The real thing this Christmas

As Christmas draws near
In these times austere,
Remember, parents,
Your dear children may scream
But persevere.
Though your children may dream
Of a Playstation three
With FIFA 2013,
A better gift, more austere,
Is a real football.
For who needs a PS3
When outside there's a world to see?

Palestine's a state

Secretary of State,
State of Confusion.
Secretary of hate,
Palestine's a State?!

A State or in a state?
Apparently both of late.

Never a debate,
Too late a twist in fate.
Palestine's a State,
At last for Heaven's sake!

In or out?

In or out?
Hokey cokey.
Hop out?
Opt out.

Disillusion?
Okey Dokey.
An illusion?
Confusion.

Referendum?
You're joking.
Integration?
Not talking.

Budget?
Oh crikey.
Back down?
Not slightly.

Isolated?
Kingdom Kensuke.
Deflagellated?
Emasculated.

Influential?
More than likely.
Consequential?
Integral.

Southern loan?
High and mighty.
Eurozone?
Danger zone.

In or out?
Hokey cokey.
Opt in?
Never in doubt.

Idiocracy

Must we live in a world with flagrant distaste of changing the stasis?
Where vacant masses waste in apathetic recesses?
Where a faceless race for ignorance is bliss?
With stagnant fools in every place, no names to put to faces?

We're in some ugly state
When some dumb fucks
Would rather decide the fate
Of some talentless runt
On the X-Factor,
Than to prise their rapidly expanding arse
From the sofa,
And vote for,
Their future head of state.

It's a farce, but in no way a humorous display,
It seems brains are scarce in the populus today.
Though seeding my greater disdain is the inherent idiocracy
That voting for a majority between two wholly similar parties constitutes democracy.

Socrates would be falling to his knees
If he witnessed the ease at which we abandon our liberties.
The outlook is bleak in this meek society
Where free thinking is dwindling and sheep follow sheep.

Baaa Baaa
Is the only sound that abounds
From the millions around who don't give a shit.

At schools we should have exams at giving a shit;
Those who don't give a shit would be forced to eat shit.
Maybe then they'd sit up and do something about it,
Or maybe they just wouldn't give a shit
And eat more shit because someone told them to do it.

It seems easier to be stupid,
Breathe, walk, eat - that's it.
Oh, and don't forget to not give a shit. Eat shit!

This idiocracy demands a new philosophy
Where brains are valued beyond histology.
For wanting to change the world I make no apology,
The folly of our current direction is absurd.

For a start let's rekindle the art of conversation,
While we're talking we'll foster a sense of cooperation,
Of community, unity and love for all nations,
Let's mingle and kindle some proper relations.

And when we're chatting please mean what you say,
Say what you mean and we'll be okay.
Like what you like and live free of scrutiny,
Free of the vice of what people want you to be.

For we are all free if we just think it,
If we just break the link to blind conformity.
Socrates died for his right to think freely...
Let us not wind up in a mindless idiocracy.

Short memories

Not to get cynical, but of all countries, I'd have thought that Israel would not be the one to get so clinical.

After the horror of the Holocaust, it's morose, but Israel has become like the child molested turned molester.

Totalibanitarianism

Taliban -
Talibandits.
Totalibanally insane Talibrand of Talibantics.

Totalibanitarianism.

Music and dancing - Talibanned.
Television and movies - Talibanned.
Kite flying - Talibanned.
Celebrating New Year - Talibanned.
Objectionable books - Talibanned.

Religions other than Islam - Talibranded like Jews under the Nazis.
Within Islam, not being Sunni - Taliblasted in Rawalpindi and Karachi.

Totalibanitarianism.

Women's rights - Talibanned.
Women working - Talibanned.
Women playing - Talibanned.
Women laughing - Talibanned.
Women celebrating - Talibanned.
Women gathering - Talibanned.

Women studying - Talibanned,
And for protesting Malala gunned down.

Wearing nail varnish - thumb cut off.
Not qutting your job - gun shot to the head.
Girl fleeing baad - Ear and nose cut off
And left in the mountains for dead.

Totalibanitarianism.

Taliban -
An affliction on Afghanistan.

Tehrik-i-Taliban -
An affliction on Pakistan.

Totalibanitarianism.
Totalibanally insane Talibrand of Talibantics.
Talibanatics.
Talibandits.
Taliban.
Totalibanitarian.
Band of Totaliban twats.

