Monday, January 30, 2012

The Thursday Think Tank # 82 - The Road

 This poem is about a tribe called Jarawa who face the danger of extinction. This is because of the Great Andaman Trunk Road, which was built through their forest land in the 1970's. From then onwards they've faced great hardship due to widespread poaching, encroachment and commercial exploitation of their land which is of no benefit to them. To read further about what dangers they face read this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarawa_people_(Andaman_Islands)

Here's my poem:

The road cuts through their land;
their forests were cut to level it,
driving all the animals away.
Now where do they go for fruit and meat
on an island so isolated from the modern world?
Stripping off their dignity and
dancing to the tunes of corrupt intruders:
demeaning begging is what they've come to.
The scrounge of modernity hasn't left them alone.
Curse the modern world!

8 comments:

  1. Oh you know how much this poem resonates with me. Poor creatures of the wild, both human and animal. Thanks for addressing this very important topic.

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  2. Well done Maddie, Unfortunately this story resonates for many tribes and groups of Aboriginal peoples. Whatever we can do, we must do, to ensure they maintain control of their land and their dignity, culture and indigenous practice.

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  3. Awesome! Loved the strenght of this poem. You did well on a topic as breaking nature down. Without nature the human race cannot survive, so thank you that you did write this poem on such a important issue.

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  4. so sad...modernity destroys yet another thing this time a whole culture...sobering...well written for sure...

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  5. Curse the modern world! Curse the modern world!

    I can't vent loud enough.

    Sorry for the outburst but I had to.

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