For years the sign that Christmas was getting close was the looting. Everything was shit for years — inflation, unemployment, outrageous poverty1 — and by December ten, eleven, twelve the looting would start here or there. Sometimes it’d be a contagious form of looting and supermarkets would be on fire all over the country. As always, TV pundits would comment on the ethics of looting — “They are looting crates of beer and wine. Hungry people don’t loot beer and wine; hungry people loot food,” I remember hearing many times. Many times, because the ideological arsenal of TV pundits is very limited but also because the looting was a seasonal occurrence. And perhaps it was helped by the season too, as December is one of the hottest months back home2. Poverty plus anger plus inequality plus forty degrees combine into a pressure cooker.
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