It is plain to see we’re in a terrible situation
Sufferin’ in the land
Nearly half of the world on the verge of starvation
Sufferin’ in the land
And the children are crying for more education
Sufferin’ in the land
They’re singin’

Jimmy Cliff, from ‘Sufferin’ in the land’ (1969)

Listen here

It is 1969 and Jimmy Cliff is mourning warning protesting grieving because the world is damaging and damaging, he is singing of wealth and poverty, guns and bombs. Bob Dylan claimed Jimmy’s ‘Vietnam’ as the best protest song of all time. And here we are fifty-six years later and the suffering in the land is every which way we look. How to hold onto the light when the world helplessly watches Gaza bombed and starved to smithereens. How to hold onto the light when Ukraine is also suffering through the choices of a neighbouring war criminal. How to hold onto the light when our Government listens to the wealth of the few rather than the multiple needs of the many. How to hold onto the light when our health system is at breaking point, and patients, nurses and doctors suffer. How to hold onto the light when our children are forced into little learning boxes that have no vision of the whole child. How to hold onto the light when our first language, te reo Māori, is the target of Government abuse. How to hold onto the light when our native flora and fauna are under increased threat. How to hold onto the light when white skin (usually male) becomes (again) a ticket of privilege, how to hold onto the light when the dark patches are smashing on our windows and doors.

Today I’m looking at damp patches of Waitākere sky with Jimmy Cliff on full volume, the words of beloved sixties and seventies song writers streaming in my ears, think Bob and Joni and Neil. And yes, it is a wide wide world, it’s a rough-puff pastry road, and it’s still inhumane fighting, greed and abuse. Are we sitting in limbo? Waiting for dice to roll. Today even my morning is a dense dark heavy patch, but I’m thinking of Helen Clark and Anne Salmond, the frontline workers, journalists, songwriters, politicians, poets, caregivers, forest and ocean guardians, who are working against all odds across the globe to hold onto the light.

Haere i runga i te rangimarie
Haere me te aroha