From Swat in Pakistan to Afghani sands,
It's time the Taliban were Talibanished.

Who's the terrorist?

Rockets from Palestine are futile
But Israel's reply is brutal.
Hamas' force is infinitesimal;
This destruction of Gaza is dismal.

For no matter who the aggressor,
The military might should know better.
If Hamas is viewed as an agent of terror
Then Israel's no less than a vicious oppressor.

Yet there exists a bizzare hypocrisy,
In another crisis under global scrutiny.
Today the opposition to Assad's brutality
Was by William Hague granted legitimacy.

So if I'm wrong please do forgive me,
I'm not the judge of truth and decency.
But in my eyes it's patent to see -
Israel and Assad appear to be
Singing from a disturbingly similar hymn sheet.

Barack Attack v. 2

Obama’s back
With a Barack attack.

A Democratic whack
On Republican tack.

Mitt’s in the pits
With his questionable wits.

I’m in bits in fits
He ever got picked.

But I’m deflecting
My affection for
The media erection
Over the US election.

One presentable,
The other resentable,
At least the electorate
Selected the sensible.

Some might,
And I do, say
The USA
Has had its day.

The global sway
Of power play
Is straying East,
Allez Bombay.

Though
Less of a superpower,
More like
A stupor-power;
In the jungles
Uncle Sam
Cowered under
Napalm shower.

In fact, to my mind,
The United States
Has only won one fight
Since 1945.
It's not quite right
This military might
Has bated plight
After unsavoury plight.

But maybe now
It's time to repent
What's been spent
On thinly vetted defence.
From a feted lender
To a net debtor;
Better pass the buck
Big spender.

Capitalist arrears
Draw jeers like Dumbo’s,
While the Politburo
Sneers into Kung Bo.

The indebted West’s
Truncating relevance
Trumped by Asia’s
Developing elephants.

Europe’s boom fruit
Truly bruised,
From Moulin Rouge
To frugal blues.

No more Can-Can,
It’s no can do;
EU in lieu
Under Jackie Chan’s shoe.

So let’s get it on
And bang a gong,
For the new King Kong
Hong Kong’s on song.

While the West mongs
On an economic bong,
Bing bong, pass the Dutchie,
The East’s long gone.

From Obama's bling
To Xi Jinping,
My attention swings
To you Beijing.

A six thousand
Year empire
With more roads
Than Rome.
From China's
Inventive pyres
Rose the fire
Of Imperial desire.

The tide is high,

Demise is nigh;

Arise mighty China,
It’s time to ride.

On the breeze
And over the seas,

Like Chinese chippies
A new supremacy.
America exports
Maccy D’s
And KFC’s;
Geez…

I’d rather have Dim Sum or Jalfrezi please.

Barack Attack

Obama's back with a Barack attack.
A democratic whack on republican tack.

Mitt's in the pits with his questionable wits.
I'm in bits in fits he ever got picked.

But I'm deflecting my affection for the media erection over the US election.
One presentable, the other resentable, at least the electorate selected the sensible.

Some might, and I do, say the USA has had its day.
The global sway of power play is heading East, allez Bombay.

The tide is high, demise is nigh.
Arise mighty China it's time to ride.

On the breeze and over the seas,
Like Chinese chippies a new supremacy.
America exports Maccy D's and KFC's. Jeez...

I'd rather have Dim Sum or Jalfrezi please.

Let's Step Forward

Let's step forward into 2150
12 billion people and half with no food to eat.
Despite all our warnings through global warming
We carried on depleting and repeating this wicked feat.

I look around me as my eyes draw water
But not like the wells because they've all run dry.
I'm trying not to cry but I can't fight the tide
While the people that surround me are all dying side by side.

They look at my clothes as I stand here alone
Frozen with compassion for those we abandoned long ago.
As one of them walks by he draws a sigh that echoes,
He turns to me and says "you're from the past, we know."

I'm speechless because what we've done to them is ruthless.
I could try and say sorry but an apology would be fruitless.
We all knew what we were doing was polluting the planet
But we carried on regardless as if somehow it would all work out.

As I wander through the empty, desolate fields
I remember the warnings of our diminishing yields.
Yet governments in high seats and those hungry for meat
Did little to ensure food was secure and replete.

