Showing posts with label Economics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economics. Show all posts

Friday, August 26, 2022

Does Money Rule?

   
Does Money Rule?
 
“Money rules the world that ‘men’ have made.”
And who among us can resist its sway?
And yet, does money have a body, mind—
Or sense of self? It's truly men who rule—
Along with women—in proportion less
By far than what their even share could be.
 
So men (and women—some) with money rule.
The rest of us are “subjects” of these kings
(Or queens, at times)—and subject to their wills.
The pound and rifle, dollar teamed with bomb—
And now perhaps some other pairings too—
Are instruments by which our masters rule.
 
******
 
Are poorer people richer than the rich
In virtue? Do the rich have more of vice?
That's hard to say. It could be true—or not.
Wealth and power—these go hand in hand,
Magnifying vice and virtue, both.
The rich have potence that the others don't.
 
No matter. Money does not rule the world;
The ones with money—they're the ones who do,
For better or for worse. The issue is:
No ruler could exist without the ruled.
In this, we've mostly been completely fooled.
So kings were deified—as magnates are.
 
2022 August 26th, Fri.
Berkeley, California
 
 

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Freedom?

 
Freedom? 
  
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2015/01/16/do-we-need-hierarchy

We say, “This is a country free.”
And yet, I’m sure, to a high degree,
That almost everyone I see
Is an “owner” or an employee.

And though some might be both, we know
Our minds are set where income’s more.
And each of us, in verbiage, thought
And action, are, in mindsets, caught.


https://www.cuinsight.com/common-money-mindsets-hold-back.html

For every “owner”, you will find
A thousand of the other kind—
The ones who work, with hand or mind,
For bosses—gracious or unkind.

And which of these, I ask, is free?
And what’s the measure or degree
Of freedom that could ever be
The portion of an employee?

And even he, the boss of bosses,
With minions counting gains and losses,
Must carry too his gilded crosses.
Upon his bed, he turns and tosses.

So when we say that freedom shines
And show contempt for one who whines,
Remember—freedom isn’t guns
Or bombs that make a thousand suns.

Freedom is the lack of debt
And not being caught within the net.
You’ll find your freedom—this, I warrant,
When poised to be, where bosses aren’t.


https://memegenerator.net/instance/25900078

Kayapos dancing, with shorts and sandals on, Brazilian Amazon, by Thomas L. Kelly
http://www.thomaslkellyphotos.com/STOCK/TRIBES/Kayapo-Tribe/i-FqdBkCg
 
But even if you struggle free,
By climbing up the power-tree
Or breaking loose, what happens then
To all, who still are captive men?

A captive woman too must dance
As much in Yemen as in France.
And now, despite the "women's lib",
For women, freedom's still a fib.
 
Some dream that freedom will arrive
On owning Benzes they can drive.
And others aim yet higher, while
They wreak their damage, mile on mile.

There can’t be freedom, when the banks
Get richer, while the men in ranks
Are marching, so that profits flow
To those, who’re wanting even more.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/ten-examples-of-welfare-for-the-rich-and-corporations_b_4589188.html
 
There can’t be freedom, when there’s war
That issues from the place you are—
Or comes, like dread disease, to visit,
Bringing woe and horror with it.


http://mamaruko.deviantart.com/art/War-is-Fun-172851282

When corporations give the orders,
As humans still are penned by borders,
While money speeds like light, with ease,
Then serfdoms grow and freedoms cease.
 
http://tabaaninga.canalblog.com/archives/2007/08/02/5790494.html

So women in the past have marched—
And others, who had long been parched—
To drink of freedom’s heady draft.
And yet, they’re snared by Mammon’s craft.

http://rrrrodak.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html
 
So sons of slaves might wonder why
They still must work, until they die,
At jobs they’d rather leave, but can’t,
While hearing still that jive, that rant.

The daughter of a worker slaves
And pinches pennies, scrapes and saves,
But still, with earnings low, may find
A world that hardly rates as kind.

“We’re free!” the politician blares,
And yet our heads are filled with cares.
We’re free, in certain states, to buy
Our guns—but not to question why.

