The poppy

The poppy appeal is back again this year. I noticed it when someone from TCSU held a box of poppies and a donation jar at the dining hall queue. The next day, there were a few other poppy volunteers that I saw on my way to Sainsbury’s. They weren’t paying me much attention, though. Probably because of the fact that they thought foreigners won’t have a clue of what’s it all about, which is quite true, by the way.

I remember a German friend in AC wearing one of those poppies on her shirt and people were giving her amused looks. She said something about ‘it’s about remembrance, not the war itself’.

I pretended to be clueless (one advantage of being a foreigner) and ask a friend during breakfast, “What’s the poppy all about?”

“Oh, it’s about remembering people that served in the war.”

“What if you don’t agree with the war in the first place?”

I think he was amused by my questions. I can’t recall his exact answer but it probably lies along the lines of you can still wear the poppy. I was tempted to ask my last question, “Is it remembering both sides, or just one side of the casualties of the war?” I know the answer to that one.

I didn’t ask that last question.

On a break from studying last night, I sauntered to the common room and grabbed the first paper available to me. It was a copy of The Times. On the front page was a report about an event of commemorating the British soldiers that had died in Iraq. About 121 in total. I can’t help but to ponder, are those people in the ceremony remembering war casualties on one side only, or does it crossed their minds about the death on the other side as well?

Was browsing through my friends’ blogs yesterday and I found this nice song by Outlandish from Youtube. Thanks Zaid!

Yaz.