* jazzyhands *

|| ||

::27.12.04:: Don't They Know It's Christmas

On Christmas morning the abovementioned song came on the radio -- for some reason RRR untuned itself on my clock radio and I had to listen to NOVA (at least it encourages me to get out of bed) -- and it suddenly struck me. Most people in third world countries aren't christian so why would they give a zebra's arse that it is or isn't Christmas.

I mean, I can understand the sentiments behind the song, that it is Christmas and we have such abundance, often wasteful abundance (eg. my sister insisted on having beetroot dip for Christmas lunch then didn't eat one little bit of it and I am left with a huge tub of the shit) while other people are starving.

But still, for some starving person in a third world country, it is just another day. If it inspires people to give them food and money and other shit then good and well, but to try to make Christmas a meaningful holiday for non-Christians is just another form of cultural elitism and therefore wrong.

#

Comments:

Did you ever read the piece "Fiddling While Africa Starves" by P. J. O'Rourke? He wrote it when the first LiveAid concerts came out, and it's great! It's in his book 'Give War a Chance: eyewitness accounts from mankind's struggle against tyranny, injustice and alcohol free beer'

Hope you enjoyed Chrissy, anyway, apart from the not-getting-Ipod thingy. What is an Ipod thingy, anyway, and what good is it?

# posted by TimT : 1:37 pm