May the good times and treasures of the present  become the golden memories of tomorrow.       Wishing you lots of, joy and happiness.  A Very Merry Christmas! & A Happy and Healthy New Year

 From my house to yours all the very best for the coming festive season, may you enjoy the company of your love ones and may the coming New Year bring you good health and happiness

AAP March 25, 2012, 11:13 pm

The Anzac Day centenary celebrations in 2015 could cause divisions in multicultural Australia, a government-funded review has found. News Ltd newspapers said focus-group testing found that multiculturalism represented a risk for the celebrations and one that should be considered to avoid unexpected negative complications. The report said commemorating our military history in a multicultural society is something of a double-edged sword. “While the 100th anniversaries are thought to provide some opportunity for creating a greater sense of unity, it is also recognised as a potential area of divisiveness.” The RSL has rubbished the review and says Australia’s enthusiasm for the day remains as strong as ever. RSL national president Ken Doolan told News Ltd that Anzac Day held a central place in Australia. “The Australian people have said overwhelmingly that they want the centenary celebrated,” he said.

How long must we put up with this garbage and all this political correctness, all these government funded reviews is nothing but a waste of resources that could be beneficially used elsewhere. This review and the one to use ANZAC as a brand for commercial use is off limits and should not be tolerated.

The federal government is reportedly looking to brand the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australia and New Zealand forces during World War I.

A market research company has been paid $103,275 to conduct focus groups nationwide last year on branding Anzac Day, News Limited reported on Friday.

“It is a political intervention which should be snuffed out immediately, not just because it’s a waste of money but because Anzac Day … (is) profoundly celebrated and commemorated,” former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett said.

A Department of Veterans’ Affairs spokeswoman told News Limited the concept for “a national brand or motif” came after an Anzac Centenary Advisory Board meeting on October 14.

She said the government was tendering for a design and that ideas would be focus group tested.

Victorian RSL boss David McLachlan would not comment until he had seen the plans.

Typical of our bureaucrats trying to simulate our way of life to that of the Americans, pattern  eyerything regardless of the consequences for once I’m with Jeff Kenneth this should be snuffed out immediately.

To all who pass this way  have A Happy and Healthy New Year

and may2o12 bring you and yours Joy & Prosperity

THE Australian Defence Force is exploiting forced cutbacks in military spending in Britain and other Western countries, embarking on an unprecedented drive to recruit laid-off soldiers, sailors and air crew.Defence, which has struggled to fill recruitment quotas in the face of increasing competition from the lucrative private sector, is seeking highly skilled specialists such as fighter pilots, special forces officers and submarine crews. And as an incentive, it is prepared to offer a fast track to Australian citizenship for so-called “lateral recruits” after just three months’ service.

This article and comic appeared in today’s The Australian. It makes one wonder where this country of ours is heading; those of us who have served our country and the thousands that have paid the supreme sacrifice. Is this what we have fought for? Is our citizenship so cheaply symbolised that it can be bought for just a pittance, three months service. What is happening to the mentality of those elected to Govern and those entrusted with the leadership of our Armed forces. It would appear that if we go down this track all we will have for the protection of our way of life which has been dearly brought since our Federation is a Mercenary ADF.

I have a list of people I know

All written in a book

And every year at Christmastime

I go and take a look

And that is when I realise

That those names are a part

Not of the book they’re written in

But of my very heart

For each name stands for someone

Who has crossed my path some time

And in that meeting they’ve become

A treasured friend of mine

And once you’ve met some people

The years can not erase

The memory of a pleasant word

Or a friendly face

So when I send a Christmas card

That is addressed to you

It’s because you’re on that list

Of folk I’m indebted to

And you are one of many folk who

In times past I’ve met

And happen to be one of those

I don’t want to forget

And whether I have known you for

Many years or few

In some way you have a part in

Shaping things I do

This, the spirit of Christmas, that

Forever and ever endures

May it leave it richest blessing

In the hearts of you and yours.

ANON

We honour our old veterans, we honour them with pride
and read of all the horrors they have carried deep inside.
We know they served in Asia or New Guinea’s highland rains,
Vietnam or in Africa where many men were slain.

We know that fateful landing on Gallipoli’s dark shore,
wherever Aussies fought, we know there are so many more,
but now a new young generation needs our help as well,
they too have been to war and suffer with their private hell.

Though losses are not classed as great, their fears are just the same
those electronic hidden bombs, still injure, kill or maim.
They fight against an enemy they find so hard to see
who mingle in the market place, then cause much tragedy.

Insurgents in Afghanistan hide in the rough terrain
or roaming in Iraq, where, wearing robes they look the same.
The suicide stealth bombers, don’t care who they hurt or kill,
then, with their own beliefs, they try to break our forces will.

Our fighting Aussie spirit shows on any foreign land,
they’re in the skies, they’re on the sea, or on the desert sand.
Now many are returning with the horrors they still see
and living with their nightmares, suffering bureaucracy.

I know on ANZAC day, we all remember with a tear,
but all vets young or old, they need our help throughout the year,
support and listen to their stories, when they do get told,
lets honour our new veterans, just like we do our old.

David J Delaney
10 February 2010  ©

“Each of them was one on us,” “Each of them is lost to us now. Each in essence an ordinary Australian who we asked to do an extraordinary thing,” “Australians do remember them. Australians will remember them. We remember them with our silence. Lest we forget.”

No truer words were spoken by a politician as those uttered by the Prime Minister in Seoul yesterday! ANZAC Day.