Having reached the end of the first decade of the new millennium, it’s time to look back at all the things that helped shape the cultural heritage of our ever globalizing society. It seems amazing that it was nearly ten years ago when the entire world rang in the new millennium with style. From Tokyo to London, New York to Sydney, Rio De Janeiro to Cairo, the fireworks and celebrations were extraordinary. We’ve come a long way since. Did anyone think they would be holding a powerful phone in their pocket and take that power for granted today, ten years ago? Did anyone really grasp the ability for computers and the internet to permeate every aspect of our day to day lives? And did anyone think the Rolling Stones would still be touring? Well, here are the ten moments, ideas, and innovations which defined the decade. The list is broken into ten different categories, with at least one runner-up listed for each.
Runners-up: The Da Vinci Code, Oprah’s book club.
In 1997 an unknown writer named Joanne Rowling finally got her break upon the publication of a novel she had been working on for seven years, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. What followed was nothing short of mania. The series, with seven books planned from the start, became a global phenomenon. By the time the final book was published in 2007, the Harry Potter series had turned Rowling into a billionaire, one of the runners-up for Time’s “Person of the Year”, and easily the most influential children’s writer of her era. An entire generation grew up along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, reading thousands of pages in a time where most children are watching TV. Harry Potter became famous for its cult-like following, with millions of kids everywhere waiting outside bookstores for midnight parties on release dates. Over 400 million copies of the books have been translated into 67 different languages. Along with tie-in merchandise and movie deals, the franchise is worth an estimated £15 billion. Many groups attempted to ban the books, arguing that Rowling was brain washing kids into practicing magic and believing in the occult. Most of their criticism has been ignored, especially by the college students playing quidditch matches on campus, and Oxford English Dictionary, who in 2003 entered “muggle” into its lexicon.
Runners-up: Lost, The Sopranos, Family Guy.
Perhaps the most annoying of all entries on this list, reality TV has changed the landscape of television over the past decade. While different shows can fit the general description of reality TV, it really began with in the UK with Pop Idol in 2001. The winner of the first season was Will Young, who has had a modest career since. American Idol took off a year later, and every week gains more votes than the US presidential election. Other reality TV shows took off at the same time and have had a huge effect on television, such as, Survivor, Big Brother, The Amazing Race, and The Real World. Jeff Zucker, the Chief Executive of a rival network remarked that, “I think Idol is the most impactful show in the history of television”.
Runners-up: Hotel Rwanda, Brokeback Mountain.
Danny Boyle created a masterpiece in 2008 with his film Slumdog Millionaire. Based on the book “Q&A” by Vikas Swarup, the movie tells the tale of an impoverished young man and his chance to make millions on the Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” He answers question after question based on chance encounters throughout his life, such as how he knows who is on a US 100 dollar bill. We learn that the young man, played by Dev Patel, is not interested in the money, but in finding his lost girlfriend. Slumdog Millionaire took the world by storm, grossing $377 million. It also won 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It has been acclaimed as being a small representative of the future of film, because of its international cast, crew, and audience. Joe Morgenstern called it the “world’s first globalized masterpiece”.
Runners-up: Spain Wins Euro 2008, Zinedine Zidane’s Headbutt, 2008 New York Giants.
Down three games to zero against their fiercest rival, the New York Yankees, in the American League Championship Series, the Red Sox were down to their final inning when the magic began. Even with superstar closer Mariano Rivera on the mound, the Red Sox were not going to be denied. They scored the tying run, and eventually won the game in the 12th inning. Game 5 went to 14 innings, and game 6 was decided by just two runs. In game 7 however, the Red Sox cut the Yankees loose with a 7 run victory to become the first team to ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit and win. But, their job was not done yet. The Red Sox had gone 86 years without a World Series title, and were not going to go home empty handed. In fact, they swept the Cardinals in 4 games to win the championship, in what analysts would later call “the greatest story baseball ever told”.
