Powerful poetic view of the world by longtime activist, John Tomlinson , a graduate in Social Studies from the University of Queensland in 1964 , arrested over his involvement in East Timor struggle , key person in formation of the Northern Territory Civil Liberties Council , stirrer par excellence , environmentalist , campaigner for the poor and oppressed ,whose slogan covered fishing boat was deliberately named Yellow Peril to strike fear into Darwin port authorities when he radioed that he was entering ahead of an invading armada . Now , of course , the Chinese own the port for 99 years . Who has had the last laugh ? A two in one book Tomlinson wrote about shortcomings in government services in the Territory included photographs of him being manhandled by a number of police . The caption said it was the author assisting police in their investigations . Read on ...
2017 when will we
learn?
I watched Obama drone on,
and saw the shattered
bodies
collateral damage I was
told.
How was he to know it was a wedding
party
rather than a rebel
stronghold,
from 40,000 feet they look the
same.
How to apportion
blame?
Yes it was a terrible
shame.
But we’ve done it again and
again.
I can still feel the
pain
in those children’s tortured
limbs.
Our indifference to Israeli cluster
bombs
dropped on Gaza
our understanding of Israel’s
hurt,
stung by Arab criticism of their
military.
No wonder Israel had to tear down Arab
houses
and build Israeli settlements on Arab
land.
The judges in Tel Aviv ordered
it.
It was ordained in Jewish
scriptures.
It must be true, the Zionists told me
so
and they should know.
My government sends soldiers and
sailors
and aircrew to fight wars in foreign
lands.
To kill and maim and drive
insane
anyone who opposes our right to invade their
land.
We are spending $50 billion to buy
submarines.
We can’t wait to waste money on Strike
Fighters.
The military and the police can have what
they like
so long as they subjugate my fellow
citizens.
In the Philippines they have elected a
madman as president.
He thinks that ordering extrajudicial
killings of thousands
of suspected drug dealers is justice and
even justifiable.
In West Papua, Kopassus murders
Papuans
for raising the Morning Star - their freedom
flag.
The TNI shoot peaceful protesters on a
whim.
This wholesale slaughter is ignored by my
government
so that we can return asylum seekers and
their boats
to Indonesia whenever we
want.
Asylum seekers, arriving on leaky
boats,
coming across troubled
seas,
seeking to escape
tyranny.
And what do we do?
My government incarcerates
them
on distant Pacific Islands where they are
molested
by armed guards and local
thugs.
Their sanity is sorely tested by constant
harassment.
My government disproportionately jails
Aborigines,
It teargasses Indigenous kids locked in
prison cells.
Aborigines die 10-20 years younger than
other Australians.
We stole their land, we raped their
women,
we stole their children and enslaved
them.
Now we blame them for their
poverty.
My government sends threatening letters to
poor people.
Demanding that they pay back money they
never received.
Ministers employ private debt collectors who
threaten pensioners.
All the while government ministers greedily
grab perks
to top up their $300,000 plus annual
salary.
They need to rob the poor so that they can
give
tax cuts to big business and subsidies to
multinationals.
We used to have money to
burn
but since the rise of
neoliberals
we need to learn,
to strive and yearn
to promote greed
and stamp out need
blame the impoverished
for their failure to
succeed.
Whilst absolving
ourselves
for avoiding taxes
or not paying our
dues.
Because we owe them
nothing,
not justice, not
humanity,
not dignity or unity -
this is neoliberal
piety.
Other books by him are People's Poems and Songs and a slim volume produced in Darwin , Reflections of a Fool and other Poems which cover the unknown soldier , endless war with its slaughter ; the Indonesian coup d'état by Subandrio ; thoughts of a Black man sitting at a campfire ,listening to the call of the Curlew , pondering the rape of his people ; Australia turned into a Buchenwald . Entitled Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, a short piece tells of standing , looking at a fat barmaid in a city of garish artificiality ...There is no life here -it is the land of the dead . It shares only its depression . I wandered out .
