Written circa 2000
In Turkey hunger strikers are dying
to draw the world’s attention to the inhuman treatment of prisoners.
In Genoa police kill an anti-global protester.
In China the authorities step up the rate of executions
to show the rest of world they are fit to run the Olympics.
The US inflicts the death penalty on people with an intellectual disability.
Amerika refuses to sign treaties controlling green house gases
and on outlawing bacterial weapons.
At the Whaling Commission Japan buys the right to keep killing thousands of whales.
In Sudan the bombing of civilians continues.
In Sri Lanka the bombing of civilians continues.
In Ache the killing of civilians continues.
And in the Middle East the Israel Army fires five missiles into the car of a Hamas leader.
They continue to shoot rock throwing students and bulldozes Arab houses.
The government says it does this in order to establish their commitment to peace.
In West Papua the Indonesian Army wipes out another village for raising the Morning Star flag.
Six million people were made homeless by floods in India and Pakistan.
Throughout the world one thousand million people are on the brink of starvation.
In my country the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory was found guilty of being in contempt of court.
Yet he is running a law and order election campaign jailing homeless Aborigines for sleeping in parks.
That’s enough good news for one day. Now go to sleep and if you are very, very good tomorrow night I will tell you about how hard the world’s 500 billionaires are finding it to make ends meet.
Copyright © 2025 John Tomlinson