cover story
Even nostalgia ain't what it used to be!
Wars and power struggles, economic meltdowns, commercialism, celebrity obsession, ideological black holes… it seems as though mankind was on a mission to collectively jump off a figurative cliff during the last ten years that together made up The Noughties, a decade that, admittedly like every other decade, has changed the world forever. As the sun sets on the '00s, it is plain to see that this century is off to a rocky start, and through it all, one thing has become abundantly clear: humanity's gene pool could use stronger chlorination.
Politics
Self-destruct sequence initiated
Nothing can capture the essence of the decade more than a 2004 quote from one of the world's most beloved leaders, the acclaimed and eloquent statesman George W. Bush: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful," he said, "and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." The jury is still out on whether this is funny because it's true, or sad because it's true.
Either way, the world had set its cruise control for crash long before this decade began, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that world peace remained elusive. Threats of terrorism and nuclear proliferation were a permanent fixture in the headlines. Pakistani politics continued to struggle with the hellovamess it had inherited from the '90s. Pervez Musharraf's presidency, the judiciary conflict, Asif Ali Zardari's presidency following Benazir Bhutto's death, and near constant bomb blasts in the major cities of the country in the last few months – makes one wonder what our current political landscape's future history will choose as the lowest point of our decade.
But perhaps the most defining moment of the '00s came on the 11th of September 2001 when hijacked commercial airliners crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which led to the US-led war in Afghanistan; nearly a decade later, the terrorists continue undeterred. Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction was cited as the reason for the occupation of Iraq by US-led forces; the WMDs were never found because apparently they did not exist. Billions of dollars have been spent. Thousands of lives have been lost. And we're supposed to be the most intelligent species on this planet!
Economy
With compliments from the Department of Bad Ideas
It started with the bursting of the dot-com bubble and ended with the collapse of the housing bubble; everything in between was just as dreary. The world saw increased globalisation and further expansion of multinational corporations, with the US continuing to be the world's biggest economy, and China emerging as a rising power on the back of immense economic growth. Meanwhile, inflation constantly troubled the workingman, with huge increases in the prices of commodities, gold, petrol…and electricity, or what little we had of it. The biggest pain for the residents of Pakistan for much of the latter part of the decade was "load shedding", a term that refers to a foolproof way of ruining your country's already-feeble economy by cutting off the power supply to various or all regions of the country for extended parts of the day. All hail WAPDA!
Technology
Science 1 – Naysayers 0
With the coming of age of the Internet, the Noughties saw further integration of and dependence on technology.
- Internet: While Microsoft Windows maintained its dominance on the global OS market, Google became the Internet search leader, and Google's Gmail revolutionised email, helping kick off rapid development in the webmail arena. Probably the biggest fad of the '00s came in the form of social networking, which provided us a way to connect with all the friends we've never had. Collaborative wikis helped in knowledge sharing, YouTube made video sharing an integral part of the web culture, and blogging gave everyone a social and political voice and became an avenue for keeping up with the latest news and trends. Also, someone decided to test the infinite monkey theorem ("if you were to give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters, they would eventually reproduce the complete works of William Shakespeare") by creating Twitter; the experiment is still ongoing and the results are as-yet inconclusive. P2P networking and Torrents forced the entertainment industry to rethink its business models; the elements of the industry that remained in denial just saw file-sharers as the bandits of the digital revolution, were reluctant to see the opportunities that came with the evolution of the media, and hence decided to sue its target customers instead – a moments rational thought would've helped spot the slight flaw in this plan, but we all know that rationality and Hollywood don't get along with each other.
- Gadgets: Gadgets were on a mission to become smaller, thinner, and ubiquitous over the decade. Those who didn't have their eyes glued to computer screens were seen with their thumbs dancing on mobile phone keypads, explaining why SMS and MMS spread like an epidemic – text messaging provided instant contact with friends through messages of up to 160 characters in length, and led to much dismay among the fans of correct spelling and proper grammar. Floppy disks gave way to USBs, which made data transfer easier. ebook readers added digital fizzle to literature. Audio- and videocassettes went the way of the Dodo, replaced by CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs. Digital audio gained popularity, with Apple dominating the portable media player market with the iPod and the accompanying iTunes store; Spotify and Voddler promise to further evolve the digital landscape in the coming years. Apple also ruled the smartphone ecosystem with the iPhone. And gaming enthusiasts went crazy over Nintendo's Wii, which became a leading gaming platform; Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox were also popular in the console market.
