ACT ON IT by The Brothahood

I received an email from the AFOPA the other day and the link below was in it. It is a hip-hop song by The Brothahood called Act on It. The Brothahood are a group of Australian Muslim emcees and their lyrics are honest, wonderful, thought provoking, articulate, passionate and true. The music behind the lyrics is fantastic, the changes go with the words to punctuate them and bring them home and the chorus is melodic and chanting. When you listen to it I guarantee the chorus will stick in your head and you'll want to listen again and again so that you pick up everything they are saying in the verses.
They should be proud of themselves and of their song...it is truly inciteful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0B0WcdgnRc

ACT ON IT

(JEHAD sings)

Occupation - do you know what that means?

Military force crushing hopes and dreams

It's a noun; you have the right to resist

Against your occupier and you must persist

Under international law and since time began

the right resist was known throughout the lands

Germany in World War 2 occupied the Jew

in Europe atrocities - were sad but true

They didn't sit down like a bunch of chumps

They fought right down to the very last crunch ah

(HESHAM sings)

Now let's bring it back to the present situation--

New Years Eve 09 ain't NO celebration

In just 2 days over 400 dead

Gaza Strip, Palestine, Genocide, War crime

Israel -- at the hands of all this

In my eyes the country don't exist

(JEHAD sings)

It was born on injustice, theft and murder

Driving Palestinians out further and further

Now don't get me wrong Judaism ain't to blame

But we must understand that Zionism ain't the same

Now I know you're mad at me, blunt brutality,

The Z ain't got no links to Jewish spirituality

Huh, now you wanna twist, call me terrorist,

Yes, I'm anti Zionist, Expect me to resist.

(Timur) You got civilian hitlists

(Jehad) So who's the terrorist?

If you're with me, throw up a fist LIKE THIS!

(TIMUR sings)

If you see an injustice act on it

If you cant do that then speak on it

And if you can't do that then feel it in your heart

It's the weakest form of faith but at least that’s a start

X2

(MOUSTAFA sings)

2 - 0 - 0 - 9

I was looking forward to the Aussie summertime

but how can I think of fun

when I know my my people looking down the barrel of a gun

WORLD LEADERS WHERE ARE YOU?

AUSTRALIA STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU KNOW IS TRUE

Po-liti-cal interests in the way

I watch my people struggling day after day

Women and Children UN schools and hospitals

Deliberate attacks they ain’t caught in the middle

(JEHAD & TIMUR sing)

Why do we let this holocaust

Continue 21st century thought you knew -

Sippin’ at ya brew starbukkin’ looking mad

No idea about the issues but you out there burning flags

(TIMUR sings)

If you see an injustice act on it

If you cant do that then speak on it

And if you can't do that then feel it in your heart

It's the weakest form of faith but at least that’s a start

X2

(HESH sings)

Palestine, before 1948

Before Israel was known as a state

Before Adolph Hitler met his final fate

Arabs and Jews lived together NO hate

Side by Side, co-operating with respect

It's a shame our history we seem to neglect

If it worked back then it can work once again

But Zionism, friend must come to an end

All is justified in times of war

but a war has two sides which they seem to ignore

(MOUSTAFA sings)

This ain't a war it's a massacred attack

18 months under siege eating scraps

Formation of resistance to finally fight back

Media claims terrorist now they trapped

People of the world talking their mouths confused

The word anti-Semite is used and abused

It's an excuse when pressured on the spot

I hope they can't sleep while the dead bodies rot

If you see an injustice act on it

If you cant do that then speak on it

And if you can't do that then feel it in your heart

It's the weakest form of faith but at least that’s a start

X2

My New Year

We started renovating a few rooms in our house, well my husband did. He has torn down two chimneys which formed a wall between our loungeroom and dining area. The house is filthy,everything is covered in dust. There are shattered bricks and bits of concrete all over the floor, a hole in the ceiling and scaffolding and tools littering both rooms. I hope with all my heart that no-one decides to visits us in the next couple of weeks, especially people with little kids. WE LIVE IN A CONSTRUCTION SITE!!

I found this 1956 penny in the wall cavity and decided to clean it up and wrap it in copper wire to use as a pendant. Pity I don't know anyone who was born in '56! It would have been great to have found a 1961 coin for myself (it's still all about me) or one for my sisters ('59 or '64). It will look nice though as a focal on a necklace with more copper beads and serpentine or torquoise. On second thought, rose quartz would look great.

My Christmas was spent with our families. I travelled down the week before Xmas for a party with my family. All the nephews (bare one) and nieces were there - some with their partners, my sisters, my parents and an aunty I hadn't seen in years & years. It was good to catch up with them all. My oldest son, Brad, was given a sky-dive for Xmas from his girlfriend and I went to watch that. I had never envisioned watching my first born hurl himself from a plane and plummet to earth. It was exciting and I was grateful that I didn't know any statistics of people crashing to their death on their first jumps. He loved it and swears he is going to do it again. Todd and I drove down on Xmas day to spend the night with his family. It was very relaxing once we got out of all the holiday traffic. I'm not used to driving bumper to bumper anymore and I was over it by the time we got there. A nice glass of wine soon calmed me back down.

New Years eve was very peaceful for me. I thought about the year gone past and the new one coming and what may be in store for us all. I wrote the poem "The Burden of Choice" for a dear friend who lives in Palestine because I was thinking about new year resolutions we make and how we can choose to do or not do something. We take our ability to choose for granted. Todd's band played in town and going on experiences from past years I knew it would be a very late night (or early morning) so I stayed at home watching movies and eating junk food...my kind of night!! Brad went to Byron Bay to celebrate and Matt went to Sydney. Both of them had a ball. Matt rang at midnight but I could barely hear what he was saying...I made out Happy New Year then a chorus of what seemed like 1000 females started screaming and I wished for a second that I was there too.

I hope you all have a great year in 2010 and are successful in whatever it is you want to be successful in.