I have to say, 2004 was quite a year. Both very good and very bad. The worst of it, I think, was that Bush was reelected, which I view as the gravest threat to planet Earth, and to all of the life that lives upon it. And indeed, many people in nations around the world view Bush as the most dangerous person, far more deadly than that little maniac in North Korea, or Saddam Hussein.

Aside from that manmade disaster, nature was quite active. We saw a violent earthquake in Iran, there was a 6.6 earthquake off the coast of Honshu, Japan, in October (fortunately, minimal damage), Mt. St. Helen’s came back to life, and to end the year, four hurricanes hit the state of Florida, and a tragic earthquake/tsunami in Asia.

Despite Bush’s declaration that “major hostilities” ended in Iraq in May, 2003, the fighting has worsened and more Americans have died during the “ceasefire” than during the actual war. I guess that Bush didn’t realize that one doesn’t end a war by merely declaring it over–both sides have to agree. One side has to surrender, or at least, both agree on a stalemate. The Iraqis never surrendered, nor did they agree to end the war.

Other wars, many which have been ongoing for decades, continue. One bright spot in the recent disaster is that it has forced a cease-fire between rebels in Aceh and the Indonesian govt, and cooperation in Sri Lanka, between the central govt and the region under Tamil control.

So as the year comes to a close, let’s focus on not what has already passed, but on what kind of future we want to create. If at any time the peace of the whole global community seems out of reach, let us remind ourselves that peace is possible–one person at a time.

Image: courtesy of Stock.Xchng

Yes it’s true, the Bush administration has been so embarrassed by their stinginess that this am they announced that they are increasing their pledge to $350 million. Whether the money ever makes its way to South Asia is another story, but at least, the pledge is there.

How many tons of rice can $40 million buy? How many blankets? Bottles of water? Pay for additional health workers? Antibiotics? Tons of noodles? Tents?

And yet, that’s the estimate for the cost of Bush’s inauguration. No wonder the rest of the world sees Americans as squandering resources, and the epitomy of wastefulness.

So is the US really stingy? According to an article which appeared in the BBC, the US surely has not pledged anything of significance, based on our size and overall wealth. The breakdown is as follows:

World Bank $250m
UK $96m
EU $44m
US: $35m
Canada: $33m
Japan: $30m
Australia: $27m
France: $20.4m
Denmark: $15.6m
Saudi Arabia: $10m

Imagine that, the UK pledged nearly 3 times the amount of the US. Tiny Denmark, with a population of 5 million, pledged $15.6 million. No wonder Colin Powell felt obligated to “respond.”

Also interesting is the overall US attitude. Germany proposed, with backing from France, that a debt moratorium for some of the stricken countries be instituted immediately. Canada has announced its own unilateral moratorium. So what does the US have to say about that? According to the AFP news agency quoted Colin Powell as describing the German proposal as “interesting.” So what is that supposed to mean? But then, the Bush administration isn’t known for giving straight answers to the simplest question, so this proposition appears beyond their ability to respond to.

Image: courtesy of Stock.Xchng

It is still Christmas, and in spite of all of the turmoil in the world right now, we must try to keep the hope and joy iof the holiday alive. Now more than ever, it is important for us to really celebrate Christmas.

The earthquake occured on Christmas Day in parts of the world where it is most celebrated. So perhaps we can look at this in one of several ways; there is absolutely no correlation, simply a coincidence; it was a reminder that we are mistreating the earth, and the earth is fighting back; it was a test of compassion for the wealthy nations who were spared from this calamity; I need to stop my obsession about these dates and start getting ready to welcome the new year!

Image courtesy of Stock.XCHNG

Yes, you!

Kudos to the New York Times for its stinging editorial about the stinginess of the U. S., when it comes to doling out money for a good cause. It seems that the U.S. was the only country that got its knickers into a twist, when the United Nations emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland, remarked, “”It is beyond me why we are so stingy. Really. Christmas time should remind many Western countries at least, how rich we have become.”

That comment seemed to knock President Bush out of his stupor, as he relaxed at his Crawford, TX ranch, taking a post-Christmas vacatiion. Yes, we all know how strenuous celebrating Christmas can be for the president of the US, so surely this was a much needed vacation. (sigh). At any rate, Bush’s response was that the “person who made that statement was very misguided and ill informed.”