Runners-up: Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl Show, Live 8, Napster, death of Michael Jackson
Steve Jobs didn’t invent the mp3 player, but he did revolutionize it. In October of 2001, Apple introduced the world to the iPod, and perhaps they didn’t even realize what they were doing. Previously, mp3 players were unpopular because they were fragile, had short battery life, or were simply not sexy and fashionable. Apple saw the flaws of these products and attempted to fix them all. Eight years later, it’s hard to find a teenager or young adult without an iPod. Over 220,000,000 iPods have been sold throughout the world, making them the highest selling digital audio player. It has also changed the music industry itself. Any small musician, looking to make it big, can get his music in the iTunes store, and theoretically propel himself to stardom. Interestingly, there are studies being done that argue iPods are making kids more anti-social, because they can turn on their music instead of socializing. Even if you “are a PC”, you must admit that Apple was doing something right when they introduced the iPod.
Runners-up: HD TV, high speed internet, Wikipedia.
It was called just a fad, but others insist that social networking sites have become one of the biggest shifts in human interaction since the invention of the telephone. Social media has overtaken pornography as the #1 activity on the internet. Consider that it took the radio 38 years to reach 50 million users, but it took facebook less than 9 months to reach 100 million users. Twitter played a pivotal role in the 2009 Iranian elections, and yet all the popular news feeds were over taken on the day Michael Jackson died. With nearly 93% of college students using facebook or another form of social networking, these sites are already having a massive effect on human interaction. Social networking is fundamentally changing the way the world communicates.
Runners-up: Dotcom bust, real estate collapse.
The second most widely used currency in the world was formally introduced in 2002. The euro, primarily used by members of the European Union, is also used by millions of people on other continents. 16 members of the EU are obliged to adopt the euro eventually, with the United Kingdom and Denmark exempt. Many African counties have also adopted it unofficially and some countries have negotiated usage. There are now 23 countries using currencies directly pegged to the euro. Behind the US dollar, the euro has become the second largest reserve currency and the euro also has the more value in circulation than any other currency. With close to 500 million people worldwide using the euro, its use and expanding use will help shape our future and hopefully lead us into a stage of macroeconomic stability.
Runners-up: Darfur Genocide, Benazir Bhutto assassination, London train bombings.
On September 11, 2001, four airplanes in the United States were hijacked by Muslim extremists and crashed into various locations. Two were crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one was flown into the Pentagon Building in Washington DC, and in the fourth plane, civilians overtook the terrorists and the plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly three thousand people were killed in the attacks. Al-Qaeda, a terrorist group centered in the Middle East, and its leader Osama Bin Laden were blamed for the attack. The New York Stock Exchange, which makes its home only blocks away from the WTC, had its largest one day drop in history when it re-opened. Following the attack, President George W. Bush started his War on Terror, which has led to major conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The long term effects of the attacks are still being felt today, and will continue to shape the world for years to come.
Runners-up: Hurricane Katrina, Victorian Bushfire, Climate Change
The second largest recorded earthquake in history occurred on December 26, 2005, in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The resulting tsunami killed nearly 230,000 people and displaced over one million. Deaths occurred in fourteen different countries, and Indonesia suffered the worst fatalities. Tourists, mostly from Europe, were also killed during this peak travel time, with over 9,000 deaths. The tsunami is believed to have been the deadliest natural disaster since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. In the aftermath, entire cities had been destroyed. Rural areas had been completely wiped out. The rest of the world responded with relief aid estimated at over ten billion US dollars. Despite the efforts, the countries most affected are still in the process of rebuilding, and many may never be the same.
Runners-up: 2000 Bush/Gore Florida election, 2009 Iranian Elections.
In a nation still bearing the scars of its Jim Crow past, the people of the United States made a huge move toward true racial equality in 2008 by electing Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president. President Obama won the Electoral College by a staggering 192 votes over his opponent Senator John McCain. The triumph of “change” was approved all around the world. An international poll showed an average of 49% worldwide in favor of Obama, while McCain only garnered 12%. President Obama had some strong ideas and plans for the future, and only time will tell if he can truly come through with them.
#5 is bullocks. What most defines the 2000´s technologically is the fact that common people really started to have access to the internet and that broadband connections started to be more widespread. It is only because of this that sites like Facebook could ever exsist. in 2000 it wasnt that common for people to have more than a dail-up connection. It took the same amount of time to load a picture as it takes to load a video on youtube today. So try to imagine having to upload pictures to myspace, facebook and twitter using that it would take forever just to be able to do a status update.
