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Most of our imports come from other countries.

quote by George W. Bush
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John A Rooney Imports

John A. Rooney Imports is where you will find
hand-crafted imports that are one of a kind.
Hand-carved and hand painted furniture from around the globe
delights the senses, adds a unique appeal to your home.
In the John A. Rooney's department of housewares—
discover kitchen accessories that are unique with a flair.
India and Central America is where beautiful beadwork on tapestry is made
decorate your home with gypsy style to brighten your days.
Rooney's Imports has colorful, soft clothing that flows-
wear unique jewelry made of silver, beads and semiprecious stone.
.Visit John A. Rooney Imports on Lake Avenue today
decorate your home with items from faraway places like Bombay.

Written by Suzae Chevalier on July 1,2012
please visit www.suzae.com www.christinapoems.com

poem by Christina Sunrise
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John A Rooney Imports

John A. Rooney Imports is where you will find
hand-crafted imports that are one of a kind.
Hand-carved and hand painted furniture from around the globe
delights the senses, adds a unique appeal to your home.
In the John A. Rooney's department of housewares—
discover kitchen accessories that are unique with a flair.
India and Central America is where beautiful beadwork on tapestry is made
decorate your home with gypsy style to brighten your days.
Rooney's Imports has colorful, soft clothing that flows-
wear unique jewelry made of silver, beads and semiprecious stone.
Visit John A. Rooney Imports on Lake Avenue today
decorate your home with items from faraway places like Bombay.

poem by Suzae Chevalier
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The Impact Of Poverty On Education

THE IMPACT OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION.

INTRODUCTION

There are so many different tools that have been thought relevant in people’s developmental projects both at individual and societal levels. Education is one of such practical tools. Importantly to note, there are also various meanings that denote the broad term ‘education’. In this essay, however, we are mainly interested in defining formal education since our discussion will dwell much on it. According to Nwomonoh (1998) , formal education is the process of gaining knowledge, attitudes, information and skills during the course of life especially at school.

Though education is said to be so instrumental in human development but also in the revamping of world economies, it is very unfortunate that education systems, world wide, are being held to ransom all because of poverty at both governmental and household levels. According to Thibault (2009) , poverty means the shortage of common things such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine our quality of life. It may also include lack of access to opportunities like education and employment which aid the escape of poverty.

Problems in our society are interconnected in one way or the other, just like poverty and personal family problems affect a student’s capability to learn. Improving education entails improving the living conditions of students. Having in mind that education is basically responsible for the development of many countries including Malawi, as the back ground suggests, we cannot afford to bypass such a vital element without a mention. Considering also the fact that poverty is one of the forces that come in the way; blocking the success of education, we feel it rational to look at how the two realities, education and poverty, affect each other both positively and negatively. That is also why we are convinced that this topic is worth studying. Our awareness of this source, poverty, and its impact on education will enable us devise some proper measures of intervention with the hope of minimizing the negative impact of poverty on education. This point, in short, explains the purpose of our investigation and why we are so passionate in getting into this research. During the whole discussion we are being guided by two questions thus, ‘does poverty really affect education? And if it does, what points do we have on the positive and negative impacts of poverty on education? ’

METHODOLOGY

The study was basically qualitative in approach because of the nature of the issue that was being addressed. This was the case because the issue of how poverty affects education, both positively and negatively is particularly very difficult to predict the conclusions without penetrating into the core of the issue. For instance, one may unreasonably rush into concluding that poverty affects education negatively only and we cannot even dare to speak of poverty affecting education positively. The study was conducted in three schools namely; Mulunguzi, Masongola and Chirunga Private Secondary schools in Zomba district between 24th April and 3rd May. In this research we used both government and private funded schools to have a more balanced result on how poverty affects formal education in these different institutions. The information required for the study was collected through group interviews of form three students and individual interviews with teachers using semi-structured interview schedules. We opted to use these interviews in the first place because we felt books are more theoretical whereas a field research is practical and it involves real life experiences. Nevertheless, we still used desk research as a supplementary source of information and for clarity in some areas.