We beg to differ, says the Times. Mr. Egeland was right on target. We hope Secretary of State Colin Powell was privately embarrassed when, two days into a catastrophic disaster that hit 12 of the world’s poorer countries and will cost billions of dollars to meliorate, he held a press conference to say that America, the world’s richest nation, would contribute $15 million. That’s less than half of what Republicans plan to spend on the Bush inaugural festivities.

It is interesting how Egeland’s comment ruffled Bush’s feathers. Notice that he never named a country, and yet, the US felt that it had to respond. The nations of Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere apparently didn’t think he was referring to them because they didn’t respond. They seem to be comfortable with the aid that they had offered so far, but that surely isn’t the case for the Bushies.

The US then scrambled and quickly upped its donation to $35 million, which is commendable. But as the Times points out, that is still a “miserly drop in the bucket, and is in keeping with the pitiful amount of the United States budget that we allocate for nonmilitary foreign aid.” We don’t seem to have any qualms or limits about supplying aid to cruel and corrupt dictators as long as they dance to our tune, but try squeezing out some money for people who really need it.

According to a poll, most Americans believe the United States spends 24 percent of its budget on aid to poor countries; it actually spends well under a quarter of 1 percent.
Now isn’t that generous.

To add icing to the cake, much of what is promised is never delivered, and that goes for other nations as well. But for right now, I’m talking about the US and the Bush administration in particular. Money and aid was promised to the victims of the earthquake in Bam, Iran, a year ago, but the money and help has never materialized. The people are still living in tents. In 2002, Bush announced his Millennium Challenge account, and promised countries in Africa up to $5 billion a year, but not one dime has been doled out. Then there’s the $15 billion for AIDS, but there are so many obstacles and strings attached (including making sure that the pharmaceutical companies make their fair share by not permitting generic drugs in the program), it is doubtful that any of that money will ever be seen by people who really need it. And of course, our greatest act of genorosity, to cut off $34 million to the United Nations Population Fund. It is ironic that for a man obsessed with abortion and abstinence, Bush’s decision to cut the funding has led to about 1 million abortions, to say nothing of maternal and child deaths.

Bush claims to be a “compassionate” conservative and a Christian, but his brand of compassion is peculiar, to say the least. And his idea of being a Christian seems to be a pathological obsession with abstinence, abortion, and saving the lives of pre-embryos in petri dishes (war and killing living people is okay, however). So if Bush wants to really follow in the footsteps of Jesus, how about he cancels the inaugural festivities, and adds that money to the $35 million promised? That would bring it to about $70 million. It is incredible to think that $30 million is going to be wasted for an inauguration, but let’s not go into that now. How about the Bush party justs gets a quiet little inauguration, and then goes home to the White House, and all of that money be allocated to a good cause.

Check out Kaslog, for his comments on this subject.

This is an interesting press release which I received this morning, courtesy of Project Censored, the organization that reports and keeps track of important news stories which are either ignored by the mainstream media, or outrightly suppressed.

He makes a few very poignant points. Why are the victims of a tsunami more important to our press, than victims of a war in Iraq? Could it be that to expose the horrors of war with the same gusto and enthusiasm as the recent earthquake/tsunami, one must then point a finger and say,” But why is this war being fought in the first place? Who started it? Why doesn’t it end? Why are children being bombed?” And so on. Such questions probe into places which politicians prefer to keep out of sight (like Halliburton’s windfall at the expense of the Iraqi people).

Whereas in a natural disaster, the only one you can put the blame on is God!

Tsunami Disaster Highlights Corporate Media Hypocrisy
By Peter Phillips

The terrible earthquake/tsunami disaster, along coastlines of the Indian Ocean, left tens of thousands dead and many times more people homeless and weakened. Front pages news stories swept the US corporate media -12,000 dead, 40,000, 60,000 and 100,000 made progressive day by day headlines. Twenty-four hour TV news provided minute by minute updates with added photos and live aerial shots of the effected regions. As the days after unfolded, personal stories of survival and loss were added to the overall coverage. Unique stories such as the 20 day old miracle baby found floating on a mattress, and the eight year old who lost both parents and later found by her uncle, were human interest features. Individualized reports from Americans caught in the catastrophe made national news and numbers of Europeans, and North Americans involved were a key part of the continuing story. US embassies set up hotlines for relatives of possible victims to seek information. Quickly added into the corporate media mix was coverage on how the US was responding with relief aid and dollars. In Crawford, Texas President Bush announced that he had formed an international coalition to respond to the massive tsunami disaster.

