CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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By Selina Seesunkur

I think we can all agree that Christmas 2020 will be an exceptional one for all of us. In this modern world, where we are used to roaming freely and consumerism is normally at an all-time high, we are having to adapt like never before. At the time of writing this article, Government guidelines stated that “between 23 to 27 December, if you form a Christmas bubble, do not meet with friends and family that you do not live with in your home or garden unless they are part of your Christmas bubble”. Now as we publish, we have a new Tier 4!  

For those of us who have larger families, and usually meet up for a good old-fashioned shindig, I can imagine this could be quite a predicament in Tier 3. But for those of us who have no-one this Christmas, this festive holiday will still be the loneliest time of the year.  As the number of Covid cases continues to increase, the country appears divided over whether the Prime Minister has done the right thing. However, with over 67,000,000 people living in the UK, and all with varying opinions, can the Prime Minister realistically ever provide the correct solution in the eyes of the public? I suspect not.

I live in a Tier 4 area, London and the rules say that “you cannot meet other people indoors unless you live with them or they are part of your support bubble”. Some were outraged and claimed Christmas had been cancelled, others felt the Prime Minister should have made the decision sooner.

Just by walking down the road, you can easily spot those who will and are deviating from the rules; people who will not give you space on the pavements, people who think it’s ok to have a cheeky drink with their mates because they think no-one will see, people who wear masks around their chins and not on their faces, and so on. Then there are those who are brave enough to venture out, wearing a mask but still showing the fear in their eyes as someone gets too close. Just by walking down the road, or by listening to people talk, you can observe the difference of opinion.  

I sat in a meeting and the host wished us all a Merry Christmas, but then continued to remind us of the many lives lost this year. This loss of life is as a result of a deadly virus that hit us all, not only us as a nation, but many countries across the world. There were no boundaries the virus recognised. It hit the rich, the poor, it saw no colour, no age, it did not care if you were a sinner or a saint and it just keeps coming. Therefore, we need to continue to be careful; we must adhere to government guidance and not become increasingly dismissive and complacent. Because only then can we say, we did everything we personally could.

We must not forget the heroes amongst us, whether it’s the parent who had no choice but to continue to go out to work to put food on the table, the nurses and doctors, the police, teachers, those front-line workers who support the community in various ways, and those community volunteers who help them out, because they are the true community saints. If you cannot adhere to the rules for your own sake, then please do it for theirs.

It is not all doom and gloom, especially if you remain focused on all that you are lucky to have and cherish the people you have in your life.

So please -

Wash hands

Cover face

Make space

And have a very Merry Christmas from all of us at Centric Magazine.


 

DRESSING UP TO SEE THE END TO FAST FASHION THIS CHRISTMAS

By Rachel Sterling

It’s that time of year again. The aisles are full, shelves are stocked, and queues are stretching out the door. Christmas time, or prime time for consumerism as it could also be known. Whilst Christians take time out to celebrate the birth of their Lord Jesus Christ, others simply try not to wince as they look at their diminishing bank balance.

Why has the season of comfort and joy become a source of stress for so many? Whilst finding the perfect Christmas gift for our loved ones is a source of great stress for us in the West, Christmas may signify something very different for garment factory workers in the Global South. Thoughts of piling up orders, overtime, overproduction, and underpayment spring to mind in order to meet our Christmas needs. This is not written to merely insight guilt. After all, who doesn’t love receiving thoughtful gifts and spending time with friends and family? In recent years however, I’ve been giving more and more thought to where my clothes come from. Who made them and what were they paid?

I’ve been closely following the #payup and #whomademyclothes campaigns. According to sources like Apparel Action Tracker many fast fashion brands have not paid their workers for orders they cancelled over lockdown. Therefore, they worked for free. This can be construed as modern-day slavery. At Christmas, we may feel that we desperately need that new Christmas jumper or party dress, or perhaps lounge wear is more appropriate for our current time. However, I think it’s vital to question how our consumer choices are impacting others. Do we need more stuff this Christmas? If, over lockdown, so many of us emptied our closets of clothes and things we no longer needed or used, do we really need to replace these with more of the same?

