The Credit Crunch Who Stole Christmas

It's not enough to have to deal with the crap that Virgin Media are calling service right now. Oh no. Life just has to keep on throwing down the annoying bits and pieces that make you want to curl up and never deal with people ever again.

Anyone living under what has to be a disturbingly large boulder might not know that there is a global financial crisis at the moment, affectionately dubbed the Credit Crunch. Others might have heard it mentioned in the media once or twice. An hour. Every day. See, where there wasn't necessarily a whole load of panic when the sub-prime crisis hit American financial markets (mostly because people didn't understand it), it seems that being told more times a day than could ever be considered necessary that the economy is at risk of sliding into 'stagflation' (negative growth in all sectors except inflation, apparently) is enough to make the average punter sit up, take notice, and fear for their livelihood. I'm no different, although I do at least have the justification of being in a precarious industry, and pretty much on notice that my job is disappearing. Am I moping though? No. I'm in the process of finding something else is what I am. But this is the straw that broke the camel's back.

I've just been told by a reliable source that my company is one of many that is not having an annual Christmas party this year, because of the credit crunch. Not enough to have laid off half the company, further economies are required. That catch is, this is the time when a masive blow out is really needed. See, it's all very well to have the big party during the good times, celebrating being one of the lucky ones. But when there's not much else in the world to celebrate - economy turned to crap, wars all over the place, cold miserable weather, Virgin being incompetant - Christmas is a beacon of hope to many, the only thing that gets them through the deepest, darkest - in some cases literally - time of the year in the northern hemisphere. It's not a coincidence that the holiday season bings with it higher suicide rates than almost any other time of year.

So, in short, the media has a lot to answer for. I'm blaming them for raising awareness of the problems brought about by the American economic crisis. They have created a global problem, and now have some explaining to do. Or at the very least they ought to offer to fund Christmas parties for all the poor bunnies who wil have little enough to celebrate this year, thanks to their scaremongering.