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yes, millions â€" of Third World in Chima. _ _ _ _ _ 0 _ By tough times, I don‘t just mean economics. True, unemployâ€" ment is increasi 'u thmm.lt the western world and millions â€" times are i increasi y tough for ang:::n‘mm‘:nn‘]umw of people. People living in Waterâ€" loo, in Calgary, in Panama, and that matter â€" well, they‘ll tell you there wasn‘t much difference between living in the 80s and living in the Great Depression. And that‘s exactly my point â€" or a Toronto Okay, I‘ll concede they weren‘t uboduWoBruldeMwnfar Europeans. But if you talk to a Newfoundlapdq.wlnAlberm, Compared to what? The thirâ€" ties? World War Two? "Oh, come on," some will say, "they weren‘t all that bad." have been That‘s what it was all right, and won‘t shed a single tear for the The decade that should never Opinion â€" _ â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE, TUESDAY Happy to kiss this decade goodbye , for social programs like mother‘s allowance, old age pensions and It didn‘t work perfectly, but Canada‘s was one of the best in the world â€" and allowed free social contract. You remember the social contract â€" a postâ€"war consensus that those who have will help those who don‘t through What I‘m talking about are tough times all over. Let‘s talk socially. Canada‘s social safety net is unravelling just as fast as the federal Tories can break the babies starve to death every year in very preventable deaths (and most Third World Nations have a much lower average standard of living than they did a decade lan Kirkby City Seen young people. And while a cure will one day be found, how many will die in the meantime? And how many of us â€"â€" I suspect all of us â€"â€" will lose people we care about? * The 80s is the era when Ronald Reagan played the part of fool on the world stage. How most Canaâ€" dians cringed whenever he opened his mouth, or invaded Grenada or threatened Nicarâ€" But the 80s is also the decade when our own government inâ€" Also not to be forgotten from the 80s is the rise of AIDS â€" a nasty disease still killing some of the world‘s enterprise to fluorish alongside the ,welfin state. Since 1984, u"{-:e-.a 10 LA! t..‘.u.._ e *z‘ ' ‘“””/9 J Clsr S afi:g«fi s' . \" & <l 2A * ~a@ *';; o ; P es ED m s # soll c lt â€" xi Miogres Copmorr es » I _ ®R ._“ e “ A in a different disguise. But I shall not ramble. Suffice it to say that the bad parts outâ€" weighed the good. Of course, not allhm awful. Itmadeea:d w! Canadian magazines book publishers m&hmmm we began to see that our planet could be saved. The catch was that we only have a decade or so to turn around, and we will save this planet by shrugging nistration until hr:'erifieind American policy on Nicaragua). On the lighter side, it was the decade when music turned away from disco. Then turned back to it vited NATO to fly its supersonic mundredsd‘foat‘ahowt.he inhabited for thousands of years by Innu. And when we joined the Organization of Ameriâ€" un&auo.lt'nhodom;svhen we stopped criticizing over supplying arms to Nicaraguan terrorists, and supported an invaâ€" sion against Panama to oust a peétty dictator (who used to be supported by the Reagan admiâ€" Inteminecomntmmnntonmoveresennmmremenncaimnr "EROmestrmtenmm r :.On the political front, despite wlnthmin Chm?‘fln summer ‘Bush seems alâ€" ready to have forgotten), the 80s brought: the world glasnost and perestroika and liberation for the people of ‘Eastern Europe. In short, the beginning of the end for eommunhm.Andtheworld‘;‘r treated to a peacemaker in Mikâ€" 18 â€" ble after all. The 80s have allowâ€" ed us to dare to think peace is possible, and to see the military industrial complex for what it is â€" bloodthirsty war mongerers. But, and this of course is a personal reflection as a child of the television age who likes to believe that one day human poâ€" tential will be realized, the best I have saved for last. The best thing about the 80s was the return, first to screen, and then to television, of Star off the consumer fetish that has gripped us since the 1950s.