RESULTS

Positive impacts of poverty on education
To begin with, poverty encourages one to get educated and of course work hard in class. This is because the problems faced due to poverty are very serious and therefore students who are from poverty stricken families strive to end the problems and one of the best solutions is through education. That is to say, if a person, for instance, due to poverty, is taking just a meal in a day instead of three meals, and again if he/she is sometimes sleeping on an empty stomach, he/she will resort to education bearing in mind that if he/she gets educated they will secure formal employment and eventually be able to make ends meet for themselves as well as fending for their families.

Not only does poverty encourage one to get educated, but also it helped in the introduction of free primary education. In Malawi, for instance, when Bakili Muluzi became president, he introduced free primary education and he had eliminated the requirements for school uniform forthwith (Kadzamira & Rose,2001) . This had increased the access to education dramatically as those pupils who were coming from less privileged families were also given access to this free primary education. It should also be noted that the free primary education system was not only implemented to fulfill an electoral pledge but also bearing in mind that some families were not able to send their children to school due to poverty. Free primary education was there to deal with illiteracy by reducing families’ direct costs of education. Again due to the influx in the number of pupils in primary schools; there was a lack of teachers. Sonani (2002) , testifies that the Ministry of Education re-employed all retired teachers below the age of 65. This also meant that the once retired teachers got back to their source of income which helped them support their families as well as hauling the economy of the country. The implementation of free primary education system in Malawi forced the government to provide infrastructures so as to accommodate the large number of pupils in these schools. Simply put, poverty had led to the introduction of free primary education which means that more children are going to school, and again more teachers are being trained and getting employed and finally the construction of school blocks culminating into infrastructural development, all these branching from poverty.

We may also look at poverty from a positive angle bearing in mind that when a country is poor more funds and donations come into it. These funds and donations are also given to the education sector to build new infrastructures and in the maintenance of already existing ones in the sector. These privileged countries also provide learning materials to schools that are poor as a result students in these less privileged schools perform well in accordance with the amount and quality of the learning materials that they have been provided with. For instance, a United States based non governmental organization known as “Water for People” handed over 44 water toilets they built to Chimwankhunda primary school. The school toilet facilities had been vandalized 11 years ago but because of poverty the school could not renovate them (Gausi,2007) .

In addition, these funds and donations help more people to get educated. This is so because people can use funds as school fees, pocket money and buy stationery. The donations may include library books, chairs and writing materials. These can make a conducive environment for one to learn since there will be enough facilities at the school. For instance, with funding from the “United States Agency for International Development” (USAID) ,3,300 needy Malawian primary school girls are being funded. They are being provided with food, clothing, school supplies and hygienic products like soap and body lotion (Muhaliwa,2005) . Likewise,500 pupils at Katoto primary school in Mzuzu no longer sit on the floors during lessons courtesy of Southern Bottlers Limited and Lions Club of Limbe. Before these funds and donations, pupils used to sit on the floor due to scarcity of desks. These donations improved the pupils’ school attendance in such a way that pupils have started going to school regularly.

In the same line, a needy student can be given a scholarship to go further with his/her education. In this case the scholarship is given to the person just because he/she cannot manage to pay school fees on her own. This in turn benefits the needy person and the community at large. In this situation poverty has assisted in the development of education in an area by beckoning funds and donations from rich countries and organisations.

Further more; in most cases poverty facilitates one’s ambitions to attain formal education. It becomes easier for a poor child to put much of his concentration on education as compared to a rich child. This is because a poverty stricken student will have less destructive materials for entertainment. He/she will also have less or no money to indulge him/herself in activities that require spending a lot of money for instance, drinking beer. Sometimes even if the child can find money he/she can buy basic needs and not just spending it anyhow. Contrast to this a rich child may obtain things like ipods, mp3s, games for entertainment. These things in most cases destruct the concentration of students in their studies. As a result, one’s class performance is negatively affected since most of his/her time is being spent on entertainment.

