What is Global Justice, and how can it be achieved?

This Poem won 4th place in the annual Student Speaker challenge at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.

The thesis of the argument is that the current reliance and development of nationalism as a model for human interaction is flawed in that nationalism promotes the exclusion and dehumanization of the “Other.” A better model proposed is that of religion because of the plurality, inclusiveness and humanizing effects that are the root of most non-political religious experience.

The poem was deemed to inaccessible to be successfully understood and delivered in a 15 minute time frame and so did not go on to the final round. No other competitor had spoken at the Challenge through poetry since it’s inception, and the effort was well appreciated by the listeners and judges.

The poem is written by Taylor Webb, it may be copied, distributed or reproduced in any way freely, but plagiarism regulations of individual institutions must still be followed.

Alhamdul-illah

Assalaam Alaikum, Peace be upon youNot the Peace of non-war, but of a crystal glass, whole, resting, full of potential

fragile.

Injustice is not a natural disasterThis is good news, because as such we can be the masters!

But it is also quite tragic,Because we know it is because of us and not some black magic.

But I still believe we can stem this tideBecause we can –each one of us- change inside

Global justice can be foundQuite close to the ground

It turns out your heartis the best place to start

Because:What good is s system if no one can rise to the challenge?

You see, we have sciencebut still youth defience

Because those ideas don’t extendto a broken soul you must mend

We have policies of hate,nations built to discriminateWhose moralities are basedon nothing deeper than raceBecause someone born here

should experience no fearbut anyone else...

Well those “people” (if you must call them that) can figure it out themselves.

See, it all boils downto something less than profound

So stop, make a planBut realize the guy who should do this of will do that is a man

He’s not a fact or a system or number or thingHe’s a brother, not an “Other” and when you see this I know

He’ll love your plan, and you’ll both growTogether.

But this love of eachotherIs born of the removal of the concept of the “Other”

And that modern boogie manis the root of the nationalist plan

Because when I am CanadianAll I’m saying is “I’m not like them”

After all, what makes me a national outside the law?I mean within it’s just birth, some kind of draw

But in realityCanadian is something you have to try to be

When I go around in jeans, a shirt and a smileI could claim to be a local without denial

But when I dress like this, to be more devoutSuddenly “Where you from? What’s that hat all about?”

Being of a nation is based not on what you want to beBut on where you were born and that you don’t look like me-

Different

So can’t you see this negativity?An identity based or relativity?

“They’re not me, and I like me, so they must beDifferent, Bad, Less

Stopped”

Now let’s look at dehumanizationThe way it’s done is to remove all dignity

it’s achieved through the removal of sympathyTake your clothes, your name, your identity

And then give –not remove- nationalitySo we can see the nature of that reality

Nationality is an agent of dehumanization

See, when Imams lieIt’s nation they applyto prey on the weakand get them to seeksome twisted old rule

like an eye-for-an-eye, but much, much more cruel

Father for son, and bullet for stoneMothers and daughters left all alone

As their tears fall to the groundtheir cries leave their mouths but without a sound

because their tears fell in TahrirWhere no humans are found

Now, we don’t start with hate and distain for mankindIt’s far into life that we build walls in our mind

So when does that woman stop being real?Is it when she’s distant she loses appeal?

It’s proved by waves breaking on a keelDistance doesn’t matter, so long as you’re real

But when you call into question a national causeYou’ll wait, cry and bleed and get no applause

When you throw rocks at men with standard-issue British gunsAnd you’re fighting for your life, and those of your sons

The biggest worry they have is not for your familyBut rather for the spread of the disease they call calamity

Nationalism is an agent of Human rights abuses

National boundaries don’t even existThey’re made up, they only exist in our minds

They don’t keep people out, they keep us closed inand since they exist in the mind that’s where problems begin

So I propose to you all to keep being you,but define yourselves positively even if that’s something new

Have a self that’s made purely of what you are and can beBecause global justice starts with your identity

and choosing who you are is what it is to be free.

Constraining our children in negative identities should be a crimeBut can we strip away this powerful toolsimply by ending it’s teaching in school?

No

The individual, it’s well known cannot standagainst the grain of the nature of ManWe need support and a helping hand

and at least one person to be our Facebook Fan

So turn back t a system where what I amcomes from me and my communityAnyone is allowed to be just like me

but if they’re different that’s fine, they’ve chosen to be!

See, we can’t work together thinking of what we’re notAnd ask Quebec if it’s ok that we’re a big melting pot

We need to build ourselves from within, that’s allAnd so we need to end the nationalist call

Because so long as there are those who define themselves by what others are not allowed to be, there will be hate, ignorance, xenophobia

And out plansWill not work.

But what sort of communityallows me to build me

and still be part of a unified “we?”

When you look at the foundation of a placeHistory tells of war and humanity’s disgrace

But they say “Oh, what a time, the first, the pure, the best of us!”

A faith, on the other hand, is at it’s bestwhen in unison the followers had peace –justice- in their hearts

And what achievements form East to Westwere built in peace? Which model is best?

Communities in God that see nation as a crimeCan bring Mankind back into it’s prime

When I joined the ummah, my new communityand I looked around, what did I see?

People from Sudan, Malaysia and Francea thousand nationalities in one sombre stance

Then with our heads to the Earth it all washed awayThere are no cracks in the Earth for 5 moments each day.

We can stand independent as Christian and Jew and Buddhist and SikhBut a nation depends on not being others,

and a future dependant on that it quite bleak.

So a counter-intuitive appeal goes outAsking you all to be more devout

It may be an unlikely proposition for you to accept

and for some reason here I find the most contemptfor declaring my faith and building my self

for saying Iman is intellectual wealth.

But let’s look again at what religion can giveWhen it’s a whole glass, and not just a siv.

Listen to the worst of the worst of Imams todayand the bottom of the barrel of those led astrayMore often than not what they’re claiming to do

is exactly same thing as you!

They’re searching for Justice! --or saying they areBecause it’s the biggest motivator by far!

They know that the youth feel a burn in their hearts.They want to help out but know not where to start.

We must turn from a system that for conformity will go bustAnd instead look to a model who’s goal at least is to be just.

Now I’ll be the first to saythe path is a precarious way

there’s danger and darkenss and possibly tearsBut in the name of Justice we can overcome those fears.

So far scientific though has brought us thisbut scientific thought has also missed.

See, right now we’re faced often with calamityFloods and famines and drugs and war

But if we take back Kalam, then we’ve just got –itty

Bitty

Problems

That we can solve ourselves.

So it will be tough, there’s quite a jihadBut if we stick through and overcome the bad

We’ll see a world we never knew we had!

Because the strength of our identitywill align with our community

and not interfere with any other entityand we won’t need a common enemy

Except hate, ignorance, xenophobiaAnd then our plans will work!

Right now the Earth is a broken glassdangerous, fragile, fracticious

What we need is the peace of a whole glassFunctioning, soft, at rest

and without these cracks and scarswe call theris and ours

Alhamdul-illahi Salaam i HakunPraise be to God, the Peaceful, the Just.