MILESTONES

We all observe our private little Anniversaries and on 4 July my esteemed wife and I remembered it was 50 years ago that we first met on the beach in Famagusta, Cyprus, she a raven-haired Greek beauty, me a passionate Scotsman. That 4 July was redolent with meaning as I lost my Independence that day, forever afterwards a slave to her enchantment! Summer is a busy time for Birthdays, Saint Days and Anniversaries, none of which we dare forget on pain of mini-sulks, like the rest of softly affectionate mankind.

That year was 1968, a memorable year for the rest of the world too. The Vietnam war was appalling a generation of Americans. The Tet offensive and the My Lai massacre entered the global vocabulary. Martin Luther King and later Robert Kennedy were gunned down. Gaullist France exploded in revolutionary fervour, student riots rocked Paris but the regime survived. Germany saw Baader-Meinhof gang violence; the Prague Spring was soon suppressed by Soviet tanks. The Colonels’ junta tightened its grip on Greece. Enoch Powell in England spoke of his vision of “Rivers of Blood” caused by excessive immigration. LBJ did not run and Republican Richard Nixon defeated Democrat Hubert Humphrey and segregationist George Wallace. After a radical start, the year fell to the old guard.

Nixon wins - not a fresh face, alas

Moving forward to the year 1988, history was another mixture of disaster and triumph. The Troubles in Northern Ireland saw 3 IRA men eliminated as they recce’d a hit in Gibraltar, a Loyalist attack on an IRA funeral at Milltown Cemetery, Belfast, killed 3, followed by the murder of 2 corporals at Milltown by an IRA mob. Cracks appeared in the Soviet Union as Estonia became the first Republic to deny the supremacy of Soviet law in what became an avalanche of dissent. Hungary opened her borders to tourists and East Germans took advantage by fleeing West from there. The Piper Alpha disaster, when an North Sea oil rig exploded causing 167 deaths, was a dreadful blow to my home town of Aberdeen and around. Ronnie Reagan, stepped down as US President after 8 fruitful years to be succeeded by fellow-Republican George H W Bush.

The decades tick by; 1998 saw the Good Friday Agreement and a precarious peace in Northern Ireland. 2008 was the year of the economic crisis, the collapse of Lehmann Brothers causing a domino effect on other US institutions and much chaos in Europe. Ten years on brings us to 2018 and the heady joys of Brexit and Trumpery.

May and Trump - an uneasy couple

           

The principle of Brexit still arouses passions but the mechanics have bored the pants off every Briton. The public just wants Brexit to happen, hard or soft, good deal or indifferent deal, and the EU to become a good neighbour. That looks unlikely, given Brussels’ visceral hostility, and May’s Tory Party is badly split over her plan.  She struggles to survive in Parliament at this moment.

Trump amazes by his indiscretion, his blatant lies and his bumptious self-justification. His meeting with Putin in Helsinki was marked by his betrayal of his own FBI and of the higher ranks of his own government. Both Republicans and Democrats are offended and alarmed – surely an attempt at impeachment cannot be far away.

Next year, 2019, will see Brexit in March and my 50^th wedding anniversary in April – both milestones worth waiting for!

SMD

17.07.18

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2018