Negative impacts of poverty on education

Just as a coin has got two sides, a head and a tail, poverty also, apart from having positive impacts on education, it does have negative impacts on the same. We have talked much about the positive face of poverty on education. We shall surely do ourselves injustice if we do not look at the negative part. In spite of the fact that poverty has an impact on education that is worth complimenting, we cannot afford in this discussion to overlook the point that so many students have been forced to leave the corridors of learning institutions due to the same poverty. One of the reasons that force some students leave the learning institutions prematurely is pregnancy, which in most cases, come because of poverty. It is almost common knowledge that a good number of students who come from poor families wish they could be sailing in the same boat with those who come from well to do families as far as luxurious life is concerned. The poor students constantly feel that there is something missing at the core psychologically. With this feeling in their minds, they tend to regard themselves as incomplete and not accepted socially. Consequently, they envy the rich students and squarely want to posses the things that are associated with the rich students. Very unfortunate that the poor students’ parents cannot afford to fulfill their children’s desires like what the rich parents would provide. Because the pull towards recognition is too strong for the poor students to resist, they end up in indulging themselves into prostitution in their search for money. Pity indeed that instead of recreating, as anticipated, their promiscuous behavior sees most of them getting pregnant and for some very unfortunate ones get even HIV and other STIs. From this discussion, commonsense convinces us that this school dropp out due to pregnancy is one of the negative impacts of poverty on education.

Adding more flesh to this discussion, we can also appreciate that hunger has been so instrumental in bringing down the standards of education world wide, in general, and Malawi, in particular. Frankly speaking, there are very few students if not none, who concentrate on their studies on empty stomachs. Food is one of the basic needs that every person is obliged to have if he/she is to survive. It is not surprising, therefore, to see some students performing miserably in class simply because they have not taken enough food or they have taken none altogether. The question of hunger finds its way into the education system because the government has failed to provide adequate food in most of its boarding schools. This is poverty at governmental level. There are also some students who are not boarders but still endure the hostile reality of hunger right in their homes. This is due to poverty at household level. It is sad that poverty, both at governmental and household level, has helped in engineering the deteriorating of education standards in Malawi.

Bearing in mind that it is only the eagle that can tell us the real whisper of a cloud, we visited Masongola Secondary school with the hope of getting first hand information from the students and their teachers since they are the ones who mostly benefit or get destructed by poverty. The Masongola secondary school students and their teacher, Mr. Enock Abraham, testified to us during an interview that government’s inability to provide extra food, apart from the usual beans that the institution offers, has seen many students developing ulcers. It would sound bizarre to reason that one can attend classes whilst he/she is on a hospital bed battling with ulcers. The Masongola students further testified that most poor students who have ulcers just bow down out of the race of learning because they cannot afford to buy extra food whenever the institution is serving the students beans.

This pitiful development goes beyond the boundaries of Masongola secondary school. Mulunguzi secondary school as Mr……the head teacher at the institution testifies, has not been spared from the scourge of school dropp outs simply because the school has not been able to provide extra or adequate food to students who cannot take what their friends take on health grounds. Needless to say this leaves the education standards in Malawi vacillating. It is a pity that though we have wrestled with this question of poverty a dozen times, we have not been successful in the battle. At one point in time, the government attempted to minimize the chances of school dropout in primary schools through its provision of porridge to pupils in the junior section. This attempt was in itself a good gesture but the government has failed to implement the initiative further in other schools that up to now have not benefited from the program.

It may not sound an exaggeration if we may say poverty has also forced a good number of students to give up their hopes of getting educated simply because they find it so difficult traveling to and from their respective schools. Lack of transport means, in short, has pushed them well towards the blink of despair as far as attaining formal education is concerned. This point speaks for itself how poverty can sometimes work on the education’s disadvantage.

As we go further with this discussion, we also appreciate the fact that the problem that mostly hinders a student’s success is inadequate resources that include; few teachers and learning materials. It must be highlighted that these problems are not only in developing countries but they may also find their way in reasonably developed countries like South Africa. In a developing country like Malawi, the education system encounters these problems because of the government’s failure to look into problems of infrastructure, capacity and availability of teaching and learning materials (Nkawike,2005) . The Muluzi government did a little if any; in as far as infrastructure is concerned. Lack of school blocks facilitated by a large number of pupils due to the introduction of the free primary education in 1994, forced pupils to have lessons under trees. In 2003, for example, lack of school blocks resulted in a tragedy at Nkomachi in Lilongwe when a tree fell onto an outdoor class, resulting in injury and deaths of pupils (Mvula & Chanika,2004) . This problem of learning materials continues till date, in all levels of the education system. According to Abraham (2009) , the school has always had shortage of learning blocks to an extent that the Physical Science and Biology laboratories are used as classrooms. There is also great shortage of books in all departments, and some departments like the technical department needs new equipment and current books which are very expensive. With this unfortunate situation we cannot anticipate good performance from Masongola secondary school.