- Space exploration: Humankind continued its exploration of the cosmos. Space tourism finally took off, with American businessman Dennis Tito becoming the first fee-paying space tourist, by paying USD 20 million for a week's stay at the International Space Station. Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet, much to the disappointment of all its fans. Scientists discovered ice on the Earth's Moon; we're now hoping they'll find some cream to go with it. Oh and CERN's Large Hadron Collider (physics/particle accelerator/Big Bang experiment) has failed to destroy the Earth. So far.
Environment
Trice age
With issues of environmental degradation gaining attention during the decade, Global Warming went from being that thing that Al Gore keeps talking about to a globally recognised (albeit debated) concern, and then morphed into Climate Change after it was noticed that the detractors' claims were being reinforced by a phenomenon known as winter. As a result, more emphasis was placed on developing environmental friendly technologies and decreasing CO2 emissions.
Also, the '00s suffered through some of the worst natural disasters that have ever struck the world, with typhoons and hurricanes that resulted in extensive damage, and earthquakes that caused extreme destruction, including the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the 2003 Bam earthquake, and the one that shook us all – the 2005 Kashmir earthquake that took nearly 80,000 lives.
Movies
The worst good time you've ever had
Hollywood continued to run out of other people's ideas, and therefore chose to focus on franchises, producing comic book/novel-to-film adaptations along with wholly unnecessary sequels to anything that became a box office hit. They did, however, inadvertently produce some masterpieces along the way: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and The Dark Knight – the decades highest grossing movies and three of only four films to have ever grossed more than one billion dollars – are among the best that Hollywood has ever produced. The only powerhouse that faced no shortage of creativity was the consistently awesome animation studio Pixar, which released a string of amazing films like Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), and Up (2009), helping to popularise animated media along the way; DreamWorks and 20th Century Fox also pitched into the animated film world with the Shrek and Ice Age series. Meanwhile, back home, after many a lacklustre decade, the Pakistani film industry showed some glimmers of revival with films like Khuda Ke Liye and Ramchand Pakistani, but the industry, overall, continued to remain on life support.
Music
Autotune overload
The Pakistani pop music industry thrived during the '00s, led by the comeback of the Strings, and the emergence of pop acts like Ali Zafar, Atif Aslam, and Jal who dominated the music market and even found fame across the border. Internationally, the artists that generated the most sales during the decade include a controversial rapper (Eminem), a pop band that split up four decades ago (The Beatles), and the undisputed king of pop (Michael Jackson) who was thrust back into the spotlight after his untimely death, but the Noughties were by and large dominated by hip-hop and R&B flavoured pop, proving that the citizens of the world like listening to the same old recycled beats, lyrics, and sentiments over and over and over again. Also, Simon Cowell's pop music factory-line started churning out mass-marketed albums as the world continued to buy into his well-designed hype machine. Although to be fair to the decade, it did offer A LOT (maybe even too much) of music – everything from MySpace-assisted pop successes to nu metal with teenage poetry syndrome – and one was bound to find something that fit their taste. However, it is clearly obvious – and even more so after the Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin reunions (because they reminded us of how awesome music can really be) – that most of the '00s albums will one day serve as great Frisbees.
Books
Crimes against literature (and other stories)
Reading generated moderate interest all over the world, whether merely as a potential cure for insomnia or because of the success of fiction novels that saw storytelling inspired by the styles of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis (with successful books invariably ending up as Hollywood films); yet that which was a commercial hit was almost always critically divisive. The most successful book of them all was the mystery opus The Da Vinci Code by one Dan Brown, who may be looked upon as the Britney Spears of literature, but gained worldwide recognition for his Robert Langdon series. The biggest selling series included the literary phenomenon of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, which generated Potter-mania with the release of each book and movie, and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, which has also generated global interest despite the fact that no one is willing to admit that they actually like it.
Sports
Oh how the mighty continue-to-reign
From Johnny Wilkinson's extra time drop goal in the 2003 Rugby World Cup final, to Goran Ivanisevic's performance at the 2001 Wimbledon (including the tournaments final versus Patrick Rafter), and even Zinedine Zidane headbutting Marco Materazzi during the 2006 Football World Cup final… there were memorable moments aplenty in the world of sports. But overall, nearly every sport was dominated by some clear leaders. Tennis had Roger Federer (a record 15 grand slam titles, and some of the most riveting encounters courtesy of his rivalry with Rafael Nadal) and the William sisters (10 grand slam wins for Serena, 7 for Venus); cycling had Lance Armstrong (seven consecutive Tour de France wins from 1999 to 2005); swimmer Michael Phelps was consistently on top of his sport (six gold and two bronze medals in the 2004 Olympics, and a record eight gold in the 2008 Olympics); and sprinter Usain Bolt's performances towards the end of the decade left everyone enthralled. And golf had Tiger Woods, not just one of the most successful golfers of all time, but a brand name and even a role model… until the last few weeks of the decade, of course. In related news, the faithful guy theory continues to be a myth. Oh well.
