Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Diamond Black Geezer on 03 November 2010, 23:58:27
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If you follow this link
http://www.poppyshop.org.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=57&List=1&ProductID=213
you will see the Royal British Legion's website, where they have a lovely little range of gifts. Most noticable and possibly prettiest is the 18ct gold plated brooch. It is currently sold out, which is a shame as I think my mum would love one.
No worries, I thought, I'll check the bay of e for them, now follow this link...
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=poppy+brooch+buckleys&_sacat=0&_odkw=poppy+brooch&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313
the prices are simply unbelievable!! These, through popularity or scarcity, have become quite valuable; and just think, all that extra money they're selling for, and not a penny over the initial 9.99 retail price is going to help a single veteran. Some, I concede are giving a small %age to the RBL, but overall there's a lot of money NOT going to actually help.
I'm not criticising anyone, just stating the facts as I see them. It's not something I'd feel particularly comfortable with, but others do. (I know money is tempting, someone stole a Harry Potter toy from my local charity shop, it cost ONE POUND! Who thinks "I'm not giving my quid to charity, which could actually help someone, I'm having me that for free!" The packaging was still there, but the toy had been stolen.)
I just wondered what the general consensus was? It just seems a shame, as the poppy appeal is somewhat close to my heart. Am I being just judgemental? Hope not!
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judgemental...not at all but unfortunately we have alot of people that are americanised and money is money, my grandfather had an orchard and he would bag apples and leave them on the roadside with an honesty box, one day whilst we were visiting he went to collect the takings only to find they had been taken by some unscrupulous so and so and all he said was he geussed they needed the money more than him, what a man much respect :y if everyone had such an attitude we would be in such a better place but how do we get there???. personally i try to be honest until it comes to the point that someone is making a decision that i don't agree with and then i wil bend every rule to bypass that situation (mainly beuracracy) as the amount paid against the amount that actually saves anything is pretty much null and void by the time all the red tape finally passes anything, don't think me anti government or anything but without price hikes!! they could do with some streamiling!
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to be fair the seller has obviously shelled out £60 or so to buy the poppy in the first place.....I don't know what percentage the charity gets from the original sale, but I'm guessing its around 10% and I'll bet a lot of the winning bidders will be putting them up again for charity auctions? as long as some money goes to the poppy appeal in each transaction it can only help (the fact that we need a charity to help veterans in the first place is the real disgrace....but thats another thread....perhaps) :o
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Personally of course I hope every single penny goes to the servicemen, or ex-servicemen, it is meant to help :y :y :y :y
However we live, don't we know, in a capitalist society, so I'm afraid the market takes over all too often and it is a simple question of 'supply and demand', as with these brouches. :( :(
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I don't agree with the sale in general, however, in this case the seller is donating 15% of the sell price to the RBL, so they will be getting a further donation for the broach...
I would avoid the ones where they are not donating though....
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Like I say, it just felt a bit wrong. But I do really try not to judge people; do asyou would be done by, and all that. I would say though, that they've not had to shell out 60 quid, surely, as you can (when stocks are in) only pay 9.99, plus postage.
Anyone remember a copy of Harry Patch's book (The Last Fighting Tommy, look it up, VERY good read) signed by him. The week he died one sold for well over a THOUSAND POUNDS. If he's have known the person he was signing the book for was just waiting for him to die I'm not sure he would have bothered to pick up the biro.
Back to mrgreen...what a lovely attitude, free apples! And a lovely story, similarly harry patch donated EVERY PENNY of the book's profits to fund an inshore lifeboat.
I'd like this thread to evolve from the moaning start I gave it to one of heatwarming tales instead! :y
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I'm afraid that as far as I'm concerned the attempt to profit on the back of this national symbol is vulgar and worthy of contempt.
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I'm afraid that as far as I'm concerned the attempt to profit on the back of this national symbol is vulgar and worthy of contempt.
Agreed Zulu :y :y :y
As some will always profit out of war, so there will always be some who profit from the after effects of conflict :( :( :(
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i thought the fancy poppies were about £60 no? if they're only a tenner then it's a different story, pretty shady, but totally expected :(
whats wrong with the paper ones anyway? :y
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i thought the fancy poppies were about £60 no? if they're only a tenner then it's a different story, pretty shady, but totally expected :(
whats wrong with the paper ones anyway? :y
That's the question BJ!! :y :y
It prompts me to post this:
"Aftermath
Have you forgotten yet?...
