Its a long way to Tipperary

At 11pm on the 4^th 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’