There's no justifying the crimes that we have committed on this earth;
It's not like there was a dearth of evidence this would occur.
With our own eyes we witnessed ice caps melting in the distance
But not enough of us did anything to stop this.

I step back into the future and there are still those who don't care;
Like those who went before they're apathetic, feelings bare.
In Washington and London they live in ignorant abandon
Without a thought for the thousands in delapidation around them.

Why are us humans such a stubborn damn breed?
Why do we never stop to listen and take heed?
As Gandhi once said there's enough on Earth for man's needs
But nowhere near enough to satisfy man's greed.

George Osborne You Don't Know You're Born

George Osborne,
Forlorn moron.

Two million pounds,
Still on the scrounge.

Fare to pay,
No fair, no way.
Some other chap may
Have been fined that day.

Rightly booed,
Resent renewed.

George Osborne,
You don't know you're born.

Sandy Storm Into New York Borne

Sandy storm into New York borne,
Nature warning of future form.

Icy caps in the North collapse.
Brought forth, aghast, industrial past.

And present; for there is no repent,
Resources plundered with scarce dissent.

Blindly uncaring excuses unbearing,
Never rare the warnings of excessive fare.

Paradise Islands prepared for demise,
No halting the bite of rising blue tide.

Seychelles, Maldives and Mauritius as well,
A tale of perilous sinking to swell.

Sandy storm into New York borne,
Future form nature doth foretell.

One Young World - A Poetic Recollection

 In Pittsburgh, the old steel city
We bold young leaders came in droves
In Pity;
Of a world of illiteracy.
Of starvation and obesity.
A World lacking passion, compassion and dignity.

Along the river, amongst flags that flew
No fewer than 183 countries cruised
And knew;
Those they’d not known before
While those who had renewed relationships more.
New friends alighted together ashore.

Beside the banks – side by side we strode
Like lines of ants toward the Heinz in ranks
To behold;
One Young World awakening.
Philharmonic violins playing cold.
An infant chorus warming hearts of the old.

Distinguished councillors recounted their wisdom
From Geldof, to Yunus, to President Clinton
Who told us;
We must sustainably change tack,
Inequality holds us back,
Insecurity unfolds and withholds us.

Day one, immediately a pledge to end illiteracy
And next Jamie Oliver’s special on obesity
A crisis;
Of one billion worldwide
While millions have no food to buy.
These problems are inextricably tied,

Which is why- Amid boxes and greenery
Was planted the Thought for Food social machine
To uproot;
The unjust status quo,
Novel solutions to grow,
To harvest a secure food future for all.

On Saturday – a chance to break out.
With Hip Hop on LOCK we recorded one beat
At Yo Momz House.
Then the evening complete;
All around town we sat down to eat,
International children in family seats

Along came Sunday – a fond farewell
But not before Kofi Annan could tell
A story;
Of a life in service.
Of sacrifice to nations united.
Of genocides, civil wars and international crisis.

Young leaders, let this be a message.
Let’s not mess things up like previous generations
And pledge this;
To end poverty and illiteracy,
To end hunger and obesity,
To bring equality, security and sustainability

And finally, a thank you to the founders.
To the great Kate Robertson and David Jones
Who found us;
Who brought nations together,
Fostered friendships forever.
It is upon us to change the world for the better.
One Young World – it’s now or never.

Autumn leaves

Autumn leaves turning
Red, yellow, orange, auburn.
One changing Young World.

One Young World - A brighter future

One Young World draws near.
In Pittsburgh, the aim is clear;
Our future Leaders
Joining together as one
For a brighter day to come.

Stop the slaughter of English badgers

As autumn leaves fall,
Badgers face galling slaughter;
An apalling call.

What is reality?

New Scientist lately asked what is reality?
Seemingly life's not as it appears to be,
But for you or me reality is all that we see.
Thus as Gandhi once so wisely decreed,
Be the change in the world that you want to see.

Natural pesticides

In the media there's been recent news;
In America since GM was introduced
Pesticide use has gone through the roof.

It was projected that their use would fall
But it's folly we use them on bugs at all,
Insects are food not pests that gall.

In Japan, in paddies by searching you can
In two days find ample food for a family.
Sixty eight kilos of 'hoppers per man.

In fact in the days when grain was surplus
Some said the excess may serve a purpose -
Abundant forage for nutritious grasshoppers.

