International Women’s Day

Today is International Women’s Day. This post is my small contribution. A poignant song, which has been a favourite for many years. Paul Siebel wrote the lyrics; Leo Kottke performs them with great feeling. Oddly enough I watched an old episode of “Ashes To Ashes” last night in which a sex worker decided it was not worth going through the ignominy of trying to prosecute her rapist since there was only a 5% likelihood of him being found guilty in court.
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LOUISE

They said Louise was not half bad
It was written on the walls and window shade
And though she’d act the little girl
A deceiver, don’t believe her, that’s her trade
Sometimes a bottle of perfume
Flowers and maybe some lace
Men brought Louise ten cent trinkets
Their intentions were easy to trace
And everybody knew at times she’d cry
Ah but woman like Louise well they get by

And everybody thought it kind of sad
When they found Louise in her room
They’d all put her down below their kind
Still some cried when she died this afternoon
Louise rode home on the mail train
Somewhere to the south I heard them say
Too bad it ended so ugly
Too bad she had to go this way
And the wind is blowin’ cold tonight
So good night, Louise, good night

BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON WAR CRIMES IS NOT A CRIME!

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Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, faces life in prison for allegedly sharing a video of a U.S. helicopter attack that killed 11 civilians and seriously wounded two children in Baghdad, Iraq with the WikiLeaks website.

He has also been charged with blowing the whistle on the “Iraq War Logs”, the “Afghan Diaries”, the “Guantanamo Files” and embarrassing US State Department cables.

In short, he’s been charged with telling us the truth!

For some details of the inhumane treatment of Manning by the US army uncovered by Amnesty see the link below. Bear in mind that he has been accused but not convicted. Still, after the Orwellian “Patriot” Act the “presumed innocent until proven guilty” principle no longer applies these days.

http://blog.amnestyusa.org/waronterror/inhumane-treatment-of-wikileaks-soldier-bradley-manning/

The Daily Grind

THE DAILY GRIND

morning well wicked early still
when alarm bell rings

unglue gummy eyes
peer through foetid gloom
grope around to kill it
sniff up last night’s stale breath
puke worthy – and you expected?

quick shower, squirt and spray
baited hooks set – and dreams
“I swear (s)he fancies me”
a hopeful phone trills – eyes gleam
and stick it in your ear – “hi”

now on your mark, get set
and go, raging or else uncomplaining
by crammed tube or heaving bus
or through poison-pumping gridlock
noxious hell whichever option

a compliant commuter – a clone – a costumed clown
stuck up the back end of a pantomime horse
blindly galloping into thunderous oblivion
holding your snotty nose to the grindstone
scrounging shekels to fuel your shakey schemes

yes, here’s the life you were schooled for
to be laid on the butcher’s chopping block
to hang ripe for the black reaper’s picking
next to our attempts to heal our broken hearts
keeping food on the table is their sharpest weapon

but pity the overseers in their turn
the restless scuttling tinker men
well heeled tepid heartless overlords
with their eternal fear of the rank and vile
whose oversensitivity is such a bore

do they lie in the dark wakeful
awaiting the day their own alarm bells ring?

Naysayer

NAYSAYER

Search myself for error, for there’s no one pure,
hesitate to despise them, as no doubt I should.
Are they the beasts I imagine? I can’t be sure.
Or just fools gone to the bad trying to make good.

That’s right, we’re not really bad, just misunderstood.
We hedged our bets but didn’t mean to break the bank.
You wanted mortgages; we did the best we could.
Rules of Monopoly; “I am, therefore I wank”.

Our underwritten balloon race too big to fail.
It’s free market forces. How dare you call it greed!
Here’s my card: “Get out of jail free”. We’re out on bail
and we have all the pepper spray we’ll ever need.

Hope

HOPE

Though warnings sound throughout the land
And no one seems to understand
And though the end is close at hand
You and I will stand
My brother
You and I will stand

Though they send their planes to sow the land
With seeds of the destruction they have planned
And the rumours of war are on every hand
You and I will stand
My sister
You and I will stand

…..BRIDGE
…..Yesterday´s joy soon turns to sorrow
…..What´s right today may be wrong tomorrow
…..But when we’ve fought our fights
…..And had our fun
…..We shall all be judged by the things we’ve done
…..When we’ve fought our fights
…..And had our fun
…..We shall all be judged by the things we’ve done

And one day soon their fortress grand
Will crumble back into the sand
And we shall sing throughout the land
You and I will stand
My brother
You and I will stand

You and I will stand
My sister
You and I will stand
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It’s a song, so don’t expect too many pyrotechnics in the text. It’s supposed to be direct, straightforward and easily sung by vast crowds of very determined people.

