History in the news
Politics and sport: Other times when controversy hit the Olympics
Yesterday, a former Blue Peter presenter carrying the Olympic torch had to wrestle for control of it with a man wearing a wolly hat who was protesting at Chinese actions in Tibet. Fire extinguishers and super soakers were also used by protestors in attempts to douse the Olympic flame. All good, traditional, British stuff. Yet using the Olympics to try and make political points is nothing new.
Maritime disaster, wartime astrologers and Gary Lineker
Today’s Independent has a host of stories that will be of interest to the historian:
read more...»Colonel Bob Stewart recalls his experiences in Bosnia
Colonel Bob Stewart visited Hampton School this lunctime to deliver a fascinating talk about his time as commander of the 1st Battalion The Cheshire Regiment in Bosnia during the brutal conflict there in the early 1990s.
read more...»Yet Another Balkans Crisis?
Yesterday Kosovo’s parliament declared unanimously declared itself to be independent from Serbia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7249034.stm
Just about immediately Serbia and her close supporter, Russia, made their protests as riot police faced protesters in Belgrade and grenades were thrown in the ethnically Serb town of Mitrovica in Kosovo.
Today Serbia withdrew her ambassador to the USA, stating that the country had violated international law by recognising Kosovo.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7251802.stm
Amongst EU nations opinion has been divided with Spain not recognising the new state, in a directly opposite action to that taken by France, Germany and the UK.
All this not only brings back memories of the conflict in the late 1990s but also to the wider unrest in the region that has bedevilled wider European relations for upwards of 150 years. Even without going back to the strife prior to the Nineteenth Century there is enough to keep historians occupied. The crises of 1875-78, 1886, 1912-13 and, of course, 1914 all had international repercussions. It can only be hoped that both local and regional tensions will ease before more blood is spilt in a most contentious corner of our continent.
The Killing Fields confession: ‘They all had to be eliminated’
Independent.co.uk
11 February 2008
Kang Khek Ieu was known as ‘Cambodia’s Himmler’, a torturer who oversaw the
deaths of 17,000 people. As he prepares to go on trial, he gives a chilling
insight into the Khmer Rouge - the most detailed account yet from a top
henchman
Exclusive by Valerio Pellizzari, Phnom Penh
Monday, 11 February 2008
In the West he has been called “Cambodia’s Heinrich Himmler”; since Pol Pot
himself and his lieutenant Ta Mok cheated justice by dying, he is the most
vivid symbol of the Khmer Rouge left alive. His name is Kang Khek Ieu, but
he is better known by his nom de guerre, Duch (pronounced “Doik"). This
spring, 28 years after fleeing Cambodia ahead of the Vietnamese army, his
trial for mass murder may finally get under way.
read more...»
UK government acts on hoax e-mail alleging the banning of Holocaust education in schools
This is an interesting story run by the BBC today that has been doing the rounds for months. Rumours have been spreading around the world through discussion boards, email and chat rooms alleging that the government is about to ban Holocaust education in schools for fear of offending Muslims. It is not. Holocaust education remains compulsory for all schools in England.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7226778.stm
Is Maggie history?
Tonight Baroness Thatcher was awarded with a lifetime achievement award (whatever that means) by David Cameron at the Morgan Stanley Great Briton Awards. Read the story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7220424.stm
But as more and more A Level History courses now include topics on Thatcher’s Britain it might be worth considering at what point currents affairs become history. Are we too close to events to be able to unravel Thatcher’s legacy both domestically and internationally?
read more...»Unhappy bobbies
Apparently the police are incensed that teachers have got a bigger pay rise than they have - a whopping 2.45%.
Whilst the discontent might show itself in the coming weeks in the shape of a few grumpy coppers it will be nothing in comparison to what happened in 1918-19 when the police went on strike. The walk out was in protest at poor wages and other conditions...and the action of the bobbies caught the government off guard. Within twenty four hours 12,000 men - just about the entire Met Police at the time - were on strike.
With troops patrolling the streets the government, under Lloyd George, frantically searched for a solution and eventually caved in. Will Gordon Brown face a similar situation in eighty years on?
Colossus reborn
I read in the news today that a computer capable of working through 63 million calculations per second has been unveiled in Edinburgh. The machine will, according to the report, help scientists ‘develop life-saving drugs and model climate change and epidemic patterns.’
Getting machines tackle highly complex problems is nothing new. During the Second World War the British created ‘Colossus’ - a huge calculating device that was aimed at cracking the German’s ‘Fish’ ciphers. Whilst the use of Colossus was most famously associated with Alan Turing other pioneers of this kind include Charles Babbage, Konrad Zuse and John von Neumann.
Learn more here:
