As a child growing up in the 80's there was a certain level of innocence and simplicity to life. Life was not bombarded by cable TV, Nintendo, computers, the Internet, cell phones, DVD and MP3 players, and the rest of innovations that the new millennium has introduced. Instead, we had one television station that signed-off from midday to 4pm, when the infamous Sesame Street would be aired. We had Beta Max video players and for the fortunate Atari games for entertainment. The average child of that era grew up playing board games, such as snake and ladder, ludo and monopoly and had to be creative and generate games on their own to amuse and entertain themselves. We were masters at playing moral and hop-scotch, jump rope and hide and go seek, which all had the added benefit of providing us with our daily dosage of exercise. Obesity and child diabetes in the 80's was simply unheard of. So to was today's catch phrase, "I'm Bored"..... Not for the life of me can I understand what a child growing up in the new millennium can possibly mean by that. Is it that over exposure leads to a drain on a child's creative capacity, or they simply do not know how to express themselves and mistakenly think that beinging overwhelmed by too many toys and electronic activity, is best described as boredom???? Because somehow I cannot remember that phrase being a part of the vocabulary during the 80's. Children were never bored, a matter of fact I do not think they knew that such a word or phrase existed. There was too much outdoor activity for a child to possibility think about boredom. How can one be bored when there were fruit trees to climb and raid, cousin's and neighbours to play catch and rescue all day, and drains and canals to run races for the most coveted title of sail boat champion of the day.
During the 80's we did not have much, however we had creative minds and we ensured that the little we had went a L-O-N-G way. I clearly remember mid 1980's when the country hit rock bottom and the IMF and World Bank had to be called in for economic restructuring. It was a gloomy period for the economy. Back then very few persons knew about the IMF, so for the average man it was very unsettling when the Government started introducing the new fiscal and monetary policies. No COLA, salary reductions, trade embargos, increased tariffs, limited access to foreign exchange.... and this was followed by the closure of many companies and job loss for hundreds of employees.
Now to be honest at the age of eight, amidst all of this economic restructuring, all you are concerned about are your three square meals and snack at the end of the day. But when the composition of those meals begun to be affected by the restructuring, primarly the embargo, things became little agonising. For example, a typical breakfast pre-recession could have been comprised of bread/bake and some sort of filling, with strawberry Quick and for snack later on that day you would have been certain to have one of kelloggs many variety packs of cereal, either frosted flakes, or corn pops, or apple jacks, or fruit loops and the list could go on and on. Post recession however, there was strict ban on imported food products..... So now all little children have to aquiant themselves with the local brands and manufacturers and say welcome to Milo and Ovaline. Up to today, I cannot bring myself to consume any form of cholocate breakfast drink. I was raised on strawberry Quick. Another low point, was the ban on the import of fruits, so that christmas there was not an apple, grape or pear on the market. For some reason that was the only time of the year parents would be inclined to purchase such fruits, so most children were bewildered the first year we had to do without. But we survived......
Another element of the recession that I never quite understood until reaching adulthood, was the friends and neighbours that mysterious left the country, never to return. Some made it seem as though they were going on a little vacation and others simply left after bad-talking the country and the government. Then a year or two later you realise their properties were up for sale, by the BANK and you started to wonder, what really going on here.
Fortunately, my family was able to survived the storm of the last recession and it equipped us with the tools to get by, no matter what the economy is going through. And I was fortunate enough to have studied economics and international relations, so now I oh to well understand the concept of economic restructuring and the purpose of the IMF..... as well as banks moving in and selling properties, when their former owners abandoned them and migrated, leaving their mortgages unpaid.
No one knows what the future has in store however, I sincerely hope that it does not include IMF intervention, because I am not too sure that the children of the new millennium could withstand the pressures of economic restructuring.
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