December has begun, a low productivity month in our latitudes. It is the start of frivolous days with grief for better years gone by as shown by uses and displays that are not so well suited to times of crisis.

The month of Christmas and the New Year's eve appears like a mirage of well being helping to soothe our ailments. The treasury is well fitted as a consequence of unforeseen oil income. Manna drops once more from heaven! The currency looks stable --perhaps revaluated-- with an exchange rate having remained stable for several months. It is December, the month of purchases with a now not so expensive dollar and with the pockets well filled after the end of year fat bonds, with the Christmas allowances of which the tradition is permanently reminded to us everywhere by everyone, under the fervent local activity of always begging and begging. Savings and the capacity to produce wealth seem to be paralyzed for a few weeks. This is a time for holidays, of well deserved rest for those who work hard --in spite of the fact that during the entire year there are plenty vacations, rest periods, permits, other holidays.

In an article of this issue there is a mention of "abiding to the rules of the game", considering such those that have been established by developed countries with a well being resulting from their discipline and work. These very same countries are used by us as a model for practically all having to do with Christmas spending, yet not to follow the rules without which those countries would have never reached the safe spot they now hold among all nations. We forget, however, that in those countries, December is just another working and producing month with only two additional holidays: Christmas and New Year's eve --the latter often just half a day.

This December 1996 has a most special feature for us. We have suffered, during the past three years, a most serious economic crisis, during which the entire financial system came close to collapse. But in this month of December, in this year's closing, one could say that we have hit the bottom and that conditions are present for a recovery of the economy. Economic indicators have improved and we are now seen under more favorable eyes by the IMF and the international financial community. Official announcements promise that the surplus funds in the treasury will not be used to increase government spending. There have even been talks of a monetary stabilization fund. Beautiful words, good intentions --let us hope it is not just that.

In spite of the never ending festivities, of the frivolity, December may be also, as long as it provides so much leisure time, a good opportunity to think of our future s a democratic country aiming to develop as such- December may provide the occasion to try to understand why a rich country, with so few people could ever get to provide such a low quality of life, something we thought unfortunately reserved to countries lacking the most elementary resources.

During the recent campaign that led him to a second term at the White House, President Clinton offered to the US citizens a bridge to the future, as opposed to his Republican contender who offered going back to the traditions of the past. We believe that we Venezuelans deserve also a bridge to the future but that bridge must provide two ways: one leading us to progress in a new millennium but another one allowing us to go return, whenever it may be necessary, to other times, no matter how far they may be, where permanent values ruled, as it should be permanently, in a democratic , fair and humanizing society. With this return lane to take the good of the past and turn again to a future that belongs to us, we should, in December, gather once more beautiful, strengthening, spiritually filled traditions that are still alive, waiting to grow to their full size. At the end of the century we still have powerful institutions in our country: family and church. Both should play, once again, the prime role they are called to play in December times. This is the month to reinforce family links and the Church is an important instrument in reinforcing them. Burrowed deep inside us there are seeds of spirituality --even in unbelievers-- and the Church may make them grow.

December is the beginning of a period hardly similar to others in the year. This December could also bring the beginning of change in the way we conceive and live the holy days. And it is so because perhaps the crisis was able to force to open our eyes to see our past errors and to make us understand that we have to approach the future with a totally different mentality, one discarding forever the miracle of manna. There is time in December to think that well being is not reached with favorable economic indicators, that the economy is for human beings who are entitled to a better quality of life, to security, health, nutrition, housing, education, leisure. It is a time to think that there is no progress without social justice, that there can be no economic growth without the rule of law, without respect for human rights, without proper administration of justice, with unleashed violence.

We reach December with an apparently contained economic and financial crisis. Unfortunately, we may not say the same with regard to the crisis of our society. Let us make use of these days to prepare ourselves for a 1997 as the start of a relentless effort by all of us who live in this privileged land, that we may achieve change in this our society forsaken by its leaders, so insecure, unfair and devoid of projects and tools for the recovery that all its members, as a whole, are able to achieve.