How things do change in 30 years

A friend sent me this today. It was funny at the begining but as I read on I actually started feeling depressed. It quite sad, really.

(Translated)

Scenario:
John is planning to go to the forest after class. He enters school an shows his mate Peter the pen-knife with which he intends to make a slingshot.

1977: The principal sees it and asks where he they sell them and shows him his own, which is older but better.

2007: The school shuts down, the police is called and they take John away to the reformatory. The main channels start their news broadcast from the school's door.



Scenario:
Frank and Mark have a tiff and end up in fisticups after class.

1977: Their peers cheer. Mark wins. They shake on it and they end up playing billiards together.

2007: The school shuts down. CNN declares a month of anti-violence. the papers talk about the subject in 5-column width, and they bring Matias Prats (Spain's most famous journalist, sorry... no translation there) to the middle of the storm to present the news broadcast.



Scenario:
James won't sit still at school and disturbs his peers.

1977: They send James to the principal who tells him off. He returns to class, sits still and doesn't disturb the class again.

2007: They prescribe James some Ritalin. He is transformed into a zombi. The school gets a grant for schooling a disabled person.



Scenario:
Lou breaks the glass of a car in his street. His father takes his belt off and gives him a red bum.


1977: Lou learns to be more careful next time and grows normally, he goes to university and becomes a successfull businessman.


2007: Lou's father is arrested for child abuse. Without a father figure, Lou joins a street gang. The psichologists convince his sister that his father abused her, too and they put him in jail. Lou's mother hooks up with the psichologist. The final in Big Brother is started with a forum on the subject.



Scenario:
Joe falls in a race and scrapes his knee. His teacher, Mary, finds him crying at the edge of the field. She hugs him to comfort him.

1977: Shortly after, Joe feels better and carries on playing.

2007: Mary is acused for child abuse and is sacked. She may end up in jail for three years. The parents sue the school for negligence and the teacher for emotional distress and they win both cases. Mary, jobless and up to her ears in debt kills herself by jumping out of a window. She lands on a car and breaks a plant pot on the way down. The car owner and the plant pot owner sue the heirs for destruction of property, They win. Two main channels join in the production of the movie and the news broadcast officce is moved deffinitely to the street.


Scenario:
A white boy and a black boy fight because one called the other chocolate.

1977: They have fisticups for a while, get up and go home. The next day they are friends.

2007: CNN sends in the best reporters. The BBC with a team of reporters prepares an in-depth documentary of a day at school with the kids. Documentaries are broadcast on street gangs, racism, pseudo-hitlerian youths pretend to rise in revolution about this and the government instates new laws and they give the black kid's family a flat.



Scenario:
You are going to travel.

1977: You fly in an Iberia (ok, ok...BA), they feed you, they invite you to whatever you want to drink, all served by stewardesses that are a joy to look at and in your sit you could fit two of you.

2007: You enter the plane putting your belt back on, which you had to remove to pass the security check. They sit you in a seat that, if you were to breathe deep you'd poke your neighbour in the eye with your elbow. If you are thirsty a poofy steward will offer you a beverages price list in which all drinks are 50% more expensive just because. You don't complain just in case they later want to check you for drugs with the longest finger in the world...



Scenario:
Peter, aged 19, has a reputation for being hard, earned by hours at the billiards, leather jacket with metal studs and lighter caps and a supped-up moped; he lays Anna, a 15 year-old hiper-developed gal who stands out from her girlfriends on the street.

1977: Peter is the stud, the dude.

2007: After a national television level public lynching, specially by the usual criticists and progressive ministers, Mercedes Mila (look her up) obtains the reinstating of the death sentence in Spain. Peter has the honour of being the first one to be condemned by the retroactive quality of this new law.


Scenario:
Usual relationship between father and son:

1977: I ask him for money to go out.

2007: He asks me for money to keep the bank at bay.



Scenario:
School discipline:

1977: You misbehaved in class. The teacher gave you two well-deserved slaps. When you got home your dad gave you another two...

2007: You misbehave. The teacher apologizes. Your dad apologizes and buys you a motorbike.


Scenario:
October 28th.

1977: You change from summer-time to winter-time. Nothing happens.

2007: The time-change arrives. People suffer sleep disorders, depression and women loose the period.


Scenario:
End of holidays.

1977: After a major traffic jam with the whole family stuck in a Morris Minor after a 15 day holiday at the beach, the holidays are over. Everybody goes to work the next day and nothing happens.

2007: After returning from Cancun, a trip with all expenses paid. The holidays are over and people suffer sleep disorders, depression and seborrhea.