For Better or for Worse??
Poem by Marcel, a Cedros resident
So, Mister Man, you’re giving us a Plant
Against our wishes- not the kind we want
Approaching with incentives and bright smiles
To destroy our plants for three square miles.
The fauna too, are going to be dead
‘Cause money Madness gone to someone’s head.
You ever walk in Chatham, smell the air
So rich in Ozone, healthy country fare
Where friendly forests filter wind and rain
To nourish us and gradually drain
Into Paria, North and Channel to the South
Where, in the bays and stream and river mouth
Marine life spawned; at least that used to be
Before you came and gave us “L.N.G?”
Two thousand acres in the first instance
Shall be laid bare, site for some Madman’s Dance!
We wish that you would come down for a ride
When you send us this tide of Fluoride:
Drink of our water, bathe then, if you dare
In ALCOA’s ECO-friendly atmosphere.
In Agriculture you did not invest
Fish and Coconut Plants may have been best
Considered cocoa, coffee, lumber? Not a thought!
The birthrights of centuries simply bought
For Tourism, did not a finger lift
To share our Peninsula’s natural gift-
The RAMSAR made us fearful feel secure
But ALCOA’s money opens up the door.
“Low emissions,” so you say, “no sweat”
While slow immersion in fluoride’s slow death
The Doctor whom you sent to pour the oil
Cares not for souls, much less for our soil
The toothless mongrel of Authority
Will quickly rubber-stamp your C.E.C.
At your success, you’ll rave and celebrate
As we moan and bewail untimely fate
Your trained experts have failed you to appraise
The more Imports, the more prices raise
And while our natural resources wane
You don’t replace with that which can sustain…
The Protest is the province of the Poor-
The Rich can well afford to break the Law.
So our Last Supper might be the evening’s meal
‘Cause you don’t hear and don’t care how we feel.
Well, Piper paid, Tune called, let’s start the dance-
Others must follow as if in a Trance
Our people then are left to choose a curse-
Ganja or Smelter Planter, Which Is Worse?