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Second Monday in March March 12, 2012 Here’s a geography quiz: 1. What is the official language of Belize? 2. Whose portrait adorns the Canadian loonie? 3. What comprises 53 countries, covers over a fifth of the world’s land area, and accounts for 2 …Read more January 26 On January 26, 1808 Major George Johnston led his men to the residence of Governor William Bligh and forcibly relieved him of his post. This remains the only successful coup by force in Australia’s history. (You may remember Charles Laughton’s portrayal of the lovable, kooky Captain Bligh in 1935′s Best Picture “Mutiny on the Bounty” which portrayed the crew’s slapstick romp through the South Pacific.) But that’s not why they celebrate. In fact the first recorded …Read more 
January 8 The Mississippi Delta was shining Like a National guitar, I am following the river Down the highway Through the cradle of the civil war, I’m going to Graceland, Graceland In Memphis Tennessee… …I’ve reason to believe We both will be received In Graceland Paul Simon, Graceland Today is the birthday of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll Elvis Presley. Though not an official holiday in any nation, it is …Read more 
December 26 St. Stephen “In London and other places, St. Stephen’s Day, or the 26th of December, is familiarly known as Boxing-day, from its being the occasion on which those annual guerdons known as Christmas-boxes are solicited and collected… The Book of Days As a child I thought it odd that the British, so seemingly refined (compared to us their American cousins), would dedicate the day after Christmas to such a brutal and …Read more 
On May 27, 1967, the Australian public voted to alter the language of the Constitution to remove discriminatory laws against the indigenous people. One such Constitutional clause had previously declared: “In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted.” Still, even decades after this sweeping reform, the Australian court held to a policy known as Terra Nullius. Terra Nullius was the …Read more 
May 26
That’s the difference between the UN and Australia. The UN would have called it “Day of Remembrance and Apologies for Injustices committed upon Indigenous Peoples” or something longer. Australians cut to the bone. There are a number of things to be sorry about with regards to treatment of Australia’s Aborigine population, but Sorry Day focuses mostly on one particularly terrifying aspect—the taking of Aboriginal children from their families in an ill-conceived ‘re-education’ project …Read more 
April 25
Last month the nation of Turkey remembered Victory of Canakkale, the World War I campaign that unified the Turkish spirt and brought together disparate elements that would form the Turkish nation. But for every victor there’s the vanquished. The Allies of World War I, including the French, British, Indian, Australian and New Zealanders, suffered a quarter million casualties in the Dardanelles (Canakkale) campaign. At the forefront of the battle, the soldiers of …Read more |
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