Love Actually

Merry Christmas
This Christmas is like no other before, as people have never been so hesitant about celebrating the holiday.
In an airport in Seattle, the U.S., a Christmas tree was, at one point, removed after a person had alleged that the display of the 8-foot-tall decoration violates the law, the Constitution to be precise, that promotes equal footing of all religions. The setting of Christmas tree, he claimed, was clearly favoritism towards Christianity, and he demanded that other religious symbols be added to the scene as well.

See the loud, overdone, decorations in front of the HSBC tower in Central, and you will find yourself spending a much warmer Christmas in a subtropical city, not the U.S.

The conflicts get increasingly uneasy, as anti-Americanism has been fueled by criticism against U.S. policy in Iraq. To be politically correct, the U.S. government officials and political leaders have to be precautious about what they say and do to avoid hitting the nervous of sensitive followers of different religions. One of the solutions is to make things as secular as possible.

Christmas cards sent by the U.S. President have for decades dodged away from the mentioning of "Christmas". "Happy holidays" is carefully chosen as the greeting message of the cards, as if there were no holidays from January to November. The fact is there are so many holidays around the year. What makes some holidays so prestigious that the White House sends greeting cards for them but not the others? The answermust be the... holy God... that you know.

To avoid the embarrassment next year, scrap the whole word game altogether and try the Chinese phrase "Kung Hey Fat Choy" instead. Getting rich should be a wish welcomed by everyone. Secular it may be though, such greeting would probably turn Bush, in his last winter before retirement, into a common enemy of all religious groups that dismay soulless materialism.

i say "Good morning" more often than "Good afternoon", which tells nothing about my preference between morning and afternoon.

Dear readers, forgive me for saying, but Merry Christmas.

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With great purchasing power comes great purchasing responsibility
You might have never thought that every time you purchase a Christmas gift you waste quite a big chunk of value in it. That's what Joel Waldfogel, a business professor with the University of Pennsylvania, said in Slate, a website. And the value wasted is estimated to be 20%, on average, of the purchase amount. Given a contribution of US$100 billion to the U.S. GDP by Christmas, he claims that a total of US$20 billion is wasted every year.

Put it in the context of the Hong Kong economy, being 1/50 of the U.S. counterpart, about HK$15 billion is wasted each Christmas. That even exceeds the annual profit of Cheung Kong Holding. i hope that my comparison between the two economies is relevant.

Waldfogel's argument is straightforward. Your friend, the receiver, might not like the gift. i give an example here. You buy a Kenny G music album for HK$100, but your friend might value it at less than HK$80. In this case, HK$20 would be wasted.

The discrepancy emerges because you never know what your friend actually likes. Sometimes, it is the obligation in Christmas that forces you to buy him something, even if you can find nothing attractive all at. From my experience, the discrepancy could widen in Christmas parties where gift exchanges take the form of a lottery game. You do not even know who will win your gift.

Generally speaking, a person buys what he thinks he likes and can afford. That's the basic assumption economists have made for centuries, an assumption they coined "rationality". Under this assumption, everyone is rational, or reasonable, in layman terms. However, economic thoughts have recently taken a twist.

Some economists have begun to question the rationality assumption, and doubt that people make the right choices for themselves. This question sounds plausible. In the developed countries, people often buy and eat more than they like. Put it the other way, consumption up to a certain level does not make people happier as it expands further. For instance, the purchase of a fancy sports car is just to upgrade the owner's social status. But such a prestigious go away when his peers catch up with the same sports car. Owning that car would not make the owner happy.

Truly, people do not always make the right decisions. Therefore, Christmas gifts or any kind of gifts could help. That is you who make the decision for your friend. You may give your friend a surprise. Even though he might have to superficially make up a smile when he receives your Kenny G album, he might gradually like the music when he plays it at home. He might eventually value this CD at HK$180. In that case, your purchase creates a value of HK$80.

More importantly, he might thank you for your understanding about something inside himself. "How do you know that?" he might ask. Such tacit understanding between friends is priceless. Whether the gift is a waste or not depends on how you do the shopping.

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Santa Claus' blues
Santa Claus has ironically become a target of criticism. Some Christians have been fed up with the overplaying of the mythical icon by the commercial world, at the expense of Jesus Christ. That, they argue, distracts people from focusing on the "true meaning of Christmas". i am not a Christian and the "true meaning of Christmas" is outside my scope. But i am particularly fond of Santa.

Santa is an advocate for globalization. This round-bellied old man who brings gifts to children around the world knows no boundaries. From the prospects of trade diplomacy, however, the world seems to be turning against the Santa's way.

The World Trade Organization suspended the Doha round of trade negotiations after years of fruitless efforts to reach a multilateral agreement to open further. No one knows when the diplomats would go back to the negotiation table provided that the U.S. and the Europe governments are keen to protect their own political interests at the expense of the common interest of all peoples that trade promises. The taking over of the U.S. Congress by Democratic Party would do trade liberalization no favor, although it could not possibly do too much damage as the passage of legislation is still subject to the veto power of the President.

However, in the areas where it is feasible, trade has blossomed, which has helped lift millions of people above poverty.

Regarding the criticism against him, i think Santa, himself, is a victim. Shopping malls and retailers have endlessly abused his reputation. He is a victim of piracy of his white beard, red clothes and "Hohoho" laughter. He is also a victim of unauthorized cloning, which copies none of his hard work. There is a difference between Santa and his clones. The difference is that Santa gives, but his clones sell. Kids see Santa. It's only adults who see the clones.

Copyright Quam