Approximately 3,000 residents live in the nine public housing estates across Flemington and North Melbourne.(ABC News)
The residents are being told to stay in nine Melbourne public housing estates for at least five days. Police will be stationed on each floor to prevent them from leaving.Other apartment blocks in the same postal codes which ARE IN LOCK DOWN due to corona virus, will not be subjected to this rigorous internment with a police presence ...only public housing residents.
little boxes
crammed together
little boxes made of ticky tacky
little boxes
little boxes
piled up high to the sky
they're called towers
for the losers
for the old folk
for the mental folk
little boxes
little boxes
where they all go insane
then the cops come
guard the exits
lock them all up
in their little traps
and the refugees
and the old ones
flip out
yet once again
they remember
comrade pol pot
josef stalin
and the taliban
and they came here
to escape that
but it's here yet
once again
so the message is
and will always be
never fall into poverty
cos the world just don't like it
and they'll make you pay again
To the tune of Little Boxes by Pete Seeger
A powerful rewrite of the Seeger song, which I'm sure he'd have thoroughly approved: the song itself, not the conditions it describes. You surely say it al1 – more's the pity that you have to. And you do have to. I for one had not realised the police presence was ONLY in the Housing Dept blocks.
ReplyDeleteI am too old to do protest marches any more but it makes my blood boil to watch this country heading step by step towards a police state.My pen is all I have.
ReplyDeleteto fight back
DeleteLife has become restricted and locked up by a tiny virus!
ReplyDeleteSadly people will do the wrong and dangerous thing if they feel they can get away with it. However the sudden spurt in corona hotspots in Melbourne needs to be controlled for everybody's sake. It is no wonder that some states control their borders strictly.
ReplyDeletePowerful poem. Why this discrimination against the poor alone? In fact COVID 19 is called a disease brought by the rich in India. One time when poor can blame the rich. But every time the poor have to pay the price!
ReplyDeleteI found myself humming the tune as I was reading your poem, Rall. The juxtaposition of the jaunty tune and your words make it as ironic as the original song, but more tragic. The final stanza is a scary warning.
ReplyDeleteWhy? because the poor are an easy target and always have been.
ReplyDeleteEvery society has an underclass of workers to varying degrees (even Oz although we are more egalitarian than most)so that the top end can prosper.
The Victorian Government screwed up in the Hotel Quarantine for travellers situation...so expedient to look for a new scapegoat to blame for the Spread of THE VIRUS. So many examples of this type of cover up behaviour in the stuff of literature,particularly history, which we discourage now in our schools. We don't want everyone one knowing the truth about these matters.
ReplyDeleteIf, as Jesus says, the poor are with us always, then the poor are always going to get the short end of the stick. That's the way things work---and it is definitely NOT fair!
ReplyDeleteThe world has always been cruel and unjust to the poor. It saddens me.
ReplyDeleteI'm not aware of any such restrictions in the U.S. I was amazed to hear the story. Are the restrictions because the incidence of the virus is much higher in such housing?
ReplyDeleteSofar there are only 27 cases in public housing.
DeleteVictoria Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said there had been few instructions and very little planning and police were "flying by the seat of our pants".
"The Government needs to move to turn words into a safe and orderly plan otherwise all we will have done is replace the fiasco that was security guards in hotels with one that becomes police in housing commission flats," he said.
yeah, that's the horrible truth. nobody likes poverty and i feel for the people there under lockdown. Prayers and kind thoughts coming your way. Nice write.
ReplyDeleteI feel like so many places are flailing (and falling back on old ideas of control) during this. How does stationing police in these places help? Are they medical first responders? Will they funnel supplies to those locked down? Or are they just there because public housing allows for images of "things are being handled" (how? by whom?) because can't object?
ReplyDeleteRight...they can't object. They are too scared.There are more than 200,000 on the waiting list for government assisted accomodation in this country...it's a national disgrace.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8491641/Like-prison-Housing-commission-residents-say-theyve-run-food-one-day-lockdown.html
ReplyDeleteThe World certainly hates poverty, abd the irony is there is so much of it
ReplyDeleteHave a blessed Sunday Rall
Muchđź’–love
truly Awesome!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great rewrite!
ReplyDeletePowerful writing..the poor are made to suffer so much especially now. It hurts so much compassion seems to be in short supply.
ReplyDeleteWhen I am at work, my lunchtime walk takes me past those towers. Went to the top once - amazing views. Not now.
ReplyDeletei pray that we will one day meet in a better world.
ReplyDeleteThat would be good
ReplyDeleteWhat apartment towers are for, and why all communities should block and distrust "plans" that allow any more of them to be built.
ReplyDelete