Archive for February, 2008

i am not a hero he said

i don’t wanna die

truth is not an option

i’ve stopped asking why

i keep coming back

i keep coming back

there are no human rights violations here

tatmadaw said

just a million people hiding in the jungle

amongst the orphaned and the dead

still under attack

still under attack

we are here to shine a light

we will stand between the army and the people

we will give our life

until the army lays down every gun

we will run with the people as they run

to come back out is hard he said

easier on the field

do all you can

no choice but to believe

down on your knees

down on your knees

we are here to shine a light

we will stand between the army and the people

we will give our life

until the army lays down every gun

we will run with the people as they run

we are here to light a fire

hope and love will burn

our spirit will fly

we will pray that justice comes

but until then

we are here to shine a light

we will stand between the army and the people

we will give our life

until the army lays down every gun

we will run with the people as they run

As we plan and prepare for the recordings of the songs for this new album, this song remains a deeply special one to me. I wrote it shortly after meeting an extraordinary man in extraordinary circumstances in Chiang Mai, Thailand. As we shared a meal, in a small upper room above a printing press on the outskirts of Chiang Mai, the leader of the Free Burma Rangers opened my eyes and my heart to the realities of ethnic and religious cleansing inside Burma. After three of the most poignant hours I have been privileged to be a part of, he drove my friend Shelley and I back into the city in his huge four wheel drive, loaded down with dozens of large bags of clothes to take up to the refugees on the Thai Burma border. When we arrived back in town, and as we were getting out of the vehicle, this deeply humble and fiercely courageous man hugged us both and said, ” Thank you for encouraging me and for all you are doing to help us”

ALL we are doing??? At that point Shelley and I had done nothing, except meet him, listen to him and, unbeknown to him then, have our lives changed by him. Afterward, as we ‘debriefed’ in a cafe, I said, “HE thanked us for encouraging HIM!! What did we do?” Shelley simply answered, “We were there – and you know what? We ARE going to do something, we ARE going to tell people about this, and we WILL use our abilities and resources and time to KEEP doing something”.

In the 18 months since that meeting we have both witnessed the opening of doors to people, places and opportunities which have enabled us to keep ‘telling people’ through conversations, paintings and songs.Two weeks ago, I emailed ‘The White Monkey” and shared with him the news about the progress of the new album and said, if need be, I would bring it to him personally at its completion. Several days later I received a very precious email, “…I have your songs out here with me and look forward to the new album…..and if we can work out a trip inside I will. let me know when you might be here. God bless you, D.”

‘We Will Run’ is written for and dedicated to this man who, in his own words, is not a hero and does not want to die, but for whom truth and the stand for justice are not options…..he and his team will continue to run into the war zones, into the land mined jungles and burned down villages, to bring help, hope and love to the people who suffer.

A friend and work colleague here at Crossroads always ends his emails with  this thought provoking phrase: numbers have faces and faces have names. Statistics are informative, but by their very nature can dis-enable us from  seeing the faces  of the people which make them up -or hearing the voices of those whose voices are not heard. Not being overly fond of numbers, I tend not to be drawn to graphs and columns, but THESE figures have made me think…

Since 1996 over 2 million refugees have fled Burma and sought refuge in the camps on the Thai Burma border.

There are over 1 million Internally Displaced People (IDPs)  hiding in the Burma jungles from the military dictatorship of the Burma Army.

Nearly 4 million Iraqis have been displaced by sectarian cleansing, violence and kidnap. 2 million have fled into neighboring Syria and Jordan.

A quarter of Zimbabwe’s population of 12 million have fled to neighboring countries in the last several years.  In 2007 more than 7,000 Zimbabweans applied for refugee status in South Africa.

The UN has stated that more than 240,000 Darfurians have been newly displaced, or have been re- displaced, in 2007, as violence in refugee camps increases.

And what is the difference between me and a refugee? Only circumstances!

African sun poured down like rain upon my skin

the door to change kicked open

and i stumbled in

traded in the freeway

and the smell of the salt-sea air

learnt to walk the red-dust road over there

over there

and they told me this is Africa

they told me this is Africa

and they said that this is how it’s done

limousines and beggars

cries of peace behind the pointed gun

African song flowed down in a river of hope and tears

and the children smiled at me

sheltered by their years

and the people wrote their dreams

in shades of black and white

no Berlin wall was made to fall

across the line between day and night

and they told me this is Africa

they told me this is Africa

and they said that this is how it’s done

limousines and beggars

cries of peace behind the pointed gun

African journey brought me half a universe away

as i stepped into the night in Bombay

a thousand fingers clutched my hands

and begged to walk with me

someone threw some pennies down and said

‘hey, just let it be’

and they told me this is India

they told me this is India

and they said that this is how it’s done

limousines and beggars

cries of peace behind the pointed gun

African sun came down, bled its colours across the sky

i looked out on the red dust road

and said goodbye

then the silence that held me

was broken like a toy

as a city fell in flames

and the gun reached for the boy

and they told me this is Bosnia

they told me this is Bosnia

and they said that this is how it’s done

limousines and beggars

cries of peace behind the pointed gun

In the ten years since this song was recorded, tragically nothing has really changed, especially on the continent of Africa. When the words to this song began flowing out one night, not long after I had returned from a year living and working in Zimbabwe, my experiences and memories of that beautiful country were ones of peace and stability.Zimbabwe was a country where wars had taken place, but which were now ‘history’ to be told around the table after dinner or around a camp set up on the banks of the Zambezi River, after a day of fishing and safariing.
A starkly different country it is now, and just in the last month Kenya has seen the outbreak of civil unrest and ethnic cleansing within its borders. One reporter has gone so far as to compare what is happening there now with what took place in Rwanda in the ’90’s.

The journey this song has taken, from the time I first played it to a dear friend on her piano, to now, has surprised and amazed us. I have often said to friends that I could easily write a book about the places it has traveled to and the extraordinary people we have met through it.
This is, in fact, the song that introduced us to Crossroads and eventually brought us as a family to Hong Kong. As we prepare to record a new version of this song, we realise totally that the original recording will always be THE recording and cannot be replaced or, I suspect, bettered. It will remain a testimony to the passion, dedication and skills of our friend Nonda, who engineered and produced the entire album, and of the musicians and singers who gave themselves so unreservedly to its recording.