It is surprising how little we in Guyana seem to be paying to the fast approaching end of the second Millennium. Even the end of centuries historically have been heralded by all manner of jubilant or dire prophecy and every sort of futuristic project. The end of a millennium might therefor be expected to multiply such imaginings and plans a thousand-fold. But in Guyana there is a strange and complete silence. Nobody seems to think that anything very alarming or very momentous is looming not many months down the road.
It is not so in some other countries. At a humdrum level, leading hotels, restaurants and night clubs in New York, London and Paris are already booked solid for celebrating Old Year's Night, 1999. Are the Georgetown Club, the Police Officers Mess, Palm Court, Le Meridien and Cara Lodge and all the other eateries and discos taking bookings yet and, if not, why not? Here is an entrepreneurial chance for a little premium-pricing I would have thought.
A new millennium is bound to attract those who have an apocalyptic vision of God's plan for the universe. There are those who are certain we will see the dawn of Armageddon. A cult foretelling Armageddon, led by the mystic Shoho Asahara, released the deadly sarin gas into a Tokyo subway as a foretaste of the end of the world. In South Korea Dr. David Yonggi Cho of the Full Gospel Church with one million followers is preaching that the Antichrist is about to emerge. Expect many more such charismatic 'leaders' as the countdown continues.
Much more reputably, some great faiths are focussing on the new Millennium. Hindus believe that we are living in the last days of the Kaliyuga, a period of great tribulation characterized by a violent shift from darkness into enlightenment. The calendar of the Mayan civilization, an astonishing construct that extends millions of years into the past, is calculated to expire in the year 2012. And Pope John Paul II, head of the world's 600 million Roman Catholics, last year initiated three years of preparation leading up to the Great Jubilee.
In 1978, in his very first statement as Pope, the newly elected Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Krakow referred to the Millennium and made clear what he believed lay ahead for the world. "We are facing the final confrontation between the Church and the Antichurch, between the Gospel and the Antigospel." Not long after he saw "the conversion of Russia" as one essential passage in the progress of the last days "which began with the first coming of Christ."
In his 1994 encyclical The Coming of the Third Millennium the Pope made it clear that some time soon will begin a time heralding the Second Coming. In this belief the apparitions of Fatima of the Virgin Mary 80 years ago are seen as crucial. There the three Portuguese peasant children who had the visions were given three secrets. The last and greatest of these is held in the bosom of the Pope but is still to be revealed. It is thought that the time of the Great Jubilee will be the time he chooses to reveal Fatima's final mystery. It is quite a build-up to the year 2000. If nothing happens, if nothing much is said, it will be a considerable let-down.
The dawn of the third Millennium is being treated as a momentous time except, one has to say, in Guyana where no one is paying the slightest notice. Well, this may well indicate that we are the most level-headed, sensible people on earth, but somehow it seems a pity not to participate a little in the (mellow)drama?
Other countries long ago began to plan Millennium projects and have raised considerable project money. In Britain, for instance, they are building a giant millennium dome at Greenwich in London costing US$1.3 billion to celebrate the start of another thousand years of history. Around the world a multitude of millennium schemes are gestating. In Guyana we have hundreds of committees and task forces but, as far as I know, none which is planning a few Millennium projects of our own. Surely, we are not so entrapped in our petty daily problems, so devoid of a sense of the sweep of history, so dull of imagination and wit, that we are going to miss making a mark or two of Millennium history? A to be determined percentage from our own National Lottery could be put aside for the purpose.
As the new Millennium looms, I have one grand idea myself. It would get the next 1000 years off to a marvelous, flying start. It would give world trade an enormous boost. It would transform the little men who lead the world today into historical giants. Above all, it would give the countless millions of desperate men, women and children around the globe a new lease of hope for a future in which they would have a better chance of enjoying the elementary decencies of life. Let the powers that be in a dramatic conference with a sweep of their collective pen cancel all the poor world's debt. In a real sense that indeed would be like Christ coming again in the new Millennium.
Sadly, we all know that will not happen. The world is still waiting for gifted with leaders who possess the imaginative sweep of needed vision. However, returning to Guyana, is it too late to mark the dawn of a new millennium with some project of our own? With barely 6 months to go nothing elaborate will, of course, be possible. But what about taking up John Warrington's wonderful idea of planting trees to mark the turning?
Not only in Georgetown, but in every city, town and village in the world, plans could be made to plant at the turn of the Millennium thousands of trees, to replace trees that have been lost, or grace sad and empty places in need of trees. While we, for a while, and our children and our children's children can watch them grow into beauty and feel some satisfaction that something simple yet good was created. They will be our millenium trees.
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