We see that science, much maligned,
Has been, by engineers, aligned
To suit the needs of plebes and those

Who buy, at Bloomingdale’s, their hose.
 

http://www1.bloomingdales.com/shop/product/spanx-shaping-sheers-in-power-line-super-high-waist-914?ID=478659

And so, we’re free to buy the stuff
That’s made by workers treated rough
In distant places, and we’re free
To claw to climb the hierarchy.

And science and tech have brought us things
Like ‘planes that speed on windswept wings
And ‘phones that each of us can carry
And bounties for the military.
 
We’re free: to use, instead of rocks,
Our fiery bombs, with thunderous shocks;
To burn alive, our fellow species;
To strew the planet with our feces!

If this indeed is freedom, why,
Do give me freedom, then, to die.
If freedom truly comes, then whisper,
“That dummy missed it by a whisker.”

But if, as likely, it remains
As distant, query, "Who then gains,
When workers, working ever faster,
Speed the race towards disaster?"
 
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/526850856385202506/

“Produce, produce!” the teachers teach.
“Consume, consume!” the pundits preach.
Who then has time to think, reflect?
To Mammon’s priests, we genuflect.
 
“Free-dumb! Free-dumb!”  Hear that shout
And ask yourself, what it’s about.
Can ignorance let freedom be
What it should mean to you and me?
 
2016 June 25th, Sat. & June 30th, Thu.
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York
 

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Go`nga Nodir Tire—গঙ্গা নদীর তীরে—By the Banks of the Ganges—गंगा के किनारे—گنگا کے کنارے


The poem, in Bengali script, is followed by a recording, then by two Roman transcriptions, and finally by a free translation into English.

Note:  Translations into Hindi-Urdu (the Urdu being from the Hindi via http://google.com/translate ) have been added at the end of this post.

In the Hindi translation (written in Devanagari script), the words used are, with some exceptions, mainly those of the lingua franca spoken in many of the cities and villages of the northern and central subcontinent, rather than those of the more formal, Sanskritized Hindi.

This popular form of Hindi-Urdu, used by Hindus, Muslims and others, had fewer borrowings from Arabic and Farsi than literary Urdu. Some used to call it "Hindustani", before the Partition of 1947.  It is still very much in use, in both India and Pakistan, and is widely understood in both countries.

Comments, criticism and corrections are very much needed.  These can be made through the small "Post a comment." link near the bottom of this post (above the "Links to this post" heading), or via e-mail to sjanah@aol.com.
----------------------------------

Young Man by the Ganges, Facebook post by Arati Kumar-Rao
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153535170976360&set=a.10150203885481360.312138.697771359
(Click the "See more" link at the end of the text in the Facebook post.)
   
গঙ্গা নদীর তীরে

গঙ্গা নদীর তীরে,
বইছে হাওয়া আজ৷
বসে আছি আশায় আমি,
মিলবে কবে কাজ?

স্রোতের জোর ত কমছে ক্রমে,
খরচা কমছে না৷
এপ্লিকেসান ভরছি রোজি,
জবাব পাচ্ছি না৷

বুধবার, ১৫-ই জুন, ২০১৬ খ্রি
ব্রুক্লিন, নিউয়র্ক
----------------------------------

This might not be available on mobile phones and some networks.
To hear the audio recording in Google's Chrome browser:
  1) first, click the triangular play button on the right, above;
  2) then click either:
    a) that button again to play the audio in the background (on this page);
    or
    b) the rectangular button on the left, above, for audio at the Vocaroo site.
The procedure in other browsers might be slightly different.
Vocaroo: Record and upload audio >>
----------------------------------
 
Go`nga Nodir Tire

Go`nga nodir tire,
boiche haoa aj.
Boxe achi axae ami,
milbe ko`be kaj.

Sroter jor to komche kro`me,
kho`rca komche na.
E`plikexo`n bhorchi roji,
jo`bab pacchi na. 

Budhbār, 15-i Jun, 2016 khri
Bruklin, Niu Io`rk
----------------------------------

Gaṅgā Nadīr Tīrē

Gaṅgā nadīr tīrē,
ba'ichē hā'ōẏā āj.
Basē āchi āśāẏ āmi,
milbē kabē kāj?

