{"id":1293,"date":"2009-10-04T01:27:34","date_gmt":"2009-10-04T01:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/?p=1293"},"modified":"2014-12-04T02:08:30","modified_gmt":"2014-12-04T02:08:30","slug":"its-a-fence-not-a-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/its-a-fence-not-a-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Its a Fence, Not A Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maticni<\/a>
Maticni Street in Usti nad Labem<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Council:<\/strong>
\nThey don’t pay rent and they don’t work
\nThey create an awful din
\nThey look different because they are
\nSo lets wall the Roma in.
\nWell build a wall, 13 foot high
\nBuild it right around
\nWe can pretend they don’t exist
\nWhen we can hear from them no sound.
\nThis is the twentieth century
\nThis is the twenty first
\nWe are good citizen of these lands
\nThe gyspies are the worst.
\nWe want action from the city council
\nFor it to happen now we call
\nWe want them to solve the problem
\nBy building a thirteen foot wall.<\/p>\n

o o O o o<\/p>\n

Roma:<\/strong>
\nWhy build a wall around our flats
\nHow can it make you content
\nTo wall us in like animals
\nBecause some cant pay the rent
\nWe dont have jobs, us you accuse
\nAnd vent on us your anger as you attack
\nWhen we look for work the Czech man says theres none
\nWe know its because were black.
\nOur people are sunk in apathy
\nThey cannot see a way out now
\nWhy not place our people on our feet
\nAnd to progress, show us how?
\nWe’ll appoint stewards to our flats
\nLaw and order for to keep
\nSettle rows of drunks before they get out of hand
\nRubbish to gather, the courtyards to sweep…<\/p>\n

o o O o o<\/p>\n

Council:<\/strong>
\nWe are the council of this town
\nOur tenants we have heard
\nWe know of rents that have not been paid
\nWe call a wall absurd.
\nWe see the stewards that police the flats
\nAnd where rubbish had been
\nThey now work to empty the bins
\nAnd keep their court yards clean.
\nThirteen foot high and concrete
\nWe will not build this wall
\nWe’ll build a 1.8m barrier of ceramic bricks
\nAnd it as a “Fence” we’ll call.
\nWe’ll build the kids a playground
\nAnd in it they can play
\nThey’ll not notice there corralled like animals
\nThis the council does say!<\/p>\n

o o O o o<\/p>\n

Narrative:<\/strong>
\nMen came from East and Came from west
\nAnd said from where they’d been
\nNothing like this ever did exist
\nNothing like this they’d seen.
\nIt could not be built, it was not right
\nIt was racist, outright wrong
\nAnd Romanys attacked the site
\nPulling down bits erected as they were built along
\nThe middle of the street they lived
\nAs their neighbours looked on with pride
\nAt how the council done their will
\nAns sided with their side.
\nBt the pressure it kept mounting
\nIt was seen the world round
\nAnd everyone who came on it
\nOnly revulsion in them was to be found.<\/p>\n

o o O o o<\/p>\n

And so in time the wall came down
\nSix weeks after it was built 1.8m high
\nBut to this day the scars remain
\nThe hatred does not die.
\nWhat is it about humanity
\nThat when there problems be
\nWill not talk and there or solve
\nBut think if they cannot see
\nBy building barriers between their own
\nAnd those whose presence they dont desire
\nThose they hate will not exist
\nIf they do, build the barrier higher?
\nFrom Berlin to Belfast theyve stood
\nAs well as in this town
\nSom of them are standing
\nAnd more of them has come down
\nThey stand to protect one from another
\nIn Belfast each other they attack
\nBut in this town Czechs attacked Roma
\nAnd the Roma did not fight back.
\nToday in that town and street
\nA wall we may not find
\nBut it will always exist
\nAs a barrier of the mind.<\/p>\n

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *<\/p>\n

This poem is inspired by the news article on the fencing in of Roma by their Czech neighbours, even after their concerns was addressed. It was dismanlted due to international pressure six weeks after construction, during which time the Roma blockaeded the site and destroye sections, to no avail.<\/p>\n

Im sure readers will agree its a lot worse and more symbolic of our age than the Berlin wall.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/romove.radio.cz\/en\/article\/18199<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%C3%9Ast%C3%AD_nad_Labem<\/a><\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council: They don’t pay rent and they don’t work They create an awful din They look different because they are So lets wall the Roma in. Well build a wall, 13 foot high Build it right around We can pretend they don’t exist When we can hear from them no …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[1468,1469,1464,1467,1466,1465],"class_list":["post-1293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-rights","tag-czech-republic","tag-gypsies","tag-maticni-street","tag-roma","tag-roma-rights","tag-usti-nad-labem","column","twocol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EI4f-kR","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3196,"url":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/the-hair-brained-fight-the-hair-braiders\/","url_meta":{"origin":1293,"position":0},"title":"The Hair Brained Fight the Hair Braiders","author":"Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 C\u00e1rthaigh","date":"7th October 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"One arm of Galway City Council commissioned a derelict wall to be painted by a professional graffiti artist as the 2020 City of Culture judges were coming, another then demanded it was removed, in a farce that shows how the arts scene in Galway is in the state its in.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Civil Rights"","block_context":{"text":"Civil Rights","link":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/category\/civil-rights\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Shop Street in Galway city centre the infamous graffitti mural is on the left","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Shop-Street-in-Galway-City-Centre-the-infamous-graffitti-mural-is-on-the-left.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Shop-Street-in-Galway-City-Centre-the-infamous-graffitti-mural-is-on-the-left.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Shop-Street-in-Galway-City-Centre-the-infamous-graffitti-mural-is-on-the-left.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Shop-Street-in-Galway-City-Centre-the-infamous-graffitti-mural-is-on-the-left.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1881,"url":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/honest-hands-build-true\/","url_meta":{"origin":1293,"position":1},"title":"Honest Hands Build True","author":"Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 C\u00e1rthaigh","date":"13th June 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Honest hands build walls true: Work plain for all to see - Stands the test of time, Passed by walkers like me Stones on ground, set into the earth Walls of mud moulded by hands built high Stand where many concrete walls have bit the dust Honest hands being the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gander Around Galway"","block_context":{"text":"Gander Around Galway","link":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/category\/travel-poems\/gander-around-galway\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Old Cottage in Oranmore - built with peasent hands, with no engineers, its was build true: and stands where many houses designed and built by engineers has fallen...","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Old-Cottage-in-Oranmore.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Old-Cottage-in-Oranmore.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Old-Cottage-in-Oranmore.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Old-Cottage-in-Oranmore.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1224,"url":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/kid-in-a-cart-in-kosovo\/","url_meta":{"origin":1293,"position":2},"title":"Kid in a Cart in Kosovo","author":"Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 C\u00e1rthaigh","date":"25th November 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YJ_Pa7H59cI This poem is a few years old. 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