L

ooking back on the first decade of the millennium, how would we sum up those 10 years flippantly known as the "noughties"?

Overall, it is difficult to cast the decade in a positive light, overshadowed as it was by terrorism, war, disasters and relentless environmental destruction.

But this has been a decade when the technology boom connected people in a way never before seen, enabling people across the globe to join in solidarity over those abovementioned phenomena.

We ushered in the decade with a sigh of relief - after all, the feared Y2K bug that was going to send the civilization into meltdown never occurred. But the following year, in the space of a few short hours on Sept. 11, 2001, the world was changed irrevocably.

That event, now known as 9/11, had an enormous and far-reaching impact on relationships among individuals, societies, countries and faiths.

The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 were of a scale and execution never before seen, when the terrorists hijacked four passenger jet airlines and used them as weapons. They slammed two into New York's World Trade Center towers - the symbol of the American economy - which collapsed within a few hours. Another plane was slammed into the Pentagon and the fourth crashed in an open field.

About 3,000 people, including 19 terrorists, were killed in the attack; the number of lives lost around the world - including in Afghanistan and Iraq - that followed in the ensuing wars is even greater.

Following the attacks, all international civilian air traffic was restricted from landing on US soil for few days, with aircraft already in flight either turned back or redirected to airports in Canada or Mexico. Airline travel is still affected, with all passengers subject to rigorous security checks.

The then US president George W. Bush swiftly declared a "war on terror". As part of that war, the US invaded Afghanistan for harboring the al-Qaeda terrorists who were behind the attacks. The US government also strengthened its own homeland security, a move followed by many other countries around the world, in many cases sparking heated debates over civil rights. The US Patriot Act, for example, authorized US intelligence to eavesdrop on telephone and email communications between people in America with those overseas.

On the basis of the now infamously false claim that Iraq, then under dictator Saddam Hussein, a US-led alliance invaded Iraq, toppling Hussein but leading to a long and messy war, which some claim has further damaged international and interfaith relations.

Amid the fear, anger and sorrow following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, racial tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims increased, in the USA and many other countries.

As the country with the world's largest Muslim population, Indonesia experienced this tension. Protesters in Jakarta raged against the US military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Indonesia was also in the spotlight because it was believed a terrorist cell was operating in the country.

Indeed one was, as demonstrated through the series of fatal terrorist attacks carried out in Indonesia by radical Muslims, members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a terrorist organization with links to the al-Qaeda network.

Most devastating was the Bali bombing on Oct. 12, 2002, a suicide that killed 202 people, many of who were Australian tourists.

The bombing was in fact three bombs: one carried in a backpack into a popular nightclub by a suicide bomber; a second in a truck outside; and a third, smaller, bomb outside the US consulate in Bali.

Several members of Jemaah Islamiyah were charged and convicted in connection to the bombings. Three of these, Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas, were executed in 2008. The Bali bombing and the global war on terrorism drove the Indonesian government to pass the Antiterrorism Law.

The Balinese tourism industry and economy were still struggling when another bomb attack occurred there just three years later, killing more than 20. Bali has still not recovered to pre-bombing levels.

Jakarta also was the site of terrorist bomb attacks during the decade, with fatal explosions in 2003, 2004 and 2009.

On Aug. 5, 2003, a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb near the lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel in Mega Kuningan, killing 12 people, mostly Indonesians. Another bomb exploded on Sept. 9, 2004, outside the Australian embassy in South Jakarta, killing nine people including the suicide bomber (Australian officials put the death toll at 11.) Investigations revealed that both these attacks were carried out by members of Jemaah Islamiyah.

Then, on the morning of July 17, 2009, just when it seemed such bomb attacks were behind us, twin explosions at the Ritz Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in Mega Kuningan killed nine people, showing the "war" is far from over. The National Police scored a victory with the deaths of several alleged terrorists, including alleged mastermind Noordin M. Top, but there is evidence terrorist cells remain active and dangerous.

Also marking the decade were natural disasters on a massive scale.

The most devastating was the 10-minute, 9.1 magnitude earthquake that triggered a powerful tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004. Hundreds of thousands of lives and buildings were lost as waves as high as coconut trees swept over Aceh and other places on the Indian coast.

It is believed to be one of the deadliest natural disasters in history, with Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand the hardest hit. The plight of the affected people led to an international outpouring of humanitarian aid.

Today, much of the infrastructure has been rebuilt, the new roads and bridges named after world leaders or countries that provided assistance.

The rebuilding was made possible by the new peace forged in Aceh in 2005, putting an end to the decades-long conflict between the Indonesian military and Aceh separatist rebels.