Srōtēr jōr ta kamchē kramē,
kharca kamchē nā.
Ēplikēsān bharchi rōji,
jabāb pācchi nā.

Budhbar, 15-i Jun, 2016 khri
Bruklin, Ni'uẏark
----------------------------------
 
By the Banks of the Ganges

A breeze is blowing from the river.
I sit on the banks and think,
“When will I get a job?”

The river is slowing,
but expenses are not.
I fill out applications,
but I get no replies.

2016, June 15th, Wed.
Brooklyn, New York
---------------------------------- 

गंगा के किनारे

गंगा नदी के किनारों पर,
हवा बह रही है अब।
मैं बैठा रहा हूँ, इस उम्मीद मे --
एक नौकरी मिलेगी कब?

नदी की ताकत कमती रहती है,
लेकिन खर्चे बढ़ रहा है।
हर रोज, आवेदन भेजता रहता हूँ।
लेकिन जवाब मिलता नहीं है।

बुधवार, १५ जून, २०१६ ईस्वी
ब्रुकलीन, न्यूयॉर्क 
----------------------------------

    گنگا کے کنارے 

،گنگا دریا کے کناروں پر 
.ہوا بہہ رہی ہے اب 
-میں بیٹھا رہا ہو، اس امید میں 
ایک نوکری ملے گی کب؟ 
   
،دریا کی طاقت كمتي رہتی ہے 
.یکن خرچ بڑھ رہا ہے 
.ہر روز، درخواست بھیجتا رہتا ہوں 
.لیکن جواب حاصل نہیں ہے 
   
بدھ، ۱۵ جون، ۲۰۱۶ ء 
  بروک لین، نیویارک 
  
----------------------------------

Comments, criticism and corrections are very much needed.  These can be made through the small "Post a comment." link near the bottom of this post (above the "Links to this post" heading)  or via e-mail to sjanah@aol.com.
      

Saturday, March 7, 2015

The Races


The Races 

  






















There’s misery in many forms – and happiness is found
in many things in many ways by you and I and more.
But let me speak awhile of woe that’s come from speeding up
and of the joy that once was here, when most were moving slow.

For Mammon wants us each to work and also spend our wages
at faster rates and more and more, expending all we've earned,
and then He wants the ant disposed before it ails and ages.
So each of us should swiftly then be buried or be burned…

For both in labor and in payments, humans serve their lords,
the ones that now we bow to, who are seated on their thrones.
So most of us are racing at our work and through our lives,
for he or she who doesn't, soon, in poverty, atones…



















The more we work, the more it is that profits large are gathered.
The faster that we do it, the faster profits grow.
The more that we are spending, the more the stocks that rise.
And who can dare to posit, that all of these should slow?

But see, what all that speeding up has done to humans ‘round –
the illnesses of body, mind that also grow at speed,
the madness in the zones of peace, the madder zones of war –
and ask, “Is this what humans want or what they truly need?”

And those of conscience suffer most, while those with fewer qualms
can still survive and flourish.   So our breeds are still evolving
to be of better service to our masters, as we race
upon the treadmills that, at speed, are always now revolving.






















    


The artisans have gone their way; the workers took their places.
And then the robots came – and those, that slaved before, displaced…
The quieter joys of life and work are lost in all our races,
and so our satisfactions are, by paychecks, now replaced…

So who has time to be with children, teach them, tell them stories?
And who has time to taste their meals, to savor still their lives –
to slowly walk, to pause to see, to read of woes and glories,
to hold another in their arms and be as husbands, wives?

For humans always knew to race, when moving fast was needed –
in hunting or in fleeing, in the battles of the past.
But we also knew of slowing – and the need for it was heeded,
for there are things we cannot do, when we’re moving fast.
 


















 


The work that’s fine, that’s focused, be it that of mind or hand,
the attention that is needed, when we’re learning what is new
or pausing from our schedules to attend to those in need,
were understood to be for all – and not for just a few.

There was a time when most of us were “primitive” indeed.
We then would hunt and gather – and were truly artists each.
Our lives had woes but also joys and flowed as rivulets.
We sang and danced and worked and did our children duly teach.

And no, it was no paradise, but yet we each were free
of masters who could make us work and rob us of our labor.
For we were truly humans then, in all our little clans.
The quiet joys of human lives, we then could truly savor.


























