Sorry to all you wonderful Dead Good blog readers - I almost let you down this week. I was appearing on stage the night before my regular blogging day and was lost for words. My role in Puccini's mini opera Gianni Schicchi proved to be quite challenging. Wait for it .... here is my one-liner of the week - "After playing a corpse for 3 nights, I have to admit, I was a little stiff." Well it was funny at the time. As they say, you really had to be there. A good time was had by all. We played to an almost full house for two of the three nights. The best part for me was hearing the wonderful voices of my fellow cast members and sharing in the backstage banter. Loved it.
I have been worried about what's going on in Africa this week. watch the news and have been chatting online to my cousin who has lived in South Africa since the mid 1970s and has friends over the border in Zimbabwe. The situation in Zimbabwe was dreadful when I stayed with her 2000. During the last seventeen years, raging inflation, poverty disease and fear have driven more and more Zimbabweans out of their native country. The former British colony gained independence and was ruined by political corruption, ethnic cleansing of the white population, ruination of the incredibly productive agricultural export trade and the tyrannical rule of the President Robert Mugabe.
This week, the 90 year old despot has been put under house arrest by his own armed forces who I hope will do their best to restore Zimbawe to free democratic rule. The situation is volatile but calm at the moment. While we hope for calm and common sense to prevail, I want to ask - why has no-one has intervened before. So many have suffered at the hands of this elected official turned lunatic. Zimbawe, once called 'the bread basket of the world' is reduced to survival on food aid, a demise that has disgusted most of the free world.
I wrote the poem in 2009... I hoped then that things might get better. I still do.
Black freedom, an unrealisable dream.
New strategies come into play.
Black and white in counter-play.
The West just smirks in indignation:
The white man’s grave is dug today.
Breeding cholera at their feet.
where once grew pride's prosperity.
A lost generation without education
No export income – devaluation.
The West impose their damning sanctions.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
No oil or gas? No Western intervention.
Thank you for reading. Adele
I have been worried about what's going on in Africa this week. watch the news and have been chatting online to my cousin who has lived in South Africa since the mid 1970s and has friends over the border in Zimbabwe. The situation in Zimbabwe was dreadful when I stayed with her 2000. During the last seventeen years, raging inflation, poverty disease and fear have driven more and more Zimbabweans out of their native country. The former British colony gained independence and was ruined by political corruption, ethnic cleansing of the white population, ruination of the incredibly productive agricultural export trade and the tyrannical rule of the President Robert Mugabe.
This week, the 90 year old despot has been put under house arrest by his own armed forces who I hope will do their best to restore Zimbawe to free democratic rule. The situation is volatile but calm at the moment. While we hope for calm and common sense to prevail, I want to ask - why has no-one has intervened before. So many have suffered at the hands of this elected official turned lunatic. Zimbawe, once called 'the bread basket of the world' is reduced to survival on food aid, a demise that has disgusted most of the free world.
I wrote the poem in 2009... I hoped then that things might get better. I still do.
Black and
White (Adele V. Robinson 2009)
Match One
Black and
white chess board stood evenly checked
all the pieces lined up in their place.
White
held power: black suppressed.
Smith slept peaceful in his bed.
Knights
in their castles, bishops supreme
forced
pawns in fields, fill the bread basketBlack freedom, an unrealisable dream.
The West
looks on with admiration:
At white African domination.
Match Two
The White
Queen hands over independence.New strategies come into play.
Elections bring black domination
as
Smith’s regime is chased away.
Freedom
and fairness proclaim the day.
Pieces move
to power positionsBlack and white in counter-play.
The West just smirks in indignation:
The white man’s grave is dug today.
Match
Three
New Black
king charges veteran knights
to take
white castles forcibly.
An exodus
begins in earnest
As
prosperous farmers start to flee.
What of
the incumbent tenant? Does he know
the art of furrow, farm and planting?
He cannot
reap – he did not sow.
The West
looks on with consternation:
This is an emerging Nation.
Match Four
Give us
this day our daily bread.
No grain
to sell – barely a crust.
Economy
blowing in the wind:
Howling
inflation – no hope just dust.
Black cries out in poverty,
Demands a
new democracy
to depose
dictatorial tyranny.
The West
ignores their ardent plea:
"Help to set our people
free."
Match Five
Election
sows seeds of corruption,
Opposition
crushed and made to pay.
Defeat
allows wanton destruction.
Homes
demolished, men taken away.
Orphaned children roam the streets,
Raw sewage runs in putrid riversBreeding cholera at their feet.
The West
stands back, observes the sight.
Now white
is black and black is white.
Check
Mate.
Disease
blows over the chess board nowwhere once grew pride's prosperity.
A lost generation without education
No export income – devaluation.
Consumed by power: A spat out husk.
Corrupted, tortured, beaten and bust.
Darkness
is falling: already it’s dusk.
The West impose their damning sanctions.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Post-Match Analysis
Stalemate
now. Why not prevention?
It
seems all black and white to me.No oil or gas? No Western intervention.
Thank you for reading. Adele
