Poppies

[justjoe86]

Imagine if FedEx and UPS joined forces.

Fed-Up?

[TheBrit]

I heard that Total, FcUk and UPS are the new joint sponsors of the French football team.

[hullexile]

I heard that Total, FcUk and UPS are the new joint sponsors of the French football team.

I heard that rumour too (see post 28)

[TheBrit]

Darn it! (10)

[bibbju]

France did actually manage to beat the USA at Stade de France yesterday. I'm assuming it was the USA men's team they were playing....although actually, the USA women would probably have given them a right arse-kicking ;-)

[HKITperson]

I will go and get a poppy on my way to meetings today. In Canada the poppy is worn up until noon on Remembrance Day - Nov. 11. Some wear it all day. Now at Cenotaphs starting in Ottawa the crowds have now starting coming forward and placing their poppies on the podium. Quite moving and for me not political - but I am a lot older and my dad was a pilot in WW2 training NATO pilots in Canada.




If you like tyrants and dictators in the free world - then agree with FIFA. These guys are not using any common sense here.

I do agree keep politics out of sports though - but not this important symbol of remembrance of the horror of war.

What I don't like in Canada now during Canadian Football League games is the sports casters now following the American tradition of sending messages to the troops in Afghanistan ("defending our freedom") as in their belief they are supporting the troops. What they actually doing is shilling for the government policy which in many cases is wrong. Supporting the troops in some cases is the citizens demanding they not be put in harm's way supporting Afghan despots and crooks all the while 85% of Canada's heroin continues to flow into our cities and towns unabated. If they would buy the poppy crop instead of hunting Taliban that nation would be better off and some farmers at least would shift away from the illicit sales.

What I do like is the BC Lions football game where they bring in the vets (not marching as WW2 and Korea vets are too old or mostly dead) at half time of a game near November. The announcer reading from a script asks the crowd to stand and honour these men and women - BUT what I love is that the crowd on its own has stood the moment they see the first vehicle enter the field. No one needs to be asked.

For those of us old enough to have had parents and relatives in World War 2 and to have know WW1 veterans the poppy symbolizes to me the horror of war and not the glory of some victory. Growing up in Canada that poppy was accompanied by the poem "In Flanders Field" and visits to our elementary schools by Legionnaires who talked of that WW2 as being hopefully for world peace the "war to end all wars." The folks who came to our school were not there to politicize war but to speak of the horrors of it. Friends of mine had grandfathers in WW1 and I don't think I heard a message of how great war was.

by John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

I don't think any of us or the current generation can imagine the horrors of war! I'd hoped that politicians had learnt lessons from the 2 world wars to never make the same mistake again... alas it is not to be.
We should never forgot those in HK, UK and especially those Canadian troops that gave their lives so that the current generation can worry about Love and buying iphones.
The story of the teenage Canadian troops defending HK is one of heart breaking tragedy.
Back to the poppies, my heart ached during that poignant last episode of "Blackadder Goes Forth" and the scene turning to a field of poppies. The total utter futility of that conflict. It's too horrific to contemplate.
Wahtever our political persuation, we should always remeber.