Cricket evolved, with changes in rules and emergence of new formats. Overall Australia continued to be the team to beat, winning both the 2003 and 2007 Cricket World Cups (their third consecutive win). The Pakistani cricket team was inconsistent at best and totally out of form at worst, but did manage to win the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in 2009.
Also, the Pakistani Olympic squads went from strength to strength at the Summer Olympics that were held during the decade. Here is the final tally of their achievements:
- 2000: Pakistan – 0 Gold, 0 Silver, 0 Bronze
- 2004: Pakistan – 0 Gold, 0 Silver, 0 Bronze
- 2008: Pakistan – 0 Gold, 0 Silver, 0 Bronze
Makes one proud, doesn't it? We can only hope that our athletes can continue showing such great performances in the coming years.
Television
Reality killed the video star
No longer stuck with only terrestrial television, viewers feasted their eyes on a plethora of international entertainment, as first satellite television and then cable took control of the viewing options. Our own television industry saw a massive boom, offering dozens of channels, the most successful (and most prone to being banned) of which focus on news coverage. The international trend that generated the most interest during the decade was the oxymoronic – or probably just moronic – phenomenon of "reality television", which saw a huge surge this decade with shows like the Idol and Top Model series, The Amazing Race, Big Brother, and Survivor, and which continues to dominate the market of mind-numbingly pointless televised programming. Scripted television had its fair share of hits, including dramas like 24, The Sopranos, the CSI series, and Lost (viewers of which still have absolutely no idea what's going on), dramedys including Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, and House, and sitcoms including The Office, How I Met Your Mother, and 30 Rock, while Disney dominated the children's market with tween and teen-focused series like Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, and Jonas.
Oh and teenage girls were willing to scream themselves into a frenzy at the very sight of their favourite stars. Just like every other decade. Because some things never change.
- By Sameen Amer
Us Magazine, The News - 18th December, 2009
Even nostalgia ain't what it used to be!
Wars and power struggles, economic meltdowns, commercialism, celebrity obsession, ideological black holes… it seems as though mankind was on a mission to collectively jump off a figurative cliff during the last ten years that together made up The Noughties, a decade that, admittedly like every other decade, has changed the world forever. As the sun sets on the '00s, it is plain to see that this century is off to a rocky start, and through it all, one thing has become abundantly clear: humanity's gene pool could use stronger chlorination.
Politics
Self-destruct sequence initiated
Nothing can capture the essence of the decade more than a 2004 quote from one of the world's most beloved leaders, the acclaimed and eloquent statesman George W. Bush: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful," he said, "and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." The jury is still out on whether this is funny because it's true, or sad because it's true.
Either way, the world had set its cruise control for crash long before this decade began, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that world peace remained elusive. Threats of terrorism and nuclear proliferation were a permanent fixture in the headlines. Pakistani politics continued to struggle with the hellovamess it had inherited from the '90s. Pervez Musharraf's presidency, the judiciary conflict, Asif Ali Zardari's presidency following Benazir Bhutto's death, and near constant bomb blasts in the major cities of the country in the last few months – makes one wonder what our current political landscape's future history will choose as the lowest point of our decade.
But perhaps the most defining moment of the '00s came on the 11th of September 2001 when hijacked commercial airliners crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which led to the US-led war in Afghanistan; nearly a decade later, the terrorists continue undeterred. Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction was cited as the reason for the occupation of Iraq by US-led forces; the WMDs were never found because apparently they did not exist. Billions of dollars have been spent. Thousands of lives have been lost. And we're supposed to be the most intelligent species on this planet!
Economy
With compliments from the Department of Bad Ideas
It started with the bursting of the dot-com bubble and ended with the collapse of the housing bubble; everything in between was just as dreary. The world saw increased globalisation and further expansion of multinational corporations, with the US continuing to be the world's biggest economy, and China emerging as a rising power on the back of immense economic growth. Meanwhile, inflation constantly troubled the workingman, with huge increases in the prices of commodities, gold, petrol…and electricity, or what little we had of it. The biggest pain for the residents of Pakistan for much of the latter part of the decade was "load shedding", a term that refers to a foolproof way of ruining your country's already-feeble economy by cutting off the power supply to various or all regions of the country for extended parts of the day. All hail WAPDA!
Technology
Science 1 – Naysayers 0
With the coming of age of the Internet, the Noughties saw further integration of and dependence on technology.
- Internet: While Microsoft Windows maintained its dominance on the global OS market, Google became the Internet search leader, and Google's Gmail revolutionised email, helping kick off rapid development in the webmail arena. Probably the biggest fad of the '00s came in the form of social networking, which provided us a way to connect with all the friends we've never had. Collaborative wikis helped in knowledge sharing, YouTube made video sharing an integral part of the web culture, and blogging gave everyone a social and political voice and became an avenue for keeping up with the latest news and trends. Also, someone decided to test the infinite monkey theorem ("if you were to give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters, they would eventually reproduce the complete works of William Shakespeare") by creating Twitter; the experiment is still ongoing and the results are as-yet inconclusive. P2P networking and Torrents forced the entertainment industry to rethink its business models; the elements of the industry that remained in denial just saw file-sharers as the bandits of the digital revolution, were reluctant to see the opportunities that came with the evolution of the media, and hence decided to sue its target customers instead – a moments rational thought would've helped spot the slight flaw in this plan, but we all know that rationality and Hollywood don't get along with each other.
- Gadgets: Gadgets were on a mission to become smaller, thinner, and ubiquitous over the decade. Those who didn't have their eyes glued to computer screens were seen with their thumbs dancing on mobile phone keypads, explaining why SMS and MMS spread like an epidemic – text messaging provided instant contact with friends through messages of up to 160 characters in length, and led to much dismay among the fans of correct spelling and proper grammar. Floppy disks gave way to USBs, which made data transfer easier. ebook readers added digital fizzle to literature. Audio- and videocassettes went the way of the Dodo, replaced by CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs. Digital audio gained popularity, with Apple dominating the portable media player market with the iPod and the accompanying iTunes store; Spotify and Voddler promise to further evolve the digital landscape in the coming years. Apple also ruled the smartphone ecosystem with the iPhone. And gaming enthusiasts went crazy over Nintendo's Wii, which became a leading gaming platform; Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox were also popular in the console market.
- Space exploration: Humankind continued its exploration of the cosmos. Space tourism finally took off, with American businessman Dennis Tito becoming the first fee-paying space tourist, by paying USD 20 million for a week's stay at the International Space Station. Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet, much to the disappointment of all its fans. Scientists discovered ice on the Earth's Moon; we're now hoping they'll find some cream to go with it. Oh and CERN's Large Hadron Collider (physics/particle accelerator/Big Bang experiment) has failed to destroy the Earth. So far.
Environment
Trice age
With issues of environmental degradation gaining attention during the decade, Global Warming went from being that thing that Al Gore keeps talking about to a globally recognised (albeit debated) concern, and then morphed into Climate Change after it was noticed that the detractors' claims were being reinforced by a phenomenon known as winter. As a result, more emphasis was placed on developing environmental friendly technologies and decreasing CO2 emissions.
Also, the '00s suffered through some of the worst natural disasters that have ever struck the world, with typhoons and hurricanes that resulted in extensive damage, and earthquakes that caused extreme destruction, including the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the 2003 Bam earthquake, and the one that shook us all – the 2005 Kashmir earthquake that took nearly 80,000 lives.
Movies
The worst good time you've ever had
Hollywood continued to run out of other people's ideas, and therefore chose to focus on franchises, producing comic book/novel-to-film adaptations along with wholly unnecessary sequels to anything that became a box office hit. They did, however, inadvertently produce some masterpieces along the way: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and The Dark Knight – the decades highest grossing movies and three of only four films to have ever grossed more than one billion dollars – are among the best that Hollywood has ever produced. The only powerhouse that faced no shortage of creativity was the consistently awesome animation studio Pixar, which released a string of amazing films like Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), and Up (2009), helping to popularise animated media along the way; DreamWorks and 20th Century Fox also pitched into the animated film world with the Shrek and Ice Age series. Meanwhile, back home, after many a lacklustre decade, the Pakistani film industry showed some glimmers of revival with films like Khuda Ke Liye and Ramchand Pakistani, but the industry, overall, continued to remain on life support.
Music
Autotune overload
The Pakistani pop music industry thrived during the '00s, led by the comeback of the Strings, and the emergence of pop acts like Ali Zafar, Atif Aslam, and Jal who dominated the music market and even found fame across the border. Internationally, the artists that generated the most sales during the decade include a controversial rapper (Eminem), a pop band that split up four decades ago (The Beatles), and the undisputed king of pop (Michael Jackson) who was thrust back into the spotlight after his untimely death, but the Noughties were by and large dominated by hip-hop and R&B flavoured pop, proving that the citizens of the world like listening to the same old recycled beats, lyrics, and sentiments over and over and over again. Also, Simon Cowell's pop music factory-line started churning out mass-marketed albums as the world continued to buy into his well-designed hype machine. Although to be fair to the decade, it did offer A LOT (maybe even too much) of music – everything from MySpace-assisted pop successes to nu metal with teenage poetry syndrome – and one was bound to find something that fit their taste. However, it is clearly obvious – and even more so after the Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin reunions (because they reminded us of how awesome music can really be) – that most of the '00s albums will one day serve as great Frisbees.
Books
Crimes against literature (and other stories)
Reading generated moderate interest all over the world, whether merely as a potential cure for insomnia or because of the success of fiction novels that saw storytelling inspired by the styles of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis (with successful books invariably ending up as Hollywood films); yet that which was a commercial hit was almost always critically divisive. The most successful book of them all was the mystery opus The Da Vinci Code by one Dan Brown, who may be looked upon as the Britney Spears of literature, but gained worldwide recognition for his Robert Langdon series. The biggest selling series included the literary phenomenon of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, which generated Potter-mania with the release of each book and movie, and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, which has also generated global interest despite the fact that no one is willing to admit that they actually like it.
Sports
Oh how the mighty continue-to-reign
From Johnny Wilkinson's extra time drop goal in the 2003 Rugby World Cup final, to Goran Ivanisevic's performance at the 2001 Wimbledon (including the tournaments final versus Patrick Rafter), and even Zinedine Zidane headbutting Marco Materazzi during the 2006 Football World Cup final… there were memorable moments aplenty in the world of sports. But overall, nearly every sport was dominated by some clear leaders. Tennis had Roger Federer (a record 15 grand slam titles, and some of the most riveting encounters courtesy of his rivalry with Rafael Nadal) and the William sisters (10 grand slam wins for Serena, 7 for Venus); cycling had Lance Armstrong (seven consecutive Tour de France wins from 1999 to 2005); swimmer Michael Phelps was consistently on top of his sport (six gold and two bronze medals in the 2004 Olympics, and a record eight gold in the 2008 Olympics); and sprinter Usain Bolt's performances towards the end of the decade left everyone enthralled. And golf had Tiger Woods, not just one of the most successful golfers of all time, but a brand name and even a role model… until the last few weeks of the decade, of course. In related news, the faithful guy theory continues to be a myth. Oh well.
Cricket evolved, with changes in rules and emergence of new formats. Overall Australia continued to be the team to beat, winning both the 2003 and 2007 Cricket World Cups (their third consecutive win). The Pakistani cricket team was inconsistent at best and totally out of form at worst, but did manage to win the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in 2009.
Also, the Pakistani Olympic squads went from strength to strength at the Summer Olympics that were held during the decade. Here is the final tally of their achievements:
- 2000: Pakistan – 0 Gold, 0 Silver, 0 Bronze
- 2004: Pakistan – 0 Gold, 0 Silver, 0 Bronze
- 2008: Pakistan – 0 Gold, 0 Silver, 0 Bronze
Makes one proud, doesn't it? We can only hope that our athletes can continue showing such great performances in the coming years.
Television
Reality killed the video star
No longer stuck with only terrestrial television, viewers feasted their eyes on a plethora of international entertainment, as first satellite television and then cable took control of the viewing options. Our own television industry saw a massive boom, offering dozens of channels, the most successful (and most prone to being banned) of which focus on news coverage. The international trend that generated the most interest during the decade was the oxymoronic – or probably just moronic – phenomenon of "reality television", which saw a huge surge this decade with shows like the Idol and Top Model series, The Amazing Race, Big Brother, and Survivor, and which continues to dominate the market of mind-numbingly pointless televised programming. Scripted television had its fair share of hits, including dramas like 24, The Sopranos, the CSI series, and Lost (viewers of which still have absolutely no idea what's going on), dramedys including Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, and House, and sitcoms including The Office, How I Met Your Mother, and 30 Rock, while Disney dominated the children's market with tween and teen-focused series like Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, and Jonas.
Oh and teenage girls were willing to scream themselves into a frenzy at the very sight of their favourite stars. Just like every other decade. Because some things never change.
- By Sameen Amer
Us Magazine, The News - 18th December, 2009
1 comment:
Hi Sameen;
My name is Qadeer Paracha. I am working in an IT company located in Karachi. I found your writing very intellegent.
Let me know your cell number or just drop me an email qparacha@gmail.com.
I will be waiting for your feedback.
Thanks
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