Santa in the time of recession

Santa in the time of recession 
It seems Germany is running out of qualified Santa Clauses and needs to recruit and train them fast. There is an acute shortage of Santas to entertain children at shopping centers, Christmas markets and private parties. Job agencies are ready to recruit eligible Santas, who are child-friendly, reliable, and boast of excellent acting skills and have a clean police record. In these times of recession, the job agencies are ready to pay the Santas 60 Euros per hour. The Santas however, will have to pull their cars over a few streets away and walk as one can’t have Santa drive up in a car when every child knows that Santa travels in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. It seems the recession is having a merry effect on the Germans as the people are turning to traditions to protect their children from the evils of the real world.

Film festival blues
The International Film Festival of India in Goa has left the locals underwhelmed. Reports in the local media about chaos at entry points and in the sale of tickets apart, Goans are complaining that there is not enough entertainment for the local populace unlike in previous years. The government on its part is engaged in a battle of sorts with the centre on the question of branding the show as the ‘Goa film festival’, which the I & B ministry is disinclined to do. What has also grated upon many locals are the stalls on the waterfront in Panaji selling bhel and other street food, apparently to replicate Mumbai’s Chowpatty. “Do we really need this festival here” is the general sentiment