Neil Mccormick - People I Don't Know Are Trying to Kill Me

[lady luck]

Have a look. I think it's really interesting!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/07/23/baneilm23.xml

 

[yolland]

Well, you certainly can't fault his emotional sincerity, nor the herculean effort involved in getting this song out so quickly. As an artistic statement of one individual's experience of living with terrorist threats, it's compelling.

But as a political comment on the bombings--which it clearly also intends to be, however "plainspoken"--it's wince-inducingly facile and narcissistic. One can all too easily imagine the incredulous, scathing retort a war-hardened Iraqi or Afghan journalist might come back with.

 

[yolland]

BTW, here are the lyrics...


Was it something that I said, my friend
Did I offend thee?
Some action that I took, something you mistook
As a threat against thee?
Is it an accident of birth, or worse,
Ideology?
I live in a world
Where people I don't know
Are trying to kill me.
If we came face to face, might that erase
Your hatred for me?
If I showed you pictures of my child, if we spoke for a little while
Could you let me be?
Or is that bomb strapped to your chest blessed
and primed for death
Or victory?
I live in a world
Where people I don't know
Are trying to kill me
Where the colour of my skin
And the faith I was raised in
Condemns me
Why should a man
Want to raise his hand
Against a stranger
From a strange land?
I'll never understand
Why people I don't know
Are trying to kill me
And when I'm turned to dust, will Allah or Jesus Claim me?
And will the God of Love, welcome up above
Those who would maim me?
Can't you hear the crying in the street?
Broken glass beneath your feet?
Children and mothers weep to shame thee
I live in a world
Where people I don't know
Are trying to kill me

 

[Kieran McConville]

Neil Mcormick? Is he the guy who wrote the U2 book? On second thoughts, I don't want to know.

 

[A_Wanderer]

A reasonable question that does not demand the generic insta-blame-Iraq-Afghanistan-Palestine-Oil-Crusades-Hegemony-Imperialism-Islamophobia retort.

 

[yolland]

No, that's not the retort I had in mind. What this lyric really reminds me of is Sting's pretentiously precious-wecious Russians: "But what might save us, me and you/Is if the Russians looove their children too..." He comes across like a spoilt baby who thinks he's the only one who's ever had to fear for his child's safety, and if only They understood how that felt, they would stop. Yet the level of personal safety he's accustomed to taking for granted--and, quite rightly and understandably, loath to lose--is at best a distant memory for most Iraqis, and completely outside the experience of most Afghans. That's why I don't see this ode touching many hearts outside of London.

 

[lady luck]

Neil Mcormick? Is he the guy who wrote the U2 book? On second thoughts, I don't want to know.

Yes, he is.

 

[For Honor]

Reminds me of Sunday Bloody Sunday, esp towards the end (of the lyrics)

Reminds me of Rattle and Hum DVD - Sunday Bloody Sunday.


"They don't talk about the glory of killing for the revoloution..."

"Where's the glory in that?
"To leave them dieing... or crippled for life, or dead... under the ruble a the reveloution that the majority of my people don't want"


No more.....




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Excellent point, yolland

Most people don't quite understand how bad it is all the world over.

That being said, just because your ankle is broken
And the guy in the hospital bed has broken coller bone and is paralyzed

That doesn't mean your ankle is insignificant....


So I see both sides here..........

I'm not sure how I really feel about it yet.