In order to deal with these issues, the Muluzi government thought it wise to disregard the provision of learning materials in schools. Instead the Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) pass mark was reduced to ensure the success of students in their examinations. Even the director of Basic Education, Nelson Kaperemera admitted that funds intended for learning materials were servicing the debts of government at the expense of improving quality education. Instead of reducing the pass mark, the government and other stake holders should strive to improve quality of education, improve teacher salaries, and provide adequate materials and train teachers properly (Malawi News,2006) .

In developing countries like Malawi, the schools are understaffed (teaching personnel) and they tend to be handling a large number of students for long hours. Furthermore, the teachers are subjected to meager salaries, which are even made late. The government does not seem to have the welfare of teachers at heart, for instance the education Manager for Phalombe, Enoch Ali says the district is facing a dire shortage of teachers, a situation that is contributing to low education standards. The teacher pupil ratio in Phalombe is 1: 120, whilst the recommended ratio is 1: 60 (The Nation,2006) . Due to low pay teachers resort to organizing part time classes, which demand an extra amount of money on top of the normal fees. These changes clearly affect those students who come from very poor families, as they do not receive adequate studies because of lack of money.
This does not only occur in secondary schools, but it also happens in universities. As the academic staff of the Universities go on strike because of the government’s reluctance to increase their salaries. One considers how this is supposed to retain staff in the University. As a result lecturers spend more time doing consultancies; instead of preparing lectures and doing University mandated research. If we are serious about fighting poverty, formal education is the hub of ideas to fight these problems by improving its standards (Kapasula,2008) .
Child labour is one of the major problems that contribute to school dropp out. The majority of child labour victims are children who are living in poverty. This is so because they lack basic needs, for this reason they are forced even against their will to do any kind of work in order to gain financial wealth. This, therefore, affects school attendance. Evidence of school dropp out due to child labour is found in central region where most children are being employed in estates. This region has high tobacco production. Since this crop demands a lot of work, children are at high demand because they do not claim high wages compared to adults. Research, therefore, showed that the percentage of children attending schools is lower compared to that of northern and southern region (Nyirongo,2004) . We have the case of two brothers aged between 12 and 15 who were forced to work at a tobacco farm at Mpherembe in Kasungu district, where they were receiving 150 kwacha a day due to poverty (Namangale,2005) . We can see that child labour has a great impact on education because through it, a lot of children are being deprived of their right to education as they spend most of their time working.

In addition to that, Chirwa (2003) found out that child labour is also taking place in people’s houses. In this case children are forced to dropp out of school either by parents or on their own, to work in neighbouring homes. Here one of the victims is a 12 year old girl Elizabeth Chalimba, who left school when she was in standard six to work as a nanny in order to support her siblings. Children from low income families are at risk because though school is their only hope for a better future, they dropp out because their parents are failing to provide them with basic needs. Apart from child labour, psychological problems due to poverty is also another cause of school dropp outs. Research shows that the impact of poverty is greater on children as opposed to adults. Firstly, the problem arises due to the environment in which these children are raised. These environments being impoverished, they are intellectually unstimulating, and lack of stimulation results in impaired intellectual development of a child. This in turn contributes to failure in class which can later on lead to school dropp out.

[...] Read more

poem by Innocent Masina Nkhonyo
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Freedom To My People

Dear peacekeeper
Please give freedom to my people here at home
And in the world
Some of my people have fanilies in the countries that are in war
But some of mypeople already lost their loved ones in the war in their Countries that are in war
That is because they served in the army of their country that is in the War
But they never returned home because they died fighting in the war in Their countries
So their loved ones had to pay a big price
Because at the same time they had to sacrifice their lives for their Countries at war
But my people here at home can't wait for the war to end at their Countries
So that they can go back to their countries that they came from

poem by Aldo Kraas
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Job Networks and Enlightenment Rooms

The unemployed proletariat had just finished with the Centrelink’s rigmarole,
Of paper forms, and signing his name, and all the stuff the unemployed got to do.
Running around doing the paper chase, which is a part of the dole regime.
Next, it was the Job Networks, the employment organization now privatised.
A new dole treadmill for the unemployed, encouraging an attitude highly industrialized.

