Richard Hogan: My daughter asked me - 'is this the start of World War III?'

Vienna, Austria - March 30, 2014: Protesters gather in the main square in Vienna to protest the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Police are watching the protests carefully in the background.

I think it’s fair to say, we’re all a little world-weary. As I write this I’m currently recovering from my second dalliance with Covid 19. I’ve had better dalliances. This one, less serious than my first tryst but more prolonged and annoying. There always seems to be a sting in the tail. 

Just when you think things are improving something else seems to come along and knock you off your optimism pedestal. I am the eternal optimist, you might not think it from what I just said, but I am. I always try to find the positive in any situation. Shakespeare would have killed me off in the first few scenes for being too bloody naïve. But there have been moments, over the years, when that ‘glass half full’ mentality has been challenged. 

I remember New Year’s eve 1999, far from what Prince predicted, I was on a plane terrified it would crash because of the Y2K bug. Prince didn’t foresee that in his party plans! A year later, waiting to collect a French girlfriend from Cork airport, full of exciting ideas for the week ahead, I stood mesmerised, watching planes crash into the Twin Towers in NYC. The destruction of innocent civilians is rarely so vividly and catastrophically displayed on our screens. I was numb, optimism all but gone. It seemed like things would never be the same after that moment. But we muddled on.

The roaring Celtic Tiger lifting all of us ‘like feathers’ in an Emily Dickinson poem. I decided to get married in 2008, buoyed by the prospect of the economy and the beautiful girl I was lucky to meet. A couple of weeks later the global economic crash happened. Something about sub-prime loans and the Celtic tiger being a scam. I turned off the news for about three years and tried to tune out all the noise about the house we bought in 2006. Not easy. 

As we came out of that chaos, climate change became the new bogeyman. Our world, it seemed, was in a perilous predicament. And just when we thought things couldn’t get much worse, we were hit with a global pandemic. Those of us lucky enough to survive the various waves were forced to lockdown. Now, as we slowly emerge out of that global winter, Putin decides to invade a sovereign democratic country, pushing the world to the brink of annihilation. Tanks spilling down the streets of a once-thriving democratic European city illuminate just how tone-deaf the Russian President is. Images of homes destroyed by shelling have shocked all of us. 

Once again, it left us all numb. Germany has said it will commit €100bn to a new armed forces fund. It feels like those people down in Connolly station with the ‘End is Nigh’ banners might be on to something after all. My own daughter asked me, "Is this the start of World War III?" 

Being a lover of history and reading a considerable amount about the origins of World War you can clearly see, in each of those wars, how diplomacy slowly failed and the world stumbled its way into global catastrophe. It has been a very unnerving week. I can’t imagine what it must be like for the people in Ukraine.

Our children have had to process so much over the last number of years. Now they are trying to comprehend if their world is at war. If your child asks you about the current situation in Ukraine, it is important that you discuss it with them calmly. Teach them how to critically evaluate situations. Give them both sides of the argument, obviously in age-appropriate terms and then ask them to come to their own decision about what is happening in this current situation. 

For example, you could say, President Putin says that the democratically elected government of Ukraine is doing bad things to its pro-Russia population. But there is no evidence for that claim. Putin really does not like the fact that Ukraine might want to join NATO and prefers western ideas than Russian ideas. Ukraine has been illegally invaded by a powerful army, what do you think about a powerful country trying to take over a less powerful country? What do you think other countries should do? Developing your child’s ability to think critically has never been more important. Far from a soft skill, it is the hard skill they will need to successfully navigate the world they are going into.

Putin has made a massive misstep here. He has placed himself in the role of a Bond villain. I am surprised he has done this to himself, I thought he was more astute than that or maybe his endgame is more diabolical than we imagine. The optimist in me thinks he underestimated the worlds growing lack of tolerance for such aggression. China’s abstention has signalled just how out of tune his actions are. It could mark the beginning of the end for him. 

The International Criminal Court will look at these events and the consequences could be very severe. I hope that’s not my optimistic self, talking. Despotic leaders must be consigned to history, there must be no place for them in tomorrow's world.