A decade of uncertainty

by Cecilia Börjeson and Olivia Foster

Social unease was one of the defining characteristics of the noughties. Arts London News looks into what gave us cause for concern in the last decade.

Terrorists

September 11, 2001 is a date which will resonate throughout history. The images of the ashen-faced victims emerging from the burning wreckage covered in soot, is imprinted on the memories of all those who watched in horror as the events unfolded on that September day in 2001.

A feeling that was repeated just four years later when, on July 7, 2005, suicide bombers attacked London through its transport infrastructure, killing 56 people and injuring a further 700.

This was the biggest difference between the noughties and any other period in history; we could no longer identify our enemy, terrorists posed the threat of fear without a face.

Looking back we realise how, when on the bus or the tube, we would glance suspisciously at fellow passengers with bulky luggage. But when an innocent man, Jean Charles de Menezes, was shot dead at Stockwell tube station in the latter part of July 2005, questions arose as to whether the paranoia about the threat of a terrorist attack had gone too far.

Climate change

With the world’s waste sites filling up, and with everyone urging us to recycle and switch off the lights, the past 10 years have seen a resurrection in the ‘60s hippie mantra of ‘save the planet’. The fear of climate change is making us consider the repercussions of polar ice melting away, turning the world and the environment upside down.

Record breaking snow fell last February and our summer arrived in early May. Droughts in Africa brought devastating effects on the population, and had a knock-on effect as food prices steadily rose.

We witnessed the Cumbria floodings with horror as hundreds were evacuated due to unprecedented rainfalls, and were shocked by a hailstorm that all but buried a small town in Devon. The effects of climate change are being felt first hand.

Is it any wonder that Hollywood producers have made a string of apocalyptic movies, playing on our fears for the future of our planet.
 
War on knife and gun crime

Over the latter part of the noughties, a new fear took hold of the British public.

The rise in gun and knife crime came at the end of a turbulent decade, and led us to question the state of youth culture in Britain.

Sensationalised stories hit the headlines and young people were being attacked and murdered at an increasing rate. According to the BBC website in March 2009, there has been an 84 per cent rise in teenager admissions to hospital suffering knife wounds in the past five years.

We were a nation in shock as questions arose about what makes young people commit such violent acts. This threat was different to anything we had felt before because it was happening in our communities.

Despite the intervention from the Government’s anti–gun and knife crime initiatives such as Trident and London Against Gun and Knife Crime, the violence has yet to fully subside.

Recession

As a result of our declining economy, unemployment figures hit an all–time high. The recession provided a new fear for the British public – while some feared for their jobs, small businesses went under and graduates worried that their degrees had been for nothing, with many failing to go into employment upon finishing university.

Big high street names have disappeared and shopping malls bustle just that little bit less as people try to save their pennies.

With the recession still biting, the air of uncertainty has yet to clear.