The US corporate media coverage of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, for most Americans, was shocking, and emotional. Empathic Americans, with the knowledge that a terrible natural disaster of huge significant to hundreds of thousands people had occurred, wanted to help in any way they could. Church groups held prayer sessions for the victims, and the Red Cross received an upsurge of donations.

The US corporate media coverage of the tsunami disaster exposes a huge hypocrisy in the US press. Left uncovered this past year was the massive disaster that has befell Iraqi civilians. Over 100,000 civilians have died since the beginning of the US invasion and hundreds of thousands more are homeless and weakened. In late October 2004 the British Lancet medical journal published a scientific survey of households in Iraq that calculated over 100,000 civilians, mostly women and children, have died from war related causes. The study, formulated and conducted by researchers at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University and the College of Medicine at Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, involved a complex process of sampling households across Iraq to compare the numbers and causes of deaths before and after the invasion in March 2003. The mortality rate in these families worked out to 5 per 1,000 before the invasion and 12.3 per 1,000 after the invasion. Extrapolate the latter figure to the 22 million population of Iraq, and you end up with 100,000 total civilian deaths. The most common cause of death was aerial bombing followed by strokes and heart attacks. Recent civilian deaths in Fallujah would undoubtedly add significantly to the total.

The Iraqi word for disaster is museeba. Surly the lose of life from war in Iraq is as significant a meseeba as the Indian Ocean tsunami, yet where is the US corporate media coverage of thousands of dead and homeless? Where are the live aerial TV shots of the disaster zones and the up-close photos of the victims? Where are the survivor stories - the miracle child who lived thought a building collapsed by US bombs and rescued by neighbors? Where are the government official’s press releases of regret and sorrow? Where is the international coalition for relief of civilians in Iraq and the upsurge in donations for Red Cross intervention? Would not Americans, if they knew, be just as caring about Iraqi deaths as they are for the victims of the tsunami?

The US corporate media has published Pentagon statements on civilian deaths in Iraq as unknown and dismissed the Lancet Medical Journal study. It seems US media concerns are for victims of natural disasters, while the man-made disasters, such as the deliberate invasion of another country by the US, are better left unreported.

Peter Phillips is a professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and director of Project Censored a media research organization.

Yesterday was Elizabeth Carr’s birthday. Now you’re thinking, who is Elizabeth? Some once famous scientist whose name has been sponged from the annals of science due to a controversy? The debutante of the year, circa 1923?

She’s not quite as famous as her mentor over in the UK, Louise Joy Brown, but Elizabeth Carr holds the distinction of being the first American test-tube baby. She was born in 1981, is now a grown woman, and in-vitro fertilizations have gone from being viewed as a medical marvel to nearly commonplace. But the Catholic Church and other religious groups do not approve of them, and especially, much controversy has been raised as to what to do about the leftover embryos sitting in deep freeze. Modern technology has moved faster than ever anticipated, and until we can figure out the ethics and legalities involved in these issues, we need to slow down a bit.

There have been many cases, for example, of couples arguing over the fate of their frozen embryos. No longer together, one half wants to make them into babies, while the other says no. We can’t treat these frozen embryos as a normal pregnancy because quite frankly, they’re not. Some have been frozen for over a decade, sitting and waiting in the land of infinity.

Anyway, happy belated birthday to Elizabeth, and to the controversy that her birth helped to escalate.

No snow, just more rain here in Seattle. A very wet holiday season, the wettest I think, since I’ve lived here. Last year we had snow the first week of January, so I’ve still got my fingers crossed!

But the forecast so far is for more rain, cloudy days, and warmish weather in the 40s. Not quite the winter wonderland that I’m dreaming of for Christmas. That said, parts of the midwest and Texas had an unprecedented cold snap and were buried in the white stuff. In one newspaper, there was a picture of a jogger in Corpus Christi, TX, on Christmas Day, running along beside palm trees fringed with snow, and piles of snow on either side of the road. Palm trees and snow? Strange bedfellows, to say the least.

