Earth Song: Lament to Our Crippled, Wounded and Dying Planet

M.J. was charismatic and handsome as a young man.

M.J. was the ultimate dancer and 'moon-walker.' — M.J. was the ultimate dancer and ‘moon-walker.’

M.J. moon-walking - it's not as easy as it looks! — M.J. moon-walking – it’s not as easy as it looks!

Michael Jackson had had so many plastic surgeries to change his appearance over the years that towards the end of his life, he looked like a 'freak of nature.' Sad but true - every word of it! — Michael Jackson had had so many plastic surgeries to change his appearance over the years that towards the end of his life, he looked like a ‘freak of nature.’ Sad but true – every word of it!

"Earth Song" cd cover - Michael Jackson — “Earth Song” cd cover – Michael Jackson

"Earth Song" Wallpaper - Michael Jackson — “Earth Song” Wallpaper – Michael Jackson

Robbing a child of her innocence.... — Robbing a child of her innocence….

Learn to say, "ours' - not "mine" and "yours" - it matters in the long run! — Learn to say, “ours’ – not “mine” and “yours” – it matters in the long run!

Killing Tree - when did we become so cruel and heartless? — Killing Tree – when did we become so cruel and heartless?

Fire and Destruction - our dying Earth. — Fire and Destruction – our dying Earth.

The hands of soldiers and criminals are steeped in the indelible bloodstains of countless innocent victims. Our Earth itself bears the pooling bloodstains of people dying or dead.

Death, Fire and Destruction - M.J. in one of Earth's many 'killing fields.' — Death, Fire and Destruction – M.J. in one of Earth’s many ‘killing fields.’

Drought, Plague and Hunger is only a sign of our times.

Hunting as a sport needs to be legally banned.

Illicit poaching of Elephants takes place on a grand and alarming scale.

Ivory from poached Elephants - try and guess how many elephants died unnecessarily and tortuously to feed the greed of others? — Ivory from poached Elephants – try and guess how many elephants died unnecessarily and tortuously to feed the greed of others?

Our Polluted Earth and the careless, wrong disposal of Plastic waste. Marine pollution comprising of plastic bottles, foot ware, timber and fishing implements, washed ashore by tidal movement on a remote tropical island beach - probably drifting in from Indonesia. Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Indian Ocean and Australia. — Our Polluted Earth and the careless, wrong disposal of Plastic waste.
Marine pollution comprising of plastic bottles, foot ware, timber and fishing implements, washed ashore by tidal movement on a remote tropical island beach – probably drifting in from Indonesia. Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Indian Ocean and Australia.

We inevitably breath polluted air leading to an increase in lung cancer cases. Smoking of cigarettes and cigars have added to this serious health hazard.

Noise Pollution can lead to total deafness and a decreased sense of hearing

The Greenhouse Effect - can't we do something before it is too late? Don't we care at all? How selfish can we be? — The Greenhouse Effect – can’t we do something before it is too late? Don’t we care at all? How selfish can we be?

Natural calamities - Mother Earth wreaks a terrible revenge on an uncaring world. — Natural calamities – Mother Earth wreaks a terrible revenge on an uncaring world.

Scenes from the video - "Earth Song." — Scenes from the video – “Earth Song.”

War Crimes are a test in Futility. There are no victors in a war - only endless wounded, dead or traumatised victims — War Crimes are a test in Futility. There are no victors in a war – only endless wounded, dead or traumatised victims

Old Scottish Blessing on Peace and Brotherhood on Earth.

A Celtic Blessing - Let's make it our Reality and Our Miracle for a Better Tomorrow! — A Celtic Blessing – Let’s make it our Reality and Our Miracle for a Better Tomorrow!

An evergreen quote from the legendary M.J.

Michael Jackson - "the King of Pop." — Michael Jackson – “the King of Pop.”

Rest In Peace - Michael Jackson - King of Pop. — Rest In Peace – Michael Jackson – King of Pop.

“Earth Song” – Michael Jackson

What about sunrise?
What about rain?
What about all the things that you said
We were to gain?
What about killing fields?
Is there a time?
What about all the things
That you said were yours and mine?

Did you ever stop to notice
All the blood we’ve shed before?
Did you ever stop to notice
This crying Earth, these weeping shores?

Ah, ooh
Ah, ooh

What have we done to the world?
Look what we’ve done
What about all the peace
That you pledge your only son?

What about flowering fields?
Is there a time?
What about all the dreams
That you said was yours and mine?

Did you ever stop to notice
All the children dead from war?
Did you ever stop to notice
This crying earth, these weeping shores?