 
 



No clock-alarms, no rushing then to work in soulless mills,
not even fields, by brigands owned, to whom we owed their share –
no landlords then to claim their rents, no trace of feudal ills,
no “paradise on earth” and yet – a life that we could bear.

For we had friendships then – and bonds.  We cried at deaths, departures.
We laughed aloud and smiled a lot, we joked and had our fun.
No hospitals or nursing homes – and yet we did our best
to care for those who needed care – until the setting sun.

And those, who first then tilled the land, enjoyed awhile their grain,
and so could settle down and tend to elders and the sick.
But then there came the bandits who became their masters and
who put in place their feeding chains from populations thick.
 




















   



So predators can feed off prey, when prey becomes abundant.
So just as men had “tamed” the beasts and set them then to toil,
so also men were tamed in turn, so others then could feed
on all the work that peasants did upon the yielding soil.

And then the cities, then the trades, the ships and factories –
and so the trek towards the towns, to work in dreary mills,
and then the start, towards the end of all that humans had
that can’t be bought.  And so the starts of many present ills.

So having told this history, however poorly, I
would now beseech you to observe and question what you do.
For only when such attitudes are prevalent will we
return perhaps to slower lives – as meant for me and you.



















 


For those conditioned by their times – this age of packaging
and those that came before – they rarely pause to question why.
But to survive and to “succeed”, they quickly learn to race,
and so their lives become  a blur.  They never see the lie.

And only when the lies that we are fed, from when we’re born,
are seen for what they are, will men and women start to stop
and question wars of arms and those that now are waged in “peace” –
in all the races that consume our lives, until we drop.
 
2015 March 7th, Sat.
Brooklyn, New York

    

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Sapiens

  
Sapiens

I'm Homo, known as Sapiens.  I'm tough.
I've weapons that can kill you.  And
– I've stuff.

I've learned to write.   I've read my fill of books.
I've got my ins with all the local crooks.

So who can touch me?  Yes, there's science, art
– 
But see?  I'm where I am, because – I'm smart.

Wisdom?  Well, although my name is "Wise",
You're better off with smartness
– and with lies.

For truth is well and good, but lies can make
You rich.  That's where it's at.  The rest is fake.

2014 July 23rd, Wed.
Brooklyn, New York

  

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Beware, the Planes!

 
Beware, the Planes!
   
And some now fly in jet-planes through the sky,
While others labor closer to the dirt.
And surely none would either space deny,
But who does more of harm to this our Earth?

Some fly across the continents and oceans
For reasons every human understands.
But others fly, as part of world-elites,
To propagate the ills that plague our lands.

Yet these, who fly in arcs across the blue,
Are adulated by our pundits wise.
There may be sky enough for pundits too,
But is there oil enough – as waters rise?

“The wealth-creators” is the term that’s used
For flyers high – they make, we’re told, the wealth.
Yet one more term, in ignorance, abused!
Do tell us, why we still should worship stealth?         \1

The theft of labor – that is nothing new.
On that was built the empires of the world –
But never on the scale that now proceeds,
As all the planet is, in hellfire, hurled.

We each were one among the myriad,
As person or as species, part of a whole,
With all our conflicts, still in harmony,
And playing, each, an individual role…

For each has senses – so that each perceives
What’s best for each and for the others too.
If a cell or other being does not care
To listen, then – it's deafness, it will rue.

Can this, our world, bear such an overrun
By one deaf species, maddened, cancerous?
And does this species have, as destiny,
This lunacy? For what’s become of us?

We have the financiers, the ones with cash,
And those who serve them, in their penguin suits –
And then the masses, laboring for bosses –
And then, there’s jet-planes, bombs – and marching boots.

For who can stand against the megatons?
And who can down the devil-drones that fly?
Omnipotent, omniscient are those
Who fly above – while village orphans cry.

The brigand kings, their lords, the emperors,
And all the ruthless feeding chains below,
Were gone, we thought, with “rights divine” and worse.
But now we’ve more, to whom we all should bow?

The empires gave, to each, a place, indeed,
In which, at rung on ladder, each could toil.
A few could climb, on others, towards the top,
While most, near bottom, worked the planet’s soil.

