Mars wrote:
Not sure I agree on this point, the SAAF never stopped and started; the same structures, ranks, uniforms, aircraft, Squadrons were all used. There is no subjectivity.
If this was a company we were talking about and it was registered on 1 Feb 1920, no one would or could argue the point that the company was not 100 years old.
Just to be clear, I'm not arguing against continuity. I believe all the above, plus the precedent set, means that it should be assumed as default with an overt and explicit step needed to break that continuity. I'm just pointing out that our arguments need to be a lot stronger than assumptions.
Companies are actually a good analogy here, with mergers, amalgamations, and acquisitions. When that happens the determinant of which company's history is maintained is entirely subjective and decided by the board of directors at the time. Old brands are resurrected and their history reclaimed despite being entirely different organisations. In other cases the executive team and nearly everything remains the same, but the company being merged/acquired/etc ceases to exist in a historical sense.
For instance, Ansys bought out Parsec some time ago, but maintained Parsec as a subsidiary which kept its brand, exec team, offices, etc. Some years later, Ansys renamed to Etion and changed the company structure from a holding firm with subsidiaries to an integrated firm with divisions. Logically, Parsec no longer exists now, it would make no sense to celebrate its anniversaries, even though it's still pretty much the same structure.
Quote:
The issue here is that SAAF is not ignoring that its a 100 years, but it is not acknowledging it either.
That's a great point. It's sort of accurate: The problem is that this is not a new fight, and there have been senior military leaders and politicians refusing to accept the continuity of the SAAF, SAN, and SA Army for years now. That's why the SA Army did not commemorate its own centenary. What's changed is that they finally have the upper hand over those who've been resisting them.
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