@Bill (300): You, sir, are simply an ass. Once again, you make wildly obscure and personally attacking claims against me.
I will not bother you personally again. You are too untouched by the real world for me to waste another second on.
Does it matter at all where obama was born? AT ALL?
he has been an american his whole life. He might not be perfect but calling him an illegal immigrant is a complete falsehood. How could he be an illegal immigrant if his mother is American. That would make him legal right? Am I wrong? To speculate as to why he wont release his birth certificate is to show the rest of the world the level of your wisdon. Why speculate? you will never know the answer.
to all those saying 9/11 should have been top of the list… ***** off…
It may have been important to America but thats because you care more about rich white folks in your own country than the millions of brown people who are still dying in other continents around the globe. Oh, you hadnt heard, this is a globe we live on, not just an america shaped lump floating through space with canada as a hat and mexico as an ass… What about seirra leone? or the attrocities in the sudan? or the continual war in somalia? or the civil war in sri lanka? or the deaths in burma and mayanmar? the uiygur uprising in china? the isreali arab conflict? ***** THIS WAR FOR OIL AND PRIDE BUL*****!
I'm very sorry that some people lost their lives on the 11th of september 2001, my condolences to their families but will the rest of you just shut the ***** up about it now?! honestly… Here in London, we had some bombs go off on july the 7th a few years back. do you know when we shut up about it and carried on with our lives and got back to normal to show the terrorists that we werent going to be shaken by it?…july the 8th…
For those ignorant egocentric bastards who think 9/11 was the most important incident of the decade… the only people in the rest of the world who agree with you are the guys who planned it…
I agree. Quite a few of my fellow Americans can be quite egocentric, and furthermore self-centered. The world is a huge place and I find it ironic that yahoo news has Beyonce’s pregnancy in bold letters, but news of the conflicts of the Middle East were in tiny print off to the bottom right-hand corner. I do love my country, but as an African-American I definitely get to see some of it’s major flaws that quite a few Americans seem to be blind too. Probably would have used a bit more tact lol, but I think your point was made stronger by your intensity.
FishCakeJayke,
The reason 9/11 is on the list is simple. It was one of the defining of the moments of the decade. I guess if I had a twisted, narrow, from a *****s point of view maybe I could agree with you, but I digress. Back to the reason it is on the list, you're just looking at the direct aftermath. The result of the attacks were the U.S. and wait for it………60+! Countries going to war. 60 countries involved in a single counter-insurgency including the……..yes you guess it Royal Army. Side-note, how dare you compare the bombings on July 7th 2005 to the attacks on 9/11. The attack on 9/11 were 50 times worst, and I mean that literally almost 50 times more people died on 9/11 than the London bombings. Now I'm not having a Kanye West moment, and sorry if I offended anyone but its simply the truth. Here's *****ogy for you Jake; Lets say someone close to you passes away and your friends dog pass away. The following week your friends fine, has a new dog and is happy and he approaches you and says "man you need to get over yourself, we both lost something that day and I'm fine now" The ***** don’t add up. DOG≠GRANDMOTHER and 56≠2973. Back to the point at hand, trillions have been spent on the wars that have spawned off of this single event, countless have died and you still can't see why it's one of the top ten defining moments of the decade. I ask you Jake whose the egocentric one?
He actually stated that he disagrees with it needing to be on the top of the list, not be listed at all. Furthermore your *****ogy doesn’t quite add up, in all honesty most of us don’t value an animal’s life as much as a human life, but what quite is your point? Surely you don’t imply British lives are less important than American lives. Also worth note is more people dying by quantity doesn’t make a tragedy more important than another. Both were incidences of tragedy, and my last point is simply following your logic 9/11 wouldn’t top because there are far more conflicts that have caused more loss of life than 9/11 in this decade.
@segues (303): How did you like the way your boy; Obama was defeated in Massachusetts last night loser?
@Bill (305): No, bad Bill, you go outside and do that! You are annoying.