I wanted to respond to the temptation that Christmas brings to “buy, buy, buy” in a new way this year. Myself and a group of friends from my Church St Michael le Belfrey in York are part of a group called Belfrey Social Justice and we participate in Dressember. Every year hundreds don a dress or a tie every day for the month of December and get others to sponsor us to raise money for anti-human trafficking charities such as the International Justice Mission. These charities are actively working to see an end to human trafficking in our lifetime. As fast fashion is one of the main contributors to the modern-day slavery industry, it felt like a really simple way to respond. We actively encouraged participants not to buy new dresses and ties. Instead, we borrowed each other’s and then found ourselves asking why we didn’t do that all the time. It’s a lot cheaper than buying new ones!

We have also been reflecting on Sarah Lazarovic’s Buyerarchy of Needs. I fully maintain that this needs to be a societal shift and large-scale companies need to be held accountable and change their ways of overproduction, fast fashion, and modern-day slavery in their supply chain. However, as the consumer, I think we have a role to play too. If we believe our own Christmas customs are feeding these industries, then we need to look inward and see where we also could change our Christmas habits.

Image by Sarah Lazarovic

Image by Sarah Lazarovic

Here are my top tips for a fast fashion free and generally more ethical Christmas:

Don’t buy what you don’t need.

Avoid joke presents that will likely end up in landfill.

Don’t buy from any of the companies that have yet to #payup for their cancelled orders. See the Apparel Action Tracker.

If you want to gift something special, consider edible gifts and experiences.

If you are limited by time or other factors and need to buy things, consider supporting small local businesses and BME owned businesses.

Support the #Dressember campaign!

If in doubt, consult the Buyerarchy of Needs!

 

 
Rachel Sterling

Rachel Sterling

HUMANITY ON SCREEN

By Grace Thompson

In the past few weeks, we have seen our political leaders on television more than ever before. Regular press briefings, updates to the House of Commons and more breakfast appearances and interviews than the biggest political junkie could wish for.

Even scientists have not been spared the media scrutiny of their personality antics. They have also been thrown into the public gaze in a way that is probably unusual and perhaps even uncomfortable for them. In past years, the face of the Chief Medical Officer may never have been known to the public. This year, we can all recognise him just by sight. The chirpiness of Sir Simon Stevens, the eloquence of Patrick Vallance the honest emotion of Jonathan Van-Tam are all now familiar traits.

Perhaps in a time where we have fewer interactions with our support networks and other people in general, it is somehow comforting to relate, in some way, to the frequent personalities on our screens, even if those methods of relating aren’t always positive! Just as our closest friends and family members get on our nerves from time to time, so we have our favourite political and authority figures who we admire or the ones we may even love to laugh at. 

Surely there is no coincidence that in a year that has caused political advisers and super-forecasters to catch the attention of the media like never before, we have also seen the return of the iconic Spitting Image show, gobbling up new material in their hands with greed. 

In what now seems like an age ago, Theresa May defied past prime ministerial trends by pushing away the show glitzy, cozy-up-to-me PM style of Cameron and Blair. The limelight wasn’t natural to her, so heading up the history-making negotiations of a country leaving the European Union probably wasn’t the best match. Boris Johnson, on the other hand, loves the limelight but probably didn’t bargain for having quite as much airtime as he has had to experience in the past few months, and with very little good news to deliver. 

Trust in our leaders currently requires frequent interaction, even if only virtual, but it requires even more than that. Research is being carried out as to why it seems that many female leaders of countries experiencing Covid have handled the pandemic particularly well. Fierce critics of Nicola Sturgeon, for example, suddenly see a new side to her and praise her sensible decisions and incisive timing. Jacinda Adern sees New Zealand successfully drop to 0 recorded cases and ‘does a little dance’ in her living room to celebrate.  

I don’t think anyone who heard Matt Hancock’s voice shake as he spoke of losing his step-grandfather to Covid could doubt his determination to fight it. Authority can be better followed when those in authority are also seen to be as human as the rest of us. Our leaders, after all, are not immortals in ivory towers, they are flesh and blood who can be infected with viruses as easily as the next person and who can love and lose as we all do. So perhaps, in a time when the best and worst of our humanity is entangling simultaneously, what we need is to see the authentic human side of our leaders on the screen.

Grace Thompson

Grace Thompson