Guess who’s getting coal for Christmas?

It is Christmas time again. This year it feels that, more than ever, the nation, the continent and maybe even the world needs festive cheer in massive quantities.

There is a cruel irony in the fact that the reasons we all need cheering up are the very restraints that are, in many cases, preventing us from celebrating in a way that we would like. In saying this I am not in any way promoting consumerism as a road to happiness but people’s desperate financial situations must be acknowledged as a great source of stress and anxiety that they will feel even more keenly during the festive period.
The lack of money in people’s pockets because of the recession is also a major guiding factor in the decreased spending that is standing in the way of growth and a continued slippage back towards recession. The eurozone is in a state of crisis and looks on the verge of either all-out collapse or at least a period of extreme and ultimately dysfunctional stagnation. The political disharmony this has exposed does little to inspire confidence and has laid bare some uncomfortable truths regarding hierarchies in the union and more notably Ireland’s place in it.
Were Santa Claus to examine his list you would have to think that the two most recent Irish governments would be very much in the ‘good’ bracket given the fact that they have swallowed all their medicine and imposed stinging austerity on the population as they have been told to.
This is, of course, from the point of view of a European Santa. The gentleman in question is reputed to call Lapland home so we must assume that he holds Finnish citizenship. As a result, it is safe to think that he will have been suitably impressed with the good behaviour of Irish politicians with regard to cutbacks and attacks on pensions.
How this behaviour fits with his well-known policy regarding naughty and nice will be an interesting point to examine. There is certainly nothing nice about what Irish politicians have been doing in the last few years. It is a while since I have had to work to impress the jolly old elf but, from what I remember about the rules of the game, if one were to knowingly cause extreme hardship to millions of people, destroy some others’ lives completely and generally inflict misery on an entire population then I’m almost certain that a bag of coal would be pretty much all you get expect in the stocking.
That said, with fuel allowances under attack, along with everything else, a bag of coal no longer seems like a bad gift at all so it would have to be something genuinely bad; shares in Anglo Irish Bank perhaps.
Christmas as a time of ritual is a good mirror of the society at large. It began, as we all know, as a time of Christian celebration and has over the years developed in an effectively secular festival of consumerism. As the spending power of people decreases at the moment there may be a perception that we are less able to engage fully with the ritual but this is not the case. There still exists in the next week an opportunity to see friends and family and perhaps some people who we have not met in a year or more. This is an opportunity that we should grab with both hands because it is something far more valuable than money.
Perhaps the only benefit to be sought in the straitened times we are enduring is a search for something deeper and more meaningful to cling to. By this I don’t mean a blind self-delusion that everything is alright and there is not a need for gloom. Perhaps it is more an appreciation for the positives that we can muster in the midst of the trial.
I have a deep personal reason for thinking in this way. In July of this year Helen and I welcomed our daughter, Róisín into the world. This Christmas is the first we will enjoy as a family and for that reason we are both looking forward to it in a new and very excited way. As most readers who have a child will be aware there are financial pressures that come with having a baby and we have had them the same as everyone else but there is something in our lives now that is worth far more than any money we could ever amass.
Roisin’s smile and the pure potential she represents is a life-tonic that is unparalleled in its effectiveness. The intoxicating love we both feel for her has the most powerful restorative qualities and is an effective antidote to harsh reality in every instance we have encountered so far. As she grows and matures, discovering Santa Claus along the way, the financial pressure will increase but as with all things we must deal with those when we encounter them.       
When the money is stripped away and life is examined then there are things of great value from which we can take the greatest comfort. This should not be considered an excuse for what the people of Ireland are being subjected to, however. I do not want to seem as though I am utterly blinded by sentiment. If Santa is reading this then I would advise him to pay particular attention to his naughty list, to update it and to ensure that it is full and comprehensive in terms of Irish politicians and their colleagues in Europe. It should also include a healthy population of those who work in financial services and the management of hedge funds. Making the best of a bad situation is not a justification of the situation. Many might call it grasping at straws. I would propose, however, that it is something worth considering. In the next generation exists the potential for real change and possibly the opportunity to rebalance society in a more fair and just way. This requires education, social protection and equality to be adopted as guiding lights in society. This cannot happen if there is no public service to deliver them. In recognising the need to protect the next generation, the sins of the current crop of politicians come into clearer focus and when considered from this viewpoint they can expect slim pickings on Christmas morning. Ironic that in fact they will have among the best funded festive seasons in the country.