For years I've had this question in my mind and only now I finally put it out in the public. Let me explain what I observe. Sometime in November or beginning of December cities get decorated with lots of beautiful lights and other types or ornaments. Most people go shopping like in no other time of the year. Everybody rushes to buy gifts, useful or useless, for everybody else around; it doesn't feel like gifts but obligations to attain or maintain social acceptance. People start smiling and remembering that there are poor people in the world, sometimes not too far from their homes (this is true at least in poor countries) and organize fund raising activities for gifts to those "less fortunate". It is a time of reconciliation for all the fights and conflicts that could not be resolved or didn't wish to resolve during the year. All of a sudden, the Christmas spirit fills every body with the forgiveness many could not achieve in any other occasion. Then comes the 24th and 25th of December and everybody hugs and kisses while saying "merry Christmas". Is it just wishing that Christmas day be merry? What about the rest of the days? Why should it be merry, because of the gifts or because Jesus was born 2000 and something years ago in a date that historically has not been accurately determined yet? Much of the evidence would point to the merriment for the gifts since the message of Jesus was love and forgiveness for every day of our life, not just for his birthday! Now, if we really care for the "less fortunate", why do we only remember them in this time and forget about them the rest of the year? They suffer and starve everyday.

And then, on the days surrounding the 31st of December everybody kisses and hugs again, but this time not saying "merry Christmas" but "happy New Year". Christmas is then a thing of the past. Now it's time for resolutions, what we were not able to do in all our previous years, now it is the time to start them, even though we may not actually achieve or finish them eventually. But then again, why not wishing a happy new year to everybody everyday; why not making resolutions everyday; after all every instant a new year is starting, only from a different reference point of the earth's orbit around the sun. Maybe if we celebrated Jesus teaching of love and forgiveness everyday, if we gave something to the poor and less fortunate everyday or offer them a good job and a fair salary we may have a just world and be merry; and maybe if we set realistic resolutions for each day and for each instant of our life we may actually get things done and have a happy life.

First I have to thank my daughters Ana María and Carolina who, while rehearsing for today's oral talk for their school, illustrated me with some information I didn't know about Thanksgiving, like the first year it took place: 1621 AD. Second I have to thank my old friend Martin Meiss for one of his wonderful reflections when we gathered in his house on South Salina St. in Syracuse. He was fond of this American, or should I say north American celebration since Canadians celebrate it too, because, as he once said, around a dinning table people loudly or quietly express their gratitude for the food and the great things life has offered each and everyone, regardless of religious, political, philosophical or other beliefs, national origin, race, sex or sexual preferences... Third I have to thank the International Students Office at Syracuse University for inviting me to my first Thanksgiving meal at the Carrier Dome in that fall of 1982. I still remember they told us that dinner was on the date Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving, which is earlier than the American celebration. That one was not only a Thanksgiving dinner but a celebration of human diversity.

Somehow I believe now that Thanksgiving should be truly a celebration of diversity, since for the first Thanksgiving celebration in Plymouth Native North Americans and English Pilgrims shared generously their food in celebration of a bounty crop. These generous people didn't look at the color of their skin or whether they came from different nations. They just joined in celebration of life in the most familiar of gatherings, a meal. Natives had been sharing their land and its goods with the English settlers, with no greed. Probably they weren't the only natives who welcomed strangers in their land and homes, for Colombus had written almost one hundred and twenty years before about those people with no greed, referring surely to some other natives in some distant place in this continent he had recently discovered (?).

Sadly, many Natives in the American continent and other parts of the world have been reduced, or should I say confined, to live in Indian reservations, in many cases in conditions of poverty, maybe misery. How much this celebration has changed: Generosity has been traded for greed and competition, civilization for technology, harmony with nature for our modern concept of development, and a welcome to strangers for national borders... How fragile memory is. We remember the dinner celebration but forgot about sharing prosperity, we watch sports on TV but forgot about generosity, we say thanks but forgot about Gratitude [capital letter intended].

This was today's quotation of the day on the New York Times and the link takes you to an article that focuses primarily on the Wal-Mart debate in the USA. I have no evidence against or in favor of Wal-Mart and so I don't take any side on this particular issue at this point.

I do however take a stand on the issue of exploitation. I have seen how CxO's (call them CEO, CFO, CIO, or whatever) get to their workplace in a luxurious car, worth more than a house in a social interest housing program while most of the employees of the same company have to take public transportation, don't have a house because they cannot afford to buy any, and probably have to rent one bedroom that is shared with his/her significant other and children. While the CxO goes to fancy restaurants and may pay hundreds of dollars (or Euros, for that matter) for a meal with friends, their employees don't even have that amount of money for their monthly groceries or health insurance and many times they have to choose either food or health (as if this ever was a choice). Evidently people need to eat on a daily basis and so they gamble their health and hope for not getting sick. But the diet is central to good health and so the situation will surely deteriorate. And then what? Wait for charity? This eventually becomes a matter of public health. So, who is to take charge of this issue, the government or the individuals? I think both. So, Mr. Schwarzenegger (I am referring to the  assertions of the Governor of California, according to the New York Times) it is not just keeping unemployment numbers low. The matter is to have social justice. What could Mr. Schwarzenegger have implied with "economic recovery"? Only macroeconomic numbers, I guess. But just a reminder to him and many other government officials of the world: before those macroeconomic calculations were even invented there were people and these people are more than mere numbers. Unfortunately, life matters in this modern world are not resolved as quickly and easily as plots in the movies.

This is all too often life in the so called developing countries. But, that exploitation now is becoming a public issue in the "most powerful" country in the world is specially worrisome. Is that the price to pay to be the most powerful? I hope not. The issue is a matter that goes hand-in-hand with democracy and justice. I suppose the fact that I can take a free stand on this issue is a display of democracy. But my freedom of speech is not the only aspect of democracy. Democracy is also about having equal and fair opportunities to make a living not just surviving. And democracy is not just about being able to speak publicly in newspapers and other media about these and other issues. Democracy is about the governments elected by the people taking a stand and all the necessary measures for justice to prevail, not just for the few ones that sue a company but for all.

Of course, I do not expect you agree with them and I hope you do not find them offensive since my intention is not to attack anyone. This is my personal corner and it is not intended to start any discussion or controversy. So if you go on reading my weblog, I hope you learn something positive and you have something to think about.