“Welcome to Job Network” the t.v. monitor said, on a recorded video machine.
“We are a privatized organization for the purpose of getting you into employment.
We are here to help you to find your talents, and potentials, to improve your
Abilities, so that you can re-enter the work force to have a life of independents.
This is far better than being on welfare forever with your dependants”.

The interviewers in the Job Network office were old grannies,
Complete with false colorings and artificial additives.
“I’m your case manager, I’m assigned to you, and you are here to sign a contract.
The Job Search And Activities Plan and responsibilities and employment to find.
To ensure you’re meeting your obligations to society not to be in your dole grind”.

The granny said.”Under governmental policies your association with us is for all life.”
Granny continued.“There will be no talk-back, yak-back, smart-back nor fart-back.
If we find you to be deficient in abilities, then you have to do a course of some sort.”
The proletariat looked a bit stunned said. “At my age, late forties, it's a bit late.”
Granny said. “It’s never too late to train.” she did not like his mind’s negative state.

The proletariat said to the false colored granny with artificial additives.
“I got a really bum hip, and with it I can't do much, and it seems I can't have a pension.
I’m not 97 per cent dead, nor can I work in a factory any more, it’s quite hopeless.”
Continuing. “I’m 49, over the hill and even at 40 no one is going to hire me any more”.
Granny said. “There’s anti-age-discrimination laws that help’s you in life furthermore.”

The proletariat bemused said. “Funny, I never heard. Daadaa-daatatitit-dududdaada-daaa”
THIS IS THE CHANNEL NINE NEWS, THE MOTORING ORGANIZATION
DISCRIMINATED AGAINST THIS MIDDLE AGED BLOKE FOR A CLERICAL
JOB AND THE ANTI-DISCRIMINATION BOARD IS TAKING ACTION.
FURTHERMORE ITS INTOLERABLE THE UNEMPLOYED CANT HAVE TRACTION.

This made grandma very angry, and she looked at the proletariat with contempt.
And said that the proletariat didn't want to work and had a severe attitude problem.
Grandma said it was about time to do a attitude course against negative attitudes.
It was being held in the same building in the “Enlightenment Room” for all dolies.
Grandma said it’s about time that the proletariats guard against their follies.

“Follies? ? I don’t think I have attitudes nor follies” The proletariat said, and continued.
“I lost my job due to imports from India, how can I possibly find work if Australia
Imports everything in untold billions of dollars worth of imported goods.
Further more, Australia has call centres and “IT” jobs in India, sucking all jobs out
Of Australia, so how could I possibly find work, faaarout.

Grandma was starting to become impatient with this proletariat smart arse.
“We have anti-discrimination laws against what you’re saying.”

[...] Read more

poem by Jerry Behr Number 2
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Two Countries

Two countries, both wanting peace.
From a war, that raged for years.
Both countries wanting to be right.
Both countries they live in fear.

One country puts their weapons down,
Then the other it invades.
The surrendered country defends itself,
The hope for peace it fades.

Both countries, still, they want a truce,
Yet the fight, it rages on.
Neither willing to call it quits.
Until all hope is gone.

One day they see a little child,
True victim of the war.
His bruised and battered little body,
Lay wounded on the floor.

Two countries fought for many years.
Regardless the cost.
What it was, they hoped to find.
The innocent had lost.

poem by Ryan Lee Morris
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An Epidemic Of Melancholy Proportions

an epidemic of melancholy proportions
is sweeping through many societies countries
despair dejection sadness misery hopelessness
are recession downturn decline consequences

suicide globally haunts many countries cultures
suicide globally engulfs preys upon countries cultures

many countries cultures ethnic societies
never even developed coined a word for depression
yet globally according to recent studies
fifty percent of women suffer episodes of depression

yearly mainly
each at least
a single episode

as opposed
to only ten
percent of men

ask the question
is depression
an issue the world

should take seriously...

one million people a year
are cured permanently
one million people a year succeed
in their attempts at suicide

issue depression needs countries cultures to address
society wide ways to address negative mind problems
depression has become a diabolical mind field killer
when will we learn to honour all our human family?

poem by Terence George Craddock
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Right Here, Right Now!

