August is the quietest month to mangle TS Eliots verse or so news editors used to think.
Politicians go on holiday, governments shut down, people head for the hills or the beach.
Not much happens.
Not so this August.
The world this month is experiencing an extraordinary peaking of volatility, instability and insecurity, unprecedented in recent times.
Its scary, its shocking, its a wild ride.Sudden revolutions, wars current and imminent, terrible crimes, high-stakes feuding, famines, cost of living crunches, violent riots and unfathomable market panics come not as single spies but in battalions.
In a world where mutual destruction, steeped in cruelty and despair, is a favoured human pastime, grim vistas of Eliots TheWaste Land beckon anew.In truth, the idea of idle, becalmed August has never really held water.
The month is named for Augustus Caesar, Romes first emperor hardly a quiet, retiring figure.
The First World War erupted in August 1914.
In1945, the US dropped two atom bombs on Japan.
In1100, a crossbow bolt allegedly fired by a lone assassin skewered William Rufus, king of England.
VeryGame of Thrones.
Very Trump.More recently, the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqs Saddam Hussein in August 1990 triggered the first Gulf war.
In 1991, Moscows so-called August coup aimed to depose the last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1997 Diana, Princess of Wales died in a car crash.In contrast, in August 2024 no particular world-shattering event stands out.
Instead, one dread calamityrapidly follows another, merging to create an alarming sense of anarchic unravelling.
Last weeks revolution in Bangladesh captured the tone.
Recalling the 1986 people power overthrow of FerdinandMarcosin the Philippines, Sheikh Hasina, apro-democracy prime minister turned late-life autocrat, did not merely lose her job.
She nearly lost herhead, leggingit into last-minute exile.
Bangladesh, in turmoil and beset by score-settling, must piece itselfback together.
It wont be easy.Horrors grow familiar by repetition, losing power to shockOr take the uproar following Venezuelas election travesty.
President Nicols Maduro, no Chvez he, thought it was in the bag.
Then the actual votes started coming in.
Appalled, he belatedly realised he was losing.
Publication of results was abruptly suspended, Maduro claimed a bogus victory, and the familiar lies, crackdowns and violence began.Except, this time, like Bangladesh, repression hasnt worked.
Vote tallies have not been released, so no one believes him.
The US and Europe say that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzlez won.
Even friendly leftwing governments in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico are jibbing.
Hundreds have been arrested, dozens have died.
Yet Maduro wont budge, and so the crisis deepens.Common denominators applicable elsewhere may be detected amid the mayhem.
Poverty, lack of opportunity and official corruption roil the global street.
In Kenya, young anti-government demonstrators sparked copycatgeneration Z protests in Nigeria and Uganda.
About 70% of Africas fast-expanding population is under30.
Youthful insurrection is not confined to a single calendar month.
Its ongoing.A growing propensity among authoritarian leaders to ignore international law and the UN charter is another common factor.
Russias unprovoked invasion of sovereign Ukraine is a cautionary example.
The conflict dramatically intensified this month after a large Ukrainian force invaded Russia right back to Vladimir Putins hilariously hypocritical indignation.In the Middle East, matters go from bad to seriously worse, fuelling fears of region-wide war.
Irans response to the assassination of Hamass leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran is awaited with trepidation.
Its an old story.
Western countries conduct emergency evacuations.
Israel, backed by the US, prepares to strike back.
Nervous Arab leaders urge restraint, as is their wont.skip past newsletter promotionAnalysis and opinion on the week's news and culture brought to you by the best Observer writers Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties.
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We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionLong evenings of anti-migrant riots are a reminder of how disruptive an issue migration is in all the western democraciesHorrors grow familiar by repetition, losing power to shock.
Yet some outrages cut through.
A report this month by the Jerusalem-based rights group BTselem fundamentally challenged tacit western connivance in the Israeli governments criminal behaviour since the 7October attacks.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and fellow hardliners, the report demonstrated, are running torture camps for Palestinian prisoners.BTselem scrupulously documented institutionalised abuse including severe beatings, sexual violence, starvation, refusal of medical care, and deprivation of basic needs.
The findings echo those of UN experts.
Nearly 10,000 Palestinians are in Israeli jails, many held without charge.
Its a scandal.
Its the new Abu Ghraib.
Yet, unabashed, Israels far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sickeningly suggests that starving Palestinians in Gaza is justified and moral.Will August 2024 mark a turning point in attitudes to Israels outlaw regime? It should, but probably wont.
Likewise, the UNs declaration last week that 600,000 people face famine conditions in displacement camps in North Darfur was a stark reproach the predictable culmination of a shameful story of international indifference and neglect.Sudans civil war is a catastrophe with dire implications for the whole Sahel region, terrorism and migration yet few seem to notice, let alone care.Long August evenings of anti-migrant riots, led by thethuggish UK counterparts of European neofascist racists and xenophobes, are a reminder of how disruptive and divisive an issue migration is in all the western democracies.
The violence brought the sense of global dysfunction close to home for many living in post-Brexit Britains economically deprived areas.At the opposite end of the spectrum, the wealthy wolves of Wall Street and other financial centres were busy making their own contribution to international insecurity with an irresponsible, rollercoaster display ofrecord stock market instability.
Yet jobbers jitters surely reflect the fears and uncertainties of a world running clean out of control.Speaking of control, the indispensable country thatmuch of the world looks to in times of trouble spent August hopelessly distracted by domestic politicaltumult.
Dont expect the US to sort things out, unless Joe Biden produces a parting rabbit.
Harris v Trump is shaping up to be the knock-down, scratch-your-eyes-out, photo-finish fight of the century.Who knows? Maybe September will be calmer.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk.
This article first appeared/also appeared in theguardian.com