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Property has its duties as well as its rights.

quote by Thomas Brummond
Added by Lucian Velea
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Property O My Property

property o my property
i use to be a man fine and witty
no cares in the world full of terimity
untill the heavens fell off my dad was murdered
and i was stranded with his property

property o my property
three flats into one, office, home and land what fun
rentals 6% home appreciation by 10%
money in black some in white
o my friends try and understand my plight

property o my property
some say it's worth 50 crs some say it's less
i use to be a free bird before
god knows how i landed up in this mess
brokers, dalla's, buyers and sellers
i have two houses still i am a lonely dweller

property o my property
what the hell to do with you
buy or sell take or give
now my life is not a life but a hell in which i live
property my property
o my dad's property

property o property o my dad's property
my well wishers say i cannot be trusted
to handle all this and i sure will be busted
so my friends you see my situation is dire
it's time like this that i feel i am walking on fire

property o property my dad's property

poem by Anuj Tikku
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Property

I'll be your fantasy, but I won't be your property
Love you eternally, but I'll never be your property
Love from me's not guaranteed
Just because you think I'm property
I can love you totally and still not be your property
Every girl and boy wants to grow up to be loved someday
And you can't wait to give your heart away
But it's like worship in their eyes walking down the aisle
When you slip on that ring, they start to treat you like a thing, yeah
I call it slavery when you call someone your property
Don't waste your vanity, I will never be your property
Something wonderful happens when people fall in love
Your happiness is all they're thinking of
But it's like "anything you say" 'til the wedding day
When they get it in ink, they start to tell you what to think, yeah
Darkest day in history when someone invented property
Cause of our misery is the constant lust for property
Since god began it, we've been dividing up the planet
When you see something you want it
You've got to put your name tag on it
And we go on carving, meanwhile half the world is starving
It's a crime .. hands off what is mine!
Take all you can 'til you slam on the parking brake
And you need space to make your own mistakes
But it's like "I won't hold you back" 'til the bags are packed
Then they're struttin' about like they own you inside out
I call it slavery (you can't make me a slave),
when you call someone your property
Don't waste your vanity (don't be so vain),
I will never be your property
Darkest day in history (why did you have to do a thing like that)
when someone invented property
Cause of our misery (misery, misery)
is the constant lust for property

song performed by Todd Rundgren
Added by Lucian Velea
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Get Up, Stand Up

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!
Preacherman, dont tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you dont know
What life is really worth.
Its not all that glitters is gold;
alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!
Most people think,
Great God will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. jah!
Get up, stand up! (jah, jah!)
Stand up for your rights! (oh-hoo!)
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up!)
Dont give up the fight! (life is your right!)
Get up, stand up! (so we cant give up the fight!)
Stand up for your rights! (lord, lord!)
Get up, stand up! (keep on struggling on!)
Dont give up the fight! (yeah!)
We sick an tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin n goin to heaven in-a jesus name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty God is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you cant fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do? ),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (yeah, yeah, yeah!)
So you better:
Get up, stand up! (in the morning! git it up!)
Stand up for your rights! (stand up for our rights!)
Get up, stand up!
Dont give up the fight! (dont give it up, dont give it up!)
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up!)
Stand up for your rights! (get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( ... )
Dont give up the fight! (get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( ... )

[...] Read more

song performed by Bob Marley
Added by Lucian Velea
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Dont You Think It's Time?

children have rights,
women have rights.
lovers have rights.
people of all religions,
and even atheists have rights.
people of all colors,
speaking every language have rights.
trees and rivers have rights.
cats and dogs have rights.
cattle have rights,
homeless people have rights.
prisoners have rights.
democrats and republicans have rights,
even socialists have rights.
the jobless have rights,
old people have rights...
and the hungry have
the right to be fed!

damnit! dont you think it's time?

poem by Eric Cockrell
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Five ballades with a prologue

(after W.E.G. Louw)

Prologue: The child of God

From the creation,
long before the time of Plato and Aristotle
the word of God was the child’s criterion
while he ruled over everything.