Image courtesy of Freeimages.co.uk

Certainly, Christmas didn’t seem like a time of hope and love, and peace on earth for a large chunk of the people living on our planet. The poor soldiers in Iraq, fighting a senseless war with no end in sight and who our nation doesn’t see fit to at least give them the proper supplies (or at least, Rumsfield doesn’t, the big experienced paper soldier that he is); and there are endless other wars raging in other spots across the globe–take your pick–Chechnya, Darfur, Ivory Coast, Congo, Indonesia, Israel/Palestine, etc. Hundreds of millions on the globe not only didn’t get a frivolous gift from Santa (what, no Rolex this year?!) but lack even clean water to drink. The current disaster in South Asia just seems like the icing on the cake.

But I just came across a poignant essay written by Marianne Williamson, which appeared on Christmas Day in the Detroit News, asking us not to “lose the hope of Christmas to the sound of war.”

Reading some of her words should help all of us see that no matter how bad things get, or seem to be, there is always hope. This is just an excerpt, but I advise you to read it, if you want to get a feel for what Christmas is truly about.

The joy of Christmas is not a response to how the world is, but rather to how it can be and shall be when our hearts have been transformed by love.

The significance and power of the light of Christmas is that it emerged into the midst of darkness. The birth of Christ two thousand years ago did not occur at a time when things were good, but at a time when things seemed hopeless - as to many they seem now. Suddenly, there was hope and its name was love.

The star of Bethlehem led to our salvation in the tender scene of a mother having given birth, not to a council of men planning war. It bespoke the miracle of love, not the willfulness of brute force.

Yet be not dismayed, for the light of Christmas is a light that emerges into the darkness. There is no greater darkness than hatred, yet there is no greater light than God’s love in our hearts. And the light shall shine away the darkness. That is the promise of Christmas. If hatred is the greatest sin, then who among us is not a sinner? May God forgive us for our hatred, have mercy upon us and show us His love. Having felt it, may we learn to share it.

And war shall be no more.

As the death toll in Asia rises, on this third day of Christmas, perhaps we can see some glimmer of good in this tragedy. The world is coming together to offer support and help for those afflicted. While disasters have happened many times before, this one is unique as it has spread far beyond the borders of one nation. Maybe it is just wishful thinking on my part, the part of my brain intoxicated by Christmas, but imagine if this spirit of goodwill, help and sharing continued, and became a real part of everyday life.

Happy First and Second Day of Christmas! With all the news of the earthquake, I forgot that Sunday was the first day of Christmas. I never quite understood what the 12 days were, first hearing about them in the popular song. No one had ever explained that it was a countdown to the coming of the wise men–arbitrary, of course, since no one knows exactly when the wise men did arrive. Or for that matter, when Jesus was born.

But the coming of the wise men represents a spiritual journey, if we want to look at it in more metaphorical terms. In the bible, they trusted that God would lead them, their journey would be fulfilling, and the star lighted their way. For us ordinary people, we often have to have faith when we make a decision, and often depend on a guidance deep within us, or belonging to an omnipotent being, depending on our beliefs.

For me. Christmas doesn’t end until the wise men arrive, on January 6. Until then, I hope to maintain the Christmas spirit.

Image courtesy of FreeImages.com

Today in 1892, the American Psychological Association held its first scientific meeting at the University of Pennsylvania. Granville Stanley Hall (1844-1924) was a pioneer in American psychology, midwifing it in its formative early years, and contributed to the establishment of psychological journals in the United States and played a notable role in the creating of the American Psychological Association.

The death toll from yesterday’s earthquake is now at about 23,000, but authorities in Indonesia fear that the number of victims in Aceh alone–the region hardest hit–may top 20,000. That area has been virtually sealed off for quite some time, due to rebel uprisings, which makes it all the more difficult now that a natural disaster has struck. And as expected, the fear is now outbreaks of water-borne diseases due to contaminated water. These would include cholera, typhoid, and malaria.

It is astounding that the northern Somali coastline, more than 3,728 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake, was affected. Hundreds of fishermen are believed to have drowned, a tragedy that may have been avoided if a warning system had been in place. But in a nation like Somalia, which still has no functioning central government, a tsunami warning system is the least of their priorities.

