I’ve been subscribing to Time magazine for some time now. As the resubscription letters arrive year by year I wonder why I keep renewing, but I do.
Their choices for ‘Man of the Year’ have descended from some sort of serious analysis of current affairs to an exercise in pop-culture. Their somewhat besotted coverage of the presidential campaign of Barack Obama seemed lack even a pretence of objectivity, but they were hardly alone in that regard. Each week they have a double page spread called ‘The World’ which give briefs on ’10 Essential Stories’. This week there were three from Washington, D.C., which is not unusual. A very US centered version of the world.
This week the cover story for the South-Pacific (Australian); Asian and European Editions features a review of the events of 1989. (The US edition features the upheaveal in Iran.)
While it seems that every generation wants to believe that their era is special in this case I think TIME editorial have a point.
The dissolution of the USSR was well under way, the first meeting of the Congress of People’s Deputies an integral step in that process.
The Chinese Government, aware of the instability throughout the communist world moved to supress what it considered to be a rebellion with considerable brutality.
The Berlin Wall was breached, a precursor to the reunification of Germany.
Nelson Mandela, still imprisoned, was taking his final, momentus strides in a long walk to freedom by meeting both P.W. Botha and his successor, F.W. de Klerk. It would still be some years before majority rule, but it started from the capacity of these men to work together.
Vietnam left their occupation of the killing fields of Cambodia. (They had invaded to overturn the murderous regime of Pol Pot and the Kymer Rouge in what was then called Kampuchea.)
On a different scale the disastrous oil spill from the Exxon Valdez brought ecological issuses to the fore.
The Dalai Lama received the Nobel Peace prize brought the situation of Tibet before the world.
The Hillsborough Stadium disaster in England challenged notions of ‘civilised society’ and how the behaviour of other sporting spectators could have given rise to the circumstances in which such a disaster could happen.
In the midst of all this social upheaval, believe it or not 1989 was the year the television series the Simpsons began broadcasting. No-one under the age of 20 has lived in a world without the word ‘doh’.
Other articles cover differing aspects of this year when the world as we now recognise it entered its current political form.
1989 was the year I went back to school. High School, which I needed to complete in order to go to university, which I needed to do in order to do my theological studies. Those finished in 1995 and then, after some time working in my home church I was called to be the Pastor of Mordialloc Presbyterian Church. I was ordained and inducted on June 22, 1997, marking twelve years of ministry there and now here in Mount Gambier. Sorry, just rambling a bit.
Now, finally, 1989 was the year that Hypertext Transfer Protocal was first written. It is the computer language for communicating documents over the Internet. Without it you wouldn’t be reading this (at least in this form).
In 1989 a great many barriers fell.
As those barriers fell the growth of the internet has enabled the free flow of information all over the world.
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