Today, November 11, is the 89th anniversary of the end of World War I, strangely called the Great War!

I recently read the biography of Douglas Haig, the British field marshal who commanded the British troops, including Australians, in the war that was supposed to end all wars.

More than one million British soldiers lost their lives in that war, and some two-and-a-half million were profoundly injured.

The war took the infant aeroplane and developed it to a level of serious military use. It saw the development of the tank, which in itself revolutionised warfare based on infantry alone. It saw the advance of much military technology.

At the end of the war, Haig wrote his memoirs. He was certainly a prisoner of his past, where British officers were selected by class rather than ability and achievement.

Wars of the past were more static than the movement World War I. Haig found it difficult to think beyond his static past.

In his memoirs, he lamented that cavalry was not used as much as it should have been in the war that changed so many theories and beliefs and saw the dawn of a new future.

Haig, imprisoned by his past, could only look to the past with affection. Historians suggest that his inability to read the signs of the times was one of the elements that cost so many lives in that war.

Whatever the situation of 89 years ago was in relation to a changing world and times, there is no doubt or question that we are living in times that foreshadow much more profound sociological change and development than Douglas Haig could have ever dreamed about in his time.

We seem obsessed about an economy of dollars, while we seem to ignore an economy of time.

We boast of being a wealthy nation, when a recent conference on the Sunshine Coast indicated the average personal income here is $450 per week. To make that an average, many people are living on less than that.

We are importing many professional and trade skills from overseas at the cost of developing our own.

The list of the signs of the times that exist in our society today and seem to be ignored would fill more pages than this newspaper has.

While we honour those who gave their lives for our freedom, let us not continue to make the mistakes that cost their lives.

We now live for the first time in a global village. More than ever we need to do this with a vision that will bring peace and security for all.