World-Walkers

Here is a rant/rap I wrote about the lessons of this journey back in London. Read fast for best results:


Walkin through the world with my white man’s eyes
Seeing pimps on vacation and priests telling lies
(on phony plantations under clear blue skies)
About crippled buffaloes on the brink of extinction
Chasing literate kids from dangerous depictions
Of million dollar bills and the myth of their freedom
Freedom ain’t free we told it takes bleedin
The White House literazis make blood literal
And they makin a crime outta bein a liberal
And the liberty from which kleptocracy was born
Is elusive as a high-horned unicorn
Amidst the ever present uniforms
Marching cross manufactured destiny
Trampling bleeding hearts like you and me
Hurling our bodies and pictures at the masses
With futures so dim they need coke-bottle glasses
Shouting our names the scariest of labels:
Jihad-lovin terrorists the other side of Abel
White House knows how to trample good ideas
Use the word terror and promise they’ll be freer
If we sacrifice now some kinda paradise awaits
So sacrifice liberty free speech and sell hate
The capitalist free-hand on the law’s long arm
Will slap every slave who tries to leave the farm
Or search for some meaning or true sense of home
Living in community instead of toiling alone
To feed the machine and climb the social ladder
On the heads of the helpless the rebels and the chatter
Of those who refuse the great compromise
Comfortably numb until a natural demise
These things I see from Helsinki to Osaka
Under leaders in suits from Thatcher to Mustafa
Nothin much changes in landscapes or time
Life is easy for the criminal mind
In the 3-piece suit at a microphoned table
With a Gucci watch and an Armoni label
While the beer-soaked escapists on the run
Ride third-class with a bottle and a shotgun
Mother Theresa hid in bubble-headed bliss
With her big good heart and a mailing list
But the war wages on with assaults on her poor
And anyone with money won’t fight anymore
Just push the button and your enemy is wiped
Send in the soldiers with chemicals and crackpipes
Hoping they survive civilian life
When state education spares their ass the knife
Or the gas or the gun or the garbage can
And slip them into slow death as a company man
But wait my white eyes see more than this
Like Mongolian herders following bliss
Falling all over in a fit of hard laughter
Eyes lit up with the knowledge of master
And the holder of more knowledge
Than is taught or learned in Ivey College
It’s the knowledge of the land and the secret of free
Knowing how to live beyond vicariously
Concretely over the land of generations
Sleeping under felt roofs until reincarnation
That bliss is so strong it beat the Soviets
Next to go down are the capitalists
Without trying to conquer but just to survive
And I also see other cultures being revived
Women in court speaking their own ancient language
With the gift of oration unpacking centuries of baggage
Before tin-eared judges too educated to understand
The ancient crimes of colonial man
And a sympathetic public that’s beginning to learn
About survival and revival and other ways to be
About the brain-washing propaganda machine
But I’ve also known way too much apathy
From the ones who should be down with what I seen
Thinking that by doing nothing they do no harm
While the fire eats paradise they turn up the charm
And waltz right through it untouched and unharmed
Sayin “please don’t hurt me look I’m unarmed”
How will all these sights in the world I behold
Look when untangled and when they unfold?
I know no better than so-called experts no TV
The real answer lies with you and with me