Suffer the little children
How I See It with Denzil McDaniel • Published 12 Jan 2012 09:30
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The Friday before Christmas, I joined about a dozen or more work colleagues for our final day festive lunch.
It was a lovely afternoon; we all relaxed after what had been a pressured and arduous year of work (that's my story anyway and I'm sticking to it!)
The faders ate up and left early and the 'oul warriors drank the bit out and stayed to all hours. I was somewhere in between, staying most of the afternoon. Just to pass myself you understand.
Relaxed after a good meal in Pat's, glass in hand, I began to reminisce to the young 'uns.
"You see in here. I remember the time, not that long ago when you couldn't get moving in this place all day every day for the whole week before Christmas," says I.
Ah, nostalgia. How we'd celebrate the Holy birth by getting bladdered and picking our way home past the one-day-a-year drinkers being physically sick. Hardly appropriate really.
This final Friday before Christmas has become known as "black-eyed Friday" because of the number of fights caused by a full day's drinking.
Perhaps, it's no bad thing, then, that the social scene has changed and it's not as mad a binge drinking session as it used to be.
The common theory is that this is because of the economic climate. People just don't have the money any more.
Really?
I've been reading some of the business news this week and a few things are worth mentioning.
Thoughout the United Kingdom, retailers are reporting that sales over Christmas 2011 were actually UP by over two per cent.
Admittedly this was partly due to what was described as a "dazzling final week" when many people panicked and/or took advantage of the discounts the stores were offering to draw us in.
Debenhams reported a "flat" figure, which sounds disappointing but in actual fact meant their customers still forked out roughly the same number of millions they did the previous year.
Game were down almost 13 per cent, which was surprising considering the number of X Boxes and all that.
Marks and Spencer figures were up, but this was largely down to sales of food.
The bottom line is that we still managed to find loadsamoney to lavish on each other's gifts and stuff our faces with the best of grub.
There's nothing wrong with all that, of course. Not in itself, if you can afford it.
Unfortunately, a lot of families are now sitting in January with debt problems.
To be fair, we do think of others less fortunate than ourselves at the end of the year.
As I headed out of Pat's that Friday, I met some of the gentlemen who do brilliant work collecting for Concern and it was great to see that tradition continuing.
Enniskillen Rotary Club's Santamobile raised over £5,000 this year, and also locally St. Vincent de Paul and the Salvation Army are among many organisations who give of their time.
On Sunday evening past, I was driving home from the airport where I'd left off my older son and was listening to a radio discussion about business and it brought all the mad rush to spend into focus.
From the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, consumer spending increased dramatically. I felt we're still trying to live up to those standards even if we can't afford it. The real boom economies are now in places like Brazil and China, rather than the United States or western Europe, I was told. Brazil and China are massive countries with huge populations and spending power to match, so they were bound to catch up. Even if there is sharp division between rich and poor in both nations.
But the real fascination in the discussion for me was the contribution of a lady from a charity called Kids Company which works with disadvantaged children in inner-city London. It is startling to think that they help some 17,000 children, and that many of those kids are often exposed to violence and some are even forced to work as drug couriers and prostitutes and many experience chronic abuse.
Crikey, talk about "suffer the little children". There are many suffering, all right.
Christmas was a time for children, and when you think of all the youngsters across the world being abused in so many ways it makes your heart weep.
It seems that in 2011, more children than ever required help from the Kids Company organisation. And all at a time, when charity contributions are becoming more and more difficult to find -- because people feel, understandably, that charity begins at home and they cannot afford to give as much.
On Monday, I was a guest at Enniskillen Rotary Club and heard Dean Kenny Hall give a very appropriate and interesting talk about his recent trip to Kenya. I was struck that people with so little materially are so grateful and thank God for what they have.
Of course, we often think that while underprivileged children exist in poor African areas, or sweat shop countries or even inner-city London, it's not too bad here.
Yet, Barnardo's now inform us that Northern Ireland has some of the highest rates of child deprivation in the United Kingdom. Now, almost 17 per cent of children are in households where the adults have no work. Dear only knows how they managed the pressure of Christmas.
No, they didn't starve, but many parents suffered the anguish of not being able to give their children a real happy time.
For those of us who could, be grateful.
As you think of New Year resolutions, maybe that would be a good one. Be more appreciative of the blessings you receive.
It seems to me that in 2012, it's sad that in Northern Ireland, 28 per cent of children are now classified as growing up in poverty. and that one children's charity finds it necessary to use the slogan: "No child should be left out in the cold."
Happy New Year.
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