Clive Bibby: United We Stand and Fall

I doubt there is an event anywhere in the world that unites the peoples of a country more than our Anzac Remembrance Day.

And this commemoration doesn’t stop at our shore - it stretches across the ditch embracing our nearest neighbour Australia who fought alongside us in two World Wars hence the name ANZAC - Australia New Zealand Army Corp.

For one brief 24 hour period each year the two nations are as one - totally committed to honouring those who did not return .

Down here in the South Pacific, this event is the leveller that allows recognition of individual families for the ultimate sacrifices they made irrespective of their status on the social ladder.

As dawn breaks, and the bugle rendering of “The Last Post and Reveille “ cuts through the silence, we stand side by side as the names of community members who died before most us were born are read out - one by one.

Every small town or hamlet throughout both countries are committed to maintaining the war memorial that carries the sacred names of their sons and daughters who died way too young on land far away from in order to keep us free.

While the Anzac Spirit was born during the Ist World War fighting the Turks on the Gallipoli peninsula, cemeteries holding our war dead are also maintained next to the battlefields throughout Europe and Asia where our brave soldiers, sailors and airmen died in combat.

It is noteworthy that some of the European towns released from tyranny during both World Wars regard our dead as their own and each year form part of the remembrance service as an act of gratitude.

Although the Anzac spirit is not a legend, it is based on acts of bravery and self sacrifice upon which legends are made but you can’t make up the truth .

Our record of bravery under fire is recognised across the globe

While doing a bit of research for this opinion piece, l discovered that, per capita, New Zealand consistently ranks the highest number of VC (Victoria Cross) recipients out of all Commonwealth Countries - including Charles Upham’s double VC awards. It is just more evidence that as a nation, we are renown for punching above our weight.

And if ever there was need for an example of the Anzac Spirit - battling the odds - it was there last Friday night at the opening of the Christchurch stadium where two powerhouses of Australasian rugby locked horns for 80 minutes of battle with no quarter asked or given .

Irrespective of the result, the match had it all and truly lived up to expectations.

Those who we remembered the next day would have been proud of the manner in which the battle was fought. It had all the ingredients and similarities of the encounters between two respected adversaries such as the Rommel and Montgomery led armies at El Alamein during World War 2. It was there that many of our casualties were recorded and the awards for gallantry recommended.

The analogy is relevant because in both cases the winner was the one who outlasted his opponent - a fitting result given wining tactics are often the result of better use of resources (fuel and reserves) rather than the respective firepower during the opening salvos.

The other good thing about the unifying effect of the Anzac Spirit is that it is above politics

It is the one thing here in our close-knit rural community that binds us as one.

For 24 hours once a year we forget our differences in order to honour our heritage which had its origin on the back of lives sacrificed so that we could vote for someone our neighbour thought was a mug.

Long may it continue.

Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who lives in Tolaga Bay.