Ah, ooh
Ah, ooh

I used to dream
I used to glance beyond the stars
Now I don’t know where we are
Although I know we’ve drifted far

Ah, ooh
Ah, ooh
Ah, ooh
Ah, ooh

Hey, what about yesterday
(What about us)
What about the seas
(What about us)
The heavens are falling down
(What about us)
I can’t even breathe
(What about us)

What about apathy
(What about us)
Burnt despite our pleas
(What about us)
What about the holy land
(What about it)
Torn apart by creed
(What about us)

Where did we go wrong
(ooo, ooo)
Someone tell me why
(What about us)

What about babies
(What about it)
What about the days
(What about us)
What about all their joy
Do we give a damn?

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From “Wikipedia – The Free Online Encyclopedia:-

QUOTE: Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer-songwriter, dancer, businessman and philanthropist. Often referred to as the “King of Pop“, or by his initials M.J., Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. In the early 1980s, Jackson became the dominant figure in popular music.

Jackson is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. He was also inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame as the first and only dancer from pop and rock music. Some of his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records; 13 Grammy Awards as well as the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; 26 American Music Awards, more than any other artist, including the “Artist of the Century” and “Artist of the 1980s”; 13 number-one singles in the United States in his solo career, more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era; and the estimated sale of over 400 million records worldwide. Jackson won hundreds of awards, which made him the most-awarded recording artist in the history of popular music. In what would have been Jackson’s 52nd birthday on August 29, 2010, he became the most downloaded artist of all time. Jackson constantly traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism and the 2000 Guinness Book of Records recognized him for supporting 39 charities.

Aspects of Jackson’s personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated much controversy. While preparing for his concert series titled This Is It, Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal physician was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Jackson’s death triggered a global outpouring of grief and a live broadcast of the public memorial service viewed around the world.

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“Earth Song” is the third single from Michael Jackson‘s album History: Past, Present and Future, Book I. It is a ballad that incorporates elements of blues, gospel and opera. Jackson had a long-standing history of releasing socially conscious material such as “We Are the World“, “Man in the Mirror” and “Heal the World“. However, “Earth Song” was the first that overtly dealt with the environment and animal welfare.

“Earth Song” was accompanied by a lavish music video shot on four geographical regions. It centered around the destruction and rebirth of Earth and went on to receive a Grammy nomination in 1997. The song was a top five hit in most European countries. In the United Kingdom, it remains Jackson’s best-selling single and was the country’s 1995 Christmas number-one single. “Earth Song” was not released as a single in the United States. Jackson went on to receive recognition from various animal and environmental organizations.

In 2011, the song was paired-up with the poem “Planet Earth” (previously released on Michael Jackson’s This Is It, in 2009) and released as a song in the remix album Immortal. The single has sold 10 million copies.

“Earth Song” is a ballad that incorporates elements of blues, gospel and opera. In the socially conscious track, Jackson issues a plea to God about problems ranging from war to endangered animals.” UNQUOTE

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“Earth Song” was originally written and composed by Jackson in a hotel in Austria under the title “What About Us.” Michael Jackson has explained what prompted the writing of this song that makes people more socially conscious of the times and world that we now live in. He is known to have said: “I remember writing ‘Earth Song’ when I was in Austria, in a hotel. And I was feeling so much pain and so much suffering of the plight of the Planet Earth. And for me, this is Earth’s Song, because I think nature is trying so hard to compensate for man’s mismanagement of the Earth. And with the ecological unbalance going on, and a lot of the problems in the environment, I think earth feels the pain, and she has wounds, and it’s about some of the joys of the planet as well. But this is my chance to pretty much let people hear the voice of the planet. And this is ‘Earth Song.’ And that’s what inspired it. And it just suddenly dropped into my lap when I was on tour in Austria.”

This song was to become Jackson’s biggest hit in the UK, selling 1,038,821 copies. This is not a surprising fact – it is undoubtedly one of Jackson’s most touching and powerful renditions of the story of an injured, deeply wounded, crippled and Dying Mother Earth – it is a lament from a talented singer and musician who was a genius and a legend in his own right. “Earth Song” addresses, in no small, way, the indifference and insensitivity of the people who inhabit our Planet. It speaks of how our own self-absorption and self-involvement has made us totally disconnected from our own planet. We are not disconnected with each other but with ourselves too. Our entire attitude and behaviour speak of utmost selfishness and apathy.

