Beersheba is a name that should resonate with every Australian with the same ease and reverence as Gallipoli.
Sadly it does not.
Because the charge on the desert city of Beersheba on 31st October, 1917 is the most outstanding piece of military daring and execution ever undertaken in the military history of the World.
Read more: BEERSHEBA – The Charge of the Light Horse
There is a lack of consciousness these days in the hearts of ordinary people.
A lack of Patriotism and Soul.
A lack of Pride.
Given that we still celebrate ANZAC Day, Bullecourt and other Western Front disasters. We seem to forget so much.
Our National tribute of " Lest We Forget " seems to have somehow turned into " We Have Forgotten. "
I was a very happy camper to see my daughter, who recently returned from an unfortunate trip overseas. Having been hospitalised and in a pretty bad way from bad food, bad water or bad who knows what, I finally got to wrap my arms around her and say " Thank God you are OK. "
Her life, and those of her fellow travellers, had been in jeopardy. Some were ill and some were gravely ill. Hospitalised in a foreign country where language barriers made it even more challenging. Our anxiety " back home " was extreme. We felt so helpless. Because we were, well, helpless.
It's a funny thing being a parent. No matter how old you are or how old your children are, they are our babies and we love them as if we still held in them in our arms and rejoiced in the miracle of their birth.
So, after a brush with death from an horrific bout of God knows what that saw her so very ill in that foreign place along with her fellow humanitarian travellers, I finally saw her today. Still magnificently gorgeous, thank goodness.
My " baby " was home.
Read more: We Need to Keep the Lights on and Find Refuge in a Storm
Were they mere mortals after all?
Some time ago while standing in front of my fridge, door open, I was struck with the, “Old Mother Hubbard” syndrome. Visions sprang to mind of shuffling along, tin mug in hand, just one of many poor wretches in a soup kitchen line-up. Boldly demanding more. In thinking of soup kitchens…
The following is an account of two great contributors to mankind, Florence Nightingale, an English nurse, and Alexis Soyer, a French chef.
Few would argue that Florence Nightingale epitomised Victorian propriety.
Most have forgotten Alexis Soyer who was characterised more as an artistic and liberal thinker. A bit of a peacock as the saying goes.
My research, however, indicates by the omissions in their own written accounts that they, the heroes of this story, were perhaps mere mortals after all. The reader will decide.
Read more: The Peacock and the Nightingale - A Recipe Made in Heaven
The Crimean War, which took place from 1853 to 1856, was primarily fought over a combination of religious, territorial, and political issues. On the 25th of October, 1854, 600 men rode into what is now known as the Valley of Death.
The Battle of Balaclava was a conflict that pitted British, French, and Ottoman forces against the Russian Empire.
But it seems to me that it was the direct opposite of the successful Charge of the Light Horsemen at Beersheba.
Read more: The Charge of the Light Brigade: A Brave, Ill-Fated Ride into History
As we, including me, wallow in disappointment and disgust by the lack of leadership from our political and civil leaders with their weasel-worded utterances, I would like to indulge myself in writing this exposé on one aspect of Australia’s past heritage.
I hope it will inspire us, despite the despondency we are deriving from our present leaders.
For almost 1,400 years, the Muslims dominated the Holy Land and the surrounding Levant.
Australians are living in the latter days of the Anglo/American Empire.
For centuries now, world power centres have been moving west – from Mongolia, to Europe, to Britain, to North America, and now Asia beckons.
The Anglo/American Empire today resembles the decadent dying days of Rome. Europe is becoming a green energy wasteland, the British Empire died with Churchill, and America has dodderers and adolescents in charge.
What a mess the world is in. I could not help but cast my mind back nearly 5 years and consider how different the world is today.
It was on the 6th of December 6, 2017 that President Trump recognised Jerusalem, the ancient capital of the Jewish people, as the capital of the State of Israel.
It was a momentous decision and one that the then Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison followed in 2018.
Yet the current Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced last year that the Labor Government was going back on the former Prime Minister's decision to recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Australia is now, like so many western countries, experiencing rallies and protests where people are chanting " From the River to the Sea " as some sort of war cry to support Palestine and encourage the destruction of Israel as a country..... ?
Flysa spent some of the early years of his life managing construction projects in the northwest of Western Australia to assist in the transportation of iron ore. The projects comprised railways, bridges, and wharves. But how did the iron ore get there? To answer that question, we have to go back a few years.
About 4.5 billion years ago, the Earth was formed as a sphere of molten rock from gases emitted by the Sun. Over millions of years, the surface gradually cooled and formed a solid, uneven, crust with constant upthrust from the molten interior (magma). Volcanic emissions from the molten interior, which broke through the crust, released water vapour into the atmosphere, which gradually condensed and fell as rain, covering the lower depressions in the earth’s surface with water by the force of gravity, thus forming the oceans. Cometary impact also contributed water to the oceans. That all occurred about 3.8 billion years ago. All the time the mountains were pushed up by the magma at the rate of a few millimetres a year, which continues to this day.
This morning I went outside to sit in the sunshine and have a morning cup of tea. The manager of my building complex was mowing the lawn and the smell of the freshly mown grass was in the morning air. Most of us know that smell so well and it triggers memories of childhoods and happy days.
In November 2021 Anthony Albanese tried to defend his Labor Party stand to disallow producing ID at polling booths. He contended that because the AEC has not prosecuted a single person, despite that years earlier 18,000 people were found to have voted more than once was proof that the system is working well—say what Albo?
Labor and the bloody Greens don't want ID verification because, well, you figure why. Furthermore, if the AEC were to prosecute any of the 18,000 that Albanese considers as mere "errors" it would highlight the fact that the system is wide open to fraud. Also, if they could prove multiple voting by any person what would they do with that person’s vote? Is the perpetrator suddenly going to be honest and tell to whom his illegal vote was cast so it could be withdrawn? Ho, Ha,Ha, Get real!
Read more: In God We Trust - Not So The Australian Electoral Commission!
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