So this is Christmas....What have you done?

Peace continues to be missing in the world as billions of people around the globe celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Today four months after the hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the city remains desolate and devastated.

In Iran, Ahmadinejad questions Holocaust and in Iraq Saddam Hussein makes fun of his own victims in a so-called Iraqi court in Baghdad.

Hundred of thousands of Pakistanis are exposed to a harsh winter after a powerful earthquake.

AIDS, poverty and war persist and is rampant in Africa.

The artic caps continue to melt and thank God we continue to ignore our environment and the Kyoto Protocol.

France burns with the anger of Muslim youth while Chinese child-laborers manufacture toys for our children.

The White House admits to wire tapping and spying on its own citizens and the Patriot Act "stays the course" by getting 5 more weeks of life in Washington.

Let us not forget about the avian flu. In my book any flu that can fly is worth being considered pandemic.

Right now, children die of diseases long eradicated in the U.S. such as Polio.

At home in New York City I feel lucky. At least I have on-line shopping and the ever popular gift certificates. I am also very excited about the new Mac Donald debit cards. Another Christmas and another shopping season ends.

Transit Workers Union Scrooges almost ruined the shopping season, I mean the holiday season for all of us. At least they now have the 'respect' of most New Yorkers.....get back to work you “thugs” someone yields. A few more days of walking in brutal cold and I am afraid FEMA would have had to intervene.

After over 20 years in America, what I like best about Christmas is the Yule log on Channel 11. It was there when I first landed in this country and it is now back again.

Below is a frame grab taken from a broadcast of WPIX-TV's Yule log. The televised Yule Log, a recurring 7-minute video that debuted on the Tribune Co. stations in 1966, has gained renewed popularity since returning to the air in 2001 after a 10-year hiatus.

Courtesy of WPIX - Via Bloomberg News

The Yule Log on my TV on Christmas day

Ramin Talaie
From my apartment in Brooklyn, New York.