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A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far, Far Away
It's thirty years since Star Wars was released. EURSOC suddenly feels very old. The BBC has a handy guide to Star Wars trivia (which most fans will know anyway) while The Times argues that it was the film's lack of originality that made it such a success.
It's interesting to look over the past thirty years and see what's changed. In 1977, Queen Elizabeth celebrated her Silver Jubilee: In 2007, she was in the news again, this time because Helen Mirren's portrayal of her won the actress an Oscar.
Jimmy Carter was in the news then, of course: He was 39th President of the United States at the time. Now, he's a Nobel Peace Prize Winner who earns his crust criticising the policies of the guy doing his old job.
Meanwhile, trouble was brewing in what was to become Carter's nemesis: Iran. Protests against the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi continued, which would lead to his 1979 exile and the Iranian Revolution. We don't need to point out that Iran remains in the news, except to say that if recent rumours have any truth, Iran could come to define the career of another US President.
Currently, that honour goes to Iraq. If anyone told George W Bush in 1977 that American troops would be in Iraq thirty years later, he would have been forgiven for thinking they were there to protect the regime against the gathering storm in Iran. Saddam Hussein, that year, was busy abolishing trade unions and consolidating Ba'ath Party power. Though he was Vice President in 1977, by this time President al-Bakr was little more than a figurehead. Saddam succeeded him in 1979.
Also in 1977 Saddam stepped up a crackdown against Iraq's Shia population. Shias lost their religious freedom and right to take part in pilgrimages this year. In February and March, eight Shi'a dignitaries, 5 clergy and 3 laymen are executed. Mass purges of Shi'a suspected of belonging to the Da'wa Party were orchestrated.
Mass deportations of Shia Muslims to Iran began in early 1977 too. Property was seized, sons "disappeared" and families expelled from the country. By the early 1980s, 200,000 Iraqis had been stripped of their nationality and sent to Iran.
On January 1st 2007, Saddam was freshly buried, two days after his execution when Shia guards taunted him.
Some things, however, remain mostly the same. Britain's Liverpool beat Germany's Borussia Moenchengladbach 3-1 in the Olympic Stadium, Rome, in May 1977. Thirty years later, Liverpool were again at an Olympic Stadium, this time in Athens, where they were beaten in today's equivalent of the European Cup, the Champions League, by Italy's AC Milan 2-1.
