Have A Blue Christmas Season

TRY AS WE may, there is little escaping the overwhelming commercial presence of the Christmas season.

Side by side with, and enveloping even the best traditions of our people and OUR Christmas, is the gouging out of the little pennies that we may have accumulated, all in the urge to SHOP TILL YO’ Drop.

We still have our Nine Mornings, made over it is true, but still OURS, however the essence of the season has already evaporated –the care and concern for the underprivileged, the message of a new beginning and a world based on peace, love and happiness. Christmas seems to be now all about how the rich can become richer, and the crooks preying on the less fortunate and unaware.

In 2018, it is a fair assessment to say that globally, millions of people are “vex till dey blue” at the state of affairs and particularly, their standard of living. The land on which we live, the air above it, and even now worryingly, outer space, have become the source of plunder and virtual “blue murder”. As we wish each other “Merry Christmas”, the reality is that most of us are “getting the blues” when we contemplate our condition over the holiday season.

It is small comfort that not only the poor and downtrodden are “feeling the blues” for the season.

Even leaders of big and powerful countries are feeling it too. Just ask Donald trump, or Emmanuel Macron of France or the embattled Theresa May of Britain about how they feel. Trump’s chickens are coming home to roost as the exposures of his deeds reveal. Macron’s “blues” come from the yellow yest protests and poor Theresa must be “singing the blues” as her Brexit has turned into an “Archie bruk dem up” fiasco. Not much of a white Christmas for any of them!

Concerns about our future on planet earth have led to a growing movement not only to preserve our land environment as
manifested in the recent climate change conference in Poland, but also to now take more active stand on the waters that surround us and to ensure that what has taken place on land is not repeated at sea.

Representatives from more than 160 countries gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, late last month in a big Conference on the “Blue Economy” focusing on how its tremendous resources can be used for the benefit of hundreds of millions of poor people, especially fisherfolk, and to spur the economic and social development of small developing nations whose shores are washed by these waters.

It is therefore most appropriate for us not only to join this global movement but also to see how, in our own small ways, we can contribute towards it. It is said that every little bit counts so, could we not see how we can each do our part?

What about a “Blue Christmas” season? placing emphasis on the nutritious sea food we have in our waters, for a change?

Have your ham and pork and whatnot if you care, but it would certainly help, and not hurt, if we have sea food on our tables. It would certainly not damage our health.

While we are talking of health, what about our blackfish oil and whale oil, in place of the expensive imports in the drug stores? We can go on and on. For instance, making time for a sea bath or “river dip” sometime over the season can only enrich our quality of life, and while we are at it, remember not to pollute, to put more plastics and garbage in the water to endanger our marine species.

We will not all be able to go to big conferences and the like but we can all, every one of us, play our part in the “Blue Economy” thrust and to use it to propel us into the new year on a drive for sustainable use of our marine and land-based water resources, promote the interests of our fisherfolk, develop our local economies and contribute to a better world for us all.

HAVE A BLUE

● Renwick Rose is a community activist and social commentator.