Alas in these times of fast food culture
Traditional foods are neglected, asunder.
Insects seem repugnant, causing confused wonder.

Yet to this, worldwide, many take exception -
Viewing insects as pests is a misconception.
We should change our attitude to crop protection.

We could take a lesson from the Mexicans
Who harvest Sphenarium purpurascens.
Near Puebla they gather these bugs in their thousands.

This reaps rewards for local families,
Paid to protect the alfalfa fields annually,
Who make an extra three grand in salary.

This symbiotic practise, too, helps farmers,
As research by Cerritos and Cano-Santana
Shows spraying is hardly any better than capture.

Insecticides are ecologically bad,
Ignoring this would be both sad and quite mad.
Imagine the grub that with capture could be had.

During this worldwide economic downturn
With jobless masses who employment yearn,
In the fields we could deploy some to earn.

This strategy seems entirely sensible,
To save the planet we need change that's radical.
The way things are going is completely maniacal.

Locusts are Kosher

Locusts are Kosher
It says so in the Torah
So let's eat locusts.

An insect eating terza rima - poetry day UK

Orthoptera contain abundant protein,

Which can be up to three times greater than beef

And is just as digestible as casein.

When you consider they only eat leaf,

A nineteen percent gain in body mass

Is without doubt a quite substantial feat.

Sustainable cows can be reared on grass

Alas the same can’t be said for ranches

That ensure climate change will soon come to pass.

Just one look at evolutionary branches

Suggests that insects are cleaner than meat.

Cows, pigs and chickens all cause diseases.

The majority of food that insects eat

Goes to make carbohydrates, fats and protein

While most of what livestock eat they excrete.

Grasshopper fats are incredibly lean

With similar levels as chicken and fish

While nutritionally they out-compete beans.

Thus on poetry day I have but one wish:

Insects one day take pride of place on the dish.

Time we confined the steak knife to history

The majority of our livestock are reared on the most fertile land,
While many of our crops are grown on land turning to sand.

This outrageous discrepancy is quite clearly lunacy,
So I propose we commence changing our consumption completely.

Insects can be raised in vertical farms, in cities,
Which would allow crop productivity in regions with greater fertility.

If we care about the malnourished, starving and hungry,
Then it's about time we confined the steak knife to history.

What's the use in arguing about climate change?

Whether a climate change denier or indeed a "believer"

What's the point in arguing? It's cleaner to be greener.

Does it matter whether the weather is changing or not?

Once the oil wells run dry renewables are all we've got.





NB.  Read this interesing blog post: "How to argue with climate change sceptics"

A rebuke to the false French GM "study" on rats

GM maize did not kill the rats that
The French trial lately gave them to graze.

This experiment is expressly redundant
As no-one has expired while GM has been abundant.

This argument is a non-starter, you should rather
Invest your research into making crops scavenge water.

Alas, in a world of climatic disasters it's
Paramount we use a variety of agricultural tactics.

Soon our soils will be sailing in salinity,
Our crops will be wilting and yields diminishing.

But conventional breeding is nowhere near achieving
Salt tolerance in the crops we rely on for eating.

Yet adding one protein, albeit a transgene,
Can dramatically improve a plant's tolerance to saline.

Furthermore these same proteins ensure
That a severe lack of water crops may endure.

Therefore I implore the organic brigade
To embrace GM, forego their furore and terminate this tirade.

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech is becoming confused with freedom to preach racist diatribe.

In the New York subway, a bigoted poster says, that Palestinians are savages but Israelis are civilized.

Support the civilized man in the war against savages, the advert decrees.

But who acts more savagely than the "civilized man" spreading destructive conflict and uncivil unease?

Freedom of speech extends so far as to express an opinion, perhaps against religion,

But this freedom should never extend to blatant and abhorrent bigotry, agression, opression and affliction.

No appreciation for good precipitation

Some people have no appreciation for good precipiation.
Though who's to blame them for feeling frustration
After a month's worth of rain falls in only one day?

Yet this great nation would be nothing of the sort
If it weren't for the miserable climate our ancestors saught.
The moist air brought industrialisation and our economy soared.

Our incessant rain makes Britain mostly water replete,
Which is lucky as many areas are increasingly depleted.
The fertile crescent will soon turn to desert in the Middle East.

