Category: Heritage and Tradition

Remembrance – Peringatan #8 1945 – Side By Side We Stuck Together

In most fields of endeavor, modern life in The West is poisoned by bullying and fear.

When people act together in a spirit of kind, understanding brotherhood and caring, unselfish sisterhood, people can do great things. That’s what the guys in Collingwood’s AFL team have achieved so far this season and that’s what the men and women of Australia and other western nations did in World War Two when they bound together and defeated fascism.

Sometimes sporting people can still rise to those heights. Many others find it harder and harder now to be the best people they can be. Stupidity and often institutionalized selfishness and bullying frequently get in the way.

The photos in this post were taken at a Victorian Football League Elimination final at Victoria Park yesterday, the sporting ground where my dad took me to the footy many, many times when I was a kid.

Lest We Forget.

Geoff Fox, 29th August, 2022, Melbourne, Australia

Remembrance – Peringatan #7 A Green Freedom Park

Today on the 124th anniversary of the birth of Australia’s greatest ever cricketer, Sir Donald George Bradman, I call upon Australians and their leaders to strive for Bradmanesque excellence and turn a magnificent heritage site into a world class national park.

Geoff Fox, 27th August, 2022, Melbourne, Australia

VICTORY FOR ALL #1 MacArthur Style Bulldogs

For the past ten years, my life has been focussed on trying to learn and share the lessons of World War Two.

This was a major theme of art displays I created at both a national heritage water source important to the memory of General Douglas MacArthur in Morotai, Indonesia, and also at Barak Obama’s first school in Jakarta.

During this decade, the people I have conversed with on matters relevant to this endeavour included Prime Ministers Gillard, Rudd and Turnbull of Australia and Presidents Jokowi and Yudhoyono of Indonesia.

This morning, the people who inspire me the most by showing the spirit of WW2 are the Sons Of The West (people from the Western Bulldogs football club) who are headquartered down the road from my place.

As I understand it, this season, Coach Luke Beveridge has shared the work load of playing among a large number of players. This is a strategy which will keep the team fresh for the finals.

This reminds me of the spirit and wisdom of General Douglas MacArthur.

The simple piece of word art above is for all sons and daughters of the west and of the whole world.

May we all learn from our past and work effectively together now and well into the future.

Geoff Fox, 5th August, 2021, Footscray, Australia

KARTINIISM # 1 Vulnerability In A Dark World

Sadly. so sadly, the softest women’s voices hide themselves in quieteness in this shouting world.

I was a midwife for 32 years. I cannot understand why mothering gentleness is so widely scorned.

Kartini knew that the tender love of mothers is the heart of our world.

Geoff Fox, Hari Kartini, 2021, Terra Nullius