We've got stars directing our fate
Millennium, what Millennium? Oxford students don't seem to have extravagant plans to end a 2000 year time cycle in a reckless burst of hedonism. The general view amongst students is that the Millennium is just an exclusive occasion for the rich and famous. Louisa Brown (St. Hugh's) summed up the general mood, 'None of us can afford to go out on New Year's Eve - just catching a taxi back is going to cost a fortune. Basically most of us will end up staying at home.'
And not all the special features to this year's roll-over are positive. The milenium bug threatens the greatest disaster in technological history. Success in the west at reaching the golden target Y2K compliance, need not free us from almost certain failure in the developing world. It will be a global dilemma, the consequences of which will only become fully apparent when they are upon us.
Meanwhile, experts claim that we've missed the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ, which should have taken place in 1997. Our whole yearly calendar is four years out of sync - it's currently the year 2003, not 1999 - thanks to the miscalculation of Dionysius Exiguus, a monk who suggested counting the years from "anno Domini" when Christ was born, over half a century after the divine event. It is all credit to Dionysius that he managed to pinpoint the year of Christ's birth as closely as he did.
Another high horse to clamber on is that we should be celebrating the Millennium on January 2001 when the two thousand year cycle of the calendar actually repeats.
Such theoretical objections aside, most of us mere mortals fear that if we don't do something we'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of our lives. 'There's a lot of hype over the Millennium," said Oriana Fox from St. Peter's, but I know that if I don't do something special for New Year's Eve I'll regret it. Our calendar system may be based around the Christian religion, but we all live by it".
In fact, the British have invested more money than any other country in marking the start of the year 2000, perhaps because the new Millennium officially starts in Greenwich, England. A Millennium Commission grant has provided a staggering £1.8 million, with additional funding coming from private and public sector sources.
Very little of this seems to be going Oxford's way. Managing Director of Oxygen Radio Station, Gerry Halford, said,
'Oxygen would have liked to organise a street road show for New Year's Eve, but received no support from either the police or the Council, who seem to want to make sure celebrations are a low-key affair because of concerns over policing costs.'
London will be the focal point of the country's Millennium celebrations, fear of dying stranded in sub-zero temperatures at some unearthly hour of the morning, with no hope of seeing a train or bus in sight before hypothermia has set in being the main drawback. Reports of such deaths are greatly exaggerated. Travel to and from London should be a breeze. Train services from Oxford to London on New Year's Eve will run until approximately 8.30pm and the Oxford tube coach service will be running every half hour from three till eight in the morning to ferry revellers back to the city. A spokesperson for the London Underground claimed, 'There will be a normal service throughout New Year's Eve, which will be free between 10.45pm and 9.00am.'
For those heading to the capital there will be a wealth of amusements to keep them entertained. Celebrations in London are set to run right through December 31st, culminating after midnight in a "River of Fire" - the mind boggles - that will travel from Tower Bridge to Vaux Bridge.
If the London droves are not your scene, don't rule out more foreign climes. Exorbitant hotel prices and frantic bookings years in advance drove holiday prices sky-high, but, now that many travel companies have failed to fill their booking quotas, costs have come crashing down as the New Year approaches.
Whether you cash in on Millennium madness by working this New Year's Eve, opt for reckless partying or retreat from the masses in the company of close friends, consider that the "Millennium Bug" may have a positive backlash. Global co-operation could become the key to reverting havoc wrecked by the digits 00. Now that would be something worth celebrating...
18th Nov 1999