Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 10 (2000), 1-2.

This is the first issue of the new millennium. I wish readers a happy new year and hope for a peaceful one. I also thank the many who have remembered to send back their renewal forms to continue either receiving EJAIB in hard copy, or to contribute to it for use on the Internet. We are dependent upon your support. We also appreciate to receive news and new papers on the subjects for indexing, and for possible publication.

I spent the new year in New Zealand waiting for the first sun of the new millennium and saying goodbye to the old one. The media shared global visions of the new year, however, pop music and fireworks seemed t be common broadcasts. There were a few cultural programs and music, spiritual traditions that were remembered, and it is a good opportunity to encourage people to work afresh for the future.

The first conference that I participated in this year was at The United Nations University Headquarters, Tokyo, Japan, 19-21 January 2000, "On the Threshold: The United Nations and Global Governance in the New Millennium". It was attended by over 50 foreign visitors and many locals, and was part of the millennium activities of the UN. Over half the conference was in smaller working groups to focus on I. Human Development, II. Security, III. Governance, and IV. Environment. A number of recommendations were made including the establishment of an Environmental Security Forum. The conference also agreed to include a recommendation that more focus be given to biocentric and ecocentric arguments for preservation of biodiversity. However, there are still other issues, like the establishment of an Ongoodsman for future generations that would appear timely at the start of a millennium, but are still met with resistance. We hope that this generation realizes its responsibilities to the future, and that some interventions like the loss of biodiversity are irreversible and will be a deprivation imposed by our generation on all future ones, at least for a length of time much longer than the human species has existed so far.

This issue sees a number of papers from the TRT5 conference, especially on medical ethics and bioethics education. More will be published in following issues. Some participants are still to send their papers so please do so.

Time permitting in the coming several months the CD project will be finished, and all the Eubios publications will be put on a CD. This will supplement the Internet site, which will be updated in the process or making the files for the CD. There is growing reliance on the use of the Internet, and a number of journals have there full text on-line. This is making their less need for this publication and news section, although I will still try to cover a wide range of sources so that we can become more interdisciplinary in our coverage. There are still readers who do not have access to the information resources. Hopefully at least most readers have access to a CD drive. There is also a hard copy of most publications mentioned in Tsukuba in the Bioethics Resource Centre, and please send your publications and reprints to me so that others may share.

If you have documents that you would like to consider to be on the CD then please send them in electronic form (in Microsoft Word, rtf, and or html files). This will help to break the knowledge gap that separates much of the developing world from the rich countries with easy and "free" Internet access. Hope to hear from you soon,

Thank you for your continued support in the year 2000,

- Darryl Macer