Cat Carol

A sad Christmas tale, that is seasonally appropriate. Not all Christmas songs or tales are joyful. They are often tales of sacrifice and redemption, such as O Henry's famous short story The Gift Of The Magi or Dickens tale of the haunting of Scrooge.

I just wish it wasn't so damn popular on CKUA this season, I never can just turn it off, to late and I get teary eyed again when I hear it.

Score; 5/5 kleenex.

It is basically a retelling of the little match girl story for todays children. The author Bruce Evans is Canadian and the singer Meryn Cadell. gives the song it's haunting apprehensiveness. It is a sad carol despite the uplifting ending.

The Cat Carol

The cat wanted in to the warm warm house,
But no one would let the cat in
It was cold outside on christmas eve,
She meowed and meowed by the door.

The cat was not let in the warm warm house,
And her tiny cries were ignored.
'twas a blizzard now, the worst of the year,
There was no place for her to hide.

Just then a poor little mouse crept by,
He had lost his way in the snow.
He was on his last legs and was almost froze,
The cat lifted him with her paw.

She said "poor mouse do not be afraid,
Because this is christmas eve.
"on this freezing night we both need a friend,
"i won’t hurt you - stay by my side."

She dug a small hole in an icy drift,
This is where they would spent the night.
She curled herself 'round her helpless friend,
Protecting him from the cold.

Oooooo

When santa came by near the end of the night,
The reindeer started to cry.
They found the cat lying there in the snow,
And they could see that she had died.

They lifted her up from the frozen ground,
And placed her into the sleigh.
It was then they saw the little mouse wrapped up,
She had kept him warm in her fur.

"oh thank you santa for finding us!
"dear cat wake up we are saved!"
..."i’m sorry mouse but your friend has died,
There’s nothing more we can do.

"on christmas eve she gave you her life,
The greatest gift of them all."
Santa lifted her up into the night sky,
And laid her to rest among the stars.

"dear mouse don’t cry you are not alone,
You will see your friend every year.
"each christmas a cat constellation will shine,
To remind us that her love’s still here."

Oooooooo

See

Christmas

Rebel Jesus

Tannenbaum

Keeping the 'X' in X MAS

Solstice

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Merry Christmas, Red Baron

A tip o' the blog to Mapmaker Scrap who posted my favorite version of Snoopy's Christmas Song with a link to my article from last Christmas on the WWI Christmas Mutiny. A Story well worth remembering any time there is war in the world.


Of course the real 'Snoopy' was Canadian;

Shot down by the Red Baron - The First World War: Canada Remembers ...
A Canadian flying ace recalls the day he was shot down by Manfred von Richthofen.

As an update from that story; those Canadian soldiers who were executed during WWI for desertion, like their British and German counterparts, were finally given posthoumous amnesty this year.

Recoginizing most of them probably suffered from 'shell shock', which we call today post traumatic syndrome.

Four years earlier the Mon's was the scene of the first Christmas Peace, it would also be the last village fought over as real peace finally occurred in 1918.

By November 1918, trench warfare has finally given way to a headlong pursuit of the retreating Germans. Canadian troops under Sir Arthur Currie are tasked with liberating Belgian villages such as Mons, where house-to-house fighting is fierce. Then a rumour spreads: the war is over! As we hear in this clip, the news seems too good to be true. Even when armistice is confirmed, the exhausted soldiers can barely comprehend the new reality: death one day, peace the next.

And so I also get to link to that other great Christmas Anti War Song, Happy Christmas War Is Over. A sentiment best expressed 'out of the mouth of babes';

Dear Santa

What I want for Christmas is my dad to come home because he went to the war. I just hope he does not get hurt and I love him. Your friend, Anna Marie Eide

See

WWI

Christmas

John Lennon Working Class Hero




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Chocolate Worms

Mmm love dem worms, especially chocolate covered ones.

They are a delicacy in some places.

But not apparently in India. Cadbury: The confectionary giant is now under fire

It could have been worse though, it could have been chocolate covered slaves.




The Cadbury Chocolate company of England drew attention to the abuses of indenture when it boycotted cocoa produced by African labour from the Portuguese-held colony of Angola to São Tomé, and further importation of contract labour to the island was halted in 1909.

Ironically, part of the reason behind the ending of the practice of indentured labour had more to do with overtly racist and expansionist ideologies than humanitarian concern. Because those who had completed their term of indenture sometimes opted to remain in the colonies and set up for themselves, they often came into competition with white labourers and businessmen, competition that increased as the numbers of emigrants from Europe increased.

After "Slavery" was televised in Britain last fall, horrified consumers bombarded the country's biggest chocolate manufacturers - Cadbury, Nestle and Mars - with demands for "clean products"which are untainted by slave labour.
Big companies, like Nestle, purchase their cocoa on international exchanges where cocoa from Ivory Coast is mixed with cocoa from other countries and loses its identity as a slave-made product. Anti Slavery International says, "Because of the way the chocolate industry buys its cocoa it is not possible to ensure that slave or other forms of illegal exploitation have not been used in its production." It says companies should purchase direct from plantations so they can ensure international labour standards are met. If they continue to buy their cocoa via the exchange or other middlemen, they should work with cocoa-producing countries such as Ivory Coast to ensure the labour standards are enforced.
If chocolate manufacturers fail to respond, Anti Slavery International offers this recommendation: "In the absence of industry action, the only way consumers can be confident the produce they use is free from exploited labour is by buying products which carry a fair trade label."

See:

Chocolate



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