Bollards / How terrorism changed Christmas |
Christmas is traditionally a time of joy, merriment and peace on Earth. Not so in the little town of Erbach, Germany, this year, where depraved individuals destroyed a living nativity scene, tortured two donkeys, vandalised and looted the Christmas market, and proceeded to smash up and defecate in a nearby Protestant church. Tidings of comfort indeed.
No luck in central Brussels, either, where the head of a baby Jesus was removed and stolen from a nativity scene. Another Jesus met a similar fate in Amiens, France. The plexiglass was smashed, the infant’s head knocked off, and other nativity figures damaged. The perplexed president of the neighbourhood committee informed a radio station that ‘the nativity scene has existed for about 30 years and nothing like this has ever happened.’
Such wanton destruction is not only directed at displays – a symbolic assault on the Christian story itself – and the occasional hapless donkey. Densely packed Christmas........