Two weeks ago, on Easter Saturday, my grandfather died. He was 90 and had a good life. His funeral was 4 days later on Wednesday 14th, and was well attended by family and friends. I stayed up in Motueka until the end of the week, before coming back with my parents. Throughout the week with my aunties and uncles, and at times on the long journey home we talked and told stories about his life.
At the time, I felt I really wanted to write about him, maybe some sort of obituary, but I don't really know what to say, or how to say it, so instead I'll just ramble a bit about what he meant to me, and maybe just a little bit more.
My grandfather was, to me at least, always quite old. My grandparents retired to a lovely two story house they built on the estuary in Motueka before I was born. To say he was old, does not mean he wasn't active, despite being well educated, he didn't spend his retirement sitting at home engaging in personal pursuits. Even in his later years, when his physical health was failing, he was keen to head outside, into the garden, or further abroad in the Nelson region.
He spent his working life as a teacher and principal, and was involved in the anglican church and local musical groups. Thus he had many stong connections to the community and was well respected. He valued education and was widely read, and thus a font of information on a wide variety of topics. While his values were quite a bit more conservating than mine and most of his descendants, he was always accepting of our views, and lives.
Yesterday was ANZAC day (I didn't even realise we had a Ministry for Culture and Heritage), the day we honour those that died at war, and those that returned. The phrase lest we forget is from Rudyard Kipling's Recessional, and the Ode of Remembrance, which is usually read as part of the dedication, is the fourth verse from For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them
Now my grandfather was brought up in Nelson, and spent pent most of his life in the Nelson Region or on the West Coast, and that world was quite different to ours. He was in his mid-twenties when the World War 2 broke and was unable to serve due to medical reasons. As a result of not being able to do his duty, he felt unable to hold up his head in town (Nelson) for many years after the war finished.
As a generation, we are disconnected from the horrors of war [Apparently NZ lost the most men per capita during WWII], especially war on the scale of the two great conflicts know as the World Wars, more so modern warfare is a different situation, with the western world generally participating in only police actions, and then usually in a unnilateral way. What's more, when the West is involved their tends to be a technological asymmetry. Thus, the impact of war on our society is different.
The last few weeks have been rather depressing for those following the Bush Administration's infantile attempts at geo-politics. Iraq is the quagmire it always threatened to become and the carte-blanche endorsement of Sharon is probably the death-knell for the cause of peace in the Palestine.
Now I don't know much about 20th century history, modern warfare, or internation relations, but it seems obvious to me, especially given the historical context that even modern films give that it can be hell. Thus, one shouldn't really engage in it unless clear evidence that it is beneficial, and even then cautiously.
Now I can see that there might be benerficial reasons for ousting Saddam Hussein, even if the stated ones were largely illusionary. What I can stomach is the complete incompetence of it all. Right from the business with the UN and building a "coalition" through to their incredibly inept attempts at managing the peace. Now, while some casualities were ineviatable, the blame for many of those dead in Iraq whether US or Iraqi or from all around the world has to be laid at the feet of the Bush administration.
Furthermore, the shameless manipulation of (or should that be by) the media in the US is just sad. What American's need most if they're to regain moral leadership of the world is an insight into the real effect their voting decisions have on the rest of the world rather than just the unreal looking-glass world that they see now.
Somehow this has turned into a tirade, but in that form I guess I'll leave it.
If I'd actually got around to blogging in the last couple of months then I might have talked about some of these blogs :