NEVER mind what the popular song says about All I want for Christmas. Forget all that stuff about two front teeth. Dentures are likely to be costing more anyway. We have more serious matters to contemplate. In fact, this might be the first time in a long time that Santa has been in such danger of being declared redundant. Happily he — and we –survive.

Events of recent days have had us contemplating the title of the Dr Seuss children’s story, The Grinch who stole Christmas. In our version, however, the “deck the halls and fal-la-lah” have been challenged not by a mythical party-pooper but the three-letter word TAX. Since last week Thursday our Yuletide spirit, our call to peace on earth and goodwill to all has been rocked on its foundation.

Good Christian men and women, who rejoice in the reason for the season, will tell you that this time of year is about much more, so a little matter like TAX should not divert us from celebrating. Before we go much further, let me advise that it is not my intention to engage in theological semantics about whether there should even be Christmas. There are enough theologians and purists willing to engage in the annual debate about the credentials of December 25. Excuse me from that debate, please.

However, I cannot resist pointing out that it was a tax matter which took the carpenter Joseph to Bethlehem of Judea thousands of years ago, where was born a son who was to change the history of the world. (Read it for yourself in the pages where it is writ.) Taxes are here to define us in this season and we Jamaica people, being experts in the game of “tek bad sinting mek laugh”, have already turned it into “Taxmus”.

It is no laughing matter, however, as anxiety over the tax package introduced in Parliament last week Thursday afternoon has been threatening to “upturn” not only the proverbial apple cart but the sorrel, the pudden, the gungo peas and all that we treasure in our Season.

Many questions are being raised about that tax list. Who compiled it and who approved it? Is there some truth to the assumption that it was hastily cobbled together to meet IMF deadlines and no one did a reality check before it was unleashed on the public? Say it isn’t so.

The reason for taxation is known and pretty much accepted. Jamaicans know that we have bills to pay and the money must come from somewhere. “Tom fool, but Tom nuh fool-fool.” What no one expected, however, was the price which is being exacted from every man, woman and child.

THE TAX LIST as presented last week, spared no one – diapers for baby, once-private hygiene accessories for women, bullah and crackers, foundation stones in the diet of poor people, patties, the subsistence meal of students, and so on and so on and on. Perhaps the most insensitive burden of all is that which will fall on those with disabilities.

You mean the IMF is really insisting that we wring taxes from the white canes of the blind, the wheelchairs of the disabled, the artificial limbs of the halt and lame, the eyeglasses of the poor in sight? If that is where we’ve reached, our corner dark, really, really dark fi true.

The prime minister was due to address the nation in a broadcast Wednesday night. By now we should know whether rolled oats has been rolled over and what else has been given a bly. Concern about the list will not go away just so. The talk will continue over the sorrel and the pudden. Reprieve or no reprieve, people are not happy. Joke done. There could be endangerment of Christmas fun.

It is now becoming clear that there will be fewer gift parcels and more budget packages ahead, but we still want to ask JPSCo-style, “How come?” We can bear it if trust is shared with us. We’re not joking when we ask questions like, why tax local produce at the very time when the very government has embarked on a major drive to increase agricultural production? Is it wise, overall, to tax food for basic survival? Christmas dinner staples will make it to the table unhindered for now, but what next? The rice and peas seems safe for the moment but be advised that the gungo, being a legume, know that if the classification remains on the tax list, there will be new meaning to the profound statement “Inna yuh gungo”. Rejoice that rice has been exempted, but ask why grown-yah ground provisions have not escaped. What’s the logic of letting off an imported item while laying the burden on home-grown stuff?

For the first time in history, we may face a “hard food” tax. Does the IMF really want yam and coco as a guarantee for their loan? It seems we could be making history. There just might be a future for poor people’s food on the world stage. Who knows, we might yet hear the UN or some such eminent body is passing resolutions to protect Negro yam and Lef’ man coco. You never can tell. Anything can happen… It done happen already in Jamaica.

CHRISTMAS LIVES… amidst the confusion we cannot stop the clock. We can’t give up. While there is life, there is hope. So let us try to get the best out of the season, mindful that it really is about more than food and drink.

So far, no one has been able to put a cess on the spirit of Peace on Earth, Goodwill to all. Let’s keep it that way, yuh hear. Tek time drive. Watch out for the maniacs behind the wheel. Protect the children. Treasure the aged. Say no to

killing and corruption, conniving and crumoochin.

Rejoice in the Spirit of Christmas as exemplified in the carol, It came upon the midnight clear.

“Oh hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing.”

gloudonb@yahoo.com

Editor’s note: This column was written to meet print deadline earlier in the week. Since then, the PM has thrown out the basic food taxation et al and replaced it with a new list.