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  1. #1
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    New statue unveiled in Gravesend

    The great BRITISH WW 2 pilot of Gravesend in Kent U.K. Was proudly displayed today.
    The statue was erected from funds of the local Council, which the Community is well integrated.

  2. #2
    god
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    Just to flesh it out a little;

    Gravesend unveils statue of fighter pilot Mahinder Singh Pujji



    Mahinder Singh Pujji statue
    The statue of Sgn Ldr Pujji was paid for by the Gravesend community


    A statue of the longest surviving fighter pilot from a group of 24 Indians who arrived in Britain in 1940 has been unveiled in Kent.

    Sqn Ldr Mahinder Singh Pujji arrived in Britain in 1940 and died at the age of 92 in Gravesend in 2010.

    The statue is intended to represent all the service personnel from across the world who have fought for Britain in conflicts since 1914.

    Members of the Pujji family attended the unveiling in St Andrews Gardens.

    Sq Ldr Pujji, who learned to fly as a hobby in India, began training with the RAF in the autumn of 1940.

    Early the next year he began flying Hurricanes, protecting coastal convoys and intercepting bombers and fighters when Hitler ordered the bombing of London.

    He survived several crashes and flew combat missions throughout the war in Britain, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Burma and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

    After the war he became a champion air race pilot in India.

    "Reading about him made me realise what an amazing hero he was," said the statue's sculptor Douglas Jennings.

    "He was a volunteer - it was his choice to fight for the British and that bowls me over."

    Sqn Ldr Pujji's son Santinder said his father loved Gravesend.

    "He liked the sea and when he used to fly, this was the first land he saw so he used to feel happy," he said.

    Gravesham borough councillor Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi said the Gravesend community, which has one of the largest gurdwaras in the UK, raised £70,000 for the statue in a month.



    Mahinder Singh Pujji
    Mahinder Singh Pujji died in Gravesend at the age of 92 in 2010

    BBC News - Gravesend unveils statue of fighter pilot Mahinder Singh Pujji

  3. #3
    A Cockless Wonder
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    I think the western moral leaders of the world should be setting an example by foregoing the long standing practice of commemorating warriors with statues. The global free market economy will one day bring about an end to war and it will be a thing of the past. Such commemorations of warriors will seem crude and old fashioned then. The glorification of war is past its sell by date.

    This warrior is also an Indian and it seems like posturing political correctness to pick him out for commemoration with his turban on. Also a clumsy and misguided attempt at engendering inter-racial harmony by making white folk say 'oh look the rag heads fought for us - they cant be that bad after all'.

    War can be a uniting force but its use for that purpose in this day and age seems misplaced.

    Quote Originally Posted by ENT
    Gravesham borough councillor Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi said the Gravesend community, which has one of the largest gurdwaras in the UK, raised £70,000 for the statue in a month.
    The statue should be erected inside there Gurdwara (whatever that is) not in a public park.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Looper
    The global free market economy will one day bring about an end to war and it will be a thing of the past.
    You do have some strange ideas, Looper...

    If the free market economy was ideal, well regulated and socially responsible then what you say may be true, but in this extreme crony capitalism that we currently have, more wars, violence and social destruction is inevitable (well, it's here, every day...).

    Quote Originally Posted by Looper
    This warrior is also an Indian and it seems like posturing political correctness to pick him out for commemoration with his turban on.
    I don't agree. The fella stood up and fought for a cause, then spent his entire life in that nation; within the context of statues/heroes, etc, he is an excellent choice, imho.


    Your main point, however, I'm in somewhat of agreement with; the ideologies behind nationalism, war statues and wars/war discourse generally are not the way forward in a globalized world...
    Cycling should be banned!!!

  5. #5
    Pronce. PH said so AGAIN!
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    Quote Originally Posted by Looper
    The global free market economy will one day bring about an end to war and it will be a thing of the past.
    The opposite is true. The free market nature means that you are no longer bound to one side in a conflict and can profit from supplying both sides and it's not a new thing.

    Take a look at the stock price histories of major military-industrial complex suppliers.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bettyboo
    If the free market economy was ideal, well regulated and socially responsible then what you say may be true
    If it is "ideal, well-regulated and socially responsible" then by definition it is not a free market.
    bibo ergo sum
    If you hear the thunder be happy - the lightening missed.
    This time.

  6. #6
    A Cockless Wonder
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    The increasingly globalised nature of the free market is one of the factors that has caused the scale and frequency of war between civilised nations to diminish dramatically over the past 60 years.

    We depend on international trade volume for wealth generation. We cannot afford to go to war with major trading partners. The economic cost is prohibitive so we now go to extreme lengths to resolve disputes peaceably.

    Supply chains are globalised now with supply of raw materials and parts and manufacturing and software products to support these processes spread across national boundaries. We cannot afford to break the web of commerce with war so we don't.

    Financial and commercial services are provided globally now and for the same reasons war is just not a rational course of action to resolve disputes anymore.

    The fact that commerce is so globalised actually provides a whole array of new weapons that can be used to punish bad behaviour and means that not only is war bad for business it is not even necessary. When a country is made to stand in the corner with the dunce hat on by having the majority of the developed world refuse to play with them then it hurts big time in today's world.

  7. #7
    Lord of Swine
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    ^ Yeah, Putin is on his knees after all those sanctions. He's withdrawn support for the rebels, given back the Crimea.

    Oh wait...

  8. #8
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    Fukkin Paki's

  9. #9
    god
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    Indian and a Sikh.

  10. #10
    A Cockless Wonder
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    Quote Originally Posted by Necron99 View Post
    ^ Yeah, Putin is on his knees after all those sanctions. He's withdrawn support for the rebels, given back the Crimea.

    Oh wait...
    The smaller the country the easier and quicker the use of sanctions is.

    Russia is a big country with lots of resources and not without allies so using sanctions will be a big ask but at the end of the day I think we can hurt even Russia quite substantially using only financial methods.

    It would be good if we could.

  11. #11
    Lord of Swine
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    Quote Originally Posted by Looper View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Necron99 View Post
    ^ Yeah, Putin is on his knees after all those sanctions. He's withdrawn support for the rebels, given back the Crimea.

    Oh wait...
    The smaller the country the easier and quicker the use of sanctions is.

    Russia is a big country with lots of resources and not without allies so using sanctions will be a big ask but at the end of the day I think we can hurt even Russia quite substantially using only financial methods.

    It would be good if we could.

    N Korea, Iran, Libya, USSR went along for 40 years with almost total sanctions....

  12. #12
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    Have a look at how South Africa prospered under sanctions. (Mind you it's a basket case now, but that's beside the point.)

  13. #13
    A Cockless Wonder
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    Quote Originally Posted by Necron99
    N Korea, Iran, Libya, USSR went along for 40 years with almost total sanctions....
    Sure, you can get by and survive even under the weight of economic isolation (at least as well as countries did before economic globalisation) but globalised economies do better and they stick together.

    I am not saying we have already reached a point where war is over completely but I think globalisation of the world economy will be one of the key drivers that lead us to that state.

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