Anniversaries and commemorations come and go daily. Most of us, even the best historians, miss most occasions. If we think of history as events then we are faced with a continually showering in the grains of sand. Nevertheless, we do pick out certain patterns in the remembrance of historical dates. The blog here reminds us of some dates where the local, state, national, and global perspectives entwine.
What Time is It? It is flow of a sandstorm that will on each day compress somewhere into a structure – sandstone, selected and only remembered in the longue durée.
On Tuesday, 21 August 1990, Measures announced in the Federal Budget 1990; an assets test on family allowances, the cutting of pharmaceutical benefits and taxes on imputed pensioner income from investments 1990, all provoke community outcry.
On Tuesday, 21 August 1990, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone send peacekeepers to intervene in the First Liberian Civil War.
On Saturday, 21 August 2010, The 2010 federal election is held. Julia Gillard’s Labor Government is re-elected, narrowly defeating the Liberal/National Coalition led by Tony Abbott. The result is a hung parliament, with Labor and the Coalition winning 72 seats each. The balance of power is held by four independent MPs (Bob Katter, Rob Oakeshott, Andrew Wilkie and Tony Windsor), one Green (Adam Bandt) and a member of the WA Nationals (Tony Crook).
Images Citations in Composite: ID 17208541 © Anhong | Dreamstime.com; ID 35001957 © DiversityStudio1 | Dreamstime.com; ID 156394527 © Gerd Zahn | Dreamstime.com
Neville Buch