Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "global-goals"

Earth and Mars, what is the difference,
Mars is barren, Earth isn't much behind!
Mars is barren for there's no advanced species,
Earth is made barren by its native intelligent kind.
We haven't yet learnt to take care of Earth,
Yet we are now headed for Mars as colonizer.
With the money it'll take to get to Mars,
We can literally end world hunger.
Mark you, I am not against space exploration,
But there's what I call existential priority.
I guess robots who vacation at high altitude,
Are least likely to fathom what’s humanity.
Advancement that ignores human suffering,
After a brief flight, eventually brings universal ruin.

Poverty is a capitalist invention,
Third world obscurity is colonial construct.
History of the west is history of abuse,
World hunger is a western by-product.

If it takes $300bn to end world hunger,
and 7 trillion to fund the next AI wonder,
how many people have to starve to death,
to feed the appetite of the cyberworld?

If Britain’s NHS costs about $200bn,
and US military costs 800 billion dollars,
how many have to suffer from sickness,
for the tribal chiefs to feel secure?

If it takes $20bn to end homelessness
in the US, and trillions to colonize Mars,
how many have to sleep in cardboad boxes,
for heirs of billionaires to breed on Mars?

You don’t need to be a Ramanujan or Euler,
to solve this simple arithmetic equation.
But you do need a living human heart,
to take responsibility for the solution.

Africa is not a charity case,
Colombia is not a charity case,
Bolivia is not a charity case,
Venezuela is not a charity case,

Mexico is not a charity case,
Philippines is not a charity case,
Thailand is not a charity case,
India is not a charity case –

the global south is not a charity case,
it’s rich with both mind and minerals.
Human poverty in the global south is
manufactured by the northern apes.

Awake, Arise, O Children of South,
you got more brain, heart and backbone
than all old and new colonials combined.
Humans of Earth everywhere, all rise ‘n roar,
the first global goal is to fire the fascists.

Post-apocalyptic world will
never unfold like in the movies,
the post-apocalyptic world already
exists, may be not for you, as you’re
born on the lucky side of privilege –

but that world of drought, flood, famine,
plague and persecution already exists –
the post-apocalyptic world is now,
ten steps from the door of the privileged.

Privilege defines whether
it’s a post-apocalyptic world –
step outside the castle,
and apocalypse is everywhere.

Or you just Netflix and chill,
while human communities crumble!
Apes binge-watch the occupation,
deportation and genocide,
aloof from their smart-castle.