@ianz09 (306): @fishcakejayke (310):
Listen up anti-American scum, just like all the other losers right now; you don't see the connection between the defeat in Massachusetts with the policies of President Barack Obama. The true (those who believe in the U.S. Constitution) Americans are feed up with you, President Obama, and all the other anti-American progressives. I don’t know if either one of you is an American citizen or not-but if you are; go someone else where they believe in your ideas of Big Government. Go to Cuba, China, and so forth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4aQCiRjvZY&fe…
Anti-American scum forever!
Being conservative does not make you pro-America, you are simply the typical conservative who cries anti-American at any policy, person, idea, or group who happens to believe different than you do. Not only is that moronic, childish, and nonsensical, but it is inherently anti-American. America was founded by people who were tired of the status quo under British rule. They sought a place where they would be allowed to hold their own beliefs. Furthermore holding on to “the good old days” makes you sound like a stubborn men who never evaluates the positives of change. Answer me this how American is a political group, this case being Conservative Republicans, that has little to no minority support, while concurrently being dominated by Older Caucasian people??
@randomprecision24 (287):
“The film’s global cast, crew and audience are why it made the cut.”
A pretty unusual criteria to determine the significance of a movie. Ironically there are tons of movies which are more “global” than Slumdog – LOTR for example. You fell for the cheap marketing gag of Joe Morgenstern. This is kind of funny.
“It was the first non-hollywood film to win the oscar for best picture.”
You are pretty ignorant, aren’t you????
“While the singular events might be insignifigant, the events represent fundemental changes in the way we as a society communicate and understand the world.”
Then don’t call it “Top 10 Defining Moments of the 2000s”. Call it “Insignificant events that changed the fantasy world of RandomPrecision24″.
I’m just messing with you so take it easy. But still: LOTR >>>>>>> Slumdog. And as I said: I’m not stupid fanboy – I like neiter of them.
@anthony… to answer your question, “whose the egocentric one?” Do I really need to answer this question. Your rebut has proven who is egocentric and self centred.
I quote “how dare you compare the bombings on July 7th 2005 to the attacks on 9/11″
I didn’t compare one attack to the other. I didnt even say that the world trade centre attacks shouldn’t be on the list. I said that those who harp on about it being the most important event ever, can ***** right off. IE, you.
What I focused on was the fact that there are more people dying around the world (thats everywhere else that isnt america) than died on the 11th of september. What you seemed to focus on was going back to these attacks and what they have done.
Here are some points I would like you to adress if you can, if you need to use a crayon and card first then get your carer to type it up for you, feel free.
Number 1 – get your facts straight. There are not 60 countries involved with this conflict. That is WAAAAAY over the odds.
Number 2 – Its not a counter insurgency, its just and insurgency, nobody invaded America.
Number 3 – Who the ***** are the Royal Army?
Number 4 – There should be an ‘an’ before *****, not an ‘a’
Number 5 – surely looking at this from a narrow minded point of view would involve looking at one conflict instead of trying to highlight the many other conflicts around the world as was my specific point.
Number 6 – 300,000 people have died in darfur, at least 20,000 in sri lanka, 500,000 in somalia… thats just 3 different areas. How about all the others that have still gone unmentioned? Why are 2973 american lives worth more than millions of poor peoples lives? Why is that anthony? Why are they worth more than 50 British lives? surely everyone comes from a sperm and an egg and they are born as equals before God so every life is worth the same? is YOUR life worth less than someone elses anthony?
Number 7 – before you go ranting on about how bad 9/11 was and what it has spawned, read the argument put forward and get your words in order. Your last sentence makes no sense whatsoever. I didn’t say that it wasnt one of the defining moments of the decade, my comments were to those who said it was THE defining moment of the decade.
Number 8 – Your *****ogy sucks. Do you go and find the person who killed your grandma and kill them, their family, everyone who knew them, everyone who lived near them, their friends, their neighbours, their neighbours friends and everyone connected with them?
Number 9 – Your *****ogy still sucks. Say we look at this from a non retribution point of view, do you go around constantly telling everyone your grandma is dead for nearly 10 years constantly getting mad and constantly using it as an excuse or do you try to move on and grow past it?
Number 10 – some people get really attached to their dogs.