According to the BBC, the following international organizations/nations have already made pledges to help the victims.

* The International Monetary Fund promised “whatever possible assistance”
* The Red Cross launched an appeal for 5m euros (£3.5m; $6.8m)
* The European Union pledged 3m euros (£2.1m; $4.1m)
* Australia promised $10m (£4m; $7.7m) and sent two planes carrying drinking water and purification equipment to Indonesia
* Russia sent 25 tons of humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka
* The UK is sending a plane to Sri Lanka with plastic sheeting and tenting
* France will send humanitarian aid and doctors to Sri Lanka and Thailand.

I looked to see what the US is doing, and couldn’t find anything initially. For a moment, I was truly worried that any sort of aid package would come with heavy laden strings attached, such as the proposed plan to fight AIDS, which insists that about a third of the money (I think, have to doublecheck) be earmarked for “abstinence only” programs. In nations where women often have little say about who they have sex with, or when; where young girls are often given to older men in exchange for money to feed the family; and where prostitution is often the only way to eek out a living, such “conditions” are not only ludicrous and pathetic, they are criminal.

Anyway, I was happy to read on Boston.com that the US has already dispensed aid. Colin Powell said that $100,000 was immediately dispatched to each of the hardest hit nations; India, Indonesia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, and another $4 million was to be sent today to help Red Cross disaster efforts. An initial package of $15 million was prepared, and the U.S. was drawing on shelter, food, water cans and other supplies that were kept in reserve in the Philippines and in Dubai.

So far, no strings or unrealistic conditions appear to be attached to the aid money. Although, one of the hardest regions, Aceh in Indonesia, has been plagued by uprisings of an Islamic separatist group. It does seem a bit ironic that we would be sending aid for “terrorists,” as that’s how the US government sees this group. Of course, the separatists in Aceh have not targeted Americans, as their main concern is to break away from Indonesia. They’ve been fighting there for almost 30 years, but it had grown more intense over the past few years. But I am just relieved not to see any mention of this in the news; that whatever the problem is between Aceh and the Indonesian government, and whether or not it has anything to really do with the US, that is unimportant right now. These people are in dire straits, and need our assistance.

Taking a break from today’s earthquake news, on this date in 1862, the Navy’s first hospital ship was put into service. The death toll was quite high during the Civil War, primarily because the principals of asepsis had not yet come into use. Conditions were unsanitary, to say the least, surgical techniques primitive, all of which caused a high loss of life and limb.

About 620,000 soldiers died during the Civil War, and it is often that this death toll was higher than the total number of fatalities in all other wars America has fought in. Well, it doesn’t take rocket scientist to figure that one out. Everyone fighting in the Civil War was an American, regardless of the side they fought out, and everyone who died in that was was an American. So no wonder the death toll was so high. We were simply killing eachother–brother against brother, father against son, and so on.

The magnitude of the earthquake which hit southeast Asia early this morning has been raised to 9. The US Geological Survey had originally put it at 8.9, but now reassessed. Granted, not much difference. Once you get over 8, you know you’re dealing with one powerful quake.

Sadly, the death toll is also going up, as expected. Now it’s at about 12,000, but I imagine that it will be much higher. Some of the areas that have been hit, such as Aceh in Indonesia, have poor communications due to continued uprisings and fighting in that region. So it is quite difficult to assess the death and damage toll at this point, and will probably be even more difficult to deliver aid to regions like that.

While the earthquake itself was powerful, the epicenter was fairly far from land. Instead, it was the resultant tsunamis which have caused the lethal effects. The force was felt more than 3,000 miles away in Somalia on the eastern coast of Africa, where nine people were reported killed.

It reminds me of one of the most famous and devastating tsunamis of all, which occurred when the island volcano of Krakatoa erupted in 1883. The tsunamis killed more than 36,000 people in the coastal towns and villages along the Sunda Strait on Java and Sumatra islands, and tsunami waves were recorded or observed throughout the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the American West Coast, South America, and even as far away as the English Channel. While not quite in in the same spot, today’s earthquake and Krakatoa are located in and around Indonesia, one of the most geologically violent regions on the planet, where two of the plates that make up the earth’s surface collide.