The Aceh tsunami raised awareness of the need for proper tsunami warning systems. Even now, anytime an earthquake occurs, people seek higher ground for fear of tsunami.

Indonesia suffered several major earthquakes between 2000 and 2009, among them the 8.3 magnitude quake in Bengkulu, Sumatra, in March 2005 (1,300 killed); the 6.3 magnitude quake in May 2006 in Central Java (at least 5,700 killed); and one in West Sumatra in September 2009 (more than 1,000 killed).

During the decade, the capital city, plagued by poor drainage systems and overcrowding, suffered increasingly from floods. The worst flood, in early 2007, proved to be a major disaster.

Triggered by heavy rains in the capital and in nearby cities lasting more than 12 hours on Feb. 1, the flooding affected more areas than in previous floods; in some areas, water was 5 meters deep. At least 80 people were killed and about 320,000 people were evacuated.

The flood affected the communications systems and electricity supply. Traffic was in gridlock, and the Tanah Abang railway station in Central Jakarta was closed, as was the road to Soekarno-Hatta airport.

In response to public criticism, then Jakarta governor Sutiyoso claimed the flood was a natural phenomenon and that his administration had done its best to counter it. Also garnering criticism was Aburizal Bakrie, then the coordinating minister for people's welfare, by saying flood-affected people could still laugh together - at a time when thousands were distressed and living in refugee camps in distress.

The flooding served as a wakeup call for the Jakarta administration to improve the drainage system; the city continues to work on the problem, but the success of the project remains to be seen.

Natural disasters on a grand scale took place elsewhere too, not least in New Orleans, USA, which was devastated by hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005. Scientists claimed the number of natural disasters was increasing and would continue to do so, as the planet and environment reacted to the effects of global warming.

The 2000s were the decade when the world - governments, businesses and citizens alike - finally started paying heed to scientists' warnings - some going back decades - on the effects of human activity on the natural environment. Doing much to raise awareness was former US vice president Al Gore, with his popular 2006 award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Slowly, around the world, attitudes to lifestyles and the environment started to change. All sorts of products, from toilet paper to music festivals, claimed "green" status. We saw more environmentally friendly "hybrid" cars on the roads and many people have incorporated into their lifestyles changes aimed to reduce waste.

Nevertheless, with the tepid result of the Copenhagen conference just a week behind us, it appears that despite a decade of worrying about global warming - a decade shown to be the hottest on record - there is still a long way to go for that fear to be translated into action at the highest level.

A similar cloud hangs over the health scene as we enter the next decade, as H1N1 continues its spread. Whereas the health scare earlier in the 2000s was avian influenza, the April 2009 appearance and rapid spread of H1N1 (or "swine flu") created the new specter; there are already more than 12,000 confirmed deaths worldwide, and the virus is being monitored closely.

Also darkening the door of the new decade is the global economy. Much the 2000s was a time of plenty, with booms in developed economies triggering widespread consumerism, and many developing economies growing fast. The fun and lavish spending of the 2000s caught up with us in November 2008, when the global economy went into meltdown, in a collapse likened to the Great Depression of the 1930s. There are signs of recovery, but the economic landscape has been irrevocably altered, and the long-term effects remain to be seen.

But hope for the future abounds too, for many symbolized by the November 2008 election of Barack Obama as president of the US. The historic election of the charismatic African American signaled positive "change" for the US and the world.

Indonesians also turned out to cheer for Obama, who spent a few years of his childhood in Jakarta. A few days after he accepted the Democratic Party's nomination as a presidential candidate, a headline in one local newspaper read: "Anak Menteng Calon Presiden Amerika" (US presidential candidate is a Menteng boy).

Indonesians were caught up in the joy when Obama defeated Republican candidate John McCain; Obama made Indonesians feel closer to the United States, and many hope he will visit Jakarta next year.

Obama's victory was also a manifestation of the other great social and technological phenomenon of the 2000s: social networking and connectedness via the Internet. In the case of Obama's campaign, it was the first time in history that a political campaign had taken advantage of the large numbers of internet users, using social networking sites such as Facebook and micro blogging site Twitter.

Emerging in 2006, having evolved from earlier, similar developments, Facebook and Twitter have turned into a worldwide phenomenon, connecting people in every corner of the globe.

Indonesia embraced the technologies with enthusiasm, using them not only for social reasons but also for political ones. Even Vice President Boediono uses Twitter to update his followers on different issues, including the scandalous Rp 6.7 trillion bailout of Bank Century.

That is one scandal (out of a decade of local political scandals) that is sure to continuing into the new decade, with more interesting and intriguing episodes to follow, as Indonesia continues its struggle against corruption and other hangovers of the past as it marches to greater democracy and justice.