Does anyone notice how, whenever it's Christmas, disasters promptly start rolling around? Note: I will not list wars still ongoing. There's still the war of Chechenya, wherever that is. Imagie: We're happily opening our presents in lovely Singapore and worrying about classes next year when these poor people have to worry about waking up dead.

Here's a list:

1941- 25th December

Hong Kong fell to Japanese in WWII.

1943 - WWII in Europe: Soviets launch offensives on the Ukrainian front.

1947- Indo-Pakistani War of 1947

Lasted from October 21 1947 - December 31 1948.

Holy cow, that's one year plus of fighting.

2001-

Dec. 23–31, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil: Flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains killed 60–70 people, mainly in the mountain resort city of Petropolis near Rio de Janeiro on Christmas Eve. Downpours on New Year's Eve destroyed part of the historic town of Goias Velho, a United Nations World Heritage Site.
Dec. 29, Lima, Peru: Nearly 300 people died in a massive fire that started after someone set off a firecracker, apparently to test it, in a crowded downtown street. The firecracker set off other fireworks nearby, causing a series of explosions. The blaze covered a four-block area; many of the dead were small children.

2002-

Dec 26- 9 Palestinians killed

Dec.27
North Korea- North Korea decided to expel IAEA inspectors who have been monitoring its frozen nuclear facilities
Chechnya - 2 powerful explosions have rocked the Chechen capital, wrecking a major pro-Kremlin government building, 41 killed in Grozny blasts.

2003 - Earthquake in Iran

Tragedy hit Iran on 26 December 2003 when a major earthquake registering 6.5 on the Richter scale hit its south-eastern province of Kerman at 05:28 (local time). The area most affected was the ancient city of Bam where more than 43,000 people were killed, an estimated 30,000 injured and up to 75,000 left homeless, according to official estimates.

2004- 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

Wikipedia: The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is known by the scientific community as the Great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake[3], and the following tsunami is known as the Asian Tsunami or the Boxing Day Tsunami.

2005 - Fourth Civil War of Chad

It's still ongoing. According to wikipedia anyway. Fatalities: about 1400.

2006 -
1) Conflict of brothers

In Palestine. Ended July 17 2007. 329 fatalities.

2) War in Somalia

Still ongoing. 14,007 fatalities.

3) Typhoon Durian

And no I'm not kidding. That's really the name of the typhoon, dunno why.

Wikipedia: Typhoon Durian (international designation: 0621, JTWC designation: 24W, designated Typhoon Reming by PAGASA and sometimes called Super Typhoon Durian) was an intense storm that wreaked havoc in the Philippines, causing massive loss of life when mudslides from the Mayon Volcano buried many villages. According to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, Durian was the 24th tropical depression, 23rd tropical storm, 14th typhoon and 7th super typhoon of the 2006 Pacific typhoon season. It was also the 21st named storm and 14th typhoon of the season recognised by the Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre for tropical cyclones in this region, the Japan Meteorological Agency. The name Durian was submitted to the naming list by Thailand, which refers to a fruit, Durio zibethinus.[3]

2007- Civil unrest

Location: Kenya. About 1500 casualties. Ended on February 28...this year.

Floods in Sri Lanka: The Dec 2007 emergency

Idonesia affected by floods and landslides.

Okay I don't think I want to dig deeper, because i know for sure the list will be neverending.

And I briefly remember something about the Japanese troops attacking / dropping bombs on Pearl Harbour on when troops were preparing for Christmas (7 December if I'm not wrong)...real lovely christmas that one would be, a funeral instead of carols.

While looking at data I unearthed, I feel very sad. Some of the wars starting as far back as 1990 (imagine! Just 4 years before we were born) are still ongoing. It makes me wonder if the people who initiated the war can remember what they are fighting for. Are they fighting for themselves or are they fighting for the sake of fighting, the seeds of chaos sewn by the predecessors?

Ok...correction. I think the longest one that's been going on till now is from April 1948. It's Kayin State Conflict/internal conflict in Burma, no thanks to the junta.