music against poverty

Music against poverty


The EU is the biggest donor of aid in the world and their aid programs reach the whole globe. This is one of the better sides of the EU. They started a campaign on involving more young people in the fight against poverty and we contributed our song "Raaten" to their music contest. You can vote for it on the following link and have a look around their website:

http://www.ifightpoverty.eu/music_contest/vote/list.php?lg=en&video=24


Here's a few lines from a book I'm reading at the moment the no-nonsense guide to World Poverty by Jeremy Seabrook. For those of you who want think a bit more about poverty:

"When the poverty of the world appears in the hectic media schedules of the rich, it does so as an appeal to their charitable instincts, to write a check. to sponsor a child. to make a life better. ... the fundamental relationships between privilege and poverty remain unchanged.

".. For the voice of the poor people asks only for security, sufficiency, an assurance that they wil be granted enough for their needs, space to bring up a new generation, not in luxury but in peace and an absence of want.

"It is the simplicity of their [the poor] wishes that determines that they should be gagged; precisely because the necessities are readily available, but they must remain deprived, for reasons that are wholly ideological and have nothing to do with scarcity.

"To lift up poor people requires, not more growth but a more rigorous evaluation of what constitutes wealth - and the poverties it engenders."



And here's the text of our song Raaten (LU, FR, EN):

D'Wirtschaft muss wuessen
Du däerfs nëtt ze lues sen
Hei heescht et Mier oder Sie
D'Konkurrenz déi schléift nie
Mee géint eis Regelen an eist Spill
Bleiwt der Konkurrenz och nëtt vill

Educatioun gëtt eis nogehäit
Mier kucken se nëmmen vun der Sait
D'Waasser kënnt aus de Krunn
Do gewinnt een sech séier drunn
Mier huelen schéin eis Medezin
Fir dass mer sou aal wéi méiglech gin

Luxus hei a Luxus do, daat brauche mer do ass keng Fro
Mier feelt et am fong u Näischt, da kaafen ech alt waat ech nëtt bräicht
Mier friesse bis mer kattzen, vun Honger brauch keen ze platzen.
Mier saufen a si frou, Krich an Aarmut bréngen eis nëtt aus der Rou.

Wéi Raaten an enger Welt voller Misär
Eis geet gutt, wee schwätzt do vu fair

+++++++++++++++++++

La croissance économique à tout prix
Il faut qu'on soit assez vite
Ici on parle de Nous et Eux
La concurrence ne dort pas
Mais contre nos règles et notre jeu
La concurrence ne peut pas faire grand chose

L'éducation est gratuite pour nous
on ne sait pas l'apprécier.
L'eau vient du robinet
on s'y habitue assez vite.
On prend nos médicaments
pour devenir aussi vieux que possible.

Le luxe partout, c'est ça qu'il nous faut
En fait je manque de rien, alors j'achète ce dont j'ai pas besoin
On mange jusqu'on vomit, personne n'explose de faim
On devient soule et on se réjouit, la guerre et la pauvreté ne nous dérangent pas du tout

Comme des rats dans un monde plein de misère
Nous on va bien, qui dit que c'est juste

+++++++++++++++

The economy has to grow
You mustn’t be too slow
It is either Them or Us
The competition never sleeps
But in our game and with our rules
They never get a chance

Education is lying at our feet
But we don’t care to pick it up
The water comes from the tap
It is easy to get used to this
We behave and take our medicine
So that we get as old as possible

Luxuries everywhere, this is what we need this is what we want. Actually there is nothing that I need so I just buy what I don’t need. We eat so much that we throw up, it is not hunger that makes us burst. We get drunk and feel happy, war and poverty are not ours to worry.

Like rats in a world full of misery
We are well off, who cares if this is fair.