Hundreds of thousands have been left homeless, and unsanitary conditions, crowding into shelters, and all that goes with a disaster are bound to generate outbreaks of a sundry of illnesses. But for right now, most of the people are fearful of aftershocks, which can often be nearly as powerful as the earthquake itself.

I still find it a remarkable coicidence how two of the most powerful earthquakes in the past 100 years have fallen on two of the most important Christian holidays.

If you’ve seen the news this morning, then you are aware that a devastating earthquake struck at about 7am local time, triggering tidal waves up to 20 feet high that obliterated villages and seaside resorts in six countries across southern and southeast Asia. Right now, it is estimated that about 10,000 people were killed, although those numbers may go much higher.

It is the most powerful earthquake to erupt on our planet in 40 years, measuring in at 8.9 on the Richter scale. The last time an earthquake this powerful hit was in 1964, when a n9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound in Alaska.

I have a bit of a fascination with natural disasters, I have to admit, as well as epidemics (I probably should have been a geologist or epidemiologist), and have felt the earth move under my feet quite a few times. I included a link to the story which appeared on the BBC, but the news is all over, and probably will be continually updated for the next few days. So I’m not going to go into details about the devastation, loss of life, and so on, and the only reason I did post on it was because of a strange coinicidence. At least, I think it is.

This quake struck at 7 this morning local time in Southeast Asia, the day after Christmas–which means that it was still Christmas Day in much of the rest of the world. So, a Christmas Day (or day after Christmas) earthquake. The Alaska earthquake in 1964 hit on Good Friday.

Coincidence? Message from God? Wrath of God? None of the above? Arbitrary dates on the calendar? I need to get a life?

Just to update; my comments are back on. The spam attempts have slacked off, so comments have been re-enabled. So if you want to comment on any of my exciting posts, now’s your chance!

After I posted my article about the legendary 1914 Christmas cease-fire last night, coincidentally, I found that this is an anniversay of sorts. Today is the 90th anniversary of that little armistice, and one soldier still survives to tell the story.

An article in the UK newspaper the Observer tells the story of the Christmas truce, and the last survivor of that bitterly cold Christmas, when the two sides laid down their arms and shook hands. I just emphasize that Alfred Anderson is the last known survivor, but considering that he is 108 years old, he likely is the only one still alive.

Anderson was just 18 at the time, and he eagerly went off to war accompanied by his friends and former classmates. The boys, smitten with the fervor of blind patriotism, thought they were embarking on some great and exciting adventure. But two months into their “adventure,” Anderson realized that this was no adventure. The misery and tragedy of war came hard and fast, as he saw his friends killed and injured. By Christmas Day, Anderson and his unit were on the front lines, cold, exhausted, and weary of the war. And then came the truce.

It is incredible to think of the changes that took place over Anderson’s lifetime. A man who was 6 years old when the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane, and one who fought in the same war as the famed Red Baron, lived long enough to see a man land on the moon. A man who fought trench warfare, lived to see the tragic events of the next war, and the beginning of the atomic age.

Anderson may be the only man still alive who remembers that poignant moment, when arms were laid down and “enemies” decided that celebrating was a whole lot better than killing. The unofficial cease-fire eventually spread across the 500 mile length of the Western front, involving almost a million soldiers.

Perhaps we should tell the people who actually make the wars to go and fight them. Pluck the politicians up from their cozy offices, their cushy armchairs, their hot dinners and vintage wines, and send them to the front lines. Let them hold a gun and fire it, and be fired upon. And then let’s see how long the war lasts.

Christmas at our house, and every other day for that matter, centers around the fluff (aka cats). So as you can see, Cosette is enjoying getting stoned on her catnip candy cane.

On the other hand, Eponine prefers a bag of liver treats. Yum! Much better than gingerbread and chocolate Santas.

No, I refuse to get caught up in more political correctness and say “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings.” Those generic terms have their place and use, but today is Christmas.

And so, I wish you a:

Merry Christmas

Feliz Navidad
Kala Christouyenna!
Gledileg Jol
Joyeux Noel
Frohe Weihnachten
Gezur Krislinjden
Shuvo Naba Barsha
Mele Kalikimaka
Maligayamg Pasko
Nadolig Llawen
Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto
Selamat Hari Natal
Hyvaa joulua
Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad
Gesëende Kersfees
Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah