a bit of bruce for a friday afternoon

so much of what i hear in the news these days brings to mind the songs of bruce cockburn from his 'angry' period in the 80s. he could be a prophet. that would be the most comforting explanation, in a way, because the other, more disquieting, explanation for the immediacy and applicability of his songs from 20 years ago is that history is repeating, that what he was documenting and describing then is just happening again.

take the song People See Through You. it could easily have been written about the current u.s. administration (but was actually about the government of the recently departed ronnie reagan). we can only hope that its true that 'people see through you', because it looks more and more like people just aren't watching anymore, and that would be the most frightening thing of all...

You've got covert action
Prejudice to extremes
You've got primitive cunning
And high tech means
You've got eyes everywhere
But people see through you

You've got good manipulators
Got your store of dupes
You've got the idiot clamour
Of your lobby groups
You like to play on fears
But people see through you

You've got instant communication
Instant data tabulation
You got the forces of occupation
But you don't get capitulation
Cause people see through you

You've got the sounding brass
You've got the triumph of the will
You do what you want to
And we pay the bills
You hype the need for sacrifice
But people see through you

You've got anti-matter language
Contrived to conceal
You've been lying so long
You don't know what's real
You're a figment of your own imagination
And people see through you

You've got lip service tributaries
You've got death fetish mercenaries
You hold the tickets to the cemetaries
You're big and bad and scary
But people see through you

(Copyright Bruce Cockburn 1985)

something we don't see or hear about often is the money its going to take to get iraq back on its feet. of course there is a fair bit of foreign aid flowing in at the moment, but don't think for a moment that the imf and world bank aren't sinking in their dirty claws as deep as they can go. that massive oil reserve is going to be very good for loan interest payments for years and years to come, thank you very much. but we all knew this is what 'democratising' is all about, didn't we: letting foreign banks and corporations have free rein (or is that reign?), and if they bleed the country dry, well that's just market forces.

did i say "get iraq back on its feet?" more like keep it on its knees...

Call it Democracy

Padded with power here they come
International loan sharks backed by the guns
Of market hungry military profiteers
Whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared
With the blood of the poor

Who rob life of its quality
Who render rage a necessity
By turning countries into labour camps
Modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom

Sinister cynical instrument
Who makes the gun into a sacrament --
The only response to the deification
Of tyranny by so-called "developed" nations'
Idolatry of ideology

North South East West
Kill the best and buy the rest
It's just spend a buck to make a buck
You don't really give a flying fuck
About the people in misery

IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

See the paid-off local bottom feeders
Passing themselves off as leaders
Kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows
Open for business like a cheap bordello

And they call it democracy

See the loaded eyes of the children too
Trying to make the best of it the way kids do
One day you're going to rise from your habitual feast
To find yourself staring down the throat of the beast
They call the revolution

IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

And they call it democracy

(Copyright Bruce Cockburn 1985)