When darkness rose right across the earth
others came in rebellion
wanted to show the God of creation
that they do not regard Him
and did not want to believe him

that destruction will follow upon their deeds,
that rain will fall in a terrible flood
that flooding will come as a result
from the hand of the God of the universe.

The child constructed a ship
went into its shelter with his wife,
children and animals
believing that the hand of the Almighty God
was sheltering
while the others in destruction
begged and cried for mercy.

The child walked through the palace of Pharaoh
could not convert his mother Hatshepsut
to the Almighty God,
saw whips lashing on the backs of his brothers
wanted to stop the lashing
on of one of them.

Right through the sea the child led his people
with crushing water closing on Pharaoh’s army,
right through the desert
his eyes were set on the Promised Land
while he trusted God.

When God Himself came to this earth,
taught people about love,
the child followed Him,
he baptised people and converted them

until on a Friday
on which the curtain ripped right through,
with God innocently hanging on a cross
while evil people mocked, cursed

[...] Read more

poem by Gert Strydom
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Whats Mine Is Mine

Key:-
A - anita
R - ray
A: oh, oh, all right; oh, oh, allright
Oh, oh, all right; oh, oh, allright
Oh, oh, all right; oh, oh, allright
My property, my property
A: oh, oh, all right; oh, oh, allright
Oh, oh, all right; oh, oh, allright
R: whats mine is mine hold theres the line
Stop following me from the back all of the time
Theres one of me, one of a kind
Sorry Im first, excuse me do you mind
You wanna be the same and put me out of frame
I got my own style, so you must be insane
Yes theres something else you can find
So dont touch mine, whats mine is mine
A: why do you want to be like me?
Why do you want whats mine?
You know this is my property, babe, youre losing this time
You are wasting time and energy cause you just cant take whats mine
You better save your time and energy gotta get it out of your mind
Whats mine is mine!
R: step back, step back
A: whats mine is mine
Whats mine is mine
Youre wasting your time
R: step back, step back
A: whats mine is mine
Oh, oh, all right
R: dont waste your time and energy
Cause nobody in the world can be like me
Youre looking for something I already found
A smoother move, a better sound
Represent yourself as me, myself, and i
Make your own plan, come on and try!
Ideas nowadays are hard to find
But dont touch mine whats mine is mine!
A: why do you want to be like me?
Why do you want whats mine?
You know this is my property, babe, youre losing this time
You are wasting time and energy cause you just cant take whats mine
You better save your time and energy gotta get it out of your mind
Whats mine is mine!
A: oh....
R: whats mine is mine
Whats mine is mine
A: oh, oh, all right, oh, oh, all right, oh, oh, all right
My property, my property, oh, oh, all right, oh, oh, all right, oh, oh, all right
R: whats mine is mine

[...] Read more

song performed by 2 Unlimited
Added by Lucian Velea
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Year Of The Boomerang

