For The World's One Percent… Poem by Aphrodite Anastasia Menegaki
For The World's One Percent…
Look at me, look me in the eye
I'm the child with skin like coal
With a hungry vulture waiting behind me
And no one to stand beside me
Take my picture show it to your people
As they drink whisky, tell them we're equal
Tell them I died for their diamonds
Look at me, look me in the eye
I'm the child that worked at that scrap yard
Where ships come to die
I'm the child that died on the rust of a wreck
Cheap hands, no shoes, no parents left
Somewhere in Asia, where the sun first rises
Somewhere far from you, a life theft
Look at me, look me in the eye,
I'm the child drown in the Aegean Sea
For your wars made me a refugee
I'm the girl chained to slavery
Next to your guns, drugs and ivory
I'm the tribe vanished for gold, oil and harvest
I guess being humane is the hardest
Look at me, look me in the eye,
I'm the child that worked for you
I'm the cheap hands you asked,
The one behind your company's mask
I'm the child that died out of hunger
I'm the mother who can't hold her anger
I'm the father who works each day
I'm the soldier who'll no longer obey
I'm all the lives you've stolen
I'm the people having no more to spend
For the world's one percent
In March 1993, Kevin Carter, a South African photojournalist whilst being restricted from touching famine victims for fear of spreading disease, he captured the photo of a little starving girl in Sudan that was trying to reach a feeding center under the hungry eyes of a vulture who waited for the child to die. He reported that twenty people per hour were dying at the food center. In the next year, Carter won the Pulitzer Prize for that photograph and committed suicide before the year's end, being unable to bear all that he had witnessed, all the famine, the anger, the pain and the wars.
Since then, and long before that day, all around the world, each and every day people's lives are wasted for the greed of some. Lives of men, of women, and mostly, of children. This poem is dedicated to Kevin Carter and his efforts to raise awareness, and to every single human being around the world who strives and gives his/her own battle for a better world, for a better tomorrow, and for equality amongst people.
I do believe, and always will, that where there is a will, there is a way for a better world, as long as we mean, understand and respect the rights and the life of every human being.
Very tragic story behind this pic(and poem) captured in ethiopia, I have seen it in journal...! I salute ur talent.
Thank you, sir! ! Thank you so much! ! ! Indeed, such a tragic story that unfortunately it is being repeated again and again each day....
Very tragic story depicted in this poem. It struck me though and made me wonder, where were the parents of this child, brothers or sisters? Why did no one scare this vulture away? How come not a single person picked this child up and held her? Have even the poor no heart any more? Have they come to be numb and uncaring of a child's suffering also? These are the questions this poem and the picture brought to mind. Blaming others for one's misery does nothing to change it, why do people allow others to treat them in this way? Why not turn their backs on the 1 percent and unite, change their lives together? If no one worked for these companies or people they would have nothing also. Just wondering about this. My heart does go out to this child and others - our world needs to change from the inside out.10+++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thank you for sharing. RoseAnn
Thank you for your comment, dear Roseann! The parents of the child were at the feeding centre and left the child alone until they'd get some food. She tried to near them. The photographer chased the vulture away after taking the picture. All foreigners there were forbidden from touching the locals and famine victims in fear of disease. I agree with you, and wonder of the very same thing; why... Simply, why.... Indeed, our world needs to change. And I hope that it will. Thank you truly, for your comments and for sharing your thoughts! ! Aphrodite-Anastasia
A new apocalypsis Anastasia.All the more I get sure about the talent you show in poetry.This is an excelent one, beyond of being an ''enganged'' poem for the needs of a 'project'.In poetical forms, in tenderness and sensitiveness your imagery moves and cries out what a human being should claim and demand.This is the path of true poesy, the hidden reality which aches you.Its main duty to discover it by its own means, the emotion of redemtory tears.Best wishes for the first award This is the best untill now submitted.
Ι do participate in the project and so I have the convenience to see the poems being submitted As far as I can judge, decide, I assure you that yours seems to me the best.So do please not think that I'm exagerating in eulogies.Best regards.
Dear Mr. Galanis, I cannot thank you enough for your encouraging words! ! Thank you! ! Thank you! ! Thank you! ! I wanted to depict the unjust inequality that exists around the world through the eyes of the victims. Thank you so very much again! ! ! !
Aloha Anastasia.... My apologies for the mistype... my keyboard is on the blink... or there is a ghost in this machine... searching for you in the www... all of the best from this life, to you, and all of your relations... Michaelw1two
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/17/2024 9:38:31 AM # 1.0.0.1119
I copied this poem and your prose comment. Anything I write here will pale next to the truth, passion and compassion you have expressed. You are stepping into what pundits call the World Order, but it's really a World (in) Disorder. Your poem about the 30 Years War focus on a Knight who believed in a Code of Chivalry, that is, violence could be channeled and innocent people protected. But the war lords ground his kind to dust even as they slaughtered the innocents. What do I hope? I hope you never lose hope, I hope you continue to inform yourself of the truth and speak out in your poems and prose against the Warlords and for the Peacemakers. And I hope you never lose faith in your right to your human happiness.
Dear Daniel, your words have me in tears. Thank you so very much! Thank you! It means a lot to me, and I must say that you've given me both hope and courage to keep trying to express my thoughts, my feelings and to keep believing in a better tomorrow. Thank you! ! Truly thank you! !