Like the novel of the same name by Azam Gill, the poem, BLOOD MONEY, carried by Different Truths, hits hard at the nexus of banks and leaders binding climate funding.
$400 million bowled in Blood Money
After decades of bleeding the needy
Not enough to lick the spit
Damn, they don’t have the grit
To really walk the walk
But throw a fistful and talk
Headlines yell poor countries are winners
Nah, not them, the winners are the sinners
Yet, the grand-standing end-users
Are the leaders with grubby paws
Of the recipient countries howling and drowning
With offshore accounts fattening and growling
And the dodgy banks off shore
Real owners of grants galore
With blow-dried hair, high-tech pimps
On filling their coffers, they do not skimp
The spidery network of a money bed
Semantic altruism on its head
They process grants and own the companies
Which get development contracts for their cronies
Bribe the crooks running their countries
Who pocket smoothly all these monies
Which find their way back off-shore
Lying in wait for their overthrow
Lean, hungry and villainous
Casius’ eyes are so jealous
Yet somewhere, sometime a hand-pump awaits
For the end user trickle of Blood Money’s fate
Azam Gill 