Tha sistas are in so check the front line
Seems I spent the 80s in the haiti state of mind
Cast me into classes for electro shock
Straight incarcerated, the curriculums a cell block
Im swimmin in half truths and it makes me wanna spit
Instructor come separate the healthy from tha sick
Ya weigh me on a scale, smellin burnt skin
Its dark now in dachau and Im screamin from within
cause Im cell locked in tha doctrines of tha right
Enslaved by dogma, talk about my birthrights
Yet at every turn Im runnin into hells gates
So I grip tha cannon like fanon an pass tha shells to my classmates
Aw, power to tha people
cause tha bosses right ta live is mine ta die
So Im goin out heavy sorta like mount tai
Wit tha five centuries of penitentiary so let tha guilty hang
In tha year of tha boomerang
I got no property but yo Im a piece of it
So let tha guilty hang
I got no property but yo Im a piece of it
In the year of tha boomerang
I got no property but yo Im a piece of it
So let tha guilty hang
I got no property but yo Im a piece of it
In the year of tha boomerang
Yeah!
Now its upon you!
Now its upon you!
Tha sistas are in so check the front line
Seems I spent the 80s in the haiti state of mind
Cast me into classes for electro shock
Straight incarcerated, the curriculums a cell block
Swimmin in half truths and it makes me wanna spit
Instructor come separate the healthy from tha sick
Ya weigh me on a scale, Im smellin burnt skin
Its dark now in dachau and Im screamin from within
cause Im cell locked in tha doctrines of tha right
Enslaved by dogma, talk about my birthrights
Yet at every turn Im runnin into hells gates
So I grip tha cannon like fanon an pass tha shells to my classmates
Aw, power to tha people, yeah, yeah
Tha bosses right ta live is mine ta die
Im goin out heavy sorta like mount tai
Wit tha five centuries of penitentiary so let tha guilty hang
In tha year of tha boomerang
I got no property but yo Im a piece of it
So let tha guilty hang
I got no property but yo Im a piece of it
Uh! in the year of tha boomerang
I got no property but yo Im a piece of it

[...] Read more

song performed by Rage Against The Machine
Added by Lucian Velea
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The Victories Of Love. Book II

I
From Jane To Her Mother

Thank Heaven, the burthens on the heart
Are not half known till they depart!
Although I long'd, for many a year,
To love with love that casts out fear,
My Frederick's kindness frighten'd me,
And heaven seem'd less far off than he;
And in my fancy I would trace
A lady with an angel's face,
That made devotion simply debt,
Till sick with envy and regret,
And wicked grief that God should e'er
Make women, and not make them fair.
That he might love me more because
Another in his memory was,
And that my indigence might be
To him what Baby's was to me,
The chief of charms, who could have thought?
But God's wise way is to give nought
Till we with asking it are tired;
And when, indeed, the change desired
Comes, lest we give ourselves the praise,
It comes by Providence, not Grace;
And mostly our thanks for granted pray'rs
Are groans at unexpected cares.
First Baby went to heaven, you know,
And, five weeks after, Grace went, too.
Then he became more talkative,
And, stooping to my heart, would give
Signs of his love, which pleased me more
Than all the proofs he gave before;
And, in that time of our great grief,
We talk'd religion for relief;
For, though we very seldom name
Religion, we now think the same!
Oh, what a bar is thus removed
To loving and to being loved!
For no agreement really is
In anything when none's in this.
Why, Mother, once, if Frederick press'd
His wife against his hearty breast,
The interior difference seem'd to tear
My own, until I could not bear
The trouble. 'Twas a dreadful strife,
And show'd, indeed, that faith is life.
He never felt this. If he did,
I'm sure it could not have been hid;
For wives, I need not say to you,

[...] Read more

poem by Coventry Patmore
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Equal Rights,2011

equal rights to live,
equal rights to love.
equal rights to believe,
to speak out, to stand up
and be counted.

equal rights to work,
equal rights to study.
equal rights to build.
equal rights to profess faith,
equal rights to pray.

equal rights to give...
equal rights to live,
equal rights to love!

poem by Eric Cockrell
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As Previously Advantaged, Now Disadvantaged

we are humbly sorry that our ancestors
sailed with ships from Europe
to discover other continents,
putting their intelligence and advanced
technology into good practice,
discovering the Cape of Good Hope
and developing this country
to the best of their ability and knowledge
while your ancestors migrated from the big lakes
in central Africa, under chief Dlamini
from eMbo killing the other local inhabitants
as far as they were going,
even wiping them out after they had settled.

We are humbly sorry that our ancestors
took you from the bush, tried to teach you
Christian values and a Christian religion,
instead of worshiping to ancestral spirits,
dead stones of which you believe the silence
have greater meaning and more depth
than any other teachings,
tried to teach you to earn a living
by planting crops, maintaining and herding cattle
instead of pillaging, robbing and killing others,
instead of trapping, killing animals,
with sticks, stones and iron spears.