Number 11 – this is just a ps really, saying I digress doesn’t make you look clever, especially when you didn’t digress, you just insulted. If you would like a game of insults, I would be happy to indulge you, just not today, I have nails to scrape down chalk boards and small crying children to listen to whilst having red hot shards of glass stuffed down somewhere very uncomfortable which roughly translates as, I have better things to do.
Number 12 – pps do they make you wear those special helmets where you go to school? I assume by your prose that you are still a child.
@bill
Obama didnt get defeated. He is the president, he doesn’t compete for another 4 years. Martha Coakley was defeated in massachusettes. She is a 54 year old, red haired, skinny, white lady from pittsfeild, MA. Barack Obama is a 48 year old mixed raced gentleman with both kenyan and american heritage. I dont know how you could get these two mixed up, they are very different.
@bill (311)
“Listen up anti american scum”
I am not anti american, I am anti american dream, I am anti ‘look out for number one and no one else’, I am anti capitalist because someone always loses out. If I WAS anti american, why would that make me scum bill? is it just because you are american? is that it bill? have you ever left your country bill? or are you too scared/xenophobic to do so? what makes you think that america is so great bill? I dont mean that rhetorically either, give me a list. Why is the american constitution so *****ing awesome bill? is it because you live there bill? is it because you are brainwashed by your own society to believe that america is the best country in the world bill?
What is a false american bill? is it someone who doesn’t believe in what you believe in? because in a democracy, everyone is allowed to believe what they like and follow the parties that they wish to follow. What you are talking about by telling people who don’t believe in the same things to conform or leave is like what the Nazis did bill. Its what they do in China and in Cuba. You really shot yourself in the foot this time bill. I do see a connection between the policies of obama and the defeat in MA but I see more of a connection between the death of Ted Kennedy and the change of senator. Do you really, honestly, hand on heart, think that Scott Brown would have beaten good old TK? I dont think you do bill.
Just to recap for you bill, Im not an Anti-American Progressive, Im just progressive. Surely when you live in a modern world, you need to PROGRESS with it otherwise you will never see any progress. Is this too much to take in bill? should I give your small under developed brain a break now?
9/11 should have been number 1. That was huge.
@matt
no matt, 9/11 should not have been number one… im not going to explain again. read post 304…
Real World was popular waaaay before reality tv became popular.
I like this list a lot. =]
Personally, I would add video games to the list, but I don’t really know many details on the scope of games in the 2000′s, so I may be wrong.
i disagree with the sports bit. how can the red sox have any more impact on world sport than a national team winning a universal sport in what could be considered a less prestigious world cup? ridiculous. everything else is fine though.
I’m a Slumdog Millionaire defender.
That movie blew me away, and it originally was slated to go straight to DVD.
The Dark Knight got so much press because of Heath Ledger’s death (he was good in that role though). I thought it was way too long and slightly boring, not to mention quite depressing. I thought Spiderman 1 was better, and that’s not saying much. LOTR 1 was good too, but groundbreaking? No. And I read the book.
The rest of the list, outside of the Boston Red Sox in sports, made sense. Wasn’t it the next year that the White Sox ended their winless streak? A more defining moment, if I had to stick to baseball, would be the fallout from the “steroids era” and the congress hearing. After everything that was going on in the US we were having hearings about MLB players using steroids? Seriously?? That was downright egregious.
Slumdog Millionaire forever!
I will agree that the controversy of “The Passion of the Christ” was a defining moment, if I had ot pick a movie. It touched everything that Americans love to debate, argue over. You didn’t even have to see the movie to talk about it; all you had to do was read news articles of how people died in theatres because of how graphic it was… now that’s a defining movie.
From my personal stand point, there is another bonus moment of 2000′s
Re-election of George W Bush in 2005(apparently by cheating)
slumdog millionare!? its a pretty good list but quite a few american things on there
great list! everyone likes a little controversy right?
On August 23 1994 at 11:23am, Top Kill was born. Geologists said it was a seismic event. Surgeons said it was a phenomenon. I say it was an event horizon.
Top Kill Forever!
Top Kill was born? Are you talking about the offspring of George and Martha Kill? Anyway, 1994 is a little early for this list.
