22 December 2016
Season’s Greetings
A global look at this year’s festive spirit.
by Neil Tidmarsh
OK, it’s the festive season, so I think we all deserve a break from heavy comment and penetrating analysis of the world’s news this week, don’t we? So – instead of the usual focus on serious subjects such as intolerance in the Middle East, the abuse of authority in Russia, the disastrous economic consequences of dictatorships in South America, tensions between Germany and Turkey, etc, etc, etc – let’s simply have a heart-warming round-up of Christmas stories from across the world. Pour yourself a glass of sherry and help yourself to a mince-pie, and I’ll begin. Once upon a time…
…in Yarkovo, a small town in western Siberia, more than 1000 miles east of Moscow, a woman called Anna Folts and her son planted a fir tree in their garden. Over the years it grew and grew as the two of them tended it with great care and attention. Then her son tragically died, and she tended it on her own, and came to see the tree as his memorial. For fifty years the tree thrived, until one day, in December 2016, when Anna Folts was now 86 years old, she came home to find… that the tree had gone. Not completely – a stump, surrounded by a scatter of saw-dust, was still sticking out of the ground. Clearly, the tree had not wandered off on its own accord. Someone had stolen it. But who? What sort of miserable, evil, heartless criminal would steal a tree that a poor pensioner had spent more than half her life tending?
The town authorities, that’s who. Mrs Folts soon found the tree; it was less than 30 yards from her house; it had been set up as the town’s Christmas tree, in the central square, covered in Christmas decorations. The town’s construction officer and his team had gone to Mrs Folts’ garden, cut down the tree, and appropriated it for official civic service.
Next, we go to South America, where President Maduro hammered another nail into the Venezuelan economy’s coffin (inflation currently at 500%, estimated to rise to 1660% next year) by suddenly announcing that the largest bank note (the 100-bolivar) was about to be scrapped, and the country had only 3 days -as Christmas approached – to change it for coins at banks. And the borders with Brazil and Colombia would be closed, to prevent ‘international sabotage’ (i.e. smuggling) of the country’s currency. Violent protests erupted; hundreds of shops were looted; a number of people were killed (the country’s rate of violent crime is soaring – like its inflation – to world-record levels).
Maduro backtracked and announced that the 100-bolivar note wouldn’t be scrapped until next month. He went further; he decided he’d had enough of being King John and decided to be Robin Hood instead. In a step which logically follows on from his long-running persecution and demonisation of private businesses, he ordered police to confiscate four million toys from Kreisel, a toy distribution company, and to give them away free, as Christmas presents, to poor children in Caracas, via local supply committees. The only problem is that local supply committees themselves are more King John than Robin Hood – they’re frequently accused of being corrupt and inefficient – so they probably won’t have enough Santa Suits (let alone sledges and reindeer) to get the job done.
And so to Turkey, to a school in Istanbul – the Istanbul Lisesi. Last week, the headmaster announced that the country’s education ministry had demanded that the school’s traditional Christmas festivities (and indeed all Christian activities in the school) be banned. You might be surprised that Christmas and Christianity had any place in Turkish education, but the fact is that this secondary school – one of the best in Turkey – is an international school, a German school, founded by Germany a hundred years ago, where many of the staff are German, and funded by the German government. After protests from Berlin, by politicians from all three of Germany’s main political parties, the school denied that any such ban was in place; but it remains to be seen whether the school choir’s traditional Christmas carol concert at the German consulate will still take place this year.
So there we go. Three cheering Christmas stories from around the globe to help you forget, just this once, during the festive season, that the world is full of trouble and strife. Go on, help yourself to another glass of sherry and another mince pie. Oh, but before I go, there is another Christmas story I have to tell you – from Australia – and I’m afraid that this one is rather an alarming one, with an important lesson:
Check your Christmas tree to make sure there are no snakes hiding in it, disguised as Christmas decorations!
In Melbourne, a woman found a three-foot-long snake wrapped around her Christmas tree. It was striped red and gold, so it blended in with the decorations. It was in fact a tiger snake, a highly venomous serpent which can grow up to twice that length. What I want to know is, was the woman called Eve, and was the serpent tempting her to eat the chocolate decorations, dangling from the branches all around him, before Christmas day? Did she succumb, and will it bring even more trouble and strife to humankind in the New Year? No, hang on, that was a different tree, in a different story, not the Christmas story, in a different part of the Bible…
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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