Annoying Children
the children had no clean clothes
they had no clean drinking water
they had no direction
they walked walked and walked
around the particle accelerator
<>
it cost millions
needed clean water to keep cool
it had direction
it had a film crew
to make a documentary
about the important work
about the progress of science
<>
these annoying
children in dirty clothes
were in the way
these selfish children
in the way of the cameras
wanted the water
the accelerator needed
<>
even worse
they were in the way of progress
I can’t recall if there was an actual incident that sparked this piece or if it was a response to the oil-pipe line protests. Or perhaps it was the paradox between the cost of political party advertising what they do to help the less fortunate vs using the advertising money to end child poverty. If there was no child poverty what could they use to score compassion points?
When I see documentaries about space exploration & how it is furthering our understanding of the universe & hear the cost of the exploration I wish we recognized that cost in more human terms. Today in the midst of the pandemic it is the countries that cannot afford health care that are suffering the most. Often the same countries industry counts on for cheap labour.
One of the Olympic factoids I was dismayed at was the removal of the homeless, the destruction of shack towns solely to make the location more presentable to foreign press. More money spent on that process than actually spent to improve those lives. Who wants those dirty, shoeless, children in the background of their vacation selfies?
Progress is for those who will profit from it, not for those who are used for the labour to make progress for those who will profit from it. You want better wages? Better working conditions? Health plans? Stop standing in the way of progress.
TOpoet 
[…] Annoying Children […]