The events of 2014 in review

The year 2014 is crucially remarkable overwhelmed by a series of crisis that occurs simultaneously unlike other years in the past as many world leaders labeled the year as the most challenging era in our time. In general, the major events thought to be the most provoking are Ukraine Crisis, Israel-Gaza conflict, the outbreak of Ebola, the immediate rise of Islamic caliphate, World Cup, the missing Malaysian airline and its shooting down over the eastern region of Ukraine. Minor events are hostage of hundreds of school girls by Boko Haram in Nigeria, the FIFA’s scandal, the hostage siege in Sydney and the crash of AirAsia’s plane. However, people are a bit relieved by shrinking the oil price across the globe amid the raging conflicts by the end of the year—thanks to the soaring business of oil in the United States. In this repeatedly globalizing era, a small event can easily spark the light all over the world within minutes as the events of 2014 witness. Some are reflected as the following;

Ukraine Crisis

The crisis facing Ukraine is partly because of the game of geopolitics played by Mr. Putin, the imperialist-minded president of Russia. This crisis is in place between Russia and Ukraine even though the eastern rebels are just a puppet. Logically speaking, those who support corruption are corrupted, too. And so is Russia for supporting the corrupted Viktor Yanukovych which is the starting point of the line. The western governments put blame on Mr. Putin, accusing of orchestrating the crisis by providing the rebel groups with military hardware and sophisticated weapons that the rebels can never afford to buy by their own capacity. The west blessed him with heavy sanctions in response to his political conduct in Ukraine; seizing territory and was believed to engineer the war and refused to investigate the shooting down of civilian airliner. In retrospect, Russia is never late counter-blaming the west for supporting Ukraine, particularly US as the sole player of the Ukrainian crisis in a bid to reduce the Russia’s sphere of influence. Despite all this, Putin’s popularity at home is soared following the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. At this point, the Russian people, as the Economist observed, are foolish enough to trade prosperity for nationalistic favour. The Kremlin’s administration always suppressed dissent, squeezed out opposition and controlling the media by the ingredients of patriotism and ultra-nationalism. The unwillingness to help solve the shooting down of Malaysian Airline consolidated a heavier sanction.

Critically, Putin is very unwise as he failed to see the consequences of his aggressive actions. As the saying goes “ye shall reap as ye sow”, the collapse in the ruble is for now caused by his belligerence, greed and paranoia. Against the backdrop, the Kremlin’s administration will be again overshadowed by kleptocracy in the future. For many political scientists and experts in the west figured out this crisis as a tactic tested against the Obama’s administration by Vladimir Putin. The crisis appears to be prolong if left unsolved in early of 2015. And Russia and Ukraine are key to tackling this nationalistic issue rather than the involvement of the west. Both of the countries do need to realize that thousands of lives have been lost and insisting on their national interest will mean further escalation of civil war. The optimistic hope is that the fall of Russian economy can eventually persuade the Kremlin to the productive conclusion.

The Israeli-Gaza conflict

The conflict between Israel and Gaza can be quelled only for a short time. The light can be started any time because they had on-and-off conflicts in the past. The Israeli-Gaza conflict in 2014 was all about Hamas militant group and Israel. The rocket fire from Hamas militants in Gaza and a heavy response of air strikes from Israel after the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers sparked the all-out war. In that civilians were confined and suffering a great loss. It took 22 days to put an end to the conflict. What are the real issues behind the war? Hamas’s charter is committed to Israel’s destruction and Israel’s top priority is to defend its territory from militants’ attacks. Part of Hamas’s launching attacks against Israel is, assessed by some analysts, that Hamas feel isolated and losing support from its main allies such as Egypt, Syria and Iran, because of political changes. And the only way they presume to gain support is to attack Israel at the expense of civilian casualty. Such is the rogue and stupid strategy. The demands from the two sides can hardly be met. Hamas wants Israel to lift the imposed restrictions on the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza Strips whilst the Netanyahu’s administration made clear that they wanted Gaza or Hamas to be demilitarized at all for the safety of Israeli citizens. At the height of uncertainty, Egypt came as a rescuer, brokering the ceasefire agreement between the parties that finally halted the conflict. With that being achieved, everyone knows that it would not last long, though.  

Since the founding of the Israel state in 1947, history proves that whoever war waged against Israel will receive more or less supports from the Islamic countries. So far, no leader in the world can help solve the problems faced by Israel and its neighbors on a permanent deal. After all in all, the world hope that Gaza will be well rehabilitated in 2015 after getting more than six billion donations from wealthy countries and Israel will be in peace, but the unexpected phenomenon can swing back Israel into another game of conflict in the very near future.  