But now our emperors are globalized.
We’re cogs in gears, within their great machines.
And where’s the place, where we can flee their reach
Or hide our children from their venal schemes?

Our kids, corrupted by what’s marketed
From all around, ignore the words we speak.
They eat of fire – so they each then burn,
And in their turn, yet more of havoc wreak…

So classes new are born and take their place.
They toil, consume – as profits rise, like cream.
What’s left of cultures, profiteers deface,
As missiles, guns and jails enforce this “dream”.

Whichever nation tries to dam this tide
And so survive, however small its bay,
Is flooded, by the dollar, as the plane
That flies on high ensures that all obey.

A state that tries to sing a different tune
Is quickly crushed – or suffocated slow.
It's demonized – until we all agree
That states like it should bleed to death and go.

Its leaders, pressured, may then means devise
To stay in power – means of brutal force.
And this adds powder to our media’s guns.
Our leaders stay upon their ruthless course.

For what they do – or what our allied states
May do – are not revealed to us.
Who bulldozes the shelters that are left
Or bombs from high – except the goons we trust?

And there’s resistance – here and there, we see
The workers, peasants or the tribesmen rise.
And then they’re crushed, with hammer-blows, while we
The sorry truth, but rarely might surmise.

We scarcely know, what happens down the street,
Much less, what occurs in another city.
So when the flyer makes his distant deal,
Who’s there to watch – or those, who suffer, pity?

Our minds determine what we humans are.
Who captures minds, directs what humans do.
And so are media used to start a war –
Or make us work to buy a product new.

For guns and bombs alone do not suffice.
Along with fear, they’ve yet more tools to use.
For every human virtue, there’s a vice
That works – to capture, weaken and abuse.

And seeing their societies rot, we see
That some, alarmed, for reasons right or wrong –
To privileges, rights, as case may be, preserve –
Have grown suspicious of the siren song.

So there’s resistance of another kind,
That rears its head and howls with ancient fury.
To violence, it answers loud in kind.
A “holy book” is made the judge and jury.

Go read the Torah, Bible or Koran.
Hear Krshna weasel Arjuna in rhymes.                   \2
Of what was lauded in those ancient texts,
You’ll hear the echo then, in present times.

In our Manhattan, as the workers toiled,
The towers rose in grandeur in the skies.
And then they fell. But others rise again.
So who has won? A widow softly cries.

In the autumn sky, a plane that arced and dove.
And Sodom then it was, in Mammon’s city.            \3
So zealots here repeated, as they did
In Bamyan, an ancient, sorry story.

But it was wealth that challenged wealth that day
And does – across the globe, as angels dark
Do battle, as the people cringe and die.
Beware, those streaks that through the heavens arc!

2014 January 18th, Sun. &  25th, Sat. 
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York 


1. The word "stealth" has been used here in its original (now archaic) sense.
 
2. The reference is to the Bhagavad Gita, in which the god Krshna persuades a reluctant warrior, Arjuna, to try to slay, in battle, his childhood mentors, relatives and friends.

3. Bamyan, in Afghanistan, was where the huge statues of the Buddhas stood, until they were dynamited by the Wahabi extremists, not long before they successfully attacked the Manhattan towers as well as the Pentagon.  The fierce monotheistic zeal recorded in the old Hebraic texts survives and manifests itself in this and other ways. This zealotry is also utilized, as always, to reach towards worldly ends.   

Please see also:
  
The Wealth Creators  

http://thedailypoet.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-wealth-creators.html


 

Saturday, January 11, 2014

The Wealth Creators

    
The Wealth Creators
      
Some think that putting on a tie and suit
Can help them rise above the ones who toil.
They may be right, if up’s away from those,
Whose lives are spent in contact with the soil.

The ones who till and rear and clean and fix
Can hardly wear the penguin garb that marks
A citizen, who keeps his nail-beds clean
And yet has "worth", whose value upwards arcs.

Some fly in jet-planes clear across the globe,
While others rarely leave their “villages”.
We ask, “Whose work adds more to human wealth,
And whose it is, that skims or pillages?”

