While thinking about all the things I …didn’t want to write in a celebrating editorial I got a mail from Dr. Kampmark that included his article about the infamous Christmas 1914 Truce.

Despite the fact that most professional or amateur historians, novelists, writers, journalists and illustrators, among others, have been focusing in the WWII, the First World War was far more inhuman and terrifying. Think of it, gas and chemicals weapons have been forbidden and the use is considered war crime since WWI. The devastation caused was beyond inhuman. And in 1914, surrounded of all this devastation a group of soldiers from both sides decided to stage a private truce and celebrate Christmas playing …football.

Like most similar stories this one has reached the stages of a myth but what really remains is that …if it was up to the soldiers, the simple ordinary men we would play football - Christmas or not - instead of making wars. It also shows that wars are never made from the ordinary people or for the ordinary people but in the end it is the ordinary people who pay. During both world wars it was the ordinary people who died, wounded, poisoned, destroyed, uniformed or not. Wars did and do little to generals, bankers, industrialists, landowners, traders ...politicians. Actually a lot of them got richer during wars. A lot of them took ordinary men’s land and money during wars. Rich thrived during all the wars in human history.

Like now.

Without mustard gas but with Donald Trump, with Erdoğan and Orbán; with neo-Nazis in Finland and Austria and Nazis in Greece. With fascists in Italy and Poland. With murderer Duterte in Philippines and Putin in Russia. With al-Assad, Netanyahu Jong-un.A lot of poison!

Ho-ho-ho, season greetings and Merry Christmas to you too!

There is war again, innocent people die again, people are poisoned, wounded, killed, separated and there is no football game in the horizon because this time the Trumps, the Putins and the Erdoğans of this world have learned the lesson and they are not going to let the ordinary people …truce.
They want them to build walls.

Ho-ho-ho, season greetings and Merry Christmas to you too!

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Despite my dark mood,
best wishes to all of you and your families
from all the Ovi Team
and to a more personal level,
good health is the best wish, the rest are coming.