Bigfoot

BIGFOOT

I woke up this morning
Sooty footprints everywhere
In the kitchen, on the patio
In the bathroom, on the stair
There were footprints black as carbon
Hanging heavy on the air
And the paper lying on the mat
Said “Bigfoot’s here. Beware!”

…..Bigfoot’s eyes
…..Are on the prize
…..And never mind the cost
…..If we don’t cut him down to size
…..And soon
…..Then all is lost

Now I thought Bigfoot was a myth
It seems that’s not the case
And he’s not just in the U.S. now
He’s all over the place
He’s hosting feel good TV shows
With a big grin on his face
And there’s no escape from Bigfoot
He’s already up in space

…..Chorus

Bigfoot’s running factories
Churning out miracle pills
Bigfoot’s running colleges
Teaching vocational skills
Bigfoot’s got a master plan
For curing all our ills
If you see Bigfoot heading your way
Don’t panic, head for the hills!

…..Chorus

Bigfoot’s in the shopping mall
Signing up recruits
Handing out Rolex watches
And free Armani suits
Opening concessions
On all the major routes
Something tells me Bigfoot’s getting
Too big for his boots

…..Chorus

The government keeps on talking
About how much they care
The subject’s global warming
… Or is it just hot air?
The thing they really care about
Is Bigfoot’s market share
But Bigfoot paid for the election
So I suppose it’s only fair

…..Chorus

I eat apples from South Africa
Drink coffee from Peru
Drive a brand new 4 by 4
And collect the air miles too
Hey, why worry about this stuff
When there’s nothing you can do
My carbon footprint’s through the roof
And I’m a Bigfoot too

…..Bigfoot’s eyes
…..Are on the prize
…..And never mind the cost
…..If we don’t cut him down to size
…..And soon
…..Then all is lost

DADT (1999 – 2010)

DADT (1999 – 2010)

Welcome to one Private’s unprivate personal hell
Let’s drink a toast in honour of Benny
Shot through the heart by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

A spiteful, misbegotten fear cloaked in a pious shell
Let’s drink a toast in honour of Denny
Welcome to one Private’s unprivate personal hell

Discharged to stop them tainting other personnel
Let’s drink a toast in honour of Jenny
Shot through the heart by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

There’s no marker on the battlefield where they fell
Let’s drink a toast in honour of Kenny
Welcome to one Private’s unprivate personal hell

Just to speak their love’s name was to rebel
Let’s drink a toast in honour of Lenny
Shot through the heart by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

They understood prejudice only too well
Let’s drink a toast in honour of Penny
Welcome to one Private’s unprivate personal hell
Shot through the heart by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

Twin Towers

TWIN TOWERS

They went on and called
The World Trade Centre
The Twin Towers
Despite Tolkien

Despite Tolkien

Despite Tolkien
They went on and called
The World Trade Centre
The Twin Towers

They didn’t do irony

They honoured profit instead
Even in their hometown
Morgoth and Sauron, Saruman
Shiny windows, shiny cars

Shiny lives

And to them malice only existed
A world away, when somebody
Usually with funny coloured skin
Dared to get in the way

Kiss of death

September the Eleventh, Two Thousand and One
Business as usual, a bright sunny day
Suddenly all that certainty and security gone
A truly impolite awakening, for sure

A quite rude awakening in fact

I worked out from way back
Not to keep saving drowning people
Better to sort out the villains
Who were busy dumping them in

And laughing

So I spent the morning, then the afternoon
Sure it would arrive, claiming responsibility
Just three words – Enough Is Enough
Yours sincerely, Oxfam

Big disappointment

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“It’s tough to counterpoise hot-button issues with rationality.” – Russ Baker

Please note that this poem is not intended to imply any disrespect to the people who died when the World Trade Organisation buildings were destroyed, nor to the many thousands of people who have been killed or had their lives disrupted or destroyed as a consequence. This poem is not about Al Qaeda. It is not about the high impact of an instant “terrorism” attack but the slow motion obscenity of induced poverty and starvation. So while all that light is being shone today on what we are expected to concentrate on – the events at one particular place on one particular day ten years ago, here’s another little spotlight on the same events, but from another perspective on what the World Trade Organisation represents and its impact on the suffering of not thousands but millions of people all over the world every day.

“As we move deeper into an age of misinformation, disinformation, and superfluous information, maintaining our collective memory will more and more depend on honest information brokers; storytellers, journalists, investigative reporters who pursue a story with a passion and hunger for truth.” – Bill Berkowitz

“We use the madness to separate the events so that we don’t have to recognize the politics they have in common. The madness of each individual act enables us to distance ourselves from the politics that burn under the polite society we’ve created” – Bill Berkowitz

“Why, in a world that produces more than enough food to feed everybody, do so many – one in seven of us – go hungry?”
- Growing A Better Future: Food Justice In A Resource-constrained World
(http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/growing-a-better-future-010611-en.pdf)