Carolyn Moynihan is a New Zealand journalist with a special interest in family issues. She began her working life as a secondary school teacher but always fancied the life of the scribe. Too late, she realised that the latter is even more work than teaching Shakespeare to 15-year-olds and the pay is generally less. Being a reluctant geek, she has never quite got over the surprise of finding herself the deputy editor of an online magazine — a pleasant sensation for the most part.
She once wrote a book — the history of New Zealand’s own anti-porn movement in its heyday — for which she got mixed reviews and no awards. She lives in the country’s largest city, Auckland, which is three hours by plane from Sydney — the hub of MercatorNet — and too far for comfort from anywhere else of importance. Still, it is a very nice vantage point from which to meddle in the affairs of the world.
What is the essence of Christmas? For 50 years a simple cartoon movie has captured the answer for Americans of all ages: Christmas is not Christmas without something like a real tree to decorate, carols to sing and, above all,…