ANZAC Day
Today was ANZAC Day. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The day marks the unholy mess of the Gallipoli landings which were only a small part of the bigger fuck up that was World War I. The casualties were high, especially on the Turkish side, and the impact on NZ was shocking; the troops suffered an 88% casualty rate. After the war it became a day on which the NZ war dead are remembered and all servicemen and women are honoured. It's strange to walk around with the memory of such an important day in my head when no one else around me has any idea about it.
In ninety years, what the day means has changed and is still subject to debate. However, permit me to trot out a pet peeve and say the assertion that Gallipoli marked the birth of our nation is nonsense. I would hesitate to pick out any one event in NZ that qualified as such and if I did have to pick one then following Imperial Britain into war certainly wouldn't be it.
I think one of the important things now is that it's an opportunity to do some bonding with the Turks, together with the Australians. Although the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, has disrupted this a bit this year by not attending the New Zealand ceremony as is customary. What on earth is up with that? The NZ Prime Minister, Helen Clarke, has attended the Australian ceremony and is being supremely tactful about the situation.
But enough of politics, I prefer to recall the generous words of Kemal Ataturk in 1934, which are on a memorial at ANZAC Cove:
"Those heroes that shed their blood
and lost their lives...
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies
and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side
here in this country of ours...
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries,
wipe away your tears;
your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace.
After having lost their lives in this land they have
become our sons as well."
In ninety years, what the day means has changed and is still subject to debate. However, permit me to trot out a pet peeve and say the assertion that Gallipoli marked the birth of our nation is nonsense. I would hesitate to pick out any one event in NZ that qualified as such and if I did have to pick one then following Imperial Britain into war certainly wouldn't be it.
I think one of the important things now is that it's an opportunity to do some bonding with the Turks, together with the Australians. Although the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, has disrupted this a bit this year by not attending the New Zealand ceremony as is customary. What on earth is up with that? The NZ Prime Minister, Helen Clarke, has attended the Australian ceremony and is being supremely tactful about the situation.
But enough of politics, I prefer to recall the generous words of Kemal Ataturk in 1934, which are on a memorial at ANZAC Cove:
"Those heroes that shed their blood
and lost their lives...
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies
and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side
here in this country of ours...
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries,
wipe away your tears;
your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace.
After having lost their lives in this land they have
become our sons as well."