Thus don't be frustrated that our weather's rarely clever,
I'd rather have plenty of rain than barely any barley.
And the sunny days feel so much better to those of us with crappy weather.

Wanton destruction - the human way

Human destruction of nature knows no bounds.
Badgers in England are soon set to face shotgun rounds.
Hopefully, though, to their sets they'll go
And shelter in holes deep underground.

Bovine TB is a vicious disease
Causing farmers and cattle deadly unease.
But slaughtering wildlife in their thousands
Will curtail this killer only to the tiniest of degrees.

Humans inextricably rely on biodiversity,
Without which we'd never have food as plenty.
For bees in praries to rainforest trees
Are vitally necessary for the survival of our species.

It's the ultimate disgrace that in order to make pace,
Nature and wildlife we race to displace.
With unerring certainty we slash and burn,
Which we'll learn to regret, too late, when the wind starts to turn.

Relinquish religion

Religion is an affliction of fiction, friction and contradiction.

All preach tolerance and peace but the hypocrisy is that none of them practise these.

Instead why not believe in the human species? 

Love one another and live at ease.

Preposterous protests

One Danish magazine posted a picture of the prophet Muhammad and the Middle East erupted into enraged burning of effigies.

More recently a raging horde in Libya destroyed an embassy and murdered the US Ambassador, in answer to a shoddy film made by one imbecile with a chip on his shoulder.

Do any of these people realise that one person's ideals do not represent the majority of feelings of people in the Western world?

For those who think Islam has been slighted might best stay at home for fear that there might be a deeper crisis - Islam does not look wisest when one film that blights it causes fires and riots.

Free speech should be held in the highest esteem but means conflicting opinions are frequently seen.

Imagine the scene if, every time the church was made to seem less than clean in the Newspapers and magazines, people started burning down stores and factories.

These protests are preposterous, seriously, go and read some proper newspapers where opinion and contradiction is part of progress.

Stop burning effigies and embassies every time one daft article causes unrest and unease, please.

Curtailing creationism

An alliance of science in the face of unenlightened defiance of the facts of life will surely at some point in time prevail.

After 500 years, Copernicus’ idea that around the sun the Earth does run should be patently clear.

But this idea is yet to be endeared to a fifth of God-fearing Americans who 2000 year old scriptures revere. 

Worse still, creationists foolishly instil lies to their children at church and school in regions where ignorance unfortunately rules.

It’s unbelievably arrogant to think that man was put on this planet and the plants and animals were made for us to abuse.

The fossil record unequivocally shows, in bones and DNA from mammoths that froze, that evolution is the only explanation to how we arose.

It’s completely insane that there’s even a debate to whether inane creationism is taught alongside science.

So let’s stop pussyfooting around, intelligent design is completely unsound.  It’s time to curtail this ridiculous fairytale and finally let science in the end prevail.

Hindsightful history

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Yet history is littered from Queen to King

With examples of how

Those supposedly in the know

Manage to Royally screw everything.

Take for example Vietnam,

That was invaded as far back as 1289

By no other than the great Kublai Khan,

Leader of the great Mongolian Army.

These mighty warriors could not succeed,

The Vietnamese repelled them with ease.

Attacking their foes with horses and bows

The Mongolian army simply froze.

Guerilla warfare had them completely thrown.

So why on Earth in 1965

Did the Americans try to win hearts and minds?

The Vietminh in the Northern jungles

Adopted the same combat and the USA crumbled.

You’d have thought that this would teach them a lesson

But no, to Afghanistan the mission was taken.

They fought the Taliban,

Harbouring Osama Bin Laden,

Who insidiously blended into the normal population.

Over a decade later and the losses ever greater.

For what?  Not even a gravestone to savour.

The body of Osama thrown into the ocean,

Was it really worth the lives ripped apart and torn open?

But still the Americans continue to wage

A war on terror that unshakenly rages.

Yet the innocent lives lost in the Middle East

By far outweigh the 9/11 deceased.

But there is hope for the future

As the rebels in Libya

Were able to organically displace their ruler.

Though Assad in Syria continues to murder

The west should refrain from embroiling deeper.

One foot in the wrong direction

Might stimulate further extremist aggression.

Iraq is a perfect case in point,

Invasion has simply caused greater disjoint.

So let’s not send any more troops...  what’s the point?