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Today we enjoy a good meal but many go hungry People starve on burning stomachs. This child cries for milk beside her dead mother, Callously shot by soldiers. This child longs to go to school to grow in learning, But the school house is bombed, The young virgin pines for her lover She wants to caress him and make love But he disappeared in waves of invading troops. Parents shed tears for their son, still missing, missing…. They fear he lies in a mass grave along with thousands. Everywhere foreign invaders kill, rape and plunder wealth, They burn the soil in their greed for gold, iron, for oil. We enjoy a good meal in peace. No poor country comes To invade Britain, Germany, France, America, Portugal or Holland. We enjoy a tasty meal while invaders set up puppets to run their colonies and kill their own people. With one hand they give food, fertilisers and money, With the other – war munitions and planes. The first woman Premier! Universally received with a red carpet: But state leaders walk on carpets of bloodied soil Hiroshima to Baghdad, the world is bombed and burning. Oilfields burn black, forests roar with burning. Seas bubble with pollution – mammals, birds and fish All burning in careless global pollution. We enjoy an evening meal while Socrates drinks the poison, While Jesus is crucified, nailed to a cross, While Martin Luther King and Gandhi fall to bullets. Puncturing the ozone layer with cool drinks to celebrate Our invasion of the moon, we burn poor livelihoods on rockets. Over a full English breakfast, we plan wars on a global scale With home-made armaments for sale. Using banners of democracy we excuse the killing of people. Holocausts of the past were justified on Christian and Moslem texts, As the Bible and the Koran spread their words. Do we refugees enjoy a good meal? Who in fear of life, in fear of guns and shelling left Our own lands: Through jungles of fear left beautiful homes and farms of rich sandy soil. Only to be branded ‘Refugees’ – labelled like criminals and slaves. From Australia to America refugees are burning. Human hearts are burning, the globe is burning for an end to wars, For the end of fascism and one man as Master of the whole world. The days of human slaves chained hand and foot must end, Only fascists would justify such domination. Who could deny refugees their sustenance And still enjoy a good meal on wealth off the poor. Poem by A (Siva) Sivanantham translated by Len Baden 19/06/03 This poem is an edited version of a longer piece by a Tamil refugee living with his family in the UK. He works to help and support others from his homeland who are exiled here as a result of the civil war in Sri Lanka and who long for the peace process to be given a chance to work |
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