Sir, - Bearing in mind that the year 2000 will not be the first millennium which mankind has witnessed, we should also consider that maybe things haven't changed that much in the past hundred years. Humans have miraculously made it through another century without destroying themselves or their environment, though we are drawing ever closer to it. Yet, for all our self-glorification as we stand at the edge of a new millennium, the human race has still been incapable of solving even the most basic problems that plague this society.
We are not, in principle, a more truly advanced civilisation than we were 100 years ago. Granted, we have progressed to some degree, but we are still unsuccessfully dealing with widespread poverty, starvation, environmental destruction, disease and corporate control. As it stands, we are still living in the past, holding firmly to the same ineffective methods of living and interacting on this planet as we have for hundreds of years. So I would hope that as we embark upon this new millennium, we will have the foresight, initiative and courage not to drag the corruptions of the past into the future, but will move forward and embrace new and innovative solutions to better our world in the new century.
Surely the powers that be can find a more positive and productive way in which to mark the progress of mankind, a millennium project in which all parts of society can be proud of and not just an inanimate statue which only represents useless self-glorification. Let us not begin another millennium in which money and corporate business come before the social health and stability of a country, in which families can't afford the basic amenities of life while the government chooses to waste money building conference centres and monuments, and in which the environment is constantly undermined by greed and power. - Yours, etc., Colyn Kilmer,
Larch Hill, Delgany, Co Wicklow.