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Christmas reflections

Dec 23, 2024 Editorial, News

Editorial…

Kaieteur News- Guyanese from all walks of life will, on Wednesday, celebrate Christmas, at home and in the diaspora.  Christmas is a time of joy, peace and goodwill towards all mankind, and to strengthen bonds with loved ones and within communities.  In the Guyanese tradition, Christmas is a time to spread happiness with family and friends, enjoy the festivities, attend parties and partake in some of the finest Christmas dishes.

This Yuletide season should serve as a period of reflection on our lives and how we must redouble our efforts in the coming year to live in peace and harmony, and to make Guyana prosperous. It is a time when Christians come together to sing carols and joyously celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

This year, Christmas will find some of us feeling on top of the world, happy to be alive, despite the various challenges. But it will find many others feeling down, some through faults of their own, while others are victims of circumstance–joblessness, poverty or illness.

We hope that the less fortunate will get the opportunity to experience the joy of Christmas through the generous acts of kindness from those who are better off and are conscious of their obligation to their fellow man.  On this festive occasion, all must pray for those who are bedridden in hospitals, the less fortunate, and those who have lost loved ones during the year.  We must also pray for those battling depression and alcohol and substance abuse, and hope that their spirits will be lifted.

It is that time of the year when the poor feel most acutely, the deep distress of not being able to provide for their families as they would like, particularly their children who are too young to even understand the meaning of poverty.  We should show compassion to them as Jesus Christ did in an earlier time period.  The nativity scene of Jesus’ birth essentially depicts the poor human conditions in Guyana, where those deserving of help are the elderly, the homeless and the single mothers.

Christmas is also a time for healing and to forget the hurt, animosity, persecution and bitterness, and to renew our love for one another; hold out a hand of friendship to neighbours and friends; to those from whom we have been estranged and have done us wrong.  We must recapture the spirit of the message that brought joy to the world over 2000 years ago by the Babe of Bethlehem.  However, the spirit of giving has not been made easy for many who wanted to give but are not in a position to do so.  Needless to say, the true meaning of Christmas continues to elude the downtrodden in Guyana.  Too often, it is the greedy, not the needy, the rich, and not the poor who enjoy Christmas.

We must not forget the tragedies the country has experienced, the goodness and kindness shown to us by others, and be thankful for the peace that surrounded our nation during a testing election period and subsequent change of administration. Perhaps the holidays will give the political directorate, but more so the opposition, a chance to reflect on themselves and the importance of inclusiveness of all in society, so that they can make better decisions in the interest of the people, and that 2025 will be a year of healing, atonement, cooperation, and genuine and competent leadership. We must all pledge to work to free Guyana from poverty, crime and chronic unemployment; pray for all its leaders and its resilient, loving and caring people, and hope they live to see many more Christmases.

(Christmas reflections)

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