Although I’ve yet to read all of Higgy’s links to Bruce Cockburn, higgy edit this page, there appears to be some great links to one of my favorite singers there.
Bruce Cockburn ranks right up there with Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, and Paul Simon as one of the greatest lyricists in modern rock, though he certainly hasn’t received that kind of attention here in America.
Cockburn’s haunting lyrics in “The Mines of Mozambique” from his album The Charity of Night
Rusted husks of blown-up trucks
Line the roadway north of town
Like passing through a sculpture gallery.
War is the artist
But he’s sleeping now
…
And in a bare workshop they’ll be molding plastic
Into little prosthetic limbs
For the children of this artist
And for those who farm the soil that received
His bitter seed.
seem particularly poignant in light of the war in Afghanistan, one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. An article on the Voice of America page discusses how children are particularly subject to the danger of landmines, AFGHANISTAN LAND MINES
It certainly seems ironic that the first confirmed civilian casualties from the American bombing were UN workers who were attempting to remove mines from previous wars. And America has apparently been criticized for endangering starving refugees by dropping food into mined areas Independent News
The greatest irony of all may well be that the Taliban leader so widely condemned as of late ruled out the use of land mines, Taliban Ruler Rules Out Land Mines while the American government under the Clinton administration (hard to believe, isn’t it) refused to sign the treaty US should sign treaty banning land mines.
Let’s just pray there are no further ironies to report.