Western Political Ideologies

In Memoriam
Nineteen Ninety-Four

More specifically, the ideologies of men
From the United States of America and
The British Empire;
To propagate

A policy
A political position
A world view
These men influenced

A state of being
These men influenced
The social political and economic world
In 1933; Franklin D Roosevelt said this

The only thing we have to fear
Is itself
Fear
In 1940; Sir Winston Churchill said this

We will fight
On the beaches
Was it before or after that bomb was dropped?
That Harry S Truman lamented

That the buck stops
Where?
In 1957; Harold MacMillan said this
People have never had it so good

In 1961; John F Kennedy said this
Ask not what your country can do for you
Ask what you can do for your country
Was it before or after that bomb was dropped?

In 1963; Harold Wilson said this
The white heat
Of the technological revolution
Is upon us

In 1963; Martin Luther King said this
I had a dream
In 1981; Ronald Reagan said this
Get the government off the backs

Of the people
In 1987; Margaret Thatcher said this
There is no such thing as society
Was it before or after that bomb was dropped?

In 1993; John Major said this
It was time to go back to basics
In 1992; Tony Blair said this
Tough on crime

Tough on the causes of crime
In 2001; George W Bush declared a war on terror





In 2008; Barack Hussein Obama said this
Believe
Believe in change that we can believe in
Was it before or after that bomb was dropped?

During the declaration of independence
In 1796; Benjamin Franklin said this
We hold these truths to be self-evident
All men are created equal

There are certain unalienable rights
There will be life
Liberty and
The pursuit of happiness

In 1864; Abraham Lincoln said this
Do not swap horses in the middle of the stream
As the titanic began to sink
The captain commanded

Women and children first!
George; H Bush said this
Read my lips
No more new taxes

William; H Clinton said this
Its the economy stupid
William; H Clinton said this
I did not have sex with that woman

Then
William; H Clinton said this
Indeed I did have sex with that woman
After having sex with that woman

Jacob; G Zuma said this
I took a shower
But what of the Eastern Political Ideologies
And the philosophy of Africa?

On Freedom Day 27 April 1994;
Nelson R Mandela said this
Never, never, and never again
Shall it be that this beautiful land will again

Experience the oppression of one by another
The sun shall never set
On so glorious a human
Achievement let freedom reign god bless africa

Was it before or after that bomb was dropped?



Poet's note: This poem is written in memory of the people of Rwanda who were so brutally slaughtered while the Western (and Eastern world) celebrated South Africa's first democratic elections nineteen years ago. It is written in memory of Helen Suzman who watched in horror as a clerk knifed Hendrik F Vervoerd in parliament, and in memory of her brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers who were so brutally slaughtered during Adolf Hitler's reign of terror while the Vatican City watched. It is written in memory of Pope John Paul the second and in honour of First Secretary Mikail Gorbachev and Lech Walesa who were at the forefront of destroying Stalin's communism. It is written in memory of Mohandas K Ghandi who practised peace on earth. It is also written in memory of Robert Sobukwe and Chief Albert Luthuli who so honourably and bravely followed this great man's path. It is written in honour of Dawn Aung San Ku Kyi who keeps the flame burning.

It is written in memory and honour of our Lord Jesus Christ.

" A True Poet "

" A true poet makes us imagine that we see the object or natural landscape before our eyes; he catches the distinguishing features; he gives it the colours of life and reality; he places it in such a light that a painter could copy it after him. "

- Hugh Blair, 1842 -

First submission, first publication: The Cliff

My first submission has been accepted and will be published next week by Litnet under New Writing, Poetry. It is nice to know that it was the very first post on this blog which you will find under Older  and Popular posts.

You can access Litnet from my pages in this blog.

With thanks to Rentia Bartlett, Editor, New Writing, LitNet

A familiar view

These were your sighs,
your toss,
the listing yoke
of your shoulders.

... What spars,
blades, shafts,
rigging it took
to bear the weight of your journey.

Winds wore down the scoop
at the base of your throat.
The sun shed your sulk,
the mast of your frown.

