We Didn’t Start the Fire – Part II

In a recent (guest) post over on @ Risk, I quoted Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire from his Storm Front album which was released as a single twenty years ago. I did so because each reference in two of the later verses represent significant potential risks to your supply chain that haven’t changed much in the last twenty years; since what your supply manager would be signing about today would more-or-less have the same underlying risks.

In honour of Billy Joel’s masterpiece, which chronicled headline events during the first forty years of his life (from 1949 to 1989), I have compiled a sequel that chronicles major events from the last twenty years (the nineties and the naughts). How many do you remember? And, equally interesting, can you identify the risks to your supply chain and your business that each represents(ed)?

We Didn’t Start the Fire – Part II

Buster Douglas, Gorbachev, Mandela, Berners Lee

Margaret Thatcher, Leonard Bernstein, Mary Robinson

Time Warner, Hubble Scope, Jim Henson, Germany

Windows, Strangeways Riot, Iraq’s Kuwait Invasion

IRA, Pan Am, KGB, Dead Sea Scrolls

Sonic, Exxon Valdez, Operation Desert Storm

Jeffrey Dahmer, Clarence Thomas, Magic Johnson, Michael Landon

Boris Yeltsin, Six in Birmingham, Pinatubo transforms

We didn’t start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world’s been turning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

Roberta Bond, Noriega, Amy Fisher, Buttafuoco

Toronto Blue Jays win the Series, Jay Leno makes the grade

Jurassic Park, Bombay Bombings, Jean Chretian, Stephen Hawking

Janet Reno, Killari Quake, Waco Texas Raid

Bombay Riots, World Trade Center, David Koresh, id Software

Bill Clinton, Kim Campbell, North American Free Trade

We didn’t start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world’s been turning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

Kremlin Accords, Northridge Earthquake, Channel Tunnel, OJ Simpson

George Forman, Richard Nixon, Jackie Kennedy

Kevin Mitnick, Asahara, Toy Story, Selena

Oklahoma, Hanshin Earthquake, Barrings Bank is history

Christopher Reeve, Saro-Wiwa, WTO, Windows 95

The Dow Jones hits a high, its Calvin and Hobbes’ demise

We didn’t start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world’s been turning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

Steffi Graf, Deep Blue, Alanis, Whitewater

2Pac, Lijiang earthquake, Cyclone in Andhra Pradesh

LA Earthquake, MCI, Kyoto, Heaven’s Gate

Harry Potter, Tamil Tigers, Princess Di’s death

Morgan Stanley, Dolly’s Clone, Market Crash, Kyoto

The Confederation Bridge is raised and Hong Kong is returned

George Michael, AOL, Enter Google, Viagra

Disney, Auckland Blackouts, Lewinsky Scandal burns

We didn’t start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world’s been turning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

The Euro’s here, Melissa spreads, Hugo Chavez, Woodstock’s rebirth

Bertand Piccard, Brian Jones, and 6 Billion roam the earth

Millenium, ILOVEYOU, Survivor, CSI

Mozambique Floods, Charles Schulz, John Paul apologized

Bastille Day Flare, ISS, AOL, Time Warner

Harold Shipmen, Dark Chernobyl, Keizo Obuchi dies

We didn’t start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world’s been turning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

W. Bush, Robert Tools, End of Mir, Noah cloned

9-11, Anthrax, Afghanistan partakes

Nepal Massacre, Baltimore, Patriot Act, Enron folds

El Salvador, Peru, and Gujarat earthquakes

Giuliani, Shttleworth, Venus Williams, Serena

US Airways, Worldcom, No Child Left Behind

Martha Stewart, Northeast Blackout, Schwarzenegger, Sadam Hussein

Columbia, Hurricane Juan, Iraq Occupied

We didn’t start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world’s been turning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

Ronald Reagan, Tony Blair, Lance Armstrong, Schumacher

Darfur Conflict, Nagaoka, Taiepi 101

Northern Bank, Nor’easter, Boxing Day Tsunami

SpaceShipOne, Beslan School, Euro Constitution

Camilla Bowles, Denis Radar, Andrew Stimpson, Stephen Colbert

Pope Benedict, Ahmadinejad, Chicago White Sox

Sumantran quake, CAFTA, Cronulla Riots flare

North Korea, YouTube, NHL season boxed

We didn’t start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world’s been turning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

Warren Buffett, Stephen Harper, Tom Delay, Steve Irwin

Playstation III, Nintendo Wii, Hamas Elected

Estonia, Somalia, Harry Potter, Vladimir Putin

Virginia Tech, Chavez again, Zheng Xiaoyu Injected

We didn’t start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world’s been turning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

Fidel Castro, Subprime Crisis, Lehman Brothers, Cyclone Nargis

Space X Falcon, One Hundred Oil, Large Hadron Collider

Michael Jackson, Obama, Walter Cronkite, Polanski

Tamil Tigers, Iran Protests, Australian Brushfires

Unemployment hits a high, H1N1 on the rise,

Pakistan erupts in war, I can’t take it anymore!

We didn’t start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world’s been turning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

We didn’t start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world’s been turning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it