We are humbly sorry that our ancestors
took the wild bush as pioneers
planned and developed
farms, towns and cities, mines, factories,
the infrastructure that are in them,
developed water resources,
electrical powering and laid railway lines,
developed the roads,
the harbors and airports that link them
to each other and the rest of the wide world,
which you now view as belonging to you,
to at your discretion take over by force
from the people to whom they did belong,
to rob, kill and pillage property
to rename airports, harbors, streets,
towns and cities at your own discretion.

We are humbly sorry that our ancestors
after fighting victoriously against yours
at Blood River and in other wars and battles
respected you as people living in this country,
did not like the Americans and Australians
go out to wipe you out of the country,

[...] Read more

poem by Gert Strydom
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Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society

Epigraph

Υδραν φονεύσας, μυρίων τ᾽ ἄλλων πόνων
διῆλθον ἀγέλας . . .
τὸ λοίσθιον δὲ τόνδ᾽ ἔτλην τάλας πόνον,
. . . δῶμα θριγκῶσαι κακοῖς.

I slew the Hydra, and from labour pass'd
To labour — tribes of labours! Till, at last,
Attempting one more labour, in a trice,
Alack, with ills I crowned the edifice.

You have seen better days, dear? So have I —
And worse too, for they brought no such bud-mouth
As yours to lisp "You wish you knew me!" Well,
Wise men, 't is said, have sometimes wished the same,
And wished and had their trouble for their pains.
Suppose my Œdipus should lurk at last
Under a pork-pie hat and crinoline,
And, latish, pounce on Sphynx in Leicester Square?
Or likelier, what if Sphynx in wise old age,
Grown sick of snapping foolish people's heads,
And jealous for her riddle's proper rede, —
Jealous that the good trick which served the turn
Have justice rendered it, nor class one day
With friend Home's stilts and tongs and medium-ware,—
What if the once redoubted Sphynx, I say,
(Because night draws on, and the sands increase,
And desert-whispers grow a prophecy)
Tell all to Corinth of her own accord.
Bright Corinth, not dull Thebes, for Lais' sake,
Who finds me hardly grey, and likes my nose,
And thinks a man of sixty at the prime?
Good! It shall be! Revealment of myself!
But listen, for we must co-operate;
I don't drink tea: permit me the cigar!
First, how to make the matter plain, of course —
What was the law by which I lived. Let 's see:
Ay, we must take one instant of my life
Spent sitting by your side in this neat room:
Watch well the way I use it, and don't laugh!
Here's paper on the table, pen and ink:
Give me the soiled bit — not the pretty rose!
See! having sat an hour, I'm rested now,
Therefore want work: and spy no better work
For eye and hand and mind that guides them both,
During this instant, than to draw my pen
From blot One — thus — up, up to blot Two — thus —
Which I at last reach, thus, and here's my line
Five inches long and tolerably straight:

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning (1871)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Nobody performs her or his duties. Governments do not, because they do not know, they are not able or they do not wish, or because they are not permitted by those who effectively govern the world: The multinational and pluricontinental companies whose power — absolutely non-democratic — reduce to next to nothing what is left of the ideal of democracy. We citizens are not fulfilling our duties either. Let us think that no human rights will exist without symmetry of the duties that correspond to them. It is not to be expected that governments in the next 50 years will do it. Let us common citizens therefore speak up. With the same vehemence as when we demanded our rights, let us demand responsibility over our duties. Perhaps the world could turn a little better.

quote by Jose Saramago
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Racism Poem - Where Racism matters

i live in a country
multi racial in nature
where certain communities
enjoy special rights

the politicians keep asking
why there is racial polarisation

well, if i have special rights
i will make sure i really
get the best deal of it all

i will not be a stupid fool
or even modest

no two way about it

that includes telling others
to be aware that they do
not have special rights

drawing the line doubly clear
just in case they
infringe on these rights

rights to everything special
housing, education,
medication, career advances

etc, etc, etc

and of course
i would make
every citizen aware
they are living in a society
where racism matters
because it is a matter
of life and death
for those with special rights

and of course for those
without the rights to
keep decently quiet about it

or else these special rights
could mean the rights
to take away things
dearest to them

poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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Tale XIII

JESSE AND COLIN.