when we buy clothes made in sweatshop conditions
in Asian countries, or elsewhere, because they're
cheaper, we are in fact supporting human rights abuse.
when we buy oil from Arab countries that oppress and
abuse their own people, and regulate women to 'second-
class slavery', we are a part of that oppression.
when we throw away or waste food while children
around the world are starving, we become the cause
of that hunger.
when we drive big suv's and trucks that get less than 15
miles to the gallon, we are the driving force behind the oil
spills!
when we sell away our own people's job's for a bigger profit
overseas, we become the victims of our own greed.
you say we cant fix everything, how can we be responsible?
our country gives more aid than anyone....
we give aid to the countries we profit from.
if we took the money we spent bombing other countries
into submission, and then rebuilding them... and spent it
instead on food and medicine and training for the impoverished...
would we not get a better return? would the rest of the world
hate us as much as it does now?

we are individually responsible for every choice we make, and it's
result! what we eat, what we wear, what we drive, who we vote
for, and whether we vote! ... what we watch on tv, what we read,
whether we take the time to help our neighbors when they need it
(cause believe me your turn will come, it does for all of us) ...

whether we do what we say, whether we give without asking
for anything back...
whether we stand up for education and equality and moral fairness...
and it all begins with being aware, being aware of our responsibility.

we all make mistakes, i've made more than my share... but i'm willing
to get up and try again and again... and to get involved.
it begins right here, right now!

poem by Eric Cockrell
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Children's Care

'Worry not, we are safe and alive'
Thank god world has come to relive'
To the expectation and to rescue the children
World over for nourishment and care even

Millions of children live without proper food
That basic need was not estimated or understood
Some of the parts in world still lack preliminary care
Yet many areas have been provided with cover and perform better

Many quarters claim children as an asset and future
For the countries and world at large for sure
They are the custodians and backbone life line
We expect them to take on with the task left behind

Some of the countries lack means and sources
They have no back up and solid economic base
As result, many areas go under famine belt
Basis need is understood well and genuinely felt

The birth rate is improving but not at satisfactory level
We have yet to come up fairly even with that of medical
Lot of basic drugs is to be provided free to needy
Many countries are not equipped well to cope with or are ready

Overall improvement is noticed in many countries
Lots of centers have come up with the help of missionaries
Many more organizations are stepping in with challenges
The children front is now well organized and managed

As the garden may have different kind of flowers
Not all the flowers may blossom after rainy showers
Yet we have sacred duty to see that they come up naturally
Their death ratio is reduced and should not go up unexpectedly

Let us celebrate children day as an important event
Any country may want or need overall improvement
Whether in the field of health, wealth or economic progress
The fate of the country may be reflected on children's face

poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
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The new way of swindling..

Monarch rule the countries with one voice to be heard,
Dictator rules the countries with only his voice to be heard.
Communist rules the countries with voice of the people silenced.
Democrats rule the countries with voice of people maimed.

Accumulation of wealth is the power to the Monarchs,
Accumulation of power is wealth to a dictator,
Accumulation of weapons is a credit to the communists,
Accumulation of credit is a weapon to the democrats.

What a Monarch failed to achieve,
What a dictator miscalculated to propaganda,
What a communist intelligence sublimed to the basic,
That is where the democrats are successful.

Keep the public occupied with debts and sorrow,
Let the people live on the borrowed money,
Let them feel comfortable with gossips and fun,
Let the democratic monarchs evolve from the dust.

poem by Veeraiyah Subbulakshmi
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Oxymoron

Oxymoron:
fresh fish

*********

JBO:

'The beach at Sanibel... an Arlington Cemetery of shells.'
*
Every suffocated or strangled fish is first given
waterboarding sensations.
*
Fishes more frequently than
mammals or birds are cut open
alive, while their eyes watch
the knifing of others and their
gills struggle for absent air.

Fish cannot scream.
Greed for suffocated fish flesh causes seals to be clubbed in Canada, Norway, S Africa etc., dolphins to be knifed in Japan, whales to be murdered by
Norwegian Japanese Icelandic and American Inuit fishermen, bears
to be murdered in Alaska, untold thousands of fishermen to
be lost in tsunamis,700 Bangladesh fishermen lost in just 1 storm, Thai fishermen working for slave wages, tens of millions around
the world to die of stomach cancer, food poisoning etc.**

What's in fish? unreported Mad Fish
Disease, nuclear toxins a million
times more concentrated than in
sea water, AIDS from unprocessed
human waste dumped into
the oceans, hepatitis, anaphylactic shock, ecoli,
and other food poisoning,
throat, stomach and other cancers,
mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, pbb's, pcb's, thousands
of carcinogenic industrial waste products, and heavy metal sired
brain damage, pfiesteria (red tide) which poisons the fishes

FISH CAN'T SCREAM, FISH TOXINS, FISH STORIES

Are all anglers stranglers?

