It was yesterday that my hopes completely collapsed.

Transportation walls came tumbling down.

Why'd the stage collapse?

It was up there. They went out of business years ago.

And of course the iron curtains, political walls have come tumbling down.

The Roman Empire collapsed with the assassination of Cesar why?

Oh, I was so exhausted by all I'd been through, my nerves broke.

Well, they didn't revolt, and in 1941, ASCAP cracked.

Communication walls, I don't have to tell you the Internet have come tumbling down.

And he stands up, delivers his poem from memory, walks out the door, and at the moment he does, the banquet hall collapses.

What is there that we can learn from the past that would help us avoid declining or collapsing in the way that so many past societies have?

So, I'm looking at these issues of collapses for a lot of past societies and for many present societies.

The cold war has ended. The membership of the United Nations has multiplied from 51 at the time of its founding to 184 today.

There were many reports by international press about the bad roads, accommodations, people and even stadiums, that collapsed or weren't even completed before the tournament.

As the late 1980s have turned into the 1990s, and the current decade has advanced, so previous once seemingly permanent international alignments have collapsed or been disbanded.

The problem is obviously relevant to our situation today, because today as well, there are some societies that have already collapsed, such as Somalia and Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

It is said that in history it was named Al Qahira ( The Conqueror ) because the vast majority of the invading armies fell on the 6th October Bridge, on Al Batal Ahmed street to be precise.

But nevertheless, there are certain common threads that emerge from these comparisons of past societies that did or did not collapse and threatened societies today.