20 years ago today - I stood as a young backpacker on the shores of Galipoli in the very place that those young boys we call ANZAC’s landed. If they survived in an instant they were transformed from boys into men. The paradox of us arriving a guests, travellers on an adventure of a lifetime, young, free with the world at our feet. These men left the safe shores of our home land with the same mindset - an adventure, the world at their feet…until that moment as dawn broke and their boats crossed the darkness of the Dardanelles to land on rocky shores and be literally destroyed by the enemy. I couldn’t help make reverence to what they had seen as their boats arrived, expecting to land under the cover of darkness, unknown to their enemy but instead finding the exact opposite. The opportunity and the honour to attend the Dawn service at ANZAC Cove in both 1996 and 1997 is an experience that I will always hold dear.
My eldest is 9 and he is quickly developing his social conscious which is something I am really tyring to nurture in him. Particularly as he has spent a huge portion of his little life living and travelling in the developing world. I really want my boys to be aware of how blessed they are. Last year he experienced his first Dawn service at Changi War cemetery and it was a very sobering occasion and one we were both honoured to attend, especially as Aussie ex-pats away from home. This is a tradition that I really wanted to continue with him, for him to be able to pay his respect for the blessed life that he leads and to be aware of the freedoms that are ours because others have paid the supreme sacrifice. However this year - living in Hoi An the only services were small events held at pubs and I decided that maybe his was not the environment that I had in mind for him to remember. So we did not attend and tonight we will sit down and talk, and pay our respects to those boys that gave up their youth so that we can say we are from the worlds luckiest country.
So as I sat last night reflecting on my decision to not take him to service in a pub in Danang I realised that we had just had a an experience the day before, in Cambodia that allowed him the opportunity to reflect on the turmoil of war. While in Siem Reap we visited the Cambodian Landmine museum. Below is an exert from their webpage about how this centre was born:
The Cambodian Landmine Museum was established in 1997 by ex-child soldier Aki Ra. After years of fighting he returned to the villages in which he planted thousands of mines and began removing them, by hand, and defusing them with homemade tools.
In 2008 he established a formal demining NGO, Cambodian Self Help Demining (CSHD). CSHD is a separate NGO and apart from the Museum. They clear landmines throughout the country.
The idea for a Relief Facility came around when Aki Ra saw many children wounded by landmines and those in extreme poverty. He brought them to his home, where he and his wife raised them as their own, alongside their own children. Originally, all of the children at the facility were landmine victims. Today the facility cares for children who suffer from a variety of difficulties.
The Relief Facility houses over 2 dozen children from small villages in Cambodia. The children are enrolled in public government school to continue their education. The Facility also has its own school building to enrich the children's education with a computer lab, a library, English language classes, a playground, and a staff of 14. The Relief Facility accepts volunteers to help teach English, work in the Museum and assist in the office.
Again this is a very sobering place and one where the utmost respect is required once you have walked through the doors. The statics here are mind blowing, like the fact that it costs USD $5 to lay a landmine and USD $500 to clear one. The fact that Cambodia and many other Countries in the world are littered with land mines and un-exploded weapons of varying degrees. The fact that in a time of war when devices created to maim and kill were scatted across these countries there was no tally of what was dropped, there are no maps of the mines that were laid. The consequence of which is that now, in peace time there is absolutely no way of knowing exactly what is out there or how big the task at hand is to clear these area and make them safe.
Or how about the statistic that still today in Cambodia approx 120 people each year will either be killed or made an amputee by a landmine, one third of these victims are children and almost all of these are boys. IMAGINE sending your child out to play or to gather wood or food and there is a VERY real risk that they could step on a landmine - it takes my breath away !
The K5 mine belt in Cambodia is considered one of the most hazardous place on the planet … I repeat - ON.THE.PLANET !!! and this is MAN MADE ….. humans CREATED this and this is something that I can’t quite wrap my head around.
We as humans have been gifted this amazing planet that is abundant in water and food and resources for us ALL to live in peace and harmony. But here we are STILL fighting, killing, causing hate and harm. My goal is to raise kids that want to change the world for the better, who want to make the world a better place, who want to encourage their friends to make the world a better place and who live with respect for what we have. I want them to live alongside the knowledge of how dreadful man can be, but counteract this knowledge with notion that we can be better. That with love and grace we can create a road map for peace.
There are so many people doing so much good in Countries like Cambodia but without the spoils of war there efforts would not be warranted. Humans can be hideous but they can also be amazing … like Aki Ra and then 10's of thousand of other people world wide that get nominated for things like the CNN heroes (If you have heard of this I urge you to google it and watch some of the grabs - it will truly inspire you)
So today I pay my respects to the ANZAC’s, to the child soldiers of Cambodia and Sierra Leone and many other countries in the world. I pay respects to the armed service Men and Woman that are currently serving our Countries, to the Vietnam Veterans, to the families that have lost and lived without their loved ones and those that are displaced and living in war zones today.
LEST WE FORGET … and may we continue to strive for PEACE
You can see more information about the Cambodian landmine museum and why Aki Ra made the top 10 CNN Heroes list for 2010:
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/archive10/aki.ra.html
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| My friends and I at the 1996 Dawn Service in Gallipoli |
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| Changi War Cemetery, Singapoe - Dawn service 2015 |
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| Changi War Cemetery, Singapoe - Dawn service 2015 |
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| My kids and their 'cousin' outside of the Cambodian Landmine Museum - Siem Reap |
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| Our transport from Siem Reap to the Landmine museum, it was approx 45 min journey bumping along dusty dirt roads to get there. We saw so much of real Cambodian life along the way. |
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