Forgotten History

It is interesting that Alec "Hunt Angels" Morgan should mention that large segments of history in Australia is forgotten information because it explains a lot of the reasons why Australians think and act as they do.

Then again, the same could be said of all countries and peoples which have been made subject to cultural imperialism from other more dominant nations. Be it Japan attempting to eradicate Korea's national heritage, Pol Pot attempting to re-write Cambodian mythology or Britain's Raj trying to keep India under its thumb, history has always been about power play and the repression of historical information.

In fact, my own heritage has been subject to just such a historical injustice.

In the early half of the twentieth century, the miners of Tonypandy (an industrial town in the Rhondda Valleys not far from where I grew up) led a peaceful protest against the coal board because they were not earning enough of a wage to feed their families. The MP assigned to deal with the strike was none other than that cruel drunk of a tyrant Winston Churchill, who rather than listening to the protestors ordered for mounted cavalry to ride in and trample them. Hundreds of men, women and children were killed in the ensuing chaos and Churchill became villified in the eyes of everyone in South Wales.

However, that incident was doctored and stricken from the record following the Second World War. As if helping Britain survive the onslaught of Nazi tyranny had stripped him of all wrong doing, Churchill was diefied as a national hero and historians were then coerced into altering the historical records as not to damage the romantic image which Churhill's legacy had created. Now children in South Wales are told that Churchill in fact REFUSED to use force and that the miners disbanded quietly after a few hours of negociation, but every one still knows the truth.

This acts as but another chapter in a long list of entries where State history and Folk history clash. Regardless of which side is correct, it must be noted that there is no real universal truth in this world and one's truth is another man's opinion. Hence it is just a matter of choice.