New Year, New Decade, New Beginnings

So Christmas has passed, 2009 is gone and in its place now stands not just a new year, but a new decade as well. With the sound of exploding fireworks, enough alcohol to kill the world’s entire population of bull elephants and more cooked birds than Bill Oddie can shake a stick at, the Noughties (God how I loathe that name) have gone out with a raucous and drunken bang.

So let’s take a look back at the past 10 years before we throw ourselves headlong into the next. The 2000’s was a period of great advancement but also, I feel, great regression. For every step forwards we’ve taken, we also seem to have taken a larger step backwards. For instance, we further developed the internet and while this is great, it means nobody anywhere can trip on a banana skin without the entire world knowing about it within minutes.

You can hardly sneeze anywhere in the Middle East anymore without your country being invaded, pretty much every animal on earth now carries a deadly form of flu, your 13 year old daughter is pregnant again, stress-related illness has become the new must-have, Ugg boots were developed, education systems failed to be educational, men ceased to be men anymore and politicians seemingly ceased to be human at all.

Oh yeah, and a little event known as the Recession hasn’t made the past year any the more enjoyable either. However, the horrors and mistakes of the past 10 years will with any luck incite the necessity for true change and revolution over the years to come.

The decadence of the 2000’s has proven itself to be a mirage, and crumbled accordingly. As human beings we will all learn and live on and for that reason I have high hopes for 2010, and with the recent snowfall turning the country whiter than the BNP cricket team, the new decade couldn’t have gotten off to a more idyllic start. Happy New Year!