The Outbreak of Ebola:

The epidemic disease of Ebola, starting in West Africa, claimed 7,800 lives. The response toward the deadly disease was very slow. It was due to the density of a number of crisis challenging big countries, who are the decision makers in the Security Council at United Nations. The one who died first of this disease was a toddler named as Emile Ouamouno a family member of Etienne before spreading to his sister Philomene on Christmas Day in 2013 and passed away before New Year, then spread again to other members of community in Guinea. It was later recognized as Ebola in March this year after it began to spread across international borders. Scientists believe that the toddler before his death had been near a tree harbouring the free-tailed bats. Fruit bats are the commonly suspected carriers of Ebola virus and believed to have been linked with the previous outbreak of Ebola in Africa.

On a more basic level, one of the solutions among many in tackling the Ebola outbreak is to fight against poverty. Because the rich countries can afford for treatment whereas the poverty-stricken West African countries can hardly survive from deadly disease. This Ebola outbreak leaves the world with a great lesson that a united hand is much needed in countering the challenges lie ahead.

The rise of Islamic Caliphate or ISIS versus Boko Haram:

The brutal scene of killing innocent people in public and in sight of children shocked the world. This is the emblem of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham) on the world stage. Skeptically at one point, when the Islamic caliphate emerged in Iraq, it is surprising to learn that the Muslim countries are not blaming them except for the victimized countries, Iraq and Syria. There are many theories and conspiracies swirling around the rise of these extremist groups. Some say this is the counterproductive of US’s invasion of Iraq. On the other side, some analysts suggest that the caliphate is a political or religious idea linked back to the history of Ottoman Empire.

In the case of Boko Haram, the corrupted government of Nigeria showed no will to help ease the pain of families of victims when the extremist group abducted more than 220 school girls. At later stage, the government took actions and running after the group in the north after facing domestic and international uproar. The groups claimed to have affiliated with ISIS.

When it comes to the US role in marauding ISIS, the Obama’s administration was deliberately delayed responding to this campaign, insisting that it was the inside issue of Iraqi government and pressuring the Nouri al-Maliki’s administration to relinquish power. The US feared that the effect of isolating Sunni group can only wreak havoc in the fragile Iraqi political spectrum. Finally, under a high volume of pressures from international partners and his own Shiite political party, Mr. Maliki made concession, but it was too late after ISIS capturing a large swathe of areas.

In reality, decades after spending trillions of dollars on the two-war fronts, Afghanistan and Iraq, US has been truly weary of war. And United States is prudent enough to form coalition forces in the fight of ISIS. The battle is ongoing and will be going for some time, but the strength of ISIS have been more and more sipped through the unceasing launching of drone and airstrike campaign by coalition forces with the support of Iraqi government and Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

To calculate the impact toward transnational borders, there is no greater fear than ISIS was recruiting foreign fighters via the use of social media, and an immediate propaganda campaign was staged in order to carry out attacks on foreign soils, which is translated as transnational terrorism. Cyber issue become an intensified attention of the international leaders and experts alike. ISIS with a combination of international fighters and its sympathizers are a threat to the world in general. And the prospect of handling those returning home is a more challenging. At the start, the victories of ISIS were celebrated across the globe by its supporters and fanatic groups, including those in Indonesia and Malaysia. Such occurrences are a reminder of how the governments need to be well prepared ahead.

Academic experts suggest that it is common to see the rise of extremism whenever the force of instability pushing hard the weak states. And there is similarity with what happened to ISIS as the Islamic groups are exploiting the weak states of Iraq and Syria through the channel of Arab Spring. With all concerted efforts, ISIS, however, would be exterminated in the foreseeable future. Their immediate rise left questions. At the end, the countries that need to learn lessons most from ISIS are neither the western nor eastern countries, but the Arab countries.

Shooting Down and Mystery of Missing Malaysian Airlines

Malaysia was struck by the worst tragedy in history, losing its largest airliners; one was shot down and another missing with no ability to track down so far. For record, Malaysian airline is among the top 20 largest airliner in the world.

The shooting down of Malaysian airline in the airspace of sovereign Ukraine became an added problem to the existing crisis in Ukraine. From the view point of laws, shooting down commercial airline without giving warning first  and where there is no fly zone designated, no matter the battle is raging, is a violation of international laws. A number of news agencies provided details of how Russia handed the Buk missile to pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.

And the disappearance of MH-370 is one of the great mysteries in aviation history. There are plenty of conspiracies giving assumption from communications made between pilots and ground stations to the captain’s frustration towards the result of Malaysian election, yet nothing can explain us to date. The search is going on in the southern part of Indian Ocean with the hope of finding the track.  

Sports: World Cup, FIFA 

The 2014 World Cup reminded us that none of any countries should attempt to bid for hosting world cup without knowing its own capacity. On the match days of World Cup, the scene of work in progress was widely seen and there was tickets returned due to stadium not being fit for audiences. It was a shame to people of Brazil as well.

