They call it democracy

One of my all time favorite artists Bruce Cockburn, is a very keen observer with a powerful artistic talent. Mystic, poet, artist, thinker, fantastic guitar player, international observer and activist.
I've been a fan since the early 70's and he writes some of the most beautiful and profound songs. Many express joy, and spirituality but some are pretty gutsy and angry. He writes songs that are anthems for a lot of people interested in making the world a better place and throwing a stick in the spokes of the wheels of the military/industrial complex. He had a big hit a few years ago with a song called "If I had a Rocket Launcher" I was disappointed that he got a lot of fame for an angry song when he has so many other themes but it was a good song.

In the 80's Cockburn spent a lot of time in Central and South America observing and commenting on the situation in Nicaragua at the time. Some very potent songs emerged like the songs on the album " Stealing Fire".

Like "Nicaragua", a beautiful, lovely melody with some great lines. ..

" Breakfast woodsmoke on the breeze --
On the cliff the U.S. Embassy
Frowns out over Managua like Dracula's tower.
The kid who guards Fonseca's tomb
Cradles a beat-up submachine gun --
At age fifteen he's a veteran of four years of war
Proud to pay his dues
He knows who turns the screws
Baby face and old man's eyes"



And "Santego Dawn" is the source of another of my favorite lines. He is talking about how kids in a war zone survive and endure the incredible turmoil. "See them rising like grass through cement." The weak and powerless prevail over the hard and merciless. Nice to believe that is true.

Somebody put together a YouTube with "They Call it Deocracy" and some iconic images of oppression.


"Padded with power here they come
International loan sharks backed by the guns
Of market hungry military profiteers
Whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared
With the blood of the poor

Who rob life of its quality
Who render rage a necessity
By turning countries into labour camps
Modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom

Sinister cynical instrument
Who makes the gun into a sacrament --
The only response to the deification
Of tyranny by so-called "developed" nations'
Idolatry of ideology

North South East West
Kill the best and buy the rest
It's just spend a buck to make a buck
You don't really give a flying fuck
About the people in misery

IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

See the paid-off local bottom feeders
Passing themselves off as leaders
Kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows
Open for business like a cheap bordello

And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy

See the loaded eyes of the children too
Trying to make the best of it the way kids do
One day you're going to rise from your habitual feast
To find yourself staring down the throat of the beast
They call the revolution

IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt"