Monday 25 January 2016

Future generations

Isn't it interesting - and sad - to think that, when our time is up and we are long gone from the face of this Earth, the next generation of men and women might simply not remember the very things that we celebrate or are acquainted with?

The so-called 'great' things that this generation accomplished; the feats of wonder, the things they call 'achievements' or 'historical moments' - won't our children, their children and their children's children's forget about them? And even if they remember, won't it only be for a brief moment? But how could anyone blame them? They weren't of this time - they never saw it with their own eyes or experienced it first-hand. They will only read about it in books and watch documentaries describing and depicting what occurred (assuming the world has not destroyed itself by then).

Won't most of them be far too busy planning their own futures to look back in the past - why would they bother with what we had accomplished?

And what of the great catastrophes and injustices the people of this world have suffered - those tyrannical regimes, those wars spilling innocent blood and those evil things that have happened that should never happen again - will those be forgotten too, only to be repeated once more?

Probably.

But why should I worry about that? They will forget, and there is (probably) not much we can do about it.....

For instance, it occurred to me that I do not even know who most of the people on the Australian dollar notes are or what they stood for. So I made an effort to find out today :)

Images and information below all courtesy of Wikipedia

Dame Nellie Melba - Soprano legend of the Victorian era (I heard of her)

Sir John Monash - Considered the most famous Australian general. Fought in Gallipoli

David Unaipon - Indigenous inventor/writer/preacher

Edith Cowan - First lady elected to an Australian Parliament

Mary Reibey - Convict turned successful businesswoman

Reverend John Flynn - Established the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the world's first air ambulance

Banjo Paterson - Bush poet and ballad-writer (This I knew)

Dame Mary Gilmore - Poet and journalist

Henry Parkes - Father of Federation (This I knew)

Catherine Helen Spence - First female political candidate

Queen Elizabeth II - Of course I knew her. Queen of the UK.


Andre Lim


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