Ginseng Economy

of which they like least. TK U MLJ LV NV

But missing is the number of jobs gained here but not reported; it doesn't fit the paradigm of free trade bashing.

But missing is the number of jobs gained here but not reported; it doesn't fit the paradigm of free trade bashing.

A warning on the perils of International Trade. The illustration points out several things affecting our lives.

Can’t think of dirtier concept than “clean language” when it tries to sanitize endless human suffering; injustice; human ugliest sides at work. So why not call it Ginseng economy? It sounds even nicer than economy in which you become redundant.

The simple repetitive lines echoes the lines of protesters or unemployed or over- employed across the globe and the structure of “traditional” protest poems and protest drama. A brisk strong contrast between the have and have not is made. If you have a problem with that, please write a protest poem for the corporations and those who do their bidding in the government (have not met the genre yet).

The structure in the poem is there not because an elitist poet have decided to appeal to the simple people and agreed to compromise his/her poetic taste while doing it (all complaints you could hear against poetry which seemed to be ‘too recruited to a cause’). Rather, its poetics is 180 degrees different than that of the purposely elusive and multi layered lyrical poem. As Brecht demonstrated, you want to break the Aesthetic Illusion even if it makes us squirm in our seats. The poem does serve a purpose – which is to send a message in the most effective way, and it does not apologize for it. Pure aestheticism exists maybe in the writings of the classicists but we know that art is what managers of museums decide to put in the museums. Which takes us back to politics and power and powerlessness.

Finally, the emblem on the door is reminiscent of the Roman Empire. With the US being the only remaining global power (or is it), no wonder my mind carried me to Gibbon’s monumental work: “the decline and fall of the Roman Empire”. About which Gibbon ominously said: "I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion,"