Now let's see, what can I send... photocopied photos of dead and mutilated Iraqi babies, or would that be a turn-on for these guys? How about a printout of my blog - the entire six years?
Ocean, Sky and Khaki
One care pack, ready for addressing. That address again:
“An Australian Soldier”
Op Slipper
AFPO 13
Australian Defence Force
SYDNEY NSW 2890
On three occasions to date, the postie has failed to read the address properly, and has tried to charge me $7 postage. If that happens to you, just politely point out that it is going to an "AFPO". They should understand what that means, and they'll rapidly backtrack and take it for free.
And don't forget:
The one thing this pack is lacking is reading material. As even a very lightweight magazine (Economist, Spectator) can weigh 250 grams, you have to be careful that you don't burn the bulk of your 2kg allowance with paper.Yeah, better to send Baby Wipes, I guess. But will they appreciate the sarcasm?
2 comments:
When I saw "Op Slipper" I misread and thought it said "ONE slipper." Like, one thong, for a soldier who had one leg blown off by an IED or something. (Would he put a thong on his prosthesis?) First I thought it was a cruel jape, then I thought it might be in keeping with the sentiment of "No, I do NOT support the troops." Then I read the whole thing carefully and made sense of it.
The "send a salami to your boy in the Army" effort made me flash back to a stoush I had in San Francisco. It was close to Christmastime in 2003. There was a naively patriotic young female tech who watched the heart monitors on our cardiac ward. She put up a box solciting donations that could be sent to the brave troops in the Babylon Oil Colony. (She didn't call it that, of course.) Stuff like baby wipes, etc. as you suggest. (Only she actually meant it.) I scribbled a small graffiti on it about how isn't it the job of the U.S. government to provide the military with everything that it needs, and why should citizens be responsible for helping out soldiers with their basic needs when the U.S. was spending billions on the war?
It didn't take much guesswork to uncover who would have written such an unpatriotic thing. Even in supposedly left-wing San Francisco, I was regarded as a bit of a radical. I got a talking-to by the unit manager (I got lots of talking-to's) and made a new enemy in that girl. She was gone before another year passed anyway. And she didn't try to put up any more donation boxes.
Well done. Maybe you should have tried to slip the message inside a packet of baby wipes?
What I like about this idea is that you can feasibly communicate directly with the front line troops, who are otherwise smothered by propaganda.
It's something the powers that be work very hard to avoid.
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