It is amazing how things can be taken for granted. Or people, for that matter. I remember the times when I was in primary school, or elementary school, as the Americans would call it. It would be accurate to say that I am in touch with a minute minority of my classmates from those times. Yet it is through no fault of theirs. Psychologists have a term for this phenomenon: proximity.
I certainly do not profess to be an expert on psychology by any stretch of the imagination, but my layman's understanding of that is one of emotional, rather than physical proximity. Through my secondary, or high school days, the friendships formed have indeed endured far further than those formed during the primary school years. Of course it was rare for one to articulate clearly his ambitions during those times, much less to his peers, who understandably would focus their attentions and energies on studies, work or the opposite sex.
It is said that the first twenty years of one's life constitute the formative years: a precursor to how one's life would develop through adulthood, old age, unto death. Perhaps a century down the road, there may be a definitive conclusion to this academic debate. Until then, we would do well to make decisions the best we see fit, given the ‘boundedness’ of our rationality (at this juncture it would only do justice to give due credit to the economists for their contribution of this term to the masses). For my part, the teenage years were initiations to the concept of careers, empathy, and the meaning of life.
It was a time of growth and excitement, and equally so, pitfalls and uncertainty. Those old enough to live through, or study the 1980s would appreciate the giddying heights of growth in the Japanese and Asian economies. These would go hand in hand with the deadlock and stagnation that was the Cold War, and the fear of inflation during the Thatcherite era in Britain. These would all climax during the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. Words can do no justice to express the significance to a student of history who was actually living these events as they unfolded. From what was East Germany, to Hungary, to Romania, to Czechoslovakia, to the Baltic states, the 'reverse domino', if I may be permitted to use that phrase, continued through to the former Soviet Union itself. One by one, these great nations released themselves from Communism and embraced self-determination.
The 1990s saw more, if not less, uncertainty. One by one, more and more beliefs that were held so strongly by the masses were systematically shaken, some of them to the core. Japanese economic prowess receded to mere figments of the 80s imagination; lesser economies such as South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore had their time in the sun, their fifteen minutes, so to speak. The audacity of one nation invading another was roundly rejected: Saddam Hussein would attest to that. However, uncertainty revealed itself in the guise of structural unemployment in Europe and Japan; Australia would grow and prosper during these years. Splinter elements in Chechnya, Georgia, the former Yugoslavia, and Somalia, would replace the former Soviet Union as threats to the New World Order as the politicians would coin the global geopolitik.
Increasingly, during the 1990s, life-long employment would be no more than a formula for the baby-boomer generation, but not for their children, the Generation Xers. More women began to enter, some to re-enter, the workforce, in order to supply much-needed income to maintain their increasingly costly families. The growth of the temporary workforce, known as Manpower Inc. in the US, redefines the meaning of the word 'career', even unto this present day. Globalisation, the much-maligned word, has enabled more to travel to seek opportunities in the US, Asia, Europe and Australia, than at any other time during the course of human history. Indeed, more uncertainties will accompany the opportunities, through the ebb and flow to the life and times of this first decade of the 21st century. It is during times like these that one tends to search for sources of consistency and stability: for comfort, if not for counsel.
To the man who has inspired my writing, and indeed the creation of this blog. He does not know me; then again he does, through his weekly contributions to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). I must admit to not being as faithful as many others in listening to his fifteen minute snapshots of global events, yet each time I do so, it is undeniable the impact mere words can have upon me, when articulated through his constantly clear, distinct, voice. This same voice that I was introduced to during my secondary school years, all the way through adulthood, this voice that had endured in the public domain for seven decades, and for ninety-five years elsewhere. To Alistair Cooke, from all who know him: Thank you.