For engineers and others who protest,
I speak of those, who seem to own the globe.
But all of us might ask, whose interests
We truly serve – and conscience, duly probe.

We celebrate, today, the enterprise
Of “owners”, who took risks to garner riches.
The “wealth-creators”, they are called by us,
And each, to emulate them, daily itches.

And surely, they deserve at least a round
Of winking, for their canny acumen.
But surely too, the ones that they “employ”
Deserve, as afterthought, acknowledgement.

For what is “owning”, what’s “employment”, needs
Some thinking through, some tracing back to roots.
And when we do this, we will find these words
Have much to do with why we bow to suits.

The men and women, who, in truth, create,
Are rarely those who profit from their acts.
And when invention needs production, then
There’s human labor.  These are simply facts.

So where would those we worship be without
Inventors, workers, all who’re nameless, mute?
And who were they, who reared and taught and nursed?
Have I said aught that any would dispute?

Yet those of clan Ayn Rand, they often speak
Of “makers” and of “takers”.  But beware,
For often, they reverse descriptions true.
Such terms, as used, are patently unfair.

These words divide the workers now, because
Some claim, they’re working more and others less.
This may be true or not, but ask, instead,
“Who profits most, from labor and distress?”

The wealth-creators are the ones who work.
Their daily labors make some others rich.
So when they ask you, who the “makers” are
And “takers”, then be clear on who is which.

2104 January 11th, Sat.
Brooklyn, New York 


See also: 

Beware, the Planes! 

http://thedailypoet.blogspot.com/2014/01/beware-planes.html
 

Monday, December 30, 2013

Kaler Phondi


Kaler Phondi

Nodir dhare, chaeae boxe, jhilik dekhechi jo`ler,
Bo`rxa kale, xunechi dure kalo megher dak.
Karkhanate korechi cakri, xunechi go`rjon ko`ler.
Jo`njale xexe ahar khu~ji, t’hokrae kager jha~k.

Dupur be`lae, gache ut’he, per’echi peara, am.
Pata bhenge, xu~khechi to`khon brikkher xugo`ndho.
Xo`horer base, xu~khechi po`re dizel dhoa, gham.
Pulix theke pet’ani khe-e, karagare hoechi bo`ndo.

Cher’echi ga~e, poe`xar kho~je, xo`kol poribar.
Pe-echi cit’hi, ke~dechi dukkhe, roechi kajer bondi.
Pat’hiechi t’aka, maxer xexe, khet’e khet’e protibar,
Hariechi tobu, xo`bare ami – ei to kaler phondi.

Moner dukkhe, baki kichu t’aka d’obai xexe xo`b,
Pagol hoe, kajer xexe, nexae khu~ji mukti.
Nexar ghume, mrito priyo exe ko`re ko`loro`b.
Nexa cher’e, matha khure, xuni xei ba~car jukti.

******

Mone po`re bar-bar, jo`nmo jekhane.
Trene-base bhabi kal phirbo xekhane.
Bhexe jae maxgulo, boe jae bo`chor,
Kho`motar bhat’a axe – mojdur kator.

Ja kichu, gheme, kori tao rojkar,
Co`le na tate ar, kho`roc ajkar.
Ki kori, hae!  Phirbo ki dexe?
Chai hoe, nodi die phire jabo xexe…

Ei bhebe, cher’e di cakri o maena.
Tao dekhi, xo`b cher’e, xanti-t’a paina.
Gho`r theke rastae – bhik mangi khidete.
Khali pet’e durbo`l – xue pori mat’ite.

Pulix exe lathi mare, mare jore d’and’a.
Har gulo ge`lo bhabi.  Rat bo`ro t’hand’a.
Xonar ei banglae, hirer juger cihnno –
“Kaj kho~jo!” bo`le e`k, do`ea-maea bhinno.

Xombar, 30e  D’isembar, xo`kal 3:10
Benso`nharst’, Bruklin, Niu Io`rk
 

Friday, November 29, 2013

The Walmartization of the U.S.A. -- Part I


The Walmartization of the U.S.A.
      
This country’s fathers’ paramount desire
was this – pursuit, unlimited, of wealth.

