Article

2007-01-05 Africa North

'Confronting the Death Arriving From the West' Santa Claus in Algeria

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by anonymous5089 2007-01-05 02:35|| || Front Page|| [7 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Kabyls aka Berbers are the opressed minority of Algeria. Their opressors are mostly arabified Berbers. A growing number of Berbers reject islam. Those who don't area alarmed by Algerian governemnt's policy of replacing Sunni imams by wahabi ones. Wahabists are not merely radicals, they are also Arab supremacists.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2007-01-05 04:08|| 2007-01-05 04:08|| Front Page Top

#2 AFAIK, Santa Clause isn't a religious thing. It's a commercial thing.

Posted by gorb 2007-01-05 04:31|| 2007-01-05 04:31|| Front Page Top

#3 Speak the Arabic language and you are an Arab; speak the English language and you are a__________?

Assyrians, Berbers, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Armareans, Chaldeans, Mesopotamians, Copts, Yamanis, Bedouins, etc. all better define speakers of Arabic. Until American University of Beirut promoted a common language, few of these savages could understand each other. And the better for us.

Posted by Sneaze Shaiting3550 2007-01-05 05:00|| 2007-01-05 05:00|| Front Page Top

#4 "What adds to the impression this occasion leaves on people's souls is 'Santa Claus' coming in his legendary carriage, decorated in red, full of bells, and drawn by two goats - except that these goats come from the native mountains of Tizi-Ouzo, and not from the Alps in Europe

Hey Top Job, Santa rides in a SLED pulled by REINDEER...
The guy in the cart being pulled by goats is ... THOR.
Maybe you ought to ruminate on that one, que?

Posted by Free Radical">Free Radical 2007-01-05 06:28|| 2007-01-05 06:28|| Front Page Top

#5 AFAIK, Santa Clause isn't a religious thing. It's a commercial thing.

It's a mix. The name is a corruption/softening of Saint Nicholas, and the legend apparently ties into a Greek patriarch who was known for anonymously giving gifts.

Posted by Rob Crawford">Rob Crawford 2007-01-05 07:42|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2007-01-05 07:42|| Front Page Top

#6 "'Santa Claus' coming in his legendary carriage, decorated in red, full of bells, and drawn by two goats"

Dashing through the sand
In a two-goat open carriage
Santa Claus came down
Without asking permission

Infidels, infidels, invading our lands, Oh!
Bringing death from the West to Tizi Ouzo!
And presents in their hands, Oh!

Posted by UFO over Tizi Ouzo 2007-01-05 08:13|| 2007-01-05 08:13|| Front Page Top

#7 Different places, different details, Free Radical. Sinterklaas, the Dutch/Belgian version, is clad as a bishop, rides a horse, and is followed by his servant Black Pete on a donkey. It would be the Scandanavian version using reindeer, surely. Perhaps in the Alps the good saint does have a sled pulled by goats. Since Algeria is a former French colony, possibly they're following the French tradition in such things. Saint Nicholas was a Christian bishop, I b'lieve in Syria, I think 4th century AD, who is said to have tossed a purse of gold through the window of the cottage where three orphaned sisters lived, that they might have dowries with which to marry. A generous man.

While Christmas and St. Nick should be religious thingies, and still are to many, it's been picked up round the world along with other Western practices as part of modernization. I get the most beautiful Christmas cards every year from my Japanese friends, who really enjoy decorating the house and making their best attempt at a traditional Christmas dinner.

On the other hand, the complainers are right to see this as a threat to their thought control, one more seduction of the modern world away from all that is Right and Good (memorizing the Koran, a multiplicity of ever-pregnant wives, abusing the dhimmi...)

Posted by trailing wife 2007-01-05 10:07|| 2007-01-05 10:07|| Front Page Top

#8 These people are paranoid. Christmas as celebrated around the world has about as much to do with Christianity as McDonald's. It's just an occasion for department stores to play Bing Crosby and Andy Williams festive songs and to decorate department stores in red and green to stimulate consumer demand.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2007-01-05 12:28|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2007-01-05 12:28|| Front Page Top

#9 I don't think they're paranoid; for them, religion still is a BIG thing, in fact, they think foremost in religious terms, seeing us still as Christians... even if our societies are in fact mostly secularized, or even dechristianized/post-christian.

Christmas may be what Zhang fei describes for *us*, but for the algerian brass, according to their mental OS, it still is that big CHRISTIAN holiday, and a threat to "their" arabo-muslim identity.

Posted by anonymous5089 2007-01-05 12:57|| 2007-01-05 12:57|| Front Page Top

#10 TW,

Spot on. Must say, there is nothing like Christmas in Japan as far as the spectacle goes.

Posted by bombay">bombay 2007-01-05 22:43|| 2007-01-05 22:43|| Front Page Top

#11 Well commented TW. But my point still stands. If you asked "who rides in a little cart pulled by two goats?" I would answer THOR. Not Santa.
But then I was always into war-hammers and the like!

Posted by Free Radical">Free Radical 2007-01-05 23:27|| 2007-01-05 23:27|| Front Page Top

#12 Thor, too. The elder gods do as they please, Free Radical. ;-) But a5089 is right -- the Muslim enforcers look to traditional threats, they have no knowledge of deep history or understanding of modern developments.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-01-05 23:56|| 2007-01-05 23:56|| Front Page Top

20:42 Aris Katsaris
23:56 trailing wife
23:51 Glenmore
23:50 phil_b
23:44 Sock Puppet of Doom
23:42 Anguper Hupomosing9418
23:36 borgboy
23:27 Free Radical
23:02 Anguper Hupomosing9418
22:56 CrazyFool
22:51 Alaska Paul
22:45 crazyhorse
22:44 Alaska Paul
22:44 Barbara Skolaut
22:43 anon1
22:43 bombay
22:34 USN, ret.
22:30 Spomort Greling4204
22:27 Alaska Paul
22:24 USN, ret.
22:21 crazyhorse
22:14 USN, ret.
21:51 Pappy
21:46 USN, ret.