Do you observe a minute's silence for the 1 million Rwandans murdered in 1993-94?

[On the Left Wing]

Sorry guys ... just felt moved to post this thread as I find 11 November really hypocritical.

The masters of war have never changed ... and as Owen said: "the poetry is in the pity"

 

[Biscuit]

sad.

 

[Hungry Joe]

I think a lot of people these days consider the rememberance to be for all the victims of conflict so in answer to your question I would say yes. It's a fair point to raise. I spared a thought for the Iraqi's, Americans, British and men, women and children of all races currently dying in conflicts around the world.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

I dont think we can ever thank these people enough for what they did.

Heroes one and all.

 

[On the Left Wing]

I dont think we can ever thank these people enough for what they did.

Heroes one and all.

One stroppy old biddy once had a go at me for refusing to buy a poppy, saying: "if it wasn't for your grandparents you'd be living under Hitler" .............. ................................................................................................... to which I pointed out that one of my grandparents was French and the other was German !!

Sorry if that offends, but I feel quite strongly about this

 

[smudge]

I think of the people who gave their lives in conflict......for us.

 

[Hungry Joe]

I was at The Menen Gate for the Last Post earlier this year and it was without doubt one of the most moving experiences of my life. Seeing all those names, many from our own Royal Sussex Regiment listed in a foreign land really brought the scale of the slaughter home. There was a delegation of lads from one of the Lancashire regiments there to lay a wreath and these young tough lads were holding back the tears. That's what it's about, the young people who had, and are still having, their lives cut short. The politics don't matter.

 

[smudge]

I was at The Menen Gate for the Last Post earlier this year and it was without doubt one of the most moving experiences of my life. Seeing all those names, many from our own Royal Sussex Regiment listed in a foreign land really brought the scale of the slaughter home. There was a delegation of lads from one of the Lancashire regiments there to lay a wreath and these young tough lads were holding back the tears. That's what it's about, the young people who had, and are still having, their lives cut short. The politics don't matter.

I went to the Menin Gate at Ypres with school back in the 70's. Found 2 of my Nans brothers names who died in the Battle of Ypres. They're just 2 I thought of today.

 

[London Irish]

The politics don't matter.

Hmmm..... tell that to the families (of the British kids who've recently been slaughtered in Iraq) trying to lay a wreath at No10 Downing Street and who were told, in polite government language of course, to f*** off.

You can certainly remember the fallen in this country.....if you do it in the safe, government-approved ways.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

My great Grandad died at the Somme and my Grandad on the other side of the family lost an arm in the second world war.

I do not think it is a day to celebrate beating the German's but to remember the terrible price many paid in order to keep Europe a free place.

 

[Hungry Joe]

Hmmm..... tell that to the families (of the British kids who've recently been slaughtered in Iraq) trying to lay a wreath at No10 Downing Street and who were told, in polite government language of course, to f*** off.

You can certainly remember the fallen in this country.....if you do it in the safe, government-approved ways.

Fair point, it was a bit of a glib statement but I think you know what I meant.

 

[somerset]

Fair point, it was a bit of a glib statement but I think you know what I meant.

Of course he did..... he just likes to posture....

Like OTLW.... he will always pick a 'devils advocate' stance, usually because it's right on, but perhaps, giving him some credit, because he has a genuine belief in his views. You won't however find him giving a tangible demonstrations of sorrow for Rwandans/Cambodians/Aboriginis/East Timorians etc etc, unless it is to brow beat the rest of us into intellectual submission.


For the record, I give very serious thinking and contemplation time, every 11th November, not just to the dead of the two world wars ( all 62 million of them), but to all the repressed and opressed of this sick world we live in..... I just do it privately without making a song and dance about it.......

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Of course he did..... he just likes to posture....

You won't however find him giving a tangible demonstrations of sorrow for Rwandans/Cambodians/Aboriginis/East Timorians etc etc, unless it is to brow beat the rest of us into intellectual submission.

Ah. Someone else noticed this as well then.

 

[the right footed denilson]

I don't understand this post.

For me November 11 is a day to remember and thank the people who have died in war for our freedom.

What has this got to do with Rwanda?

Are u saying we should stop the 11/11 rememberence because people have died since and we don't have an official rememberence day/minutes silence for them?

 

[London Irish]

Ah. Someone else noticed this as well then.

Oh dear, Richie, still nursing a grudge from when we disagreed about Paul Weller's politics then?

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Nope. Just do not like the way some people on this board seem to think that their political beliefs are more important then other peoples.

I have very strong views but am glad people disgree and think differently because it is healthy for society to have different views and a key part of democracy.

 

[London Irish]

Fair point, it was a bit of a glib statement but I think you know what I meant.

No I wouldn't use words like glib, but I think there is a lot of unspoken political assumptions that underlie state-approved mourning. It's a complicated subject, but I jusy don't swallow the idea that these events are ever free from politics.

 

[On the Left Wing]

Like OTLW.... he will always pick a 'devils advocate' stance, usually because it's right on, but perhaps, giving him some credit, because he has a genuine belief in his views. You won't however find him giving a tangible demonstrations of sorrow for Rwandans/Cambodians/Aboriginis/East Timorians etc etc, unless it is to brow beat the rest of us into intellectual submission.

I hope I don't do that - it's not my intention.

I have always believed that no man (or woman) has a right to take any other life. And when that random taking of life is done from behind a desk it multiplies the sin a thousand fold.

I also feel - and perhaps it my years in journalism that has done this - that we in the "white" English-speaking western world have one set of moral standards for life and death for "our own kin and kind" and a totally ambivalent dismissal if that death is of "the enemy" or the person happens to be Rwandan, Cambodian, Bengali or whatever!!

Tell me which death is worse - a starving Ethiopian mother who hasjust given her last bowl of rice to her dying child or an 18 year old lad from the English shires shot dead by a German bullet on the Somme .... there is no answer because the question begs too many answers!!!

But that is my own personal view and I don't intend to brow beat anyone else to share it

 

[Brighton Breezy]

In defence of On the left Wing he never tries to force his views down other people's throats.

He is a nice man.

 

[somerset]

Are u saying we should stop the 11/11 rememberence because people have died since and we don't have an official rememberence day/minutes silence for them?

If they were killed or suffered in the cause of Internationalism or by default socialism, then thats ok, but death for any other cause is not in the LI or OTLW picture.