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you're a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same--and War's a bloody game...
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you'll never forget.
Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz--
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench
Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench--
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, 'Is it all going to happen again?'
Do you remember that hour of din before the attack--
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads--those ashen-grey
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you'll never forget."
Siegfried Sassoon
Paper ones are enough to make me remember, every day of every year :'( :'( :'( :'(
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jeez - old Sassoon knew how to cut through the bs in his day didnt he? :(
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jeez - old Sassoon knew how to cut through the bs in his day didnt he? :(
Yes, and so did Wilfred Owen BJ ;)
You are left in no doubt about what happens to mankind in war :( :(
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This is another one of my favourites, and obviously it is very apt when talking about poppies:
In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae, May 1915
Poppies (©greatwar.co.uk)
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
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If we're all getting a bit poetic, and literary, I would seriously suggest reading Pat Barkers Regeneration (also on DVD for those who prefer the medium) which, amongst other things charts the relationship between the two greatest War Poets, Sassoon and Owen.
A great read, the nature of novelization will have tweaked reality a tad, I'm sure; but it's done respectfully and seems genuinely how it all could have happened. You also get a real insight into the mental issues of those returning from war. I have the greatest respect for all those people, because they do something I just plain daren't, a very good read I would reccoment to anyone.
Glad Im not the only one in the world that thinks this is all a bit 'off'.
Incidentally I got an SAS badge cheap at a car boot sale. I'm trying to get the details of the original owner. It will be framed up, with a nice little card with name, rank, number etc.. He had a hell of a career, as you'd expect in this most elite of regiments. It will be sold and I'm donating all proceeds to Help for Heroes, or the RBL.
I have no interest in making money out of another man's bravery.
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the human race always reminds me of a line in "alien" ie you do not see them f£cking each other over for a percentage.
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There are many corners of countless fields that bear the rich dust of our fallen.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEF2UttUg2c&feature=related[/media]
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Of course few expressed the lot of the ordinary soldier better than Rudyard Kipling.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGClrsAN2aY[/media]
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Below is a heart-breaking poetic tribute to Our Boys at Christmas.
The poem is circulating by email around troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and their loved ones back home — yet no one knows who it is about or who wrote it.
Some say it was written by a Royal Marine, others reckon it was a US soldier. One theory claims it was written as long ago as the Second World War.
Either way, the message remains the same: This Christmas, remember our lads.
They are sacrificing their Christmas so that we can enjoy ours.
TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS HE LIVED ALL ALONE
IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF PLASTER AND STONE
I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE
AND TO SEE JUST WHO IN THIS HOME DID LIVE
I LOOKED ALL ABOUT A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE
NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS NOT EVEN A TREE
NO STOCKING BY THE MANTLE JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND
ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES OF FAR DISTANT LANDS
WITH MEDALS AND BADGES AWARDS OF ALL KINDS
A SOBER THOUGHT CAME THROUGH MY MIND
FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT IT WAS DARK AND DREARY
I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY
THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING SILENT ALONE
CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR IN THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME
THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE THE ROOM IN SUCH DISORDER
NOT HOW I PICTURED A LONE BRITISH SOLDIER
WAS THIS THE HERO OF WHOM I'D JUST READ
CURLED UP ON A PONCHO THE FLOOR FOR A BED
I REALISED THE FAMILIES THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT
OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT
SOON ROUND THE WORLD THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY
AND GROWNUPS WOULD CELEBRATE A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY
THEY ALL ENJOY FREEDOM EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR
BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE
I COULDN'T HELP WONDER HOW MANY ALONE
ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME
THE VERY THOUGHT BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE
I DROPPED TO MY KNEES AND STARTED TO CRY
THE SOLDIER AWAKENED AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE
'SANTA DON'T CRY THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE
I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM I DON'T ASK FOR MORE
MY LIFE IS MY GOD, MY COUNTRY. MY CORPS'
THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP
I COULDN'T CONTROL IT I CONTINUED TO WEEP
I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS SO SILENT AND STILL
AND WE BOTH SAT AND SHIVERED FROM THE COLD NIGHTS CHILL
I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE ON THAT COLD DARK NIGHT
THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOUR SO WILLING TO FIGHT
THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE
WHISPERED 'CARRY ON SANTA ITS CHRISTMAS DAY ALL IS SECURE'
ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT
'MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT'