In 2000 did the US courts govern politics or were politics governed by the courts?
The US presidential election is the big story. The world watched the most powerful nation on earth use the courts to sort out what was the most evenly divided recent presidential election of the United States. George W Bush will have difficulty because of this during the next 4 years.
In the spring the world was riveted to a little Cuban boy named Elian Gonzales who came to Florida in a boat and left some five months later with his father.
Economics
The rapid rise of the cost of crude oil and carbon based energy has taken the world by surprise with Alan Greenspan still struggling to get inflation and the oil cartel under control.
NASDAQ propelled by Internet.com stocks over the traditional industrial stocks took many by surprise and then crashed later in the year when the dot.coms could not deliver the goods.
Space
Finally, we finally saw the International Space Station is up and running after years of delays.
Scientists are puzzled by the fact that the universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate.
Health
The threat of Mad Cow disease decimates the beef industry in Europe and especially France where beef once the staple of the French palate. Now only rarely found on French plates.
Work is continuing on the use of genetics to cure nearly everything. The big story in 2000 was the use of animals and even a human who had specific genes injected into egg cells to produce specific traits that were used to cure specific diseases.
And they found that this approach works….
In Canada, a public water source kills as public officials scramble to find out why.
Environment
Europeans believe that there is a crisis in the environment caused by global warming. North Americans whose economy relies heavily on carbon based energy to survive are a loggerheads with them. A conference is called and nothing is resolved to carry out the agreement reached at Kyoto.
This story will not go away.
Science
The Y2K story scared the living daylights out of everyone and amounted to no big thing. We still don’t know whether or not this was a hoax or not. My theory is the census bureau acquired a much more accurate count of people – whoever doesn’t have a computer and, thus, didn’t apply for the “patches” doesn’t really count going into the new era of Web-based commerce. Just a thought…
Second but not far behind is the global concern about the use and consumption of genetically engineered crops.
Sports
The sports story of the year again is Tiger Woods winning three majors in a row. Now Tiger wants a share of the PGA TV revenue and I don’t blame him.
The Olympics always is the big story and this year was no exception when the Australians provided the best Olympics Games that have ever been held.
NBC were the big losers thinking people wanted to see time delayed sports events.
Peace
The Middle East, there is big trouble as Israel and her neighbors start again to battle over religious principles. Clinton’s failure to bring the two sides through a peace process will haunt him until he dies.
Internet
Connection speed was the main focus this year as the eCommerce people told companies that consumers were turned off by the fact that pages took too long to download.
Wireless, Broadband, Cable TV, Fibre all are taking a swing at the bat trying to get consumers to sign on. .
Generally, the world still believes that the Internet can deliver but still is puzzled on how.
Entertainment
Perhaps there is something to say about the state of people watching television in the western world to say that “Survivor” and :Who Wants to be a Millionaire” were the most watched shows.
Man of the Century
Pierre Elliot Trudeau, former Canadian Prime Minister who coined the word “just society” who died in 2000.