By mid December the new extension at John Ferneley, the Enrichment Centre, will be completed. Walking around the building this week I can't help but feel excited and very fortunate. During a period of financial retrenchment nationally the college has been extremely fortunate. To have new state of the art buildings places us in a fantastic position as we face the future.
Staff will experience the building for the first time on the 22nd of December when they will complete an orientation programme whilst students will be using the building for the first time after Christmas. Parents will have a first opportunity to experience the centre in February when they attend our production of the musical 'Grease' in the beautiful new theatre.
Our builders will be demolishing the old building during January and February and should be off the college campus by summer, three and a half years after work commenced.
Exciting times.
One hundred years ago the world was facing a bright future. In 1911 Europe was more prosperous than it had ever been, it had experienced a hundred years of peace and we were on the cusp of a scientific and technological revolution which promised remarkable possibilities. Granted there were worries, German militarism, competition over colonies, a military armaments race, and labour unrest, a consequence of unequal prosperity and power. But most people had a positive view of the future. Why would the European powers want to go to war again? War would threaten prosperity. It was unthinkable.
Yet within three years we were pitched into a war the like of which nobody had imagined in 1911. The First World War was a disaster; bloody, catastrophic a slaughter house. On the first morning alone of the Battle of the Somme the British army lost 20,000 men. During the battle of Verdun the French and German armies each lost half a million men. Words fail to describe the the waste of both men and resources.
By the 11th of November 1918 the war came to an end, Germany on its knees and about to face humiliation, Britain and France exhausted and bent on revenge. What chance peace? Well we now know the answer, the Second World War twenty years later. Do we ever learn?
It's now 2011 and Europe has experienced peace for over 60 years.The continent has never been more prosperous and despite 'local difficulties' the world economy is predicted to expand during the 21st Century bringing prosperity to millions upon millions of people world wide. Granted there are issues surrounding wealth distribution, but a Third World War, it's unthinkable!
Perhaps that's why remembrance day is so important.