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There is a tendency for people to view the decade of their twenties as "golden" and all subsequent decades pale by comparison. A lot of this to do with being young and carefree and enjoying adulthood for the first time. Sometimes though, that particular decade really is special in it's own right, even when viewed objectively without rose-tinted spectacles. The 1990's were such a decade.

The 1990's were bracketed by two great historic events. The first event happened in 1989, when the Berlin wall came down, communism fell and the cold war ended. For the previous eighty years, the planet had been worrying about one global problem after another - the sad waste that was World War 1 with tens of millions dying in the trenches, the rise of communism and fascism in the thirties, then the brutal exhausting experience that was World War 2, and then without a pause for breath, the cold war, with it's threat of nuclear oblivion.

As 1990 dawned, for the first time in living memory there was no world turmoil to worry about. In Europe, another important event happened - in 1993, the Single European Act came into force, which allowed free movement of people within the EU (which then consisted of 15 western european countries). Europeans had regained a freedom that their great-grandparents had enjoyed before the hostilities of WW1 brought in closed borders and passports. Young Europeans were the first to take advantage of this treaty, travelling across Europe at will, living and working and falling in love across the continent. It was de rigueur to do "inter-railing" across Europe in your gap year at university, or for couples with families to maybe buy a vineyard in the south of France and live the idyllic dream continental life. It seemed like freedom, liberty and friendship had triumped and life was sweet.

From about 1993 onwards too, the economy across the world started to boom. For the first time hundreds of young people were setting up their own companies (the biggest burst of entrepreneurship in history). Crime was falling everywhere too. The disaster movies of the 70's and the macho fight movies of the 80's gave way to the romantic comedies of the 90's. It was fitting that in a world with little to really worry about, everyone concentrated on relationships - so you had "Sleepless in Seattle" and "Friends", and everyone aspired to live like that. People were making money too. Stock markets were booming and unemployment was falling to record lows.

Then came the second historic event that closed the bracket on the 1990's: 9/11. It came as a tremendous shock to the entire planet, Iranians held candlelit vigils, Russians sent condolences and the Queen played the American national anthem outside Buckingham Palace. Momentarily the entire planet was united in revulsion. The shock was very acute precisely because the 1990's had been so sweet. It wasn't just Europeans who had thought that a permanent peace was at hand; Africans, Asians and Americans believed it too. All our dreams crashed that day.

9/11 ended the hope of the 90's. If such an event happened again, it would not arouse such shock because the world has returned to the way it was before 1989, and expects and has got used again to war and brutality.

The 1990's will forever be remembered as a brief sweet period when peace prosperity and happiness were in our grasp. Hopefully the world will not have to wait another eighty years to experience such a period again. Those of us lucky enough to have lived through the 90's should count ourselves blessed.

Learn more about this author, Lily S.
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