Happy New Year!
I hope you, our dear readers, will all have a great and grand time on New Year’s Eve—-as well as on New Year’s day itself (and throughout the rest of the year, for that matter). You must all go out and celebrate with your friends and family members.
Celebrating the arrival of a new year is a grand American tradition, as it is in China, although the Chinese Lunar New Year comes a bit later–a relatively small difference, I think, because the concept should essentially be the same all over the world: commemorating the past, appreciating the present, and looking to the future with renewed hope, confidence, and optimism.
Much can be said about this New Year in particular: the year 2001, itself the title of a “futuristic” science fiction film, subtitled “A Space Odyssey,” by the late Stanley Kubrick.
Well, that future is here. That future is now—-although, much like George Orwell’s “1984” novel, it is not quite what it was hyped up to be. In the year 2001, regular commercial space travel is not yet a reality, and computers named “Hal” are not out to subjugate man in true Orwellian (totalitarian) fashion. Nor are they expected to do so in the near future.
To be sure, the dire predictions of a dystopian future have been greatly and grossly exaggerated. A century that began with the Great War (1914-1917), WWI, “the war to end all wars” and “make the world safe for democracy,” and continued some twenty years later with World War II (1939-1945)—-the most destructive conflict in human history—-has not ended in disaster. The world is a far safer, freer, more prosperous and advanced place than it was at the dawn of the 20th Century. Great strides have been made. The torrid pace of progress and change is relentless and inexorable.
World War II, the single most destructive conflict in human history, also turned out to be its most productive and constructive, as tyranny and colonialism are no longer widely tolerated today—-a direct result of the lessons learned from the initial failure of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points, foremost of which was the right to local self-government and self-determination, a cause close and dear to our hearts here in the Northern Marianas.
The Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia—-all helped to bring us the downfall of global communism, which was accelerated by Ronald Reagan, this Century’s finest American president, bar none.
Yes, we can safely say, with confidence, that the Year 2001 indeed marks yet another significant milestone “in the course of human events.” It represents the dawn of an exciting new era of unprecedented technological progress and prosperity. The new century offers many promising new opportunities, if we are ready to seize the moment!
Strictly a personal view. Charles Reyes Jr. is a regular columnist of Saipan Tribune. Mr. Reyes may be reached at charlesraves@hotmail.com