Normally (but not always) you're dead on with the facts, bur reality TV did NOT start in the UK with Pop Idol in 2001. It started in 1991 (or was it 1990) with MTV's "The Real World". EVERYBODY knows that.
I thought reality TV started with the first "live on the scene" report from a local disaster. I don't consider any show where they do scripted re-shoots to be reality TV. So most reality TV simply… isn't.
#5 Technology I simply cannot agree with.
Myspace and blogging and vlogging were huge. I'd say the item should have at least been called "Social Networking" rather than feed the glory to facebook only.
Is see HIGHSPEED INTERNET making that even possible.
Further more the influence of smartphones I believe also has had a huge impact.
Am i the only person in the world who thinks the iPod is nothing special?
coup d'etat in thailand?
THIS LIST OF DEFINING MOMENTS. SO WHEN YOU THINK CATEGORY BLANK IN THE 2000'S, YOU THINK THAT.
10: Only ever read second book, but totally. That or… twilight… *kills self*
9: Yup. unfortunately, yup.
8: I agree with EVERYONE here that it's LOTR. But I'd put, as a runner up, Avatar (it defines our standards of movies: ***** plot, go effects.)
7: I agree that it's great, but I think that the defining moment was the 2008 Olympics.
6: ***** the Janet Jackson thing and make it a 3-way tie.
5: … I am at a loss of words for the fail here… Internet
4: yuppers.
3: While I agree here, I will always see 9/11 as: McCarthyism for Muslims, and along WITH discrimination, we'll go to where YOU live and lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of their civilians (95% of suicide bombings are a response to foreign occupation), while only *****ing about the 4-5,000 troops that died. ***** America, I hate this place. And yes, I WILL leave ASAP for Europe for anyone who tries to say that I ought to leave.
2: yup.
1: I disagree. Don't get me wrong, I like Obama (to an extent), but I think that the ***** up of the Bush presidency is WAY more (unfortunately) defining than Obama's election. But I disagree with what I read about 9/11 being more important. Face it people, politics shapes our lives, it MATTERS.
I keep seeing this very, very incorrect assessment that "Pop Idol" in the UK was the beginning of reality TV. This is simply not true. Everyone with half a brain (in other words everyone who watches this garbage) knows that it was MTV's "The Real World" in 1992 that started it all. Period.
Can't saw I agree with this list completely, for me, there isn't even a question about film: Lord of the Rings was the best. Harry Potter is by no means great literature, but it did the job and was insanely popular so I guess it deserves the spot.
I'm not sure what I'd have said for technology – facebook is popular sure, but is it really that much of a technological feat? I'd have had some major things, something like the LHC or something.
I was went back and forth for a while, but near the end I realized we had to have something to start with. I'm glad the bill passed, even if it's unfinished business. Now, like any other bill, we can fix it, and make it better. The obstructionist Republicans, however, are neither "unfinished" or can be "made better". Their opposition to the bill will be as historical as the bill itself.
Other then the IPod this should have been named “The 10 Worst Things to Happen in That Decade”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I get it! You’re a Yankees fan and a Retardican err, Republican., sorry. You also hated Slumdog Millionaire and the Euro… good job.
Enter your comment here.
Solid list I guess, but I just really think Lord of the Rings, the ending of the Star Wars trilogy or even Avatar for being like, amazing should have got the film spot, I just think slumdog millionaire was an over-rated movie, but to be fair, I haven’t even watched it.
But seriously, the sports choice is wrong – I reckon you shouldve had USA and then a ‘rest of world one.’ For me, the best sports thing of the noughties was always going to be the 2005 Champions League final. Liverpool had beat juventus, chelsea and faced AC Milan in the final. Maldini scored in pretty much the first minute, and Crespo scored twice before half time. So what do liverpool do? Well, they just go out and score 3 goals within 5 minutes, bring it to extra time. And everyone remembers jerzy dudeks masterful double save from shevchenko. And then, penalties. Dudek saves the final one from shevchenko. Liverpool win their 5th European Cup after being 3-0 down against the mighty milan. That, for me, was the best sports comeback/match etc of the noughties, and always will be.
This list is horrible, but what can you expect from someone not from the US. You obviously don’t understand our culture.
