There was a time when St Valentine’s Day was the day when couples around the world took time to exchange a card with some verse on it. It was a manifestation of love, and it was the one day where people could do it openly.

Valentine’s Day is not for everyone. Some of us are romantics, others are not. Some of us are and don’t even realise it, just going about things the way we normally do. Some of us still buy the cards. Others do not. Some think that they are obligatory. Others do not. Some think that the whole thing is a waste of time and money. Some think that it has just become too commercialized, a money making machine.

And that brings us to the point. The economic model which we use in the West – the capitalist model – is crumbling. Its foundations have been shaken and it has become very clear that the huge over-inflated debt bubble which sustained us has finally burst and brought us crashing down to earth with a very, very big bang.

But even though the world knows that we will never have it so good again (at least not for quite a while), bad habits are not easy to break.

Prices are jacked up tremendously as the world goes mad for cards, chocolates and teddy bears. Yet people still flock to the gaudy red shops bedecked with velvet and fronted by angels on stilts and oversized teddies.

In the evening, many opted for a romantic meal out, and again, the prices were hiked up and the tables were overbooked. But, it is all part and parcel of what we celebrate. It is just like Christmas, New Year and all the other ‘holidays’ which we celebrate.

Perhaps Valentine’s Day has remained more true to tradition than the others, but it has still become overly commercialized. One supposes that the shopkeepers werehappy. And well, the blokes might have a slightly lighter wallet, but at the same time, love was blossoming all over the islands last night.

We do not write this to be killjoys, but really, in this climate, shouldn’t people be thinking a bit more sensibly? The one major question we ask though, is whether one actually has to wait for one day a year to express love for another. Food for thought.