Following the chaotic moments during world cup coupled with the allegation of corruption in awarding Russia and Qatar hosting World Cup in 2018 and 2022, there come the scandals revealed in British media agencies. What is mostly striking is the disclosure of how FIFA’s structural organization and leadership are deeply disorganized and corrupted. FIFA has billions of dollars benefit per year, yet it was registered as non-profit organization, which means FIFA must be tax-exempted. Furthermore, leaderships on the top are rampant with corruption as it has longstanding reputation for it. Although there are plenty someone can do within 20 years of leadership on the top, Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA never attempted to make any reforms, but stupidly attempting to grip the power by bidding again the seat of presidency for the fifth times. This is the real drama of a revealing corruption, meaning that Mr. Blatter tries to run the FIFA during his lifetime. Some critics say he is no better than Muammar Gadaffi of Lybia, Kim Jun-Un of North Korea.

Corruption and scandal cases if not solved as early possible as it could damage the reputation of the world’s most watched entertainment sport in the future.  

The concluding events of the year:

The sudden fall of Phillips Huges, an Australian cricketer while playing Cricket in Sydney shocked a great wave of sadness accompanied by the hostage siege again in the Lindt café in Sydney that questions the legal system in Australia, the collapse of Russian economy thanks to the plummeting of oil prices and the Sony hack in which the Obama's administration accused of North Korea for masterminding the act, and the tragic crash of AirAsia plane, which cost 162 lives in inland sea while en route to Singapore from Surabaya in Indonesia.

What teaches us from the events of 2014:

The year 2014 is a doom for world leaders because the conflict, crisis and tragedies occurring are concurrent in parallel. Of all, the most dangerous event of the year assumed is Ukraine crisis for it is all about the game of geopolitics. It is simply because it can turn the world into another Great War. At some points, some rushed to predict that “we are back to Cold War period” based on Mr. Obama’s accusing of Mr. Putin as having Cold War mentality. The root cause of geopolitics, as we can define by today measure, is the effect of hyper-nationalism and ultra-patriotism. These are, of course, extremely dangerous.

Looking at the world’s reactions towards Russia, China has been careful of handling the South China Sea dispute, having being well aware of the consequences awarded by international community. The tone of imperialist president Xi during his speech delivered in Australian parliament while attending G-20 summit in Brisbane was a gesture of great wisdom learnt from the mistakes of Russia, the main ally of China.

Secondly, the Islamic militant in Middle East, esp, ISIS reached the pinnacle of extremism. These militants are the most atrocious and brutal groups recorded in modern history. It is in fact the problem of Middle East. On critically assessing, the actual actors in countering ISIS should be the Arab world, not putting the challenges on the shoulder of US nor the European states as stated earlier. Central to this idea, the undying war happening in the Middle East is between the Shiite and Sunni and this seems to be on the go. This extremism ideology upheld by ISIS is a virus purely stemmed from the Islamic religion by which the name of god “Allah” was used by ISIS militants in killing people. Yet, the world is experiencing difficulty to control the sentiment of religious extremism. Again, this might be perhaps another great issue for 2015.  

In between the issues facing the Middle East, one of the issues that catch everyone’s eyes and fear for the failure of handling is the ongoing nuclear deal between Iran and the West, particularly US. Compared with the prospect of consequences of failure to achieve it, the inhumanity of ISIS can mean little to the impact. To add more variables, the pursue of nuclear arm by Iran is a perceived threat to the world beyond the threat of ISIS in the region. For that, degrading ISIS is as much important as to disarm Iran from a nuclear capability.

In the light of ISIS and its transnational supporters, the laws pertaining to anti-terrorism and immigration have been reviewed accordingly, mostly by the western liberal democratic nations. For this instance, the Sydney hostage siege could happen although Australia has the most comprehensive and strictest anti-terrorism law in the world. In this regard, no nation is immunized from the risk of terrorism or extremism.  

Aside from the odds of what was happened in 2014, a good lesson that teaches us is that the war, conflict, crisis, and catastrophe that separate communities, people and nations are in turn vital elements again that unite the enemy’s hands together.

Overall, the disappearance of MH-370 is not only a disaster for Malaysia nationals but also for the entire industry of aviation and all humanity, and as consequence, the loss was felt throughout the world. The same feeling and sympathy is echoed around the world again when spread the news about the crash of AirAsia. The loss of humanity in 2014 is countless. The truth lies behind all of tragedy, including Malaysia airliners and AirAsia is that there will be no alternative mechanism created for today and tomorrow that can predict in order to avoid the incident. This shows human wisdom and capability is limited. Cyber issue is constantly reminding us of further escalation of tension between countries. Climate change has significantly captured the global attention in this year. This is a great change in sight. 

To conclude the whole events of 2014, hundreds of thousands of lives were lost because of the man-made conflict and crisis, and which can be defined as power, greed, nationalism and extremism. Upholding these evil ideologies will lead us into the trajectory of larger tragedy in the future. Agonizing grief and angst overwhelmed the world of 2014 and thus there is no winner at the end.