Breathe
By Gabriela Sotomayor
The Three Wise Men have arrived and with that, the complicated "December holidays" are over. The calendar moves forward, but nothing changes. On December 24, Christmas Day, in different parts of the world, families gathered, had dinner together, exchanged gifts, exhausted mothers prepared dinner, set the table, thought that hopefully that night the family would come together in harmony and forget the quarrels, the old hatreds and put on a good face. Each family celebrated Christmas in its own way, with new illusions and old dreams. Some families had to split up due to bad marriages, divorces, fights between siblings, but in the end dinner was served and everyone navigated the expected "Christmas Eve" in their own way. Traditional families, single-parent families, gay couples, singles, seniors, excited youngsters, doting grandparents, restless children, insolent teenagers , all pitched in with what they could or would. Perhaps most of them got the idea that things were going more or less well that day.
The next day, without so much formality, families attacked the reheating. My mom used to make turkey on Christmas Eve with a very elaborate stuffing, but after my dad died, she changed the menu to the cod that everyone celebrated. What a time... For several years now I have been organizing the dinner and I am so fortunate because my oldest son is the one who makes the dinner. He is quite a chef. This time the menu was an exquisite onion soup, then a beef Wellington and for dessert the typical panettone, ice cream and red fruits. In Switzerland, Christmas decorations in the streets and houses are quite austere, remember that most of them are Calvinist and perhaps that is why they are discreet. In Geneva, Christmas is practically celebrated according to the tradition of each country because in the city known as the Humanitarian Capital of the World, people of practically all nationalities, customs, genders, ideologies... the key word is inclusion. There is no fighting between cultures. More countries like Switzerland are needed. "Each to his own and God in everyone's home".
For the New Year's party my family and I came down with the devil's flu. It seemed like Covid times with high fever, cough, congestion, earache, joint pain and one fell after the other. Despite the bad weather, we put on a good face and welcomed 2025 as best we could.
If I felt terrible, I was thinking about how a million children in the Gaza Strip are still suffering from hunger and cold. For them, December 24 and 31 were just two more dates, without a promising future. The Three Wise Men never arrived. Until now the Gazans do not know if they will have food, water, shelter, services, hospital. In spite of the December "truce", they have nowhere to move. Israel has already avenged the death of the victims of that terrible October 7. According to the UN, the Israeli army has killed at least 45,000 civilians, "more children than men and women". But it is not enough. The devastation is brutal, the reconstruction will be long and very complicated. With Hamas's bloody terrorist attacks on Israeli territory, Netanyahu counted on the support of the international community and its right to defend itself. Now it is difficult to find an argument to defend this massacre against innocent Palestinians. Not even because of the Christmas truce, nor because of the "night of peace" did the Israeli leader show any mercy. "Where there is no compassion there is cowardice", is the title of a movie. According to the UN, the Tel Aviv government is perpetrating genocide against the Palestinian people. Just like that.
I thought of Ukraine, a country torn apart by the infamy of Vladimir Putin. The Russian president decided to invade the country without measuring that they were going to stand up to him and confront him. It is no longer fashionable to talk about Zelinsky or his brave wife, but the invasion is advancing, the armies are facing each other and the Ukrainian president is still standing there, enduring the bombings, the death of his soldiers, of his children, of his people.
And on the other hand we have Syria where the people are at a historic moment and a moment of opportunity that cannot be missed with the flight of Bashar al Assad. The end of more than five decades of brutal and dictatorial rule has generated many hopes and great challenges. Syrians could now realize the aspirations that drove a peaceful movement for change in 2011. The political transition would be expected to be inclusive, credible and peaceful. All communities must be integrated into the new Syria and their rights respected, especially those of women and girls. Syria remains one of the world's biggest humanitarian crises and recent events have only increased the needs of its people.
In Sudan, the civil war has claimed the lives of more than 60,000 civilians. It is barbaric. No one obeys international humanitarian law, nor the Geneva Conventions, nor UN resolutions. The multilateral system is failing in armed conflicts.
In Latin American countries such as Venezuela, the situation is boiling over. Nicolas Maduro's savage claims to have won the elections. According to the constitution it is necessary to present the minutes to support the winner, but Maduro has not given any proof. On the other hand, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the opposition candidate has shown that he won the elections in a resounding manner. The OAS has validated his triumph. In spite of this, the Maduro regime has already threatened to arrest Gonzalez Urrutia if he shows up for the inauguration on January 10. They want to follow Putin's example when he arrested opposition leader Alexey Navalny upon his arrival to Russian territory. Months later Navalny died in custody. The dead do not speak, they do not protest.
The situation, the famine and the repression experienced by millions of Venezuelans seems not to matter to the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, as she will apparently attend the inauguration of Maduro, thief of the elections. As if the exodus of nearly 7 million Venezuelans, the deaths in the demonstrations and the arbitrary arrests of political prisoners, members of the army and opponents were not enough proof of the bad government, Sheinbaum insists on being on the wrong side of history and defends a socialism sung by the Cuban Trova.
And as icing on the cake on January 20, Donald Trump will be inaugurated. It is inconceivable to me that Americans would elect him. The former president faces three active criminal prosecutions and was convicted of felonies in May 2024 in New York. A New York City state court convicted him of falsifying business records with the intent to conceal payments made to silence an adult film actress during his 2016 political campaign. Of the remaining criminal cases, two are for his actions in attempting to reverse the 2020 election results: one in federal court in Washington and the other in state court in Fulton County, Georgia. He is also being prosecuted in federal court in Florida for violating laws related to his handling of classified documents.
And so, in spite of everything, with this backdrop, the arrival of the Three Kings and the departure of the rosca mark the end of the holidays, of toasts, of meetings with friends, with loves. Let's see what the new year has in store for us. Cheers!
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
Comments ()