Budapest Rising

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

Budapest Rising

 

An election is coming to Budapest

As we hear a rising sound

The people march in protest

As scandals shake the ground

 

Corruption and rank abuse

Has shaken Hungary to its core

Orban’s grip is coming loose

Change is knocking at the door

 

Pedophilia and prostitution

An abomination to the masses

When it invades your institutions

It rips apart your ruling classes

 

When you’re a strongman at the helm

You believe there are no rules

You have gone beyond the realm

Of the morbid and the cruel

 

How long as this gone on?

This unspeakable reign of horror

Was it happening all along?

Listen! Hear the people roar!

 

The great reckoning is coming down

Like a hammer to your head

They don’t want your kind around

Try democracy instead

 

 

Corruption in Ukraine

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

 

Corruption in Ukraine

 

Corruption in Ukraine

Is an affront to humankind

Negotiations become strained

It puts her allies in a bind

 

To betray your country is a sin

To betray your country at war

Is a sin beyond redemption

It is corruption to the core

 

While the battlefield rages

While you plead for more arms

This is a treachery for the ages

That could do irreparable harm

 

The guilty must be punished

Before the cause is lost

The corruption must be banished

The corrupted must be tossed

 

Ukraine remains at war

In a battle for existence

An evil enemy at the door

All their people in resistance

 

Their leaders must be pure

Their president must stand tall

For the people must be assured

Or Ukraine will lose it all

 

 

The Land of Allende

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LATIN AMERICA

 

The Land of Allende

 

In the land of Pinochet and Allende

Where Latin American democracy

Rose up against the authoritarian tide

And fell against the same

Where the champions of the North

Changed sides by backing a military coup

 

We’re not about to let the will of the people

Stand in the way of American interests *

 

Chileans are facing a critical choice

A communist who is not a communist

Against a republican who is not a republican

The way of the ballot box

Or the way of the bullet

The gentle hand or the iron fist

Reason against rationalization

Persuasion against force

The path of social justice

Or the path of grim austerity

Jeannette Jara or Jose Antonio Kast

The people must choose

 

Choose wisely

For to make the wrong choice

May outlast a generation

 

* Henry Kissinger

 

The Fall of Bolivar

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LATIN AMERICA

 

The Fall of Bolivar

 

The last stand of Simon Bolivar

The father of Latin American democracy

The nation named in his honor

Home to the first indigenous president

Defender of democratic socialism

Fallen to the forces of capitalism

 

One wonders if democracy can survive

For capitalism so often prefers strongmen

 

That it has survived in the northern hemisphere

In western Europe and America

Gives proof that elements of socialism and

Capitalism can coexist with democracy

 

That democracy is so often threatened

In capitalist dominated countries

(a list that now include the United States)

Gives proof that the forces opposed to socialism

Are the forces opposed to democracy

 

The autocrats are lining up against us

Social democracy is at risk

Democracy itself is threatened

Bolivar has fallen but the fight goes on

The people must rise to find a way

 

(Rodrigo Paz elected president of Bolivia) 

Orban the Despotic

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Orban the Despotic

 

Victor Orban and Donald Trump

The despot and the wannabe

When Orban yells his people jump

The dream the Donald dreams

 

There is no opposition

He puts them all in jail

He believes in superstitions

Orban the Great can never fail

 

They share an admiration

For the empires of old

They’d love to lead their nations

In thrones of purest gold

 

They subvert their constitutions

With every kind of measure

Like destroying institutions

That expose their dirty pleasures

 

Orban should go back home

We don’t need his tactics here

Your final days will come

We pray those days are near

 

 

The Democratic Facade

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

The Democratic Façade

 

In Tanzania they elected a president

Samia Suluhu Hassan

If a true republic is what they meant

Their chances are nearly gone

 

She tallied 98 percent of the vote

She believes that is a mandate

In fact that is a tally of note

That declared a miserable fate

 

For democracy requires an open field

In a free and fair election

A republic allows no such appeal

The fraud is beyond correction

 

Tanzania is now a phony façade

Another entry in the despots ring

When you’ve no choice but to applaud

The applause means less than nothing

 

We wonder why they even bother

To present themselves as free and fair

Like pretending a deity is your father

Why would you even dare?

 

 

Connolly Wins in Ireland!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

Connolly Wins!

 

The Irish have elected a president

In a landslide of the electorate

She gives her promise to represent

Even those who did not expect it

 

The barrister once of Galway

Has risen through the ranks

Long and hard she worked for this day

And to all she gives her thanks

 

She believes in a social civility

To guide her stay in power

A broad principle of inclusivity

Bringing down the ivory tower

 

All the Irish may not agree

But she is sworn to hear the call

Of the poor over merchants of greed

To serve the many if not the all

 

May Ireland rise to the stars

In the kindness for which she’s esteemed

May we embrace you for who you are

A fulfillment of the Irish dream

 

* Catherine Connolly, Independent

 

 

The Venezuelan Tragedy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LATIN AMERICA

 

The Venezuelan Tragedy

 

It is a sad and dreary history

The CIA backed operations

The torture and the travesties

The Bolivarian Revolution

Alleviation of mass poverty

The backlash of institutions

A betrayal of democracy

A reversal of solutions

Corruption and collusion

 

Hugo Chavez had it right

When he embraced social democracy

He kept the workers in his sight

Til he was tempted by autocracy

When Maduro took the reigns

He enacted one-man rule

It became an old refrain

Oppression cold and cruel

 

Had Chavez lived who knows?

His cause might have remained true

But now the discontent grows

When they win the people lose

The democratic movement slows

Their elections are a ruse

The Americans are landing blows

The Venezuelans are abused

 

Each in Their Own Way (No Kings)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

 

Each in Their Way (No Kings)                                                                      

 

The are holding a great rally today

A mass gathering in the streets of protest

Some will march and some will pray

Let each for each decide what’s best

 

For each will give in his or her own way

That must be decided for oneself

A gathering of protest for this day

A secret wish that all will turn out well

 

Let all be welcomed to this growing cause

Let all who rise proclaim it far and loud

We stand for truth and justice within the law

For all who stand the nation should be proud

 

Some will gather stones and call us names

For truth and justice aren’t without cost

Those who stand it now can have no shame

Knowing that this war cannot be lost

 

Those who march have many more behind

A rising tide will lift all boats at sea

Believers in the cause are of one mind

No kings, no queens, no rights of monarchy

 

Democracy in Peru

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LATIN AMERICA

 

Peruvian Democracy

 

Crime is the enemy of a civil society

When crime rises, trust declines

Bringing discontent and social anxiety

Democratic values fall behind

 

In Peru they send their leaders to jail

For failure to stop the criminal waves

That’s what happens when society fails

Corruption pulls them to an early grave

 

Now that Boluarte is out and Jeri is in

The demand for change will be growing

The countdown to elections will begin

They hope the crime rate will be slowing

 

Democracy can’t be a revolving wheel

That does not address the people’s needs

When government abuses power to steal

It is replaced with lightning speed

 

The enduring lesson of Peru’s democracy

Is that stability must take hold

To prevent the danger of autocracy

The people must be strong and bold

 

 

The Argentinian Compromise

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LATIN AMERICA

 

Argentinian Compromise

 

Between a steamroller and a boulder

The Argentinians are in crisis

The prospects are growing colder

With their inflationary prices

 

On one side looms the dragon

The full forces of oppression

Put your pesos in their wagon

You will be headed for depression

 

On the other is the autocrat

The unvarnished force of greed

If this is where your country’s at

Argentina is bound to bleed

 

The land with a tortured history

Is a land in desperate need

With a leader who is lost

And who will pay most any cost

 

To maintain his hold on power

Despite the welfare of the nation

As we approach the final hour

That will define their destination

 

 

Strongmen of Nicaragua

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

Strongmen of Nicaragua

 

Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo

Rule the nation with an iron fist

A growing number of desaparecido

Their names were on a list

 

They disappear their adversaries

Like their predecessors did before

No telling where the bodies are buried

It’s a part of the nation’s lore

 

It’s an endless fight for liberty

In the nations below the border

They pray the soldiers let them be

They plead for law and order

 

But the government is the problem

They have guns and they have power

The courts cannot absolve them

When it comes to the reckoning hour

 

They are cursed to live in darkness

Until the light comes shining through

Like a hawk trapped in its nest

Until the day it finally flew

 

Moldova Chooses Freedom

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

Moldova Chooses Freedom

 

Maia Sandu remains president

In a free and fair election

Vladimir Putin is feeling spent

With his candidate’s rejection

 

The people of Moldova

Choose democracy once again

Putin tried to interfere

But he was denied a win

 

The affirmation goes to show

When the people have a choice

The desire for freedom grows

They will exercise their voice

 

We salute fair Moldova

While NATO lies in wait

Russia is like a melanoma

A disease is their estate

 

The future now looks bright

Form Moldovan democracy

Again they’ve seen the light

A stern rejection of autocracy

 

 

The Rise of Gen Z

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

The Rise of Gen Z

 

It rises from the internet

From the darkness of the web

The mold is cast and set

To the cry of Johnny Reb

 

From Madagascar to Sri Lanka

From the Philippines to Nepal

It comes down against corruption

Warning up against the wall!

 

It has no leaders or philosophy

At least that’s what we’re told

It moves ahead with lightning speed

And stuns when it unfolds

 

It turned the tide in Kathmandu

It caught fire in Paraguay

With the flames of angry youth

Demanding fundamental rights

 

You didn’t listen to them before

You might want to listen now

They don’t want your stupid wars

And their voice is growing loud

 

They stand as Generation Z

Their time has now arrived

Their cry is spreading like a weed

Their word is carried far and wide