There was a time when we valued immensely the sight of an exquisite sunrise or a magnificent sunset; we used to be enamored by the sight & feel of the first rains – the first refreshing showers that bring untold relief from one too many hot and still days. Why has this stopped being the case? When did we stop caring?

Our Mother Earth has provided us with many natural products that have medicinal properties and are highly efficacious in treating a variety of illnesses in humans, with little or no side effects, such as naturopathy, homeopathy and ayurvedic medicines. These natural products are environmental friendly and their disposal causes little or no pollution – yet we persist indefinitely in our obstinacy in using allopathic medicines that have chronic and grave side-effects. While such allopathic drugs do help in curing in any given ailment, they invariably give rise to another, in the longer run. So, what is the sense of such disease-causing medicines? Yet we don’t seem to bother or to mind, one way or another – honestly, how and when did such an alarming rise in selfishness and indifference go unnoticed by us all? We are all selfish and indifferent – doesn’t anyone care at all?

The lush, green fields; the gurgling streams of clear, pure and potable water and miles upon miles of rolling, undulating meadows have turned into, ‘killing fields’ – fields that ought to be ablaze with the goodness of golden crops are no longer ‘fields of gold.’ These fields are steeped in blood and gore – they bear, to this very day, the indelible stains of the blood of billions of innocent victims – people who died either in the throes of a vicious battle or it is the pooling blood of the dead and dying – the innocent victims of heinous crimes and deviant behaviour. Crimes that have been committed for no good reason against these people and their loved ones. Battle is an exercise in futility – technically, there are never any victors, only victims and nobody seems to hear their anguished cries of pain and suffering.

Innumerable wars have made good men into unfeeling robots and ‘killing machines’ – war has made them cold, cruel, heartless, vengeful and ruthless. Nobody seems to care about the ‘weeping shores’ or the depth of sorrow of our Mother Earth who cries incessantly for a world that has gone crazy; for a world that has lost its sanity and its capacity to think clearly and logically. When did we become so egotistical, narcissistic and depraved? Why, what and how have we become so careless and so uncaring? Don’t we care at all? Isn’t this our Planet – one which we all inhabit? Shouldn’t we love and care for her as we would (and do) look after our own homes?

There was a time when a verbal promise counted as a word of honor – there used to be a time when we shared, cared and respected each other. We did not crave for things that we knew could never belong to us. We used to be humble, contented and the thirst for Greed of Power and Wealth had not touched our lives, at that time. We used to support a healthy respect for the environment, on the whole and for all the flora and fauna that God has found sound to bless us with. Nowadays, unfortunately the only thing that matters to us is littering the streets and the seas with tons of stinking and dirty garbage; spitting, urinating and defecating in full public view – the proper disposal of waste products and recycling of usable products is no longer a priority for us all. We just don’t bother – we seem to have no time for what we consider to be ‘mundane’ things in our stressful and busy lifestyle. If we don’t start becoming more environmental-conscious now, there will certainly come a time when we will have depleted our planet of all its natural beauty and naturally available, useful products. Shouldn’t we start acting NOW before it is too late? Nature will know when it is her turn to wreak an unthinkable revenge on humanity and such a time has already befallen us, don’t you think so? Why are we facing an alarming increase in natural calamities such as floods, drought, earthquakes, landslides, avalanches, cyclones, hurricanes, tornadoes and typhoons? It is not a simple quirk of Nature – stop fooling yourselves into further passivity and complacency!

The protective ozone layer around our Earth is steadily decreasing and Global Warming is ever on the rise – alarmingly so. Have we started being alarmed ourselves? Of course not – we couldn’t care less! The glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic Circles are starting to melt and threaten to swallow us all up in their famished, raving jaws someday. Do we have to wait for such a horrendous calamity to strike before we realize the folly of our ways? Can’t we do something positive and concrete NOW? We live in world where ‘each one is for his own’ – it is only our immediate families and our daily lives and needs that concern us. Life has become stressful that it has made us ever more callous towards our own fellow-beings and our environment. Hunters and poachers have killed animals indiscriminately and tortuously – so many rare species of birds and animals are on the brink of extinction. Is it due to the fact that these animals cannot protest verbally that we choose not to hear their silent pleas for mercy and their anguished cries of pain?

Weren’t we all born free? Can’t we all just ‘live and let live’? When will we learn to look beyond the end of our nose? When will selfishness and self-immersion stop being our morbid obsession? When – if at all – will we realize that not everything in Life is all about us and what we want – other people and other living things, including plants, matter too? Are we so blind that we fail to see the unending suffering that is right in front of our eyes?

