The Last 30 Years

Time doesn’t pass you by. It runs through you, doesn’t slow down and doesn’t look back.

With a blink of an eye, I am nearing 30 and becoming more and more aware of the fact that my receding hairline and new age lines mean that I am no longer young. Barring a miracle medical breakthrough, I won’t be around to see the end of this century regardless of how much my curiosity wants to.

As we follow the incessant changes the last 30 years the world has experienced, there are a number that has particularly shaped the world today:

1. Religious animosities plagued the Middle East.
2. Former African colonies were struggling to develop their economies.
3. Tensions within and among the nations of Asia were high.
4. Inflation was a worrying issue and markets were jittery.
5. The United States was involved in an unpopular war a long way from home in 1991, then made the same mistake again in 2001.
6. Religious tensions have spread well beyond the Middle East.
7. The Soviet Union has collapsed.
8. China emerged from the Cultural Revolution to transform itself into an economic powerhouse.
9. India began to experience its own economic revolution.
10. The Common Market of the six largest European economies grew into the European Union.
11. South Africa ended apartheid.
12. Terrorism became an international problem.
13. New diseases appeared - Aids, drug-resistant tuberculosis, Sars, bird flu - but medicine also developed many new and remarkable cures leading to longer life expectancies.
14. Human-induced global warming became a reality.
15. Oil as the primary source of energy became a problem.
16. Communications, data storage and data retrieval changed incredibly.

Indeed it has been an eventful period and I should stop complaining that I am misplaced in the wrong era. Besides we humans, as a race, are adept to adjusting to the environment and finding a way to survive, that is if we don't kill ourselves first. Anyways, upon reflection, here are some notes to digest:

• Somehow we have found a way to go back to the most basic solution to all problems if you even consider it a solution - WAR.
• Inflation, a result of Capitalism, is starting to look like the bad idea it was to start out with.
• Technology and advancement in science have led to longer life expectancies for those with the money to pay for it. Otherwise, good luck in living past your teens.
• So everyone now accepts the fact that the rich gets richer, poor gets poorer. The discrepancy only means that the poor gets stuck with the bill while the rich gets stuck with the money. This is particularly true on the case of global warming.

Sorry to sound pessimistic here but it really gets to me when people just don't understand how or are unwilling to put in the smallest effort to make things better. Whether the situation is at the critical point is debatable, however, I do not think that we have any more time to waste.