Saturday, October 25, 2008
Gallipoli:”thousands come to see this place after the war”
October, 1915 27 Tuesday: "The Dardanelles expedition wasted a great chance". (T.E. Lawrence - but note T.E. uses the word "great" always in a specialised sense. "Little" was the word he used to show the utmost contempt and "great" was always a word of high praise). 28 Wednesday: Munro arrives at...
Sign in to see full entry.
Reply To AardigeAfrikaner: Part 10 - Jim Bolger: Political Genius
New Zealand had suffered the thuggery of Sir Robert Muldoon and the class treachery of the Labour Party. The country was sick and tired of a political system where a party with the minority of votes could still form a government. They were tired of political bickering; of the sound of fiddling...
Sign in to see full entry.
Spring Walk
On The trip to Australia my camera died so I ended up buying a new one. Back home I bought another. Meanwhile here's a few pictures of the development going on behind my house.
Sign in to see full entry.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Gallipoli: “Hymns not infrequently came to extreme grief “
October, 1915 20 Tuesday: "The experience of Private McRae was far from uncommon. On 7 August, during the desperate fighting for Chunuk Bair, McRae wrote in his small pocket diary: ‘ A lot of prisoners taken. We rushed trenches after they left got hit on thigh. The entire entry for the following day...
Sign in to see full entry.
Auckland International Film Festival: White Mane
Director: Albert Lamorisse Loved the film, especially the B&W photography, but I have a major issue with the story. It is almost a documentary until the end when it collapses into magic realism. All that was needed (plot wise) was for the cowboys to honour their promise that, if the boy could catch...
Sign in to see full entry.
Reply To AardigeAfrikaner: Part 9 - Rogernomics and Ruthanasia
In 1984 Labour came to power and the cupboard was bare. In less than a week the Party transformed from a Left wing group to an extreme Right Wing Party. In the early days of their tenure in office the changes were necessary - not policies they had campaigned on, but necessary and therefore...
Sign in to see full entry.
Auckland International Film Festival: The Red Balloon
Director: Albert Lamorisse A French short film. I saw a beautifully restored print (but remastered from a technicolor print where some major shrinkage was not corrected - there were some ghost images in some shots). The story is a magic realist classic. A boy becomes friends with a red balloon which...
Sign in to see full entry.
Reply To AardigeAfrikaner: Part 8 - 1984
Labour sweeps into power - defeating the deeply unpopular Sir Robert “Piggy” Muldoon. Muldoon’s protectionist philosophy (and unprecedented seizure of power by holding down the jobs of both PM and Treasurer) had left the country within a few days of bankruptcy. This was mana from heaven for the...
Sign in to see full entry.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Gallipoli: “utterly disloyal to his chief”
October, 1915 14 Wednesday: The Dardanelles Committee meet. They decide a new Commander is needed at Gallipoli. Lord Milner advocates the evacuation of Gallipoli at the House Of Lords. Asquith decides to recall Hamilton 15 Thursday: " … the only way to minimise losses in a withdrawal is to ensure...
Sign in to see full entry.
Reply To AardigeAfrikaner: Part 7 - Geo-Politics
Nineteenth Century politics saw the gradual creation of Party politics. Due to geography all Partys had, by Western standards of the time, a socialist bent. It should come as no surprise that a bare 6 months after all men got the vote in NZ that all women won the vote as well (making NZ the first...
Sign in to see full entry.
