Smutskoppie

[bigsleepj]

Jan Smuts was one of the greatest South African leaders out there. He fought in the Boer War on the side of the Tranvaal Army and later, ironically, became the Prime Minister of British Controlled South Africa. He served as a military advisor during World War 1 and attained the rank of Field-Marshal during World War 2. He helped plan D-Day and was one of the co-founders of both the League of Nations and its follow-up institution the United Nations. He also coined the phrase "holism" and spent his remaining years authoring several books on history, holism, biology, herbology and geology, most of them while doing research on the small hill behind his home known as Smutskoppie near Irene in Pretoria. So famous was he during the time of his death that even Hollywood stars like Humphrey Bogart paid tribute to him and even wished his widow a few years later a happy birthday over the South African radio. It goes without saying that he was a great man.

Oh, it fills me with great patriotic pride to know that part of the conservational area of the Smutskoppie, where his ashes were scattered, has been sold off to land developers.



I really wish it was the government who did it because they are not the brightest bunch but it was his own family who did it. You'd think they'd know better.

[Technomancer]

I know how you feel. Not long ago developers built a strip mall on part of the Lundy's Lane battlefield site here. Unfortunately, too many people are willing to trash their own history in the name of making a dollar.

[kaji]

How very sad.

I guess Im a little tossed-up on this type of thing.

While I see the value in maintaining artifacts (lest our children only have pictures to look at in books), but land I am not so sensitive about. Over time the land may change anyway... What is the point of maintianing a Civil War Battlefield?

Well, I guess I shouldnt say it like that. I do see a significance in it. But the earth has been covered in numerious battle fields. Men and woman have fought and died, perhaps even in your own back yard... But that doesnt mean you are not going to build your tree fort there.

Saving a few of these locations is a nice reminder of what that confilct may have looked like, but even this memory will fade.

I do, however, think it is tragic that some one would want to build over the burrial place of a well known national hero. But, then again, why would we value that land so much? Doesnt it all seam rather fleeting?

-kaji