Thought I would add another poem to this blog!
Gitmo Rhymes
They tape his face and hood is head,
They grab his hair and pull his dreads,
And take him to the camp,
His orange suit illuminating,
As the guards don’t stop discriminating
There faces are really intimidating,
As they chuck him in the cell,
He ponders on the thought of hope,
The fumes inside almost make him choke,
His dreams of childhood: smoking dope,
And wakes to shouting men,
Why they took him is a mystery,
He thinks its cos he has a plagued ancestry,
But the politicians know.
As his body seems to waste away,
Human rights has no say,
As each second seems like a day,
The injustice burns like fire,
As I walk the street I fear the worst,
When will my liberal bubble burst?
And which camp will it be?
I see the people demonstrating,
But I still see folks, who keep on hating,
Not enough people are participating,
For hatred is a fuel
Spread through streets like a virus,
Its said to have many admirers,
Not least the BNP
Let’s rise and fight this intelligently,
Cos it’s a question of morality,
We have to get this equality,
Cos it aint gonna go away
.© Mohamed-Zain Dada
H.T.T.Y.O - How to torture your own.
The following is a simple guide on how to torture your own citizens
Torture them cos’ they have no rights,
Hide your morals, turn a blind eye,
And tell your foreign minister to learn how to lie,
Deploy M15, ask him the questions,
Make sure he knows, there ain’t no choice,
He’s just a prisoner; he hasn’t got a voice,
‘He’s a terrorist; he worked for Al-Qa’ida’
Stack up the slander, build the weak case,
Prepare the fake courts, hide his face,
Case closed, only one outcome
Guilty as an innocent, mask the reality,
And make sure you sprinkle the courts with a gloss of legality,
Conceal the reports, forget he existed,
Make sure the public are kept in the dark,
Instead concentrate; you have a new mark.© Mohamed-Zain Dada
The recent release of Binyan Mohamed from Guantanamo bay and the collusion of the M15 and supposedly the British government in the rendition and torture of the detainee, suggests that the idea of ‘morality’ was favourably abolished during the Bush and Blair years. The question is can the public trust this current government anymore. For an ordinary citizen being sold out by your own government, the feeling of betrayal is indescribable. The citizen pay’s taxes, abides the law, works everyday to provide for his/her family. We can add on to that list that the citizen could also be detained and taken to camps to serve a 7 year jail sentence accompanied with daily torture even if he or she is innocent.
Morality can be defined in a couple of ways. There are different views on what is right or wrong via different countries. Some countries use morals within religion to define how their country is run, and some nations have an unwritten laws were the morality is often encompassed inside society, this stems from life’s experiences and what environments we as human beings are exposed to as we grow up. Our empiricist correct in the notion that our minds are blank slates? Or are we born with the idea of what is right and wrong? As a global society their needs to be stricter adjudication on not only torture but the rendition of foreign nationals within other nations. Although the UN convention against torture has been signed by 76 nations it seems to be ignored by independent judicial systems. This needs to change, instead of the foreign office admitting to colluding with America in torturing detainees there needs to be a modification of the law on the safe return of refugees. If global leaders have not got the morality to make that decision, then we as a public need to bring that to Gordon Brown’s attention.
There is no morality in torturing a man to admit to committing a crime; the idea of it all is absurd. Detain any man or women on the street and torture them and the likelihood is he will admit to a crime to escape the mental or physical pain inflicted upon him. Through torture the British and American government have contradicted themselves, the barbarity of torture is obvious, never mind detaining men without trial, yet other nations are backward? Barack Obama mentioned that he will lend a hand if nations choose to ‘unclench their iron fists’ but maybe the United States need to unclench their own iron fist to lend a hand in the first place.
If the British government crave the trust of the public again they will need to clearly state that under no circumstances can their own citizens be taken and tortured. Whether any action will be taken is unlikely, the closure of Guantanamo bay is significant but it is likely that there are other camps were conditions are far worse.
