At 11pm on the 4th August 1914 Britain declared
war on Germany thus heralding the start of Britain’s part in the First World
War. The centenary was marked by a ‘lights out’ campaign where everyone (and I
hope this meant you too) tuned off all the lights in their
house/apartment/room/hovel between the hours of 10-11pm and lit a single candle
in memory on the fallen.
The lights were dimmed in London or turned off all together
as per the Houses of Parliament and there was a candlelit vigil at Westminster
Abbey.
It has been a full
hundred years since WWI and you would think that the world would have learnt by
now how to get along amicably without upsetting their neighbours. Alas this is
not the case.
Russia vs Ukraine
The unrest in Eastern Europe was sparked earlier this year
in the area of Ukraine known as the Crimea. Nearly 60% of those living in
Crimea; a peninsula situated on the eastern side of Ukraine near the Black sea,
identify as being Russian. Indeed Crimea was formerly part of Russia until 1954
and many living in the area wanted to go back to being Russian. A referendum was held
where almost 97% of Crimean people voted independence from the Ukraine and
elected to re-join Russia. The crisis does not however stop there as the
conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues. Read more about the crisis here
The shooting down of flight MH17 was another significant
blow in the Ukrainian/Russian conflict as the international passenger flight
from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down 40km from the Ukraine/Russian
border. As well as causing mass hysteria the shooting down of this flight added
another string to the bow of unrest as the Russians blamed the Ukrainians for
this atrocity and vice versa.
Try as I might I can’t help but find similarities in the
Crimea Crisis to that of the Alsace Lorraine situation that may have been one
of the causes of the First World War. The Alsace region of France had been fought
over by France and Germany since the 1870s. Furthermore what if the shooting
down of MH17 is our Franz Ferdinand?
Israel vs Gaza
The Gaza Strip (lying literally sandwiched between Israel
and Egypt) has often been at the centre of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. In
1967 Israel occupied the Gaza Strip during the Middle East war and did not
retreat until 2005 however still exercises powers over Gaza’s air space,
borders and water. Tight restrictions have been put in place by the Israelis to
control the movement of goods and people that go in and out of the country; a
fact that that Israel says is for their own security. Yet the Palestinians in
Gaza are quite frankly fed up and feel confined by the domineering Israelis. To
read more about the conflict click here
Syria
The civil war in Syria can be traced back to March 2011 when
a group of teenagers were arrested and tortured for painting revolutionary
slogans on a school wall. Whilst the government tried to quash down the rebels
opposition only grew and by July hundreds of thousands were taking to the
streets and raising arms (meaning that they were bring out weapons and fighting
not that they all went out on to the street and started waving their arms
around)
The unrest escalated to cities such as Damascus and Aleppo
as people continued to protest against the regimes of President Assad and his supporters. Click here
As you can see I have only covered a bare minimum of all the
recent wars, crises and unrest around the world but it is clear that even now
it is still ‘A long way to Tipperary’
