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One poignant Christmas story is “A Charlie Brown
Christ-mas” by the brilliant Charles M. Schulz. Some memorable
lines in this Emmy-winning Christmas special:
“Christmas time is here, hap-piness
and cheer, fun for all that children call their favorite time of
year. Snowflakes in the air, carols everywhere, olden times and
ancient rhymes of love and dreams to share.”
“Charlie Brown: I think there
must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but
I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel. I
just don’t understand Christmas, I guess. I might be getting
presents and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all
that, but I’m still not happy. I always end up feeling
depressed.”
“Linus: Charlie Brown, you’re
the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like
Christmas and turn it into a problem.”
“Lucy: Don’t worry. I know
how you feel about all this Christmas business, getting depressed
and all that. It happens to me every year. I never get what I really
want. I always get a lot of stupid toys or a bicycle or clothes or
something like that.”
“Linus: Christmas is not only
getting commercial, it’s getting too dangerous.”
“Lucy: Let’s face it. We all
know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It’s run by a big
eastern syndicate, you know.”
Now, put all those lines parallel
to the top story of The Sunday Times last December 16 headlined
“Black, bitter Christmas for 6M poor Pinoy kids.” Reading on you
realize that these kids come from families who started out poor and
yet had 6, 7, 8 or even more children that their parents could not
afford even to feed a single decent meal a day.
Is Christmas to blame? Or the
crass commercialism of Christmas? Or irresponsible parenthood?
One staunch advocate of
population control is the Lopez Group patriarch, Oscar M. Lopez. His
take on this issue is: “Arresting our population growth is an
imperative in getting our country’s economy to move faster. Today,
the country’s average per capita income and labor productivity are
at about the same levels as it was in early 1980’s because of our
rapid population growth. We doubled our population from 36.8 million
in 1970 to 75.6 million in 2000, and if we don’t do anything now,
our population will exceed 100 million in less than 10 years time.
Where are we going to put all these additional millions? We are all
going to be on top of one another and on top of trees, assuming
there will still be trees at that time. It is our responsibility as
Filipinos to confront this problem squarely.
“ I feel like we are in a small
leaky wooden boat, a batel if you wish, that is overloaded with
passengers and buffeted by big waves in a turbulent sea and,
therefore, in danger of sinking at any moment.
“The Lopez Group, in
collaboration with the USAID Prism will strengthen their
reproductive health and family planning program by gaining the
support of their CEOs and senior officials through education and
information campaigns on the benefits of investing in the FP
program. They will install a program that is employee-centered and
will have activities that include profiling of employees according
to their FP needs, customizing a FP program design and
implementation plan, the evaluation of clinic facilities and service
provider capability to provide FP services; and the setting-up of a
peer motivators program. Additionally, there will be
capability-building activities, regular evaluation to determine the
progress of the program and to make it a sustainable component of
the human resource and corporate social responsibility agenda.
“We have learned from our
Asian neighbors that their sharp reductions in poverty were a result
of sustained economic growth, attributable to good economic policies
coupled with a strong population policy. The appeal to our political
and church leaders must be reinforced until our country has a
workable and consistent population policy. We need the cooperation
of all groups in society to successfully confront this very serious
problem.”
And back to Christmas, Linus
reminds us to fear not, “for behold, I bring you tidings of great
joy which will be to all people. For unto you is born this day in
the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall
be a sign to you.”
Christmas is about being
responsible citizens, parents and individuals. Being a parent is
gift, a privilege, and a responsibility.
Christmas is not about any one of
us. Christmas is about Jesus and his birth. There is no connect
between everything that we are doing to ourselves and Christmas. Let
us not blame Christmas for our woes.
moje@mydestiny.net;
www.learningandinnovation.com.
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