No New Normal

Thought For Food: The 2020 Challenge Finale

No New Normal

Where’s half a year just gone?

Remember when the desolation of Earth

was Bolsonaro’s inferno in the Amazon?

Australia scorched in wild scintillation.

6 months ago we still felt the lick of flames,

smelt the smoke,

and in fear of what that meant would come,

sick to the stomach, watched on.

It’s getting HOT in here.

In the sky, under the collar,

Chop a tree, make a dollar.

Holla!

Have we already forgotten?

Reeling, dizzy on the floor,

as we choke on yet another mess of our own making.

Scarred lungs hack up an ironic jeer

as the world succumbs on this, of all years,

To the plague of nature’s discontent,

the fires of our negligence,

the bomb blasts of hate,

cold-blooded murder sanctioned by the state,

refugees waiting in vain to escape, left callously at sea to drown.

As the pandemic accelerates the wide world round,

The inequalities are stark.

While the rich lockdown in luxury,

extra fast broadband, food on demand,

elsewhere many can’t rely on delivery,

or a supermarket on every street.

What good is a vaccine if you’ve fuck all to eat?

And who’ll be the first to receive it?

How many, through heinous misinformation, will refuse it?

There is No. New. Normal.

Just the same old injustices.

New normal means we accept pandemics,

and starving kids.

New normal means we ignore the fires raging in the Arctic,

and biodiversity on the brink.

There can be No. New. Normal.

We will not settle for this.

We will build a better world.

Where Black Lives Matter.

Where every child can enjoy a hearty platter.

Where we can thrive alongside nature.

Why settle for the status quo, when we can build a better tomorrow?

Through fires, viruses, genocides, bombs: to stand together, as a global community, through each and every woe.

Down under, six months ago,

the world could see that: even in the most desolate, burnt-out lands,

as the embers continue to glow,

before even the first raindrops begin to fall,

seedlings emerge and green shoots begin to sprawl.

And so for us, though Malaysia may have been put on hold,

our Thought For Food community, emboldened

with the hybrid vigour of diversity and youth, showed

How fresh young roots,

intertwined in a world wide web,

have the power to plant life

into any famished corner.

To nourish the whole.

Finally: for ten teams with a shared purpose. A common goal.

Years of dreaming, months of preparing, one five minute pitch to change the world.

To show us all that 2020 has not been cancelled, it’s an urgent call,

to reNature,

to replenish,

to flourish,

to grow.

There is No. New. Normal.

We’re here to uproot the status quo.