A Vicar died and left his Daughter poor -
It hurt her not, she was not rich before:
Her humble share of worldly goods she sold,
Paid every debt, and then her fortune told;
And found, with youth and beauty, hope and health,
Two hundred guineas was her worldly wealth;
It then remain'd to choose her path in life,
And first, said Jesse, 'Shall I be a wife? -
Colin is mild and civil, kind and just,
I know his love, his temper I can trust;
But small his farm, it asks perpetual care,
And we must toil as well as trouble share:
True, he was taught in all the gentle arts
That raise the soul and soften human hearts;
And boasts a parent, who deserves to shine
In higher class, and I could wish her mine;
Nor wants he will his station to improve,
A just ambition waked by faithful love;
Still is he poor--and here my Father's Friend
Deigns for his Daughter, as her own, to send:
A worthy lady, who it seems has known
A world of griefs and troubles of her own:
I was an infant when she came a guest
Beneath my father's humble roof to rest;
Her kindred all unfeeling, vast her woes,
Such her complaint, and there she found repose;
Enrich'd by fortune, now she nobly lives,
And nobly, from the bless'd abundance, gives;
The grief, the want, of human life she knows,
And comfort there and here relief bestows:
But are they not dependants?--Foolish pride!
Am I not honour'd by such friend and guide?
Have I a home' (here Jesse dropp'd a tear),
'Or friend beside?'--A faithful friend was near.
Now Colin came, at length resolved to lay
His heart before her, and to urge her stay:
True, his own plough the gentle Colin drove,
An humble farmer with aspiring love;
Who, urged by passion, never dared till now,
Thus urged by fears, his trembling hopes avow:
Her father's glebe he managed; every year
The grateful Vicar held the youth more dear;
He saw indeed the prize in Colin's view,
And wish'd his Jesse with a man so true:
Timid as true, he urged with anxious air
His tender hope, and made the trembling prayer,
When Jesse saw, nor could with coldness see,
Such fond respect, such tried sincerity;

[...] Read more

poem by George Crabbe
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Tale XV

ADVICE; OR THE 'SQUIRE AND THE PRIEST.

A wealthy Lord of far-extended land
Had all that pleased him placed at his command;
Widow'd of late, but finding much relief
In the world's comforts, he dismiss'd his grief;
He was by marriage of his daughters eased,
And knew his sons could marry if they pleased;
Meantime in travel he indulged the boys,
And kept no spy nor partner of his joys.
These joys, indeed, were of the grosser kind,
That fed the cravings of an earthly mind;
A mind that, conscious of its own excess,
Felt the reproach his neighbours would express.
Long at th' indulgent board he loved to sit,
Where joy was laughter, and profaneness wit;
And such the guest and manners of the hall,
No wedded lady on the 'Squire would call:
Here reign'd a Favourite, and her triumph gain'd
O'er other favourites who before had reign'd;
Reserved and modest seemed the nymph to be,
Knowing her lord was charm'd with modesty;
For he, a sportsman keen, the more enjoy'd,
The greater value had the thing destroyed.
Our 'Squire declared, that from a wife released,
He would no more give trouble to a Priest;
Seem'd it not, then, ungrateful and unkind
That he should trouble from the priesthood find?
The Church he honour'd, and he gave the due
And full respect to every son he knew;
But envied those who had the luck to meet
A gentle pastor, civil and discreet;
Who never bold and hostile sermon penned,
To wound a sinner, or to shame a friend;
One whom no being either shunn'd or fear'd:
Such must be loved wherever they appear'd.
Not such the stern old Rector of the time,
Who soothed no culprit, and who spared no crime;
Who would his fears and his contempt express
For irreligion and licentiousness;
Of him our Village Lord, his guests among,
By speech vindictive proved his feelings stung.
'Were he a bigot,' said the 'Squire, 'whose zeal
Condemn'd us all, I should disdain to feel:
But when a man of parts, in college train'd,
Prates of our conduct, who would not be pain'd?
While he declaims (where no one dares reply)
On men abandon'd, grov'ling in the sty
(Like beasts in human shape) of shameless luxury.
Yet with a patriot's zeal I stand the shock

