Tomorrow will be Remembrance or Armistice Day. It is also the 58th anniversary of Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence. It should be a day of poppies to remember the sacrifice of veterans. For former Rhodesians, a day to remember the spirit that allowed us to overcome adversity and resist the wave of chaos that had swept through Africa. A spirit epitomized by the Flame Lily, our national flower. I have written about Rhodesia here and here. Both those posts became stories in my book 5 Steps To Thriving On Adversity which can be purchased with the order form on the right of this page.
Remembrance Day Ceremonies Under Threat
It’s sad for people of my Boomer generation to hear of Cenotaphs being desecrated, condemnation of the poppy as a symbol of Remembrance, and read of threats to disrupt Remembrance Day services.
It is inconceivable to me that people with Western values and especially those professing to be Christians could support the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israeli civilians. Has our society lost all sense of decency?
After the initial outrage, the media quickly let their bias show and cast Israel as the aggressor and Hamas and the Palestinians as the victims. Just as with the great Coronavirus fraud, the media, aided and abetted by many supposedly democratic governments have supercharged the propaganda machine.
There are calls for pro-Palestine marches to be banned. As much as my heart would support that, it would set a dangerous precedent. Liberal governments in Canada and elsewhere showed they had no respect for the right to protest during the lockdown. The savage attacks on peaceful protesters in Ottawa during the convoy are the prime example. Banning protests that support terrorism, as distasteful as those displays of treason might be, would allow the government to ban any and every protest it did not like.
The big question is: Why are people who support terrorism in Canada anyway? If our values, customs, and laws are unacceptable to you, leave. Don’t try to bring our society down to the lawless and repressive levels of the countries you admire.
We should not ban protests, however, we should seriously consider deporting those who support our and our allies’ enemies.
The Unremembered Past
I follow Alex Berenson’s “Unreported Truths” substack newsletter. This paragraph in his newsletter today reminded me why so many North Americans – and Europeans – supported terrorists in South Africa and Rhodesia and not the servicemen and women and their descendants who fought and died alongside Allied soldiers in both World Wars.
Maybe that’s not surprising, for human beings have a hard time believing what they have not lived themselves. The unremembered past is fiction as much as the unlived future
Alex Berenson “On The Necessity of Violence.”
Years of propaganda pushed the myth that all White Southern Africans were bad, “apartheid” was the most evil system of civic and cultural organization ever created, the native black populations were innocent victims of colonialism. Their salvation led by the saint-like figures of Mandela, Mugabe and others.
Now that the propaganda machine has been turned against Israel, is it any wonder that so many in the West are now marching in support of Hamas, a terrorist organization, threatening to disrupt Remembrance Day services, and attacking Jewish Pensioners?
Most of those supporting Hamas, certainly have “a hard time believing what they have not lived themselves.” They refuse to accept that if not for the brave veterans who fought and died in the two great wars, they probably would not have been born into free societies, perhaps not even born at all. If not for Israel’s resistance to Islamic expansion in the Middle East, many regions around the Mediterranean might now be Islamic caliphates ruled by radical zealots.
Israel’s Right To Defend Its Territories.
I hear well-meaning people decry the violence being visited on the civilian population of Gaza, calling for restraint by Israel. The civilian population of Gaza is suffering because Hamas terrorists brutally massacred Israelis in a blatant act of savagery designed solely to provoke a massive retaliation. Hamas and the Palestinian leaders cannot afford peace with Israel. Peace would make them inconsequential.
It’s the same thinking that prevented the terrorists in Rhodesia and their international supporters from accepting the multi-racial, government with Bishop Abel Muzorewa as its head. The same reason Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the Zulus in South Africa did not become the first Black President. Peace in neither country fitted the UN nor international vested interest’s agenda.
In his article, Alex Berenson reminds us of the thousands of civilian casualties during the blitz in London and a similar number of casualties in Dresden Germany during the Allied retaliation bombing campaign. Both of these were eclipsed by the much greater civilian death toll from the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
War is nasty, brutal and savage. It can’t be conducted half-heartedly or even “fairly”. The quicker the enemy is neutralized, the fewer the casualties – civilian or combatant. The Palestinians could end their suffering tomorrow, by withdrawing their support for Hamas.
My Remembrance Day Tomorrow
I have lived through over 20 years of terrorism. It has cost me dearly. My late mother was crippled, and my father was murdered in two separate ambushes. Friends and colleagues were murdered and injured. Two properties lost in political turmoil and finally being deprived of my farm and all my assets and being imprisoned by the Zimbabwe government.
So my past was lived, it is not unremembered. The same as everyone, my future is unlived. I hope for a better future for all. However, we only deserve a better future if we are prepared to stand up for what is right. That can be hard, it can be dangerous or even deadly. But we owe it to our children, grandchildren and future generations to do it.
Tomorrow I will wear my poppy and my Rhodesian Army Service Medal with pride when I attend the Remembrance Day service at our local Cenotaph.
I hope you will wear your poppy too.
Book Recommendation
A friend recommended “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” by Greg McKeown. If you, like me, are always busy and struggle to find time to think and work on the really important stuff, then you need to read this book.
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Hostgator for website hosting.
Podbean for podcast hosting
Airtable for organizing our guest bookings and automations.
Audio Pen for transcribing voice notes
Two Health Products suppliers I recommend
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