YET ANOTHER NEW MILLENIUM

All around me this endless plane of water. Far across to the South, the rugged profile of Mount Olympus. To the East I can see Holomon Island and, further off, the extended length of the isle of Kassandra. To the north-west, quiet and golden, the peaks of Kaïmaktsalan. Due north, just water.

On the top of the island of Hortiatis, in the library of the Marine Force Headquarters of the Archipelago of Mygdonia, I am sipping my turkish coffee in the cafeteria, as I take a break from my research.

It is the year 2999. One more millennium is about to end and give way to yet another. Once more, people and institutions, tribal leaders and travel agents, are in a frenzy preparing to celebrate. The Sino-Mygdonian Guild of Ziggurats has asked me to produce a paper reflecting on this impending turn of millenium. So, here goes.

Let me glance, I thought, at the millennium just ending. The best way to proceed must be to spend hours in one of the library’s I.S.G.s (Individual Survey Globes), immersed in the mythical History of the Third Millenium. With a smooth but swift rewind function this one-thousand-year History is being imperceptibly, though temporarily, transfused to my C.C.I.C. (Centre de Connaissance Intra-cérébrale, a swiss device already in use since the year 2230, grafted onto the left side of my head beneath the ear). The point is, of course, to try and make an outline, inspired by the most outstanding events of “Millenium Three”, of the future possibilities for mankind and its host planet. Given the speed of access to history nowadays, this should be no hard task.

However as I rapidly spun the I.S.G to locate my starting point exactly one thousand years earlier, in 1999 that is, I found myself perplexed. This was a situation that was bound to make me give my endeavour a second thought. I ran across a fellow, who –it seems – came up with this strange idea, in the place that was then called Thessaloniki. A town of about one million people, supposed to be located right there, as I face to the North, in front of our Isle of Hortiatis where I actually sit and gaze around. Where right now acres and acres of water separate us from Kaïmaktsalan and southern Styria, the town obviously vanished under the water. It seems this character was asked by an institution called the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce – I wonder what that can have been – to produce a text about the then impending turn of the millenium.

Well, and what came of this? Not only did he foresee the great cataclysm that took place in 2051, but he also sensed, quite roughly – I must admit – many of the radical changes of route that have indeed taken place since. And – this is best of all – he wrote that one of his descendants, a whole millenium later (it’s obvious he meant me) was destined to be asked to do what I am doing right now and to find out about the prophecy as he would be attempting to do a text on the forthcoming “Millenium Four”. Wow!

Pretty optimistic this lad, too! He had a vision that became reality. Consider it. A small number of good, solid disasters and there you are, with the planet relieved of all those heavy burdens it was suffering from back then. Back to the age of stone –in some ways – his prophecy pushed us, thank God Almighty. Four and a half million souls scattered all over the remaining islands, already since 2350, state of the art technology for the survivors, lots of space, quiet...and...easy does it.

He saw it. Only, unfortunately – though naturally, despite the increase of life expectancy – he didn’t live to enjoy it. Well, as they’ve asked me to do something similar, I suppose I ’d better be either as brilliant as he was and come up with some good idea – or simply quit and just enjoy the bliss my predecessor saw only in vision.

Aris Georgiou / 4.12.1999