.we are all power rangers now society reaps in the future what it sows in the present. it's all quite scary really. do you have a kid? well i don't but i do have 2 younger brothers and frankly, they're all power rangers now. splendid. in pink, blue, white and what-ever-else-colours there may be. and like every brainless episode they do the same stuff over and over and over and over again. week in week out - school, math tuition, piano lessons, tv, science tution, speech class, computer games, dreaded chinese tuition, more tv. ditto. a kid's life has changed so much over the past decade and a half, but not for the better i'd reckon. in a strict material sense they definitely have more than we did. but as always there's a tradeoff and i fear that some of the most important non-material influences have been overtly sacrificed - relationships, warmth, care, concern, surprises, fun. there are only 24 hrs in any day. and it doesn't help that parents are, 1. ever more caught up in making that extra buck, 2. ever more resigned that more tution, tv and computer games are the natural order of a kid's day. my guess is that 1. and 2. feed on each other, justifying and reinforcing a cycle of increasing disengagement. commoditisation pervades a kid's life, so much so that even he himself has become reduced to a mere object, albeit one with a huge recurrent price tag attached. 'tell it to go there, ask it to do this, we have no time for what it wants, this is all for it's own good, i'm too tired for it, leave it with the maid, why is it's your score so low?'. i'm a firm believer that the adult is a product of his experiences as a kid, his disposition, outlook towards life, how comfortable he is with people, temprement, drive. teenagerhood and beyond accentuates these rather than alters them at base. how many in the power ranger generation have caught fishes in drains? and have fallen into them? played police and thief with his neighbours? cites enid blyton as his favourite author and sesame street as his favourite program? a minority i'd think. not to say the list above is much to shout about, or that my generation had it great - leave that for another time. what i'm highlighting is that things have taken a good few steps in the wrong direction since. they're all power rangers now. in due time, we will all be power rangers now. after that, the teletubbies?



.hear cesaria evora - nha cancera ka tem medida (deep forest single version), duncan sheik - daylight (album), the streets - weak become heroes (ashley beedle's love bug vocal mix)