Some of these things are just insignificant. Idiot obama defined nothing and is an embarrassment to the great USA.
I suppose Bush was a genius, and 9/11, American Conservatism, and Traditional Values should have placed at the top. Do yourself a favor and don’t comment on lists involving American culture until you yourself gain an opinion that is worth mentioning.
Agreed.. It was a pathetic film.. I inspite of being an Indian am sayin this..!!
Now that this list is a year-and-half old, we can look back and see that Obama has been an abject failure: the first president in the history of the United States who doesn’t even like this country very much.
We will be lucky if we survive the rest of his first term, and God help us if he’s elected to a second.
Wow…and I bet your a Bush supporter? You people love to criticize like you actually have an intellectual input to add, last time I checked there is not a fire maelstrom destroying us at the moment, so somehow I think the direness of his presidency isn’t quite reality outside your probably conservative-hate-em-cause-he’s-democratic head.
Red Sox, what a load of Crap very few outside out the USA and perhaps Canada cared about that. Should be something that the a large portion of the world acknowledged. e.g Zidane`s Head butt. Such an American List.
Great list. Very interesting.
As an American I can definitely say that a lot of you need to get over yourselves and America…9/11 was a tragedy…but you should be ashamed if you think the loss of American lives automatically marks it more important than the Darfur GENOCIDE, not to mention the countless national tragedies that happened this decade. President Obama is the most defining moment of the 2000s because he reignited hope for people all around the globe, that’s the best victory any hero can ever give to people. I grow weary of this sweeping radical nationalism with subliminal hints of racism that far too many Americans are calling “pride in their country”. Most of these same people equate Muslim, Arabian, Middle Eastern, Islamic, and Foreigner as synonyms for Terrorist, and the media and conservative government is all too happy to play up the fear card to gain support for sweeping prejudice and racial/ethnic/religious stereotyping.
Another point to ponder, saying a movie is overrated because you didn’t like it is extremely egotistical, Slumdog Millionaire was a brilliant movie loved by critics and audiences alike…do you suggest that somehow everyone else in the world has no taste except for the few of you who “dare” criticize the movie? The correct stance is to admit the great points of the movie and simply state that the movie did not suit your tastes.
Fans of radio decried TV, Fans of Newspaper decry the internet, Naturally people will swear social networking is evil rather than understand that it simply doesn’t quite suit their personal desires in socializing. Pointing out the flaws of social networking is a moot point because every medium has it flaws, so naturally we are left to engage the mediums we find most effective when weighted against a benefit/risk ratio.
The message here being think rationally, not selfishly.
actiually the Real World was the first reality tv show it first aired in 1992
To clarify: the advent of reality TV in America actually began in 1948 with the premiere of “Candid Camera” –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candid_Camera
Also –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_television_s…
Obama is a piece of crap. The real story should be how do many people can be tricked by empty promises and a nifty slogan/poster.
Thanks for intodruincg a little rationality into this debate.
lS6hz0 xcidoumolzic
so facking stuped! really?
greece winning euros has to be up there with zidanes headbutt nobody outside the us cares about american sport, the world cup final is watched by over a billion people compared to the 100 million who watch superbowl and the red sox are apaz a baseball team so they dont even get that many viewers. i think that liverpools comebk in 2005 has to be a better comeback than there’s 3 – 0 down in final of champions league…
i sidagree with obama choice thats pathetic once hes gone then nobody will remember him we wont remember this decade cos of hm or 9/11. i hate how americans bring 9/11 up all the time like they were the only ones affected oh we have to kill osama cos he attacked us, when osama attacked the twin towers he didnt just attack you he attacked civilisation you muppets. the world was affected not just america. i think boxing day tsunami has to be top 40, one of the biggest tragedies ever never mind this decade. as for the political number 1 only gedafi can top it, 40 years of him dictating libya and hes taken down that has to be number one for politics.
michael phelps? dont make me ***** myself hes a good swimmer but much better things have been achieved in sport this decade including federer’s 15 and 5 consecutive at wimbledon and US equalling bjorn’s wimbledon record.
Obama says change. Apparently most everyone agreed. But the question nobody asked was,”What are we gonna change?”