Make Coffee Not War

Growing up in my home town of Dannevirke, one of our annual rituals
was participating in the ANZAC Day parade through the town centre to
the cenotaph where we laid wreathes to commemorate our country folk
who had died in war.

Etched into the stone monument in the Dannevirke domain are the words,
'Lest We Forget'.

As a teenager, these words made me think about my Grandfather - of his
time as a pilot in British Bomber Command, and later in one of
Germany's worst concentration camps as a POW. I used these words to
recall what war might have been like for him, and reflect upon how I
was spared such grave experiences.

What I didn't realize is that this line comes from Rudyard Kipling's
poem "Recessional" which he composed upon the occasion of Queen
Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. In his poem Kipling on the one
hand celebrates the might of the British empire, but on the other
laments that like all great empires it tends towards extreme
patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy, or jingoism as it
is sometimes termed.

As a young lad no one ever told me that these three words on cenotaphs
throughout our country might actually be telling us not to forget the
folly of war, not to forget how the arrogance of overestimating one's
capabilities to weld power results in tremendous suffering for the
weak and powerless.

At a time when New Zealand is involved in helping fight America's wars
on 'terrorism' like that of Afganistan, one of my friends, Adi Leason
has been remembering those whom are easily forgotten.

Adi, and his wife Shelly, parents of seven of their own children, have
not forgotten the fathers, mothers, and children in Afganistan who are
bearing the full brunt of the massive occupation of 100,000 US troops
backed by US 'defence' budget of USD$680 billion. The reasons for this
war in Afghanistan? Who knows?! The said war on 'terrorism', becomes a
war of terror if you happen to be an Afghani.

Sadly, New Zealand is not exempt from the war mongering of the US.
Since 1988, New Zealand tax payers have funded over NZ$500 million to
run the Waihopai satelite base near Blenheim - essentially a foreign
spybase on New Zealand soil. This base, part of an international
network of satelite bases for intelligence gathering, submits raw
data directly to the US without checks by our government.

On a foggy, wet morning late in May 2008, my friend Adi and two others
broke into the Waihopai base, and through a stroke of incredible luck,
temporarily disrupted the base's operation, and our contribution to US
military intelligence gathering - what the Bush Administration saw as
one of the most critical tools in waging the 'war on terror'.

This coming week, Adi and his friends stand trial before our government for
deflating one of the mammoth satelite domes at Waihopai. Whether or
not you agree with their civil disobedience, Adi's action is reminder
to me of the folly of the present Middle East wars and our comfortable complicity with it.

Lest We Forget that our far flung nation of Aotearoa is implicated in
the hubris of these US wars. Make Coffee, Not War.

Tags // Coffee, War, NZ Spy Bases

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