Passing time by looking back

As I’ve been jumping from place to place as part of the beginning of my PhD, I’ve had little time to post. That’s probably not going to change much in the near future so this blog may go fairly quiet. To keep things going, I will share an older video that shows the history of humanity in two minutes and which always gives me the shivers. Hopefully everyone can recognise the majority of the events and concepts that are shown as many are iconic in their own right.

And then this is, perhaps appropriately, the first song I deliberately listened to in Europe; Globus’ Europa. I was in Austria and am now spending time in Germany, two countries which have had a huge effect on shaping Europe’s recent history. It has only been a few days since the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Incidentally that is mentioned in both the previous video and the song, so that should identify one image.

It’s alarming that after thousands of years of war and all the sorrow and pain it causes we still haven’t just stopped.

From Agincourt to Waterloo
Poitiers and then Anjou
The Roses War, the Hundred Years
Through battlefields of blood and tears

From Bosworth Field to Pointe Du Hoc
Stalingard and the siege of York
The bloody turf of Gallipoli
Had no effect on the killing spree

Bannockburn to Austerlitz
The fall of France and the German blitz
The cruelest of atrocities
Europa’s blood is borne of these

Heaven help in all our battles
Heaven see love, heaven help us

Bolshevisks and feudal lords
Chivalry to civil wars
Fascist rule and genocide
Now we face the rising tide

Of new crusades, religious wars
Insurgents imported to our shores
The western world, gripped in fear
The mother of all battles here

Heaven help in all our battles
Heaven see love, heaven help us
Avant hier, avons être
Déja demain, (nous) sommes éclairée

All glory, all honor
Victory is upon us
Our savior, fight evil
Send armies to defend us

Empires built, and nations burned
Mass graves remain unturned
Decendants of the dispossessed
Return with bombs strapped to their chests

There’s hate for life, and death in hate
Emerging from the new caliphate
The victors of this war on fear
Will rule for the next thousand years

All glory, all honor
Victory is upon us
Our savior, fight evil
Send armies to defend us
Europa, Europa
Find better days before us
In kindness, in spirit
Lead us to a greater calling

Europa, Europa
Find better days before us
In kindness, in spirit
Lead us to a greater calling

Lennigrad, Berlin wall
March on Rome, Byzantium’s fall
Lightning war, Dresden nights
Drop the bomb, end this fight!

Never again!

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