It was bitter inside your mouth,
I remember,
and under the pelvic creascent
it was always night.

It’s wrong to cast a shadow,
to deepen the sun
and then send it away—
but worse to love

the truth and to follow it
on an ocean that’s blue,
that’s green,
that’s silver.

—Wendy Salinger, “The Eternal Boy,” from issue 84, Summer 1982.

Compliments of The Paris Review

The South American liberation theologian's view on the nature of Jesus Christ - an excerpt from an Essay on Christological Concepts (s a human rights day (?) part 6)

According to Guiterez’s belief, Jesus did what he came to do. Through his acts, miracles, healing, preaching, Jesus empowered humankind with a new, ethical approach towards men, and new ways of doing things. Guiterrez’s views and theory of liberation had practical, rather than theoretical, implications to lived realties (p 179).

The economic theory of dependencia alludes to the Latin American situation. In support of this theory, Guiterrez argues that the weakness of modern theology is too little concerned with the theory of salvation, and the focus is on receptance to God.

Guiterrez introduces a doctrine of confession, where confession leads to salvation, and to liberation, not merely to God, but brings about change in human nature through politics, art, trade, law and family (p 3).

Recently, disagreement was expressed in the newly elected Pope Francis’s distancing from radical expressions of liberation theology and the adoption of a new version of this theory.  The official retort is that the radical clergy colluded with armed revolutionaries to bring about political change, and renounced the use of violence in its entirety as a means to bring about this change. There are haunting similarities to this desperate stance in reflecting on the history of South Africa, both theological and political, in the last seventy years or so.

In contrast, the American Christian minister, Martin Luther King Jr, the Hindu philosopher and lawyer, Ghandi, and the Burmese political leader, Dawn Aung San Suu Kyi, advocated non-violence to achieve freedom from oppression, both material and political. Again, in South Africa, Nelson Mandela reluctantly adopted an armed struggle against the National Party after the Sharpeville Massacre and the banning of the ANC, PAC and other organisations representing the majority of black South Africans at the time.

Returning to the Vatican’s stance on the use of violence, it is important to note the contradiction in this when the recent collusion with Hitler’s Nazi Party, and the atrocities committed by them since Constantine founded the Christian church, all in the name of Christinity.

Guiterrez focused on Jesus, not as a man, but on His actions, emphasising the view that salvation is not obtained through divine intervention alone, but through man’s own actions, inspired by God and through Jesus’ own teachings and actions. Jesus teaches man how to live and react to adversarial circumstances. Humanity is reminded not to judge. Only God judges. In Matthew 6 (verses 38 to 41) Jesus gave humanity the controversial teaching;

“ You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But now I tell you: do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap your left cheek too. And if someone takes you to court to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well. ”

This great teaching of love towards a fellow man was controversial in light of the oppression suffered by Jews and Gentiles alike at the hands of the Roman authorities. In twenty-first century society today, it remains controversial. And yet through persistent acts of retaliatory violence, no peace or freedom has yet been attained.

South African Human Rights Day (?) , Part five; THE CONDEMNED MAN

He was not supposed to stay
He was disgraced
He was sent across the oceans
To find a suitable post from which

To rest and replenish.
He was enterprising, man,
No-one every denied this.
He saw the most beautiful table-shaped

Mountain as his sailed ship approached its coast.
His men landed upon the beach
He saw how peaceful and quiet it was,
The sand was white and smooth, the green bush

Swayed in an unusually brisk breeze,
But no matter,
This air was clean and crisp in the morning.
As a most unusual species of what looked like men

With women and little children in tow,
But more like primates, so he thought,
Approached his campsite tentatively and quietly
So enslavement and brutality, rape and burning,

The orgies of killing, began.
They did not understand what was happening,
These men with their firesticks, who or what were they?
They fled in terror, but were soon caught. captured and kept.

Hell,
He even reclaimed
The rough
Seas.

South African Human Rights Day (?); Part four: - IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS -

today we burnt the only mattress on which we would have slept tonight
today we littered our streets with rocks and burning tyres from vehicles which would
have taken us to our only destination
a place called hope