Dick Gregory: Eating fish liver oil is like eating the filter out of a car.

[...] Read more

poem by O. Anna Niemus
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The direct investment of Japanese businesses to East Asian economies accelerates the reallocation of their production bases. Consequently, between Japan and the other East Asian countries, both exports and imports are growing substantially.

quote by Toshihiko Fukui
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The E.U. imports more agricultural goods from developing countries around the world than does the U.S., Canada and Japan, combined.

quote by John Bruton
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Shake Narrow Preachings Off

All races have their origin in one cell.
All the blacks, whites and browns are one.
Were you grown in wombs for ten months
to die early for the cause of religions
and leave the mothers to weep till their end?
Religions catch them young
and teach them obsolete imports from the holy books
and transform a cross-section of them
into open or hidden extremists.
The stocks of narrow ideas are replenished often
with false interpretations of the holy books.
The politicians take the sharp arms of religions
either to seize the throne or not to lose it
If cunning is called intelligence,
the priests in all the cults are brilliant
in shaping the minds of the young
to be martyrs for their cult.

When some countries are in political turmoil,
grown out of religious terror,
the rich people get reprieve for migrating
to nations where peace prevails.
The poor die in cross-fire
in their own mother lands.
When all religions leading to one God,
the priests make them criss-cross,
and whatever the situation may be
heads the priests win and tails the poor lose.
When the earthquakes, volcanos and tsunamis hit,
let not religion and racial animosities
disturb the peace of this earth.

poem by Rajendran Muthiah
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We must put together countries that produce drugs, countries that traffic, and countries that consume, and through this multilateral effort really stop the growing of crime.

quote by Vicente Fox
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Europe started out with six countries; three small countries and three large countries.

quote by Jean-Pierre Raffarin
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But the Western countries that link their partnership with the poorest countries with respect for democracy also have to consider that they have obligations towards these countries.

quote by Omar Bongo
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Some countries that are close to Europe that already hold Deutschemarks, clearly would automatically hold euros, those are countries in Eastern Europe mainly, a few countries in Africa.

quote by Robert C. Solomon
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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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All ills

We had heard about racial discrimination and abuses
We were claiming tall but had to admit and could not refuse
The world is fast coming out of ethnic cleansing
How much more time we may need for real cleaning?

It ails society and countries on large scale
We have not come in terms and really failed
Our eyes still refuses to accept green
Before this such scenario never had been

Black and whites have fought for centuries and cursed
They wounds have been aggravated further and still not nurtured
Dark skin has some what not been hated most but the nations
Have remained at war for decades and strained the relations

What did the apartheid literally do other than to create hatred?
Where were the real feelings for country to stand united and lead?
Centuries of old relation evaporated in faction of seconds
Blood hungry rivals fought over for nothing but only diamonds

We have heard the poor being subjected to harassment and negligence
We too have come across the atrocities and rights violations
It has been tackled to large extent but this Oh God, terrorism
Really a dastardly act aimed at nothing but to malign the humanism

We have fought guerilla war and come across deadly organizations
Years of turmoil and blood bath have ruined us culture and institutions
We have nothing else left except to lick and nurture the wounds
Still that remains buried in mind and some traces are found

We are strongly divided over the issue of strong nationalism
It can have nothing to do with any kind of terrorism
The honorable ways are there open to wage the struggle
The innocent people can not taken as hostage and killed in jungles

It is possible strong armies may fail to curb such menace
The countries involved may stop the in flow of finance
The moral support is welcome in any form and appreciated
The terror and barbaric attacks for gaining freedom can not be equated

The world has witnessed the holocaust of atomic destruction
The world leaders are worried about capture of such weapons
What will be fate of entire world if that becomes tragedy?
Such elements must be rooted out as first steps of the remedy

Apartheid, color, cast and religion has not done much damage
Countries at war were persuaded and won over to manage
The next war may be deadly and even worst than ever expected
Why not we consider small part for all human lives to be respected?

poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
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