You can always count on Hugo Chávez for a headline – if he isn’t creating a unique time zone, he’s heaping praise on international despots or planning to ‘bomb’ the country’s clouds to make it rain. Now, however, he has turned Santa Claus, bulk buying in toys from China so his cash-strapped and increasingly frustrated electorate can afford to celebrate Christmas in a style similar to their North American counterparts. But, in a country with the highest rate of inflation in South America, and where many struggle to buy food, is enticing the population to spend half a month’s salary on toys really a sensible way to increase your popularity in the run up to an election?
At this time of year, it’s impossible to avoid the mass-marketed version of Christmas. A walk down any high street in December bombards you constantly with the secular images which have become synonymous with the season. Around you hurry people of all ages desperately running from shop to shop and gaudy displays fill the window, presumably designed to entice you to part with yet more cash. (Perversely even in South Africa, where temperatures regularly reach the high 30s during the festive period, shops are also dominated by these Western images of wooly hats, fleece lined boots and snow-laden landscapes). The traditional religious season has become corrupted by the capitalist elements of our society, and it so seems odd that Chávez (so famed for his Anti-American/ anti-capitalism tirades) is now condoning that the people of Venezuela also enter into this buying frenzy.
Of course, I understand the pressure to deliver at Christmas, and with Western media, images and lifestyles seeping into cultures across the globe, it’s unsurprising that families want to have “the perfect Christmas.” But whilst reading the article in the Guardian, I was reminded of one of my most memorable Christmas gifts.
One Christmas shortly before he died, I remember my Grandad gave me a Frisbee and a pack of Kit-Kats. Not exactly memorable, but what made the gift special was the way it had been given. Even though I was still quite young at the time (11 or 12), I knew that financially he had been failed by the government in his retirement and, not being well enough to live at home, all his money was tied up in paying for board in a nursing home. Consequently, the Frisbee took on a bigger role because here was my Grandad spending some of the little money he did have, on me. It wasn’t flashy, it wasn’t expensive, but at that moment I knew exactly how much he loved me, and it was truly priceless.
I don’t remember anything else I received that Christmas, and I doubt very much if I’ve kept anything else. But I remember that Frisbee vividly and over 10 years later, I still have it.
Christmas, Socialism and Chávez – an anti-capitalist Christmas? 13th December 2009
Tags: Christmas, Commercialism, Feria socialista de Juguetes, Hugo Chavez, Santa Claus, Socialist Toy Fair, Venezuela
You can always count on Hugo Chávez for a headline – if he isn’t creating a unique time zone, he’s heaping praise on international despots or planning to ‘bomb’ the country’s clouds to make it rain. Now, however, he has turned Santa Claus, bulk buying in toys from China so his cash-strapped and increasingly frustrated electorate can afford to celebrate Christmas in a style similar to their North American counterparts. But, in a country with the highest rate of inflation in South America, and where many struggle to buy food, is enticing the population to spend half a month’s salary on toys really a sensible way to increase your popularity in the run up to an election?
At this time of year, it’s impossible to avoid the mass-marketed version of Christmas. A walk down any high street in December bombards you constantly with the secular images which have become synonymous with the season. Around you hurry people of all ages desperately running from shop to shop and gaudy displays fill the window, presumably designed to entice you to part with yet more cash. (Perversely even in South Africa, where temperatures regularly reach the high 30s during the festive period, shops are also dominated by these Western images of wooly hats, fleece lined boots and snow-laden landscapes). The traditional religious season has become corrupted by the capitalist elements of our society, and it so seems odd that Chávez (so famed for his Anti-American/ anti-capitalism tirades) is now condoning that the people of Venezuela also enter into this buying frenzy.
Of course, I understand the pressure to deliver at Christmas, and with Western media, images and lifestyles seeping into cultures across the globe, it’s unsurprising that families want to have “the perfect Christmas.” But whilst reading the article in the Guardian, I was reminded of one of my most memorable Christmas gifts.
One Christmas shortly before he died, I remember my Grandad gave me a Frisbee and a pack of Kit-Kats. Not exactly memorable, but what made the gift special was the way it had been given. Even though I was still quite young at the time (11 or 12), I knew that financially he had been failed by the government in his retirement and, not being well enough to live at home, all his money was tied up in paying for board in a nursing home. Consequently, the Frisbee took on a bigger role because here was my Grandad spending some of the little money he did have, on me. It wasn’t flashy, it wasn’t expensive, but at that moment I knew exactly how much he loved me, and it was truly priceless.
I don’t remember anything else I received that Christmas, and I doubt very much if I’ve kept anything else. But I remember that Frisbee vividly and over 10 years later, I still have it.