Die “bedelaar” verskyn talle kere as verwysing na Brittanje se tweede Anglo Boereoorlog (1899-1902) waar soldate duisende seemyle gereis het en kom oorlog maak het met ons voorouers – die doel daarvan om geld in te samel vir families.   Hierdie gedig, wat geskryf is deur Rudyard Kipling en getoonset deur Sir Arthur Sullivan, het ‘n geweldige hoeveelheid geld vir soldate en hul gesinne ingesamel.     
How many of those moneys were offered to the soldiers and families in England?

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Dis ‘n ope vraag of die geld ooit by hul gesinne uitgekom het.   Indien wel, het dit die Britse regering getroos dat die wat sneuwel hier in suidelike Afrika se gesinne versorg sou word.   Vir hierdie bloeddorstige regering het dit gegaan om ontslae te raak van ‘n volk en in die proses baie minerale te kry.  Honderde duisende soldate is op ons handjievol Boere, Vroue en Kinders losgelaat.   Ons aan die suidpunt van Afrika was ook nie die enigste in Britse konsentrasiekampe nie.

Daarteenoor was dit ook ‘n Britse jong dame, Emily Hobhouse wat haar veral oor die arm Boervroue, kinders en ou mense ontferm het.   Kyk na beeldmaateriaal oor die vroue, kinders en ou mense in Britse konsentrasie helkampe.   Ons is baie dankbaar vir haar menswaardige optredes in die baie moeilike tyd waarin ons voorgeslagte gedompel was.

Republiekdag  – 60 jaar 

Vandag herdenk ons ‘n vals “vryheidsdag”, want niemand van ons wil deel van die Britse statebond wees nie.   Dit is geen vryheid of onafhanklikheid nie.

Die liberaal verligtes of klassieke liberales, wat deel vorm en deelgeneem het aan die kommunistiese oorname, die skryf van die “sogenaamde demokratiese kommunistiese Grondwet” en daarin glo, was ook so deel tydens die Anglo Boere Oorloë.   Hulle is ook deel van onteiening en swart bemagtiging vandag asook die aparte gebiede wat Trust en CPA gebiede genoem word.   Dis die spul verligte blankes wat deel daarvan wil wees en nie na onafhanklikheid strewe nie.   

British colonial empire in Africa (SA) – Rhodes and BSAC

British Empire and their colonial rules/flags

1911 – South Africa  – Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

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https://www.joyceproject.com/notes/090001absentminded.htm

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Soldiers of the British Crown
https://www.soldiersofthequeen.com/TheLimelight-AGentlemanInKhaki.html

And Rhodes during the Anglo Boer War
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-cecil-rhodes-rudyard-kipling-during-the-boers-war-126396165.html

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When you’ve shouted “Rule Britannia,” when you’ve sung “God Save the Queen,” When you’ve finished killing Kruger with your mouth– Will you kindly drop a shilling in my little tambourine For a gentleman in khaki ordered South?

He’s an absent-minded beggar, and his weaknesses are great: But we and Paul must take him as we find him: He is out on active service, wiping something off a slate: And he’s left a lot of little things behind him!

Duke’s son–cook’s son–son of a hundred kings. (Fifty thousand horse and foot going to Table Bay!) Each of ’em doing his country’s work (and who’s to look after their things?). Pass the hat for your credit’s sake, and pay–pay–pay!

There are families by thousands, far too proud to beg or speak: They’ll put their sticks and bedding up the spout, And they’ll live on half o’ nothing, paid ’em punctual once a week, ‘Cause the man that earns a wage is ordered out.

He’s an absent-minded beggar, but he heard his country’s call, And his reg’ment didn’t need to send to find him; He chucked his job and joined it–so the job before us all Is to help the home that Tommy left behind him!

Let us manage so as later we can look him in the face, And tell him what he’d very much prefer: That, while he saved the Empire, his employer saved his place, And his mates (that’s you and me) looked out for her.

He’s an absent-minded beggar, and he may forget it all, But we do not want his kiddies to remind him That we sent ’em to the workhouse while their daddy hammered Paul, So we’ll help the homes our Tommy left behind him!

Cook’s home–Duke’s home–home of a millionaire– (Fifty thousand horse and foot going to Table Bay!) Each of ’em doing his country’s work (and what have you to spare?) Pass the hat for your credit’s sake, and pay–pay–pay!

Lines from the poem are cited a few times in the James Joyce novel Ulysses. The poem was written by Kipling to generate support for Britain’s second Boer War (1899-1902), and people in Ireland would not take kindly to such a poem since the war seems cruel and imperialistic to the Irish.

The war pitted the Empire’s military might against the Dutch citizen-soldiers of two south African republics. It was an unequal contest spurred by naked greed (England wanted the colonists’ resources).

Many of the Irish sympathized with the nationalist aspirations of the Boer settlers.

The poem’s subject matter is the Britain’s rapid mobilization of reservists to wage the war.

These were not proper soldiers in the sense that they joined with the intention of being in uniform immediately. Instead, these were ordinary men in a militia who signed up with no knowledge if they would ever be needed in a fight.

So the war brought terrible hardships on ordinary people–the risk of death or mutilation, the loss of wages being earned at home. If you were sent to South Africa, your job was lost–someone else will be doing that job when you return.

Kipling wrote his patriotic poem in 1899 as part of a newspaper’s campaign to raise money for British families impacted in their homes by the loss of men who normally would be the heads of the households.

This poem did raise money–as did the Sulivan song that uses the poem for lyrics. Money made its way to soldiers and their families. The poem itself urges readers to contribute to the cause.

Rudyard Kipling poem “The Absent-Minded Beggar” Boer War (in James Joyce Ulysses) Kruger with mouth

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RELATED – VERWANTE INLIGTING

ABW concentration camps –  Rudie Rousseau ea

Monumente : Geskiedenis simbole ZAR

Geskroeide aarde – Scorched earth (1)

ABW : The Absent-Minded Beggar