Archive
The 21st Century: A New Millennium
There were real doom scenarios written for the Millennium Night.A night that lasted for 24 hours around the globe. Would the computers that watched over our global energy supply, our transport systems and financial transactions all survive that fatal instant in which ‘99’ would become ‘00’?
It was all completely under control. Guinness could book a new record for the number of uncorked champagne bottles, for the wildest fireworks and TV shows. London had treated itself with a Dome and an Eye.
The USA inaugurated George W. Bush and friends, who came into power after a tumultuous election campaign. 300 million Americans elected their new President with a margin of just a few hundred votes. Not exactly an example of a true democratic accomplishment. Al Gore, who didn’t use the support of a damaged Bill Clinton, just fell off the stage. These were the times of stock exchanges, capital, sky-high salaries, golden handshakes, bonuses and scandals. With explosive growth among the legion of billionaires and millionaires. And yet also these were also the times of outsourcing, globalization, Aids and poverty.
The new century was still in its earliest years when the tensions between extremist Muslims and the USA led to the fatal, devastating attacks on the New York World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Protracted wars in Afghanistan and, later, in Iraq have lain a heavy burden on the United Nations and the international community. Terrorism-without-borders has become a daily catchword in world politics. It has struck Madrid, Beslan, Bali, Moscow, Grozny, Baghdad, Beirut, London, Sharm-el-Sheikh, Tel-Aviv and numerous other places around the world. It seems we have entered an entirely new and painful chapter in history. Predictions for the future are hard to make. The speed with which we are now writing new chapters in world history seems higher than ever.
The Western world does not yet know how to cope with ‘Eurabia’ and the major problems of semi-ghettos, unemployed young masses, refugees, etc.
The effects of the changing climate are alarming. If we go on behaving like this, by the end of this century there will be no more ice to be found in Iceland. The US and Australia have declined to sign the Kyoto treaty aimed at reducing CO2 emissions. An attempt at a new treaty broke down in 2006. The temperature of the ocean waters has risen. 360 natural disasters claimed the lives of at least 100,000 people in 2005; perhaps this is nature’s answer to the way we are treating the planet. Hurricane Katrina, in and around New Orleans, was a very serious global warning. Al Gore presented his Inconvenient Truth. At a conference (2006, Noordwijk, Holland) Jan-Ernst de Groot, vice-president of KLM, also warned that, without dramatic improvements, airlines and airports would become major sources of the greenhouse effect and find themselves in serious economic trouble.
The war that started in Kuwait (1990) had spread throughout the region, touching the hearts and minds of the whole world: Iraq, Afghanistan, the Taliban, Saddam, Father George and son George W. and their friends, Israel, the Palestinians, the Shiites and the Sunnis, Syria, Al-Qaida, Iran and North Korea are names that reappear every day in the mass media everywhere, filling us with fear and anxiety. The old Cold War has been replaced by a new Long War. The Killing Fields have been revisited. The Polish Pope John Paul II, who played his role in the fall of Soviet Communism, died and got a German successor.
Most countries in the European Union swapped their own currencies for the Euro. The EU was expanded with many new member states. Its territory is now reaching the Russian borders. Once admitted, candidate member Turkey will bring take the European border right into the Middle East.
The Internet hype and the rise of various short-lived generations of mobile phones had the whole world in its grip. ITC became a magic concept of fluctuating significance. The new ‘capitalistic’ policy of the Chinese Republic resulted in enormous growth figures and rapidly changed the outlook of its big cities. The Chinese demand for oil and steel exerts a great influence on world economics. The British handed back the former Crown colony of Hong Kong without a single shot being fired, either by the British or by the Chinese.
Vladimir Putin came to power. In 2005 he stated that the fall of the USSR ‘was a great disaster’ for the population of his Union. NATO and its former Iron Curtain enemies now go on joint manoeuvres. American and Russian astronauts cooperate in space. Disasters with Russian submarines are now being solved by British and US action. ICT industries are upsetting the world economies. The economic heavy weather of the years following 9/11 ruined many companies, large and small, due to their recent investments.
Ben Bos, Amsterdam, 2006
Essay taken from 'AGI: Graphic Design Since 1950' by Ben & Elly Bos