World View: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com:

• Americans should thank ‘Made in China’ for a Merry Christmas
• Vatican displays a low-cost Nativity scene
• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Americans should thank ‘Made in China’ for a Merry Christmas

According to People’s Daily, if Americans have a Merry Christmas,then it’s all thanks to China, particularly low-cost “Made in China”manufactured goods: 

However, facing a declining economic growth,ballooning deficit and looming “fiscal cliff”, the Christmasseason in the United States this year seems particularly chilly.Amid the current economic chill, some major American media outletsrecently called on the American people to boycott the “Made inChina Christmas gift” and revive the “Made in America Christmas”.They spoke negatively about the quality of Chinese-made productsand said “Made in China” has been controlling the American peopleand big businesses. …

It is time to let the truth do the talking. Our American fellowsdeserve to know the truth, the stinging truth about how theubiquitous “Made in China” has helped the US economy. ..improved the purchasing power of the American people. This wasespecially evident after the global financial crisis.During the financial winter, the number of one dollar storessprang up. Among those in these shops, “Made in China” productsaccounted for a large percent.Based on Morgan Stanley’s research report, in 2009 alone,approximately $100 billion in US consumer spending was saved bythe “Chinese imports”. …

This Christmas morning, when you wake up and smell this couple ofcoffee, accept your gifts with gratitude.

People’s Daily (Beijing)

Vatican displays a low-cost Nativity scene

In previous Christmas seasons, the Vatican displayed a Nativity scenethat looked like an elaborate film set, decorated withlarger-than-life-size models of Mary, Joseph and the Christ Childsculpted in wood and plaster more than a hundred years ago. In 2009,the cost of the Nativity scene was more than $700,000. However, withthe financial crisis hitting Italy very hard this year, the Vaticanhad to cut costs, and almost had no Nativity scene at all. However,the remote southern town of Basilicata came to the rescue, and issupplying a Nativity scene as a gift to the Vatican, with the ChristChild lying in a manager in a miniature village made of polysterene.The scene was the work of 55-year-old Basilicata-born artist FrancescoArtese. Total cost: Just $25,000. BBC

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

The song, “Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” has been changedin the last few decades into a cheerful little ditty. But in the1944 movie, Meet me in St. Louis, it was a bitter, sad, angrysong, sung beautifully by Judy Garland. 

The daughter, played by Judy Garland, had just learned that this washer last Christmas with her lifelong friends in St. Louis. After theNew Year, she and her family would be moving to New York. Althoughthe plot of the movie takes place in 1904, this song was definitely inthe spirit of 1944, when despair over torn families was at itsdeepest.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

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