by allied forces to wrest control of the peninsula from Ottoman troops.

Since 1916, when the New Zealand government declared the landing day an occasion to remember our gallant troops at Gallipoli, 25 April has been known as Anzac Day. As time went on we have come to remember all the casualties of wars and United Nations engagements which our men and women in the armed forces have been involved in. 

In speeches at Anzac Day ceremonies around the country, Gallipoli will undoubted get a mention and reference may be made to the landing at Ari Burnu (Anzac Cove) and the notion that this campaign was a key element in forging New Zealand’s national identity. 

Doomed from the start

We were let down by our own high command. –Australian Veteran, Lucky Durham

The Gallipoli campaign was a military fiasco and took the lives of 2779 Kiwi soldiers and left over 5000 wounded. It was disastrously mismanaged, starting with landing the Australian and New Zealand forces a kilometre north of the planned location at Gaba Tepe. So instead of a wide beach and low-lying land beyond, the troops were deposited on a beach the width of a cricket pitch and in front of them were steep hills and deep ravines. 

Historian Richard Stowers has commented that unfortunately for the Allies the collapse of the whole campaign could be attributed to a very early error – landing the Anzac on the wrong beach. 

That same day there was also a disastrous attempt to land British troops at Cape Helles on the southern tip of the peninsula. The landing blunders were compounded by poor leadership and incompetence in the months that followed and the only success was ironically the evacuation of all allied troops in December 2015 and January 2016 without any casualties.

From April to December there were fruitless attempts to push back the Ottoman forces from the heights of Gallipoli. The latter were very well led by German General Liman van Sanders and his right hand man in the field Mustapha Kemal.

After the initial landings the conflict bogged down into trench warfare on the steep, rugged landscape with occasional ruinous daylight, frontal attacks on enemy positions which cost the lives of tens of thousands. 

The one short-lived success was the capture by the New Zealanders lead by Lieutenant Colonel William Malone of the high point of Chunuk Bair. But the failure of the commanders to quickly back up this success with experienced reinforcements and flanking advances, meant that Chunuk Bair was ultimately lost. Mustapha Kemal was faster in counter-attacking and swept the Kiwis and British troops off the strategic peak.

Remembering Gallipoli for what it was

There was never an army worse looked after than the one in Gallipoli. –Australian Journalist Keith Murdoch

As the campaign unfolded, even by the standards of war, conditions were appalling – the noise of shelling and gunfire, little sleep, poor food, the constant smell of decaying bodies, the lack of water, energy sapping dysentery and lice, flies everywhere, inadequate medical facilities, the heat in summers and the cold in winter. 

However, despite the dreadful conditions, rugged terrain and indifferent leadership the New Zealand and Australian soldiers fought with courage and honour, but as time went on there was a growing recognition amongst the men that most of the commanders had let them down and needlessly sacrificed the lives of tens of thousands of their mates. 

Today in New Zealand we should not try and turn the Gallipoli campaign into something it was not – a pivotal nation-building experience with Kiwis playing an important role on the world stage. 

Putting thousands of men through hell in Gallipoli, under-resourced and under-supplied in appalling conditions, with 2779 being killed and 5000 wounded in a military fiasco is not nation-building. The survivors certainly didn’t see it this way. Veteran Russell Weir said It’s the closest place I’ve been to hell. 

Those who died and served should be remembered for their commitment and bravery, but it is important to realise that they were not serving some higher cause like defending the empire or fighting for democracy or peace. They were invading another country and Turkey’s capital Istanbul was going to be handed over to the Russians who were governed by the autocratic Czar Nicholas II.

The bottom line is that Gallipoli strategically achieved nothing, and ultimately denied a generation of men the chance to achieve their potential as family members and active citizens in NZ and communities all round the world.

Gallipoli veteran Doug Dibley age 100 said in 1996, ‘The Great War took the best of our young men and look at how many came maimed and broken. Many suffered dreadfully for the rest of their lives. And he added Anzac Day is important. These men should never be forgotten.‘

Anzac Day is here to stay

April 25^th is Anzac Day and will remain so. It is important to acknowledge that 25 April 1915 was the day New Zealanders soldiers started fighting in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign in which our men served with honour and courage. 

New Zealand provided 17,000 people, about 4% of the troops who fought in the eight month campaign, so our country actually played a very small role, but it did punch above its weight as its troops were regarded highly by many including the overall commander General Ian Hamilton. Tragically there were almost 8000 needless New Zealand casualties in the ill-fated venture. 

It is right and proper that we should have a day to remember New Zealand men and women who served overseas — in South Africa, two world wars, Malaya, Korea, Vietnam, Somalia, East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan, and especially those who died in their country’s service. 

But we should also recall all the casualties of those wars and engagements, whatever their nationalities, including the majority who were innocent civilians. Above all, we should be emphasising living without war and giving peace a chance. Lest we forget.