A charity leaflet fell out of the newspaper the other day. I picked it up and put it to one side to give it a nanosecond’s worth of attention later and appraise it for my personal “is it worthy of my money?” criteria.

Today I picked it up, ready to recycle it, when I noticed what it was about. So I read it. And it goes something like this:

Eritrean gospel singer and proud Christian, Helen Berhane, is currently imprisoned in a metal shipping container in the Mai Serwa military camp. According to the leaflet, it ain’t 4-star accommodation: no toilet or washing facilities, cold at night, and swelteringly hot during the day.

She is one of a large number of people being held in indefinite detention, without charge or trial. Fellow prisoners include professionals, civil servants, members of religious groups, political activists and journalists.

Helen’s so-called ‘crime’ is her refusal to give up her Christian faith and her music.

Here is a woman who most likely will not be able to celebrate her sacred festival of Christmas this month. A true believer, denied her right to celebrate ‘Christ’s Mass’.

Yet you’ve only got to look around you here in the UK and we can’t get away from the damn thing. I can say that and not cause offence, because I’m on about the bastardised, all-consuming version of Christmas that the gods TV, Advertising, Consumerism, and Peer Pressure sell us every year.

And let’s be honest, most people in this country do not believe in Christianity, or Jesus Christ. For them, Xmas is just a good excuse to get drunk, eat too much food, and to give and receive presents.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a party pooper. I’m just not down with the idea of hijacking a religious festival just because parts of it include present-giving, and hey, everyone likes presents (me included). But having an end of year knees-up and calling it Christmas…it ain’t! It’s so sacrilegious towards Christians.

Oh, by the way, if you would like more information on Helen’s plight, click here. And, whatever your faith, or lack of, Happy Holidays, y’all.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 11th, 2005 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Human rights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.