But Jefferson, whose land and slaves were surely
wealth enough, wrote “happiness” instead –
and not because he’d had his fill, but since
he thought the previous word might cause offence
to those who held to Christian norms in speech,
while doing all they could to be as rich
as one, whom Jesus once had pictured as
a camel, seeking passage through the eye
of a needle.  But heaven never was their goal.

A paradise on earth was what they sought,
the reason why they sailed from England’s shores,
with dreams of land aplenty, land that could
be cleared of forests, sown with seed, from which
would spring the harvests, first of food but then
the ones of cash – for landlords, they would be...

And when this dream was challenged by the king,
the landlord over all, who sought his share,
the share he was accustomed to, that fed
the hierarchy of brigands that he headed,
the new lords in the colonies rebelled,
and sent the rabble forth against the king.

And if my tale be slanted to your eye,
Then to your questions I will give reply,
“The truth, of what had happened in the past,
is lost to us. The facts, we may surmise
at times, from what the ones, then living, wrote.
The motivations are unclear at best,
and much of truth has long been put to rest.

“So those, who won, may write of it one way,
while those, defeated, write another tale,
and few are they, dispassionate, who watch
and then have means to let us know their views.

“So you can read, of seventeen-seventy-six,
in local books, from writers of this land
or those from England or from France and see
that each, who saw what happened, be it here,
or from afar, had painted pictures quite
dissimilar – and prejudiced by minds
inclined to one or other creed – and that
the class, to which the writer had belonged,
had played a part in what that writer saw.”

But struggles did not cease with ’76.
Indeed, they then began in earnest and
we see this country racked, like others were,
by endless strife and slaughters with no end.

But I will overpass two centuries
and focus for a while on present times.
In doing this, the longer view is lost
and all the past obscured, that feeds the now.
So I must beg forgiveness for this sin
and then proceed, to pointing with my pin.

I am an immigrant, like those before
but only landed here upon these shores
a year before the bicentennial, that
of nineteen-seventy-six, when Johnny Cash
regaled the multitude upon the Mall.

‘Twixt  Monument and Capitol we stood –
and when the fireworks at the end were done,
we sought the port-a-potties – and I climbed
upon the bus, the way I’d learned to do,
in Dilli, through the window;  then, to home –
or what then served for it, a basement flat,
from which I’d walk a mile or so to school,
and back and forth again and back each day,
four trips in all.  But we were younger then
and ignorant – and work was near to play.

And some of us were earnest, then as now,
while others then were learning of the game
and playing it, as presently, sans shame.

And what’s that game?  Why, simply, it is this –
to focus on oneself, on loss and gain,
to play to win, to bow to those above
and work the ones below, to serve with lip
whatever is the norm that holds in speech,
as did our Jefferson, while holding fast
to that which counts – for self – and acting so
that wealth, which here is happiness, is more.

So is it not the same in every land?
It may be so.  But rarely is this raised,
as here it has been, to a moral code.
But then, I may again be more than wrong…

For I would have to live in far Shanghai,
in London, Zurich and Mumbai,
to sit in offices in Tokyo,
in towers high in Hong Kong and Dubai…

And some, who read this, some of this have done,
so they can judge my verses on the run,
and if they criticize, comment, suggest,
I will be grateful for their interest,
while wishing still that others too could write,
who’ve lived their lives in Cairo, Budapest
or Timbuktu – or far from city lights,
in fields where sun rules day – and stars, the nights.

And to our Jefferson (and I say "our",
while humbly conscious of the arrogance
that this might seem to be reflecting), I
should offer my apologies.  I judge
him from a distance great and so I pick
at faults he might or might not have possessed.
   
So those of stature may be picked upon
by midgets, who may nibble at their toes,
and turn their virtues into vice and say,
"Where most say 'Yes.', we relish saying 'Nay!' "

To all descendants of that man (of all
the races that we seek to superpose
on this our species), I will turn – and say,
"The great have faults – perhaps those made them great.
The lesser then must bear what greater did,
for better or for worse – or seek, in turn,
to change, however slightly, current's course.
And this, some do by action – some, discourse."

< to be continued >

2013 November 29th, Fri.
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn

The Walmartization of the U.S.A. -- Part II 
  
http://thedailypoet.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-walmartization-of-usa-part-ii.html