Politlyrik: Haunting Hindukush

The King Who Was Expelled

King Amanullah returned

Ecstatic,

From a tour to Europe

And the Near East.

He ordered the modernization

Of Afghanistan,

Along the lines

Of Kemal in Turkey.

His majesty said:

'I want monogamy,

European clothing,

Abolition of women's veils.'

The people rejoiced

In the streets of Kabul.

The Mullahs revolted.

The king was expelled.

That was 1928.

* * *

They Shot the King (Satis Shroff)

General Nadir Shah

Became the King of Afghanistan,

With a little help,

From his British friends.

He brought reforms.

They shot him in 1933.

* * *

Pakhtunistan Dreams (Satis Shroff)

Mohammed Zahir became

The next king of Afghanistan.

'I have a dream

Of a Pakhtunistan,

A bigger country which can rule

The Pathans in Western Pakistan.

To the west of the river Indus.'

The Pakistanis weren't amused,

And politely refused it.

* * * 

THE HINDUKUSH (Satis Shroff)

It's Volkstrauertag

Death through war,

Gewaltherrschaft,

Go through your mind.

It's 2009,

Peace at last?

The victims of wars,

Memorials with mourning choirs,

Weeping war widows, orphans,

Wreaths and flowers for the dead.

The fire brigade stands at attention.

Uniforms,

Stiff humans

With eyes moving,

To take in the mourning.

In Freiburg-Kappel we sing

A Russian song,

To remember

The sons and husbands of Freiburg-Kappel

Who didn't return.

Ninety years ago,

The Constitution of Weimar.

Germany's Fundamental Laws,

Proclaimed sixty years ago.

The ugly Berlin wall

Fell twenty years ago.

The Second World War,

Began seventy years ago.

Alas, young Teutonic widows

Still cry today

In Germany,

For young husbands

Who died

And still die,

In the killing fields

Of the Hindukush,

There's a war

In far off Afghanistan.

The grandfather died

For a totalitarian regime.

The grandson dies today

For a democratic idea.

We Germans train the police

In the Hindukush.

What happens when they run

Over to the Talibans?

Islam binds the people

In the Hindukush.

What have we to offer?

Is war capitulation,

Against the forces of evil?

People who are beaten, tortured

When their ethnicity

And genes differ,

When people with illness or disability,

Are meted injustice,

Stamped as 'unworthy of life.'

There are those who faced

A firing squad,

When they defied

The rule of power,

Clutched to their beliefs,

Their pure conscience.

You can't change the past.

What has happened,

Has happened.

Don't close your eyes

To the hoary past,

Lest you be blind

To the present,

And the future.

It's not the Third World,

Where ideologies,

Fundamentalists,

 Terror

Find their breeding grounds.

Rightist ideology

Is still mushrooming,

In the streets of Berlin,

Vienna and Bern.

The 'others' are still

Being terrorized,

Beaten, stabbed and kicked

In broad daylight.

Freedom and forgiveness,

Within and without,

Where art thou?

He who searches

Finds hope,

Tolerance,

Empathy

And dignity,

For there are enough

Righteous, honest,

Spiritual people with integrity

Who care about others.

* * *

TWITTERS FROM THE BLACK FOREST (Satis Shroff)

The Talibans have persuaded

The Pathans, Pashtoons,

And other warring tribes,

To ignore their differences,

And unite to fight the infidels

From the West.

US citizens say:

'America can't afford

Obama's Afghan war.

Hey Big Spender, Obama,

Thirty-five billion dollars

To blow up.

Don't Americans

Need the money

Back home?

* * *

I'll Bring You Back (Satis Shroff)

The faces of the rookie cadets

At Westpoint

Look tired.

'30 000 only' says Obama,

'Till May 2010,

And I'll bring you back.'

The question is:

In a coffin

Or as a hero?

***

Understanding Afghanistan (Satis Shroff)

What happens

When Obama, Merkel

And the Nato have left Kabul?

It wasn't America's war anyway.

Is it the Nato's future war?

Bin Laden's at large.

The enemy is invisible.

Airstrikes kill

Only women and children.

Do we really understand

Afghanistan?

Or is it only

Our thought

Of what Afghanistan

Ought to be.

* * * 

Under the Shadow of the Hindukush (Satis Shroff)

John Mc Cain wishes

To break the will

Of the Talibans.

That's how wars are won,

From the Westpoint view

If you announce

When the troops will leave,

The Talis will just wait

And drink Darjeeling tea

Under the shadow

Of the Hindukush.

* * *

No Soldiers, Please (Satis Shroff)

Germany's Guido Westerwelle,

Praised the decision to withdraw

From the Hindukush.

'Police officers for Afghans

Is okay,'

Says Birgit Homburger FDP,

'But no soldiers, please.'

* * *

Party Crashing In the White House (Satis Shroff)

You mean you can

Party crash

Right up to Obama

In the White House?

Mark Sullivan and his men

Were blended

By a charming blonde

Socialite.

To me

It was like in Bonn,

Where an elderly German lady,

Dressed up like a Baroness,

Cut an excellent figure,

Till the chief of the Bonner police

Confided to me,

She was a commoner,

A pensioned lady,

Out for a tete´-a-tete´

With King Birendra

Of Nepal.

Where there's a will

There seems to be

A way.

Ach, Helvetia you've Done it Again (Satis Shroff)

The Bairam celebrations

Are long over,

And Helvetia has caught

The Islamic world

By surprise.

The Swiss folk have dismissed

The minaret 'missile' issue.

Building churches are still forbidden

In many Muslim countries.

The Catholic Swiss have spoken

And won the day.

If more countries would listen to

And respect their own folk.

Ach, Helvetia,

You've done it again.

* * *

The Word of the Year (Satis Shroff)

Härtzen is the word of the year

In good olde Germany.

It means:

To be jobless,

Hanging around,

Loitering

Without much money

In your purse.

It comes from Hartz Four,

A program

For the jobless

And the poor.

But if a blonde German girl says:

'You're bam,'

Take it easy.

It means you're cool.

In case you're a banker

And someone calls you a 'Bankster,'

It isn't a compliment.

It implies

The speculative bank business

You've been doing.

A banker

Who's a gangster.