The world we live in today
Is wrought with troubles
But, we, somehow in our comforts
Forget those less fortunate than ourselves
Clad in silk and living in homes
Draped rich in settings
We are proud to spew the ungodly sums we paid
In making our abodes much talked about
As we read the morning paper
We skip anything that might
Shock our senses
And bring crashing our belief
That everyone is like us ...
Safe in comfort
We think we have done our bit
By appearing at some charity gala
Pictured posing bedecked
Asking to be seated next to the Who's Who
Totally oblivious of the cause
It is time we stopped to ponder
About the millions we pass unawares
That have made your life and mine
So significantly enriched by their labours
The next time someone praises
The beauty of your carpets
Stop and spare a thought to little Ahmed
Hunched over his looms
A child in bondage
In a clandestine street shop in Lahore
Undernourished, fingers deformed from years
Of tying those praiseworthy knots
As you discuss the worldly issues
Sipping tea and coffee
Have you thought of the Sri Lankan woman
Whose nimble fingers
Picked those choice tea leaves
Or of Eduardo, in some shanty town in Brazil
Working the coffee mills
Both earning fractions of the change we leave
Behind in some swanky up-mart cafe
We profess to be conscious of the fragility
Of the world we possess
And we go, on eco-tourism holidays
Deep in the jungles we look
For a Shangri-la or Sheraton
To rest our bodies
Commenting on the loss of nature
We build hotels and golf courses
In the remotest of places
Seeing dollars to be derived
Slaughtering and destroying
What took millions of years to be
In mindless minutes of destruction
Moving towards a progressive nation
Everyone must work harder
Make more money to meet our new needs
Children are left unattended with maids
That they soon are merely entities in our lives
We are creatures with the ability to think
And yet are we thinking when we throw our babies
In dustbins and shrubs, wishing a death upon them
We would not wish upon ourselves
We become cruel towards the men and women
That work for us
Thriving on their unhappiness
To make our money grow
We place them in abodes not fit for sewer rats
And work them till they drop
Ignoring any shred of humanitarian feelings
We might have buried
Children lost without a sense
Partying with coloured pills
And poisoned filled syringes
Pumped into bruised veins
Searching for a Paradise of belonging
So elusive in reality
Profound euphoria shattered
With the urgent need for another fix
In another land fields are strewn
With lifeless bodies
The foul stench of death and decay
Permeate the air
A mother softly crying
Children too young to understand
The deaths that surround them
Only someday to be apart of the carnage
A frightening reality the cannot escape
Will we find the answers
To make our tomorrows
Safer for the future
Or will we implode
Results from our crimes against humanity
The answer lies within each heart the beats today
