Jingle Bells And All That Stuff...

Uruknet/Layla Anwar

Ah! Another Xmas...I don't care much for Xmas or any other holiday.

For me, it's all the same...same thing, day in and day out...I go through the motions and repeat the greetings with a fake smile, but I really don't care much.

Santa can go and stuff himself as far as am concerned.

Well, he does not need to stuff himself, he is already stuffed...and so are you.

Seems you have all been under the taxidermist knife...stuffed to the brink, stuffed to your eyeballs, stuffed...stuffed with paper, cotton, rags, words...

And this Christmas you will stuff yourselves even more...with more stuff and more stuffing...

Your husbands are stuffed, your wives are stuffed, your kids are stuffed, your homes are stuffed, your shops are stuffed, your brains are stuffed...you are stuffed.

Tomorrow you will probably stuff something and put it in an oven, a stuffed Xmas dinner, with your stiff, stuffed families, talking through your stiff upper lips about more stuff while you are stuffing your stomachs with food stuff.

And beneath your stale breaths, you will huff and puff and say -- Stuff it, I can't wait till it's over, this is too stuffy.

Fuck that stuff.

And you will tear away at your wrapped boxes, and see more stuff, stuff you don't need or don't like, but hey it's stuff and you can't waste away stuff...So you will stuff it away, amongst the other stuff that has accumulated in your stuffed closets and cupboards till the next stuffy Xmas and you will repeat it all over again...

God's stuff is really absent, but you think you already know all that God stuff...

Meanwhile in Iraq, 5 million orphans have no stuff.

They live in streets and run down orphanages. They are sold, bought, trafficked, molested, raped, turned into sex slaves and beggars...They have no clean water to drink, no food to eat, no toys to play with, no books to read, no family to hug, no clothes and no shoes to wear, no blankets to cover them, no stuffed Santa to visit them, no electricity and no illuminated Xmas tree...

5 million Iraqi children turned into orphans because you believed stuff you were told and you acted upon that stuff...

5 million Iraqi orphans are your guarantee that you will have unlimited access to more stuff so you can stuff yourselves even more...And here they are...5 million of them, in 5 years...For them Xmas or no Xmas, it does not make a difference.

For them, it's the same thing, day in and day out...

They are of your own doing. They are the children, the little ones, you turned into diposable stuff...

So stuff them and stuff it and have a Merry stuffed Xmas.

Painting : Iraqi female artist, Sabah Al-Majeed.