Pollution of every possible variation and kind has become a ‘part and parcel’ of our times – air, noise and water pollution have become the order of the day. We prefer to leave the solving of such matters to corrupt government officials and politicians – various verbal promises are made – only to be broken just a little while later. When will we learn to take responsibility for our own actions and follies? When will we become accountable for what we have imposed, by our own hands and choices , on ourselves? Where is our honor, our integrity, our sense of self-respect and pride? We have cruelly and shamelessly robbed our Mother Earth of her very essence, being and core; we have, in no small way, robbed ourselves of our morals and our decency. It seems to have become a way of life for us all – nobody bothers and even fewer care. Those who do care are publicly chastised by society, as a whole, for getting their priorities into a knot. We have drifted so far away from our goals, ambitions and dreams of a Better Tomorrow that any hope for Peace and Universal Brotherhood in the future is a falsehood in itself – a deception of our very own making.

Conquerors, in the centuries gone by, have plundered and looted kingdoms that had once been clad in grandeur and splendour. These warriors turned these kingdoms into dust and left them in rubble and ruins. They came to rape tons of women and children – without any thought of severe punishment to themselves or without any thought as to how totally barbaric and unethical their behaviour was and still is so. These soldiers tortured, mutilated and killed tens of millions of people indiscriminately and rarely – if ever – did they suffer any scruples or qualms for their ill-gotten victories and they didn’t (and don’t) bother themselves with the undisputed fact that they showed little or no humane behaviour, compassion, kindness or consideration towards their own kind.

We have relentlessly ravaged the seas and oceans; we have burned large stretches of forestland and forest trails – with not a second’s thought for the present or future generations. Scientists have even cloned animals and babies – a fact that goes against every law of Nature. Don’t mess with God-given gifts! Is this the tortuous legacy that we hope to leave our children and grand-children? Is this how we want them to think of our once magnificent Mother Earth? Don’t we care at all? Why is there so much apathy and callousness?

You already know the reason and the simple answer – it never is (or was) Rocket Science, was it? We are alive and we are active every single waking day but we have forgotten how to live Life correctly and enjoy it to its fullest capacity. We have dug our own graves – believe it or not. We have to now decide if we should lie in these very graves of our own making and follies. We must decide whether we ought to await a certain and horrific death in these graves. I hope that – for once – you will make the right decision!

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Never take Nature, in all its spectacular beauty, for granted. Respect it, for it is no less than a God-given gift. Hillsides that are ablaze with a riot of colors; farmlands that yield a rich harvest of crops; gurgling, clear streams and lush, green meadows are all a soothing balm to the city dweller’s soul – don’t forget that we are forced to live through the many stresses of urban life every single day. Just think of how cooling showers bring respite to a hot and still day and how the steady availability of water helps us daily with our myriad needs of washing, cooking, bathing, etc & water is also useful for the production of hydroelectricity.

The “concrete jungle” of today is fast encroaching on forests and farmlands and with it the flora and fauna of the forests is slowly but surely disappearing too. Global warming is affecting the seasons all over the world; glaciers are beginning to shift & melt and cyclones, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and typhoons will soon become the norm of the day. With these changes will come drought, famine, floods and the rise of new diseases, resistant to contemporary antibiotics. Wild animals are, as it is, entering the city limits and are causing havoc by mauling human beings. Can you honestly blame these wild animals? Man has intruded on their territory and the wild animals, in their turn, react by doing only what is instinctual for them.

This is the heavy price that humanity must pay, in the present & in the near future, for the morbid, ever-increasing construction of high-rise buildings – with these will come the extinction of natural resources, as we know them and rise in pollution levels to new heights. Is this, I ask you, what we call growth & development in a so-called civilized world?

I AM SHIVA. BE BETTER PEOPLE – STARTING HERE AND NOW. IT IS NOT MY REQUEST TO THE WORLD – I’m sure that you already know that.

YOU WILL START BEING BETTER HUMAN BEINGS TODAY, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE – simply because it never IS, WAS (or WILL BE) all about you and what you want. OTHER PEOPLE MATTER TOO.

THIS DAY MARKS THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE OLD ORDER & THE DARK AGES, AS WE KNOW IT – IT IS THE BEGINNING OF THE GLORIOUS DAWNING OF A BRAND-NEW ERA OF REFORMS AND THE RULE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. WE SHALL ALL ENDEAVOR TOGETHER TO START OUR LIVES AFRESH FROM HERE ONWARD. BENEVOLENCE AND PEACE SHALL RULE OUR EARTH ONCE AGAIN!