[...] Read more

poem by George Crabbe
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Property Of Jesus

Go ahead and talk about him because he makes you doubt,
Because he has denied himself the things that you cant live without.
Laugh at him behind his back just like the others do,
Remind him of what he used to be when he comes walkin through.
Hes the property of jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
Youve got a heart of stone
Stop your conversation when he passes on the street,
Hope he falls upon himself, oh, wont that be sweet
Because he cant be exploited by superstition anymore
Because he cant be bribed or bought by the things that you adore.
Hes the property of jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
Youve got a heart of stone
When the whip thats keeping you in line doesnt make him jump,
Say hes hard-of-hearin, say that hes a chump.
Say hes out of step with reality as you try to test his nerve
Because he doesnt pay no tribute to the king that you serve.
Hes the property of jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
Youve got a heart of stone
Say that hes a loser cause he got no common sense
Because he dont increase his worth at someone elses expense.
Because hes not afraid of trying, cause he dont look at you and smile,
cause he doesnt tell you jokes or fairy tales, say hes got no style.
Hes the property of jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
Youve got a heart of stone
You can laugh at salvation, you can play olympic games,
You think that when you rest at last youll go back from where you came.
But youve picked up quite a story and youve changed since the womb.
What happened to the real you, youve been captured but by whom?
Hes the property of jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
Youve got a heart of stone

song performed by Bob Dylan
Added by Lucian Velea
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Young Blood

(coverdale/marsden)
If you feel the rolling thunder
An your eyes see lightning strike,
Dont be afraid, just call on me
Ill bring you shelter from the night
When the wind is howling
Ill hold you near,
An soothe your troubled mind
With a little bit of this,
An a little bit of that
Ill make you leave all your worries behind
Dont try to hold on to what you got,
cos I got what you need
Dont try to hold on, for anyone,
Come on, give it to me
Youngblood, youre hot property, youngblood
Youngblood, youre hot property, youngblood
Youngblood...
When youre burning hot with fever
An you shake down to your bones,
Dont get yourself into a cold sweat
cos its just your bad blood throwing stones
The devil has got your number
An he wants you hanging on a line,
But, before the night is over, baby
Im gonna make you mine
Dont try to hold on to what you got,
cos I got what you need
Dont try to hold on, for anyone,
Come on, give it to me
Youngblood, youre hot property, youngblood
Youngblood, youre hot property, youngblood
Im coming to get you
Dont try to hold on to what you got,
cos I got what you need
Dont try to hold on, for anyone,
Come on, give it to me
Youngblood, youre hot property, youngblood...
Im gonna make you mine...

song performed by Whitesnake
Added by Lucian Velea
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Who Gave you Inhuman Rights?

Who gave the inhuman rights
to the SriLankan army
to sever the heads of innocent boys
and set fire to the heaps of their corpses
at Mullivaikal and other places?

Who gave the inhuman rights
to rip the limbs of children,
the womenfolk and the old
and litter everywhere
for the vultures to eat or to rot?

Who gave the inhuman rights
to rape the wives of
the surrendered rebels
before their very eyes,
torture and kill them all?

Who gave the inhuman rights
to some mindless nations
to supply chemical weapons
to the brutal army of Lanka
to wage a genocidal war?

Who gave the inhuman rights
to the shameless soldiers of Lanka
to maul and cut off the feeding breasts
and shoot at the sacred organs
of the women and the rebels?

