Entry 915, on 2008-12-25 at 22:40:03 (Rating 2, Comments)
Today, while watching a New Zealand music channel, I saw a couple of interesting music videos. The first was a sort of reggae versions of the old Christmas song "Little Drummer Boy" (that's the one with all the pa-romp-pa-pom-poms in it). This was quite weird and I wondered how many joints were involved in creating the performance. I really enjoyed it though.
The second was rather more poignant. It was John Lennon's Happy Christmas. The song was played while pictures were displayed of some of the less pleasant world events this year: scenes of war, children maimed by air attacks, land mines, and other less pleasant realities of the world for many people. Here's the lyrics for the song (with repetitions removed)...
So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
A new one's just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so Happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so Happy Christmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
It was a reminder that, while in the western world we enjoy Christmas and might suffer a few problems repaying our credit cards, there are areas of the world where the inhabitants suffer genuine pain, some of which is caused or exacerbated by the extravagances of the western world.
So Christmas is a time when many people think about how the world could be made a better place, but I think everyone should watch this video and reflect on the fact that things aren't really getting a lot better despite all of the positive thoughts.
I think the line "the world is so wrong" is a bit of an exaggeration because there is a lot of good in the world too, but it certainly could be a lot better. Maybe it should be something like: "the world is so not as good as it should be!"
Comment 1 (1838) by SBFL on 2009-01-02 at 09:45:43:
"...by the extravagances of the western world."
- how do you live with all the white guilt man?
If I may I would like to rewrite that paragraph to make it _more_ truthful:
"It was a reminder that, while in the western world we enjoy Christmas and might suffer a few problems repaying our credit cards, there are areas of the world where the inhabitants suffer genuine pain, most of which is caused or exacerbated by the culturally embedded corruption and lack of governance of the third world."
PS Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Comment 2 (1840) by OJB on 2009-01-03 at 11:38:30:
The white man guilt? I don't quite see it that way. Western civilisation (white men mainly) have made contributions to the world which have benefitted everyone. Its just that it could be so much better if a relatively small fraction of the western world's wealth was used to fix some of the problems happening in the rest of the world. It would also help if certain countries stopped intervening in areas where they shouldn't be causing trouble.
Yes, I agree that most of the problems in the third world are caused by corrupt leadership and lack of organisation. But that doesn't mean that there isn't more the western world could do to help out until those issues are resolved.
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