Limelight: Joy to the world By Lubna Abdel-Aziz The universality of the Christmas season grows more popular amongst non-Christians seduced by its irresistible appeal, its many lights and sounds, its merry mood and festive spirit, yet its message grows dimmer every passing year. With church bells ringing, choirs singing and children carolling Joy to the World, we view its lamentable state only to come to the conclusion that "joy" is a tall order for a confused and restless warring world. The Christmas message is a joyous one, demonstrated in music and song, in giving and forgiving, as the Christian world celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Yet there seems to be a concerted effort to remove Christ from Christmas transforming it into a secular celebration. But of what then? Removing Christ from Christmas is akin to replacing a human with a robot, to removing the heart and soul from the human body leaving an empty outer shell. Yet even in predominantly Christian countries the trend to drop Jesus from Christmas is gaining ground, leaving it without its very raison d'être. In public and school displays, countries like the US and UK, are replacing scenes of the Nativity, the star of Bethlehem, the three Magi, angels and crosses with secular symbols and characters, as Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus and his sleigh, busy elves in Toyland, even Mary Poppins, as long as they are non-religious. Cards read Season's Greetings, and the fervent wish for a Merry Christmas is replaced by the indifferent, ambiguous, unspecific wish for "Happy Holidays". Christmas is not Christmas anymore, and this loss of identity understandably has some Christians fuming. In a pluralistic society of many races and religions, personal freedom is the most precious commodity. Whatever happened to freedom of worship and freedom of expression? If these freedoms are denied in a model democracy such as the USA, how can we expect to find them elsewhere? Did not the Puritans choose to migrate to the New World for this very same reason! Denying the freedom of religion certainly takes the joy out of the heart of Christmas. In fact joy is nowhere to be found! Following the bloodiest century ever known to man -- the 20th century -- our hope was for peace on earth for the new millennium. According to the Worldwatch Institute the new millennium is already displaying a voracious appetite for war and bloodshed. The end of 2004 finds the globe with 30 major and 100 minor conflicts. "Conflicts" is the new nomenclature for wars that have 1,000 casualties or less. In today's conflicts 90 per cent of casualties are civilian and not military, as compared to 50 per cent for WWII and only 10 per cent for WWI. Motivated by ethnic and religious hatred, civilians have become deliberate targets of violence, a gross violation of international humanitarian law. We turn to that august body of a league of nations formed in the aftermath of WWII in October 1945. They called themselves the United Nations and defined their goals of preventing wars, and promoting international peace. How efficient have they been? Since their inception there have been 250 major wars, 23 million people killed, tens of millions homeless and countless millions injured and bereaved. Could the Middle East quagmire be blamed on the action or inaction of the UN? The tragedy of Palestine, a seething cauldron, has disrupted the whole area for half a century, and is largely responsible for much of the prevailing violence. In recent weeks the UN itself has been embroiled in the "Oil-For-Food" scandal. The programme was originally established to purchase food and medicine for the Iraqi people from the proceeds of Iraqi oil exports. The UN is charged with "illicit and corrupt activities" involving $20 billion, implicating the office and family of the secretary-general himself. William Safire of the New York Times has dubbed the scandal "Kofigate". By eliminating the UN as a collective source of Joy to the World, we turn to the world of entertainment. Films, plays, music, TV, books and games help lift our spirits and provide comfort and cheer for this "most wonderful time of the year". Christmas movies have become an important component of the season but Christmas movies today fall short of their predecessors of yesteryear. Feeble and forgettable, they stress commercial aspects, using the Christmas theme only as a colourful backdrop to their mawkish vagaries. The joy remains in films made over half a century ago. They are playful and joyful, loving and tender, and as comfortable as an old bathrobe. The most famous of all Christmas stories, made into over half a dozen film versions to warm our hearts, was written by Charles Dickens' in 1843, yet we never tire of its clear Christmas message of hope and redemption. A Christmas Carol (1951) is still delighting youngsters, their parents and grandparents as they thrill to the sight of Christmas ghosts of past, present, and future, and cheer when Scrooge is transformed from a bitter old miser to a benevolent old uncle. The enchantment is complete when handicapped Tiny Tim cries "God bless us everyone!" Miracle on 34th Street (1947), another film that has been remade often, but could never achieve its first sweet rapture, finds a very young Natalie Wood standing alone in her unshaken belief that her friend old Mr Kris Kringle is the real Santa Claus. After a court appearance, everyone believes, and so do we! Believing in miracles and human goodness, in things dripping in mushy, gushy, sentimentality is at the heart of our Christmas joy. Nothing offers a more wonderful Christmas tale than James Stewart as George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life (1949) running through the streets of Bedford Falls after he discovers that he has made a difference in so many other people's lives, that life is good, worthwhile and worth living. This combination of delightful and joyful revelation is what we seek and find in It's A Wonderful Life. Very few of today's vintage can classify as memorable or as penetrating. Of all this season's Christmas offerings, true joy is found in only one production, The Polar Express, which stands a good chance of surviving the test of time. A charming adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg beloved children's picture book, The Polar Express unites the Oscar winning team of Forrest Gump (1993) -- director Robert Zemeckis and actor Tom Hanks. The excitement builds as a sceptical young boy awaits the arrival of Santa on Christmas eve. Suddenly, a gleaming black train rumbles to a stop in front of his house and the conductor invites the boy for a magical ride to the North Pole. The $165 million production introduces a major cinematic breakthrough in a new method of animation with the help of 500 visual-effects specialists, that combine live actors with Computer-Generated imagery. Its lightness of touch allows a more perfect marriage between reality and unreality to the delight of millions of children. It is a good season indeed, if we can add one more classic to the repertory of Christmas classics. With a major conspiracy under way to drop Christ from Christmas, with scandals of theft and corruption shaking the very body we created for our protection, with statesmen being blatantly poisoned and disfigured by high doses of "dioxin", with billions of dollars virtually squandered on the wrong targets by the UN, UNICEF, UNDP and all its satellites, and with wars waging North, South, East, and West, we have to dig hard to find some joy in our world. The commercial Christmas message is to sell, sell, sell, more, more, more gifts, cards, lights, flowers, candles, ornaments, trees, toys, and we blindly follow and buy, buy, buy, making the joy ever so much harder to reach. But the joy is still there. We just need to look harder, dig deeper, search longer, and sing louder. In the depth of the human soul we shall find the fervent wish for Joy to The World, and the warmest wishes for a very Merry Christmas to all. [email protected]
