Dear LPG,  

I was watching television one day not so long ago, and the news was on. It had just started, and the main headlines always come up first. On this particular day, the first item told us all about what was going on in India and Pakistan. They were involved in what were described as ‘punitive strikes’.   I cannot say that I pay the news that much attention, but I remember this news being accompanied by pictures of the night littered with bombs, and my reaction was, ‘Not another war!’  My thinking was that we already have the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Holy Land, and all this conflict got me wondering just how many wars are going on in the world at the moment.  

I looked online and was shocked when Google told me there were more than 110 conflicts going on when I wrote this message. I also asked when, in world history, there were the fewest recorded wars ongoing simultaneously, and the answer given was the years between 1947 and 1991. Ironically, apart from the 8 comparatively small wars that occurred during those years, the only major war at that time of comparative global harmony was the Cold War, when peace prevailed, while the threat of war appeared to be on every national government’s mind.  

I am one of what I think must be many pensioners who are just too young to have experienced any of WWII.  The only experience of any ‘war’ I have has been learned from what I have seen in film, internet, and television drama, and I can’t help but actively turn over if such a programme comes on. 

I looked at the motives, and the internet says it depends on which part of the world we are talking about. Middle East clashes are predominantly about religion, while the internet states that ‘corruption, nepotism, dwindling natural wealth and lack of prospects for the inhabitants’ encompass the overwhelming reasons that fuelled the rest, although I have to say that I think greed is the ultimate culprit. 

These are the only national fire-fuelled clashes going on in the world as I write, and the governments of the onlookers keep trying their best to introduce the word ‘ceasefire’ into the mix, but I have to argue that, like so many big issues, the issues that ignite big wars are so often provoked by one person’s individual idea of international imbalance.  

Lateral thinking leaves me with the opinion that it is the little personal disagreements that we all have throughout our lives with our family members, ex-friends, and the other people around us, which lead to personal misunderstandings, and they so often leave us either unable to meet the person that spurs an argument without revisiting the issue that started the spat with either a relatively explosive verbal rematch, or complete avoidance. 

I bet we have all been to a family or friend’s reunion with some trepidation about seeing two people who are invited while wondering if an ongoing quarrel will again rise to the surface or cause them to keep as big a distance between them as possible, if we are not one of the adversaries ourselves.  

I suppose that I am thinking about an ideal world when I suggest that perhaps we need to work on how to deal with personal disagreements, but it is so hard to say sorry because of the risk of not getting a reaction which acknowledges what the other party did wrong.    

I have to admit to being at one end of a couple of these situations myself, and I bet that there are few people of our age who have never experienced what I am talking about here.  It is all so easy to talk about apologising, but leaving yourself open to being the sole perpetrator in any such situation is really hard to do.  

I wonder how many groups of armed forces are still out there because one of the warring sides has a leader who is finding it diplomatically impossible to say sorry while saving face…?  

HG, Charlton.

 

 

HG shares the links to some of the statistics she found…

 

 

 

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