Christmas Is Coming -- The Executives Are Getting Fat (Michael Greenwell)

Nov. 19, 2009 -- Yes it is that time of year again.

I have started to see Christmas decorations and whatnot around the place. Instead of just going through the silent weeping and gnashing of teeth that we all seem to do when we start to see the little lights up everywhere. I have made a suggestion repeatedly for years and I would like to float it here again.

Every Christmas most of us get angry at all the nonsense but on the day we enjoy it simply because we can see our families and friends in a nice relaxed atmosphere.

It seems strange that we all decide to do this just one day of the year but treat each other like sh*t the other 364 days of the year.

So, here is my suggestion… from now on we treat each other well for 364 days a year and on Christmas day we call each other every kind of b@stard we can think of. Get out all the negativity on just one day and have a good time the other days.

That said, I think that this advice is unlikely to be followed so I would instead like to suggest you get involved with BUY NOTHING DAY.

The blurb…

Saturday November 28th is Buy Nothing Day (UK). It’s a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from shopping and anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!

Everything we buy has an impact on the environment. Buy Nothing Day highlights the environmental and ethical consequences of shopping. The developed countries – only 20% of the world population are consuming over 80% of the earth’s natural resources, causing a disproportionate level of environmental damage and an unfair distribution of wealth.

Buy nothing day is also celebrated in more than 50 countries around the world and gets bigger every year.

One year I stood with a friend and some other guys [in the cold] on a stall in Glasgow city centre that was doing a sort of swap-shop thing only thankfully without any sign of Noel Edmonds but you don’t even need to do that. As it says on their site, in this case… ” Literally, doing nothing is doing something!”

The thing to think about is this…

For the plastic piece of nonsense that you don’t want/need at Christmas time someone comes up with the idea. Then that someone goes and tells a second someone with more money than they probably deserve that they have an idea to make that second someone more money.

Then that second person goes and pays someone probably less than they deserve for working in dangerous and dirty conditions to go and get the raw materials. Those raw materials are then shipped to a factory somewhere polluting the air, sea and land. They are processed before being shipped to another factory somewhere else, also polluting the air, sea and land. In the second factory the processed materials are put together by people definitely getting paid less than they need. Once assembled, those materials are then shipped into shops in rich countries [did I mention that this causes pollution] which are probably staffed by people being paid less than they need, and sold to the kind of people who buy unnecessary, worthless and puerile gifts.

Finally, these gifts are opened and put it in the bin shortly after, which increases the ever-growing rubbish problem.

Given that all along the line the process seems to create much more misery than happiness, is all this really necessary?

BUY NOTHING DAY this year is 28th November in most countries but 27th in others. Please check for local events.