Three Cheers for the Voiceless

Under the great sky, a flock of flamingos
burning huts and bags of flour
my only friend in this lonely world
are the hours upon hours

a problem here cannot compare
to countless unmarked graves
and yet we dig with broken hands
passing, passing the days and days

my cure came from an entire nation,
disguised as aid - pharmaceutical clinics,
the men with champagne and suits
widen their twisted mouths up
three cheers to change, the future,
eternally empty cups

yes, drink and drink
offer a toast to the twentieth, thirtieth
genocidal war
close your eyes to avoid baring witness
to what is easy to ignore
call it by another name - free TB testing,
AIDS swabs, tablets of hope
the dead are dying anyway
the illiterate surely will not know

passing, passing the days and days
I walk out into sunlight screaming
knowing well the guns pointed at my head
but I would rather go out singing
then walk in silence with the dead

and as I lay me down to sleep
I pray the earth my voice to keep
and if I die before I wake
I pray songbirds my poems to take.

**
I wrote this after watching a film called The Constant Gardener. It is about a pharmaceutical company setting up shop in Africa, offering free TB tests and AIDS swabs. It appears to the village that they are being helped, but what was really happening was the pharmaceutical company using these people to develop a cure for TB. The men who supported this mission said that it didn't matter, the African people were dying anyway and they were illiterate and did not know what was happening. It is just a film, but I would never deny the possibility. A woman stood up to bring the horrible acts of the company to light, and she was murdered. The story is about her husband trying to figure out what had happened to her. He discovers, as she had, the unethical "aid" and ends up being hunted by the same forces. At the end, although he knows he will too be murdered, he sends a letter to Rome to be read at his funeral. The people who murdered him are in attendance and his friend begins to read this letter which "outs" the culprits of the pharmaceutical company. I have to remember, that even IF these things happen, there are always people seeking truth and will give even their own lives to save thousands of others.

Another issue we face in America involves politics. I just watched a video posted by Adbusters, one of my favorite magazines, about how a bill passed in January that allowed corporations unlimited spending in political campaigns. This has already led to Target offering 150,000 dollars to back an anti-gay, anti-worker candidate in Minnesota. Again, I have been asking myself what the issues are in American that we have to fight against and speak out against, and most of the time it boils down to political agenda, religious entanglement and corporate sponsorship in politics, etc.

In Half the Sky, an Indian woman Meena sings to her two little girls,
and says (i'm sorry, i may be about to misquote, but do not have the book handy)

if girls in India are not free
put your hand over your heart and ask
is this country truly independent (or free)

I say the same for America. The illusion of freedom is powerful, but aid and resources are still often misguided due to religious beliefs and corporate sponsorship,

put your hands over your hearts and ask
is this country truly free, if the freedom has been paid for
and branded?