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At midnight on 31st December of each year, it is customary, before welcoming the new year, to bid farewell to the departing year by singing, Robert Burns's Auld Lang Syne:
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind.
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
for the sake of auld lang syne....
The passing of 1999 will also mean the passing of the murderous 20th Century and of the turbulent second millennium. Despite immense strides in technology, medicine, discoveries etc., mankind sank to its lowest moral level during the last 1,000 years in general, and the last 100 years in particular.
It would be most inappropriate to bid these times farewell, but to tell them good riddance, hoping that the coming year, century, millennium, will augur a new period of tolerance, justice and peace.
What should we sing as the clock strikes mid-night on 31/12/1999, courtesy of the millennium bug? At our request the well-known poet Meer S. Basri Poet Laureate of Babylonian Jewry who is now as fluent in English verse as in Arabic, came up with the following ode:
by Meer S. Basri
Welcome, welcome, New Millennium,
And Old Century, Oh! go away.
Your years brought us affliction,
Doubt and hate, night and day.
We lived in pain and dismay,
Wars in land, sea and air.
Satan danced, chanted with glee,
Sowing famine and despair.
New inventions, new conventions,
But mostly heralds of doom.
Atoms and bombs to kill millions,
Keeping souls in dismal gloom.
Wealth for the few, want for the many,
Joy for the rich, grief for the poor.
In a vile world where Money
Reigns a master of the floor.
Morals faded out of fashion,
Marriage? Well, an old institution.
Doubt in the mind, lust in the soul,
Life a problem, no solution.
Shall to-morrow see the light,
Shall we ever find faith and rest?
Shall our life be sane and bright,
And rays of peace flow in our breast?
Welcome, welcome, new Millennium,
We turn to you with hope and love.
Peace on earth, faith and justice,
A glorious dawn in the sky above.
Hope will loom in the horizon,
Humanity will shed its despair.
East and West will share the flag,
An end to war, an end to fear.
Our children will free their hearts,
To find tolerance and solace.
They will discover high ethics,
In bliss and love they will embrace.
Scribe: Although Christian Churches have been trying to consider the coming of the Millennium a religious event, for the world in general it is merely an important change in the calendar.
If you would like to make any comments or contribute to the scribe please contact us.