Who gave the inhuman rights
to the morons born to strumpets,
to shut the women and girls
in fenced-camps, starve
and lure them with food packets?

Who gave the inhuman rights
to drive out the ailing Tamils
from their traditional lands
and colonise with roguish monks
and Sinhalese convicts and goons?

Who can deny rights to Tamils elsewhere
to wage a war against these criminals
when the UNO is blind to these violations,
as some vested interests and bigots
have a stake in this blood-stained soil?
---------

poem by Rajendran Muthiah
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Human Rights’

In a civilised land
That accepts duty to all
Citizens have rights
Some great, some small

This is how things should be
To those who value
Truth and fairness
And justice and decency

But those who treasure money
And the power of wealth
Seek to remove such rights
Through deceit and stealth

They claim that duty
Comes before such rights
But they accept no obligation
For causing another’s plight

Obligation before rights
Is their loud refrain
But fulfilling their own duties
Is something they distain

For rights are for the powerful
Whilst duty is for the poor
And decency and justice
The Country provides no more

Human Rights matter
To ensure justice for all
For saints and for sinners
For all people great and small

The alternative is ugly
With justice a forgotten myth
With power replacing fairness
And a society that is truly sick

poem by David Chalk
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The Columbiad: Book VIII

The Argument

Hymn to Peace. Eulogy on the heroes slain in the war; in which the Author finds occasion to mention his Brother. Address to the patriots who have survived the conflict; exhorting them to preserve liberty they have established. The danger of losing it by inattention illustrated in the rape of the Golden Fleece. Freedom succeeding to Despotism in the moral world, like Order succeeding to Chaos in the physical world. Atlas, the guardian Genius of Africa, denounces to Hesper the crimes of his people in the slavery of the Afripans. The Author addresses his countrymen on that subject, and on the principles of their government.

Hesper, recurring to his object of showing Columbus the importance of his discoveries, reverses the order of time, and exhibits the continent again in its savage state. He then displays the progress of arts in America. Fur-trade. Fisheries. Productions. Commerce. Education. Philosophical discoveries. Painting. Poetry.

Hail, holy Peace, from thy sublime abode
Mid circling saints that grace the throne of God!
Before his arm around our embryon earth
Stretch'd the dim void, and gave to nature birth.
Ere morning stars his glowing chambers hung,
Or songs of gladness woke an angel's tongue,
Veil'd in the splendors of his beamful mind,
In blest repose thy placid form reclined,
Lived in his life, his inward sapience caught,
And traced and toned his universe of thought.
Borne thro the expanse with his creating voice
Thy presence bade the unfolding worlds rejoice,
Led forth the systems on their bright career,
Shaped all their curves and fashion'd every sphere,
Spaced out their suns, and round each radiant goal,
Orb over orb, compell'd their train to roll,
Bade heaven's own harmony their force combine.
Taught all their host symphonious strains to join,
Gave to seraphic harps their sounding lays,
Their joys to angels, and to men their praise.

From scenes of blood, these verdant shores that stain,
From numerous friends in recent battle slain,
From blazing towns that scorch the purple sky,
From houseless hordes their smoking walls that fly,
From the black prison ships, those groaning graves,
From warring fleets that vex the gory waves,
From a storm'd world, long taught thy flight to mourn,
I rise, delightful Peace, and greet thy glad return.

For now the untuneful trump shall grate no more;
Ye silver streams, no longer swell with gore,
Bear from your war-beat banks the guilty stain
With yon retiring navies to the main.
While other views, unfolding on my eyes,
And happier themes bid bolder numbers rise;
Bring, bounteous Peace, in thy celestial throng.
Life to my soul, and rapture to my song;
Give me to trace, with pure unclouded ray,
The arts and virtues that attend thy sway,
To see thy blissful charms, that here descend,
Thro distant realms and endless years extend.

[...] Read more

poem by Joel Barlow
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