My favourite band

Hi,

Of course I grew up with Tamil music only in my younger days as my parents, immigrants from Tamil Nadu, only speak Tamil at home. My father picked up Malay and a smattering of English later on in life. My mother, the most intelligent and patient of women, is illiterate. She taught me and my children Tamil in the only way she knows, orally. (My children did well in Tamil in school as she taught them the unadulterated classical Tamil which is seldom spoken in Singapore.)

Many of the songs I heard on the Tamil radio in those days were most meaningful. The values they expounded will always remain with me.

However, I would like to introduce you to "Midnight Oil", an Australian band. It has stayed my favourite ever since my husband introduced it to me. Bear with me if you find them so 1970s and 1980s.

While the songs are old (the band broke up in 2002) they are not dated. There are contemporary references that are historical and parochial (meaningful only to Australians) now, but the messages are if anything even more valid today. Global warming back then was something that existed only in the minds of a few mad scientists and radicals.

An important aside: Peter Garrett, formerly the band's lead singer, is the present Environment Minister in the Australian government. Even in his performing days, he was active in conservation and even sat on the Board of Greenpeace. Kudos to him for his perseverance in pointing to the inconvenient truth of the environmental degradation in our midst and his ability to move the masses in the most non-threatening manner, that is, with music.

You would feel different about 'not seeing the forest for the trees' after watching and listening to the few music videos I have selected below from the Youtube.

1. Short Memory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgukduYJZ44

Man has a propensity to forget his past, his history. He has a short memory, always forgetting the sufferings of the violent colonisation by the Belgians in Congo, the French and English in North America, the Spanish in Latin America, French in Indochina, British in India, everyone in Africa, especially the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Short memory will cause us to have the history of suffering repeat itself again and again.

2. "One country" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTpGgItl4hI

...planet, One planet, One...

I like to extend the idea in this song to the whole world. The onus is on us all to open our eyes to what is happening around us. Environmental events in one country will sooner or later affect us too. We are not living in cocoons. One ocean, one seabed, one landmass sitting on one placemat, all it takes is one atomic bomb to destroy everyone and we are defenceless. We have to act together and not sit on the fence like a lot of us are doing.

3. "Beds are burning" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10BbpGKLXqk&feature=related
(with lyrics)
This song is about our treatment of minorities like the indigenous Australians - saying that we are looking the other way, are in a state denial that we took their land away. The metaphor seems to combine the one about 'playing the violin while Rome burns' with being unable to' sleep straight in our beds'. It's about collective guilt and reconciliation.

BTW, the Kintore East that the song mentions is a community of the last nomadic Aboriginals to make contact with Whites.

4. "River runs red" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EyQkc2w5E4
Deforestation is poisoning the sky. Carbon dioxide, which is a green house gas, is increasing in the atmosphere at a ever increasing rates. Air pollution and water pollution is leaving behind an earth so degraded that it is not fair to our descendants. Instead of sustainable practises, businesses are driven by profits margins only. The rain water is polluted by soot and is falling as black rain, and the land is dry turning to dust, the river is so polluted that it flows red, as though the land is bleeding. The singer feels as though there is a curse on us, he feels trapped and wants to tell the truth to all of us.

Unfortunately, it is depressingly easy to find pictures of rivers that are actually red

5. "Blue sky mine" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByRbiyxlJJk&feature=related

This song reminds me about the Japanese anime "Mononoke" that we saw in the Library on 4th November 2008. The environmental degradation caused by mining companies in their pursuit of profits is real but won't be fixed by mythical creatures - except metaphorically if we can make peace with the Earth.

I am also reminded of a book by Jared Diamond - no, not 'Guns Germs and Steel' - I am thinking of 'Collapse', which is mostly about the passing of ancient civilisations. But it begins with the bad effects of mining in the otherwise pristine wilderness of present-day Montana in the United States. Are we going the way of the ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) and Easter Island civilisations that collapsed when they exhausted all their natural resources?

6. "The Power and the Passion" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dukmp4v9ZiU&feature=related
We have to strive to know the truth, not just stuff ourselves with so much junk that is thrown at us. We need to be aware and take responsibility for our actions and not just pursue the "five Cs" (Cash, Car, Condominium, Country club and Credit card).

It also reminds me of a writer from the 60s, Marshall McLuhan, who coined the phrase, "The Medium is the Message". The message behind most advertising is to consume to excess and not worry about tomorrow.

7. "Antarctica" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2SpVVrfIFs
Human beings are the storm, the settlers with a smile on their faces when they see the clean waters and ice mountains of Antarctica. They are going there with their hunting guns, and snow ploughs to destroy the clean air that allows your skin to breathe. We have to leave Antarctica alone to prevent the downhill slide of the now pristine environment there. Fortunately, it is protected by international treaty - but for how long? And will a treaty protect that continent from pollution and global warming?

8. "Read about it" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joto7Bqnf5o
Be 'quisitive, Best Beloveds... (will explain another time ;-) ) Read and be informed about your environment. Knowledge is power, and knowledge of what is happening in your environment will help you to make informed choices.

Enjoy!

If you could decipher the lyrics for the songs listed above, please share them with the other bloggers by posting them in the comments box. (I used to have the lyrics typed out on some of the songs at one time, which I used to share with some of my students, but they are no where to be found now.)

The first person to post me the lyrics for all 8 songs listed above can come to see me in school for a small reward.

Cheers