Here Comes the New Decade!

Holy Cow it’s New Year’s Eve! – and not just the beginning of a new year but a new DECADE.

As we end the first decade of the new millenium it seems that traditions are falling by the wayside, victims of terrorist attacks, economic meltdown and global warming. But all is not gloom and doom as we look back over the things we have accomplished in the past decade and look forward to the next.

As the decade opened Dell offered a 700-MHz Pentium III with 64MB of RAM, 13.6 GB hard drive, a CD-ROM optical drive, 16MB graphics card , a 56K modem and a 17-inch color CRT monitor for the LOW price of $1899! Today they offer an Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q8300 (4MB L2, 2.5GHz, 1333FSB) with 6GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM,320GB Hard Drive,Integrated Intel® GMA 3100 Graphics & 16X DVD+/-RW Drive for $599!

In 2000 Google existed but was still run off the servers at Stanford University and Mark Zuckerberg founder of Facebook turned 15. Today Google leads the world in search engine and marketing technology and shortly will release their own operating system and mobile phone network. The jury is still out on Facebook…

In 2000 Genome was a word very few people outside the genetics research community had heard of. Today DNA mapping is discovering the causes of diseases that have plagued us for millenia – on an almost daily basis.

In 2000 you had a 40% higher risk of heart disease related death than today, and a 10 year old child could walk into the corner store and buy a package of cigarettes.

In 2000 Drs. James Hansen and David Suzuki were still screaming in the wilderness about global warming, climate change and all the REALLY bad things we were doing to the planet. Today we haven’t reached the goal of reducing our carbon emissions to a level SAFE to human life but at least everyone accepts there is a problem and we are working on solutions.

In 2000, outside of Denmark, windmills were used primarily for drawing water and Dutch postcards. Today Wind Power can be part of the solution to our fossil fuel dependency problem.

In 2000 Quebec sovereignty was a hot button issue. Yesterday Roberto Luongo, from Montreal,talked about how proud he was to have been selected to play for Canada!

In 2000 Paralympics were considered almost an afterthought. In 2010 Vancouver will host the Winter Paralympics as a full partner of the Winter Olympics!

In 2000 Aaron Hill was a 17 year old high school student in California and Adam Lind 16 in Indiana. This year Aaron Hill was the American League Comeback Player of the Year and Adam Lind won the Edgar Martinez Award as the most Outstanding Designated Hitter!

Where will we be in 10 years time?  More wishes than Nostradamus here are some of the things I would love to see accomplished:

In South Bruce – The Mildmay-Teeswater Bantam Rep hockey team beats Walkerton  in the final series to win the OMHA championship.  The post-victory celebration is dampened (pun intended) when the host arena’s septic tanks back up, reminding the South Bruce visitors why we HAVE sewers!

In Ontario – In a joint announcement the federal and provincial government commit to revitalizing VIA rail service in southwestern Ontario by building new line capacity OUTSIDE the Windsor – Montreal corridor.  Bombardier is contracted to produce new technology electric engines and rolling stock to take advantage of the increased capacity of Bruce Power (I can dream about solar powered trains but that is still several decades off).

In Canada – A new political party, the Canadians First Party, is formed to fill the moral void left by the other major political parties in Canada. With a platform of responsible, eco and people-friendly domestic and foreign policy, the CFP quickly gains power, swearing in Rick Mercer as Prime Minister (Peter Mansbridge in External Affairs!).

Globally – Realizing it was a mistake to award President Obama the Nobel Prize before he did ANYTHING, The Nobel Prize Committee awards the 2012 Physics prize to Dr. James Hansen for finally making us realize that climate change is real.

In Hockey – Toronto Maple Leafs will play Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup Final. All of Canada will book off work over the seven game series and Gary Bettman will finally have to admit that a 7th team in Canada is critical to the survival of the league. Who wins you ask? We ALL do! (pssst… Conn Smythe Trophy to Mason Raymond…)

In Baseball – Toronto Blue Jays score a decisive 4 game win in the World Series over the Philadelphia Phillies with Ricky Romero besting Roy Halladay in the final game. Immediately afterwards Vernon Wells announces his retirement (Win-Win but I can dream can’t I?).

Finally, On the Internet – Teeswater.Ca celebrates 13 years online by giving the editor a commemorative dictionary.

2010 – Bring It On!