The World Health Organisation has declared an Ebola emergency in DR Congo, whilst carefully noting it doesn't technically meet pandemic criteria – Cold comfort indeed for the 80 souls who've already perished, and one suspects the distinction is largely academic when you're bleeding from the eyes. Meanwhile, Ukraine is apparently running a drone delivery service to Moscow's suburbs with fatal results, and someone's taken potshots at Abu Dhabi's nuclear facility, because what this fragile world really needed was another potential Chernobyl with better weather. On a lighter note, North Korean footballers have emerged from hermitry to play in Seoul, proving that even the most reclusive regimes recognise the healing power of sport – a sentiment not shared by the bus passengers incinerated in Bangkok or the pedestrians mowed down in Italy. And in a turn of events that would have seemed fantastical a decade ago, Donald Trump has apparently invaded Venezuela and is now chatting with Xi Jinping about Hong Kong prisoners, leaving the rest of us to wonder whether we've slipped into a parallel universe where the absurd is simply governance as usual.
🎵 (s)Hit of the Day 🎵
Version 1
Version 2
📜 Lyrics 📜
[Verse 1]
D.R. Congo's burning through the jungle floor again
Two hundred cases, maybe more, eighty souls gone where they've been
The W.H.O. declares it an emergency, that's international
But catch the caveat they've slipped in, it's not yet pandemical
A bureaucratic nicety, a phrase to soothe the nervous types
While bodies pile in hospital wards and villages with no pipe
They say it's strictly localised, they've drawn convenient lines
As if a virus reads the maps and recognises border signs
[Pre-Chorus]
And up in British Columbia, the first case comes to light
A cruise ship quarantined and hantavirus in the night
Three dead on the M.V. Hondius, the passengers afraid
We're learning that the post-COVID era's just as virulent made
[Chorus]
Nature's got a budget for innovation we can't match
While we're arguing semantics, she's already hatched the next batch
We're running out of words to describe the way we fall
But don't you worry, there'll be a committee meeting after all
After all, after all
[Verse 2]
Three civilians dead in Moscow from drones across the sky
Zelensky calls it justified, a brutal eye for eye
The Emirates are screaming 'bout a strike near their nuclear plant
Some unknown hand has pressed the button, some unknown forgotten rant
A dangerous escalation, the diplomats all cry
But no one's claiming credit and no one's asking why
We're living in a hall of mirrors where reality's gone strange
And every week that passes brings a rearranged range
[Bridge]
Donald Trump did a surprise raid on Venezuela months ago
Now he's in Beijing with Xi discussing Jimmy Lai's woe
The tweeter-in-chief has gone kinetic, the world's gone properly mad
From shouting at the telly to the worst war we've ever had
It's a tough one, says the Chinese, the democracy campaigner's fate
While citizens in Caracas wonder what their future creates
From rubble to the unknown, they're navigating chaos spun
By leaders who won elections then decided to have fun
[Chorus]
Nature's got a budget for innovation we can't match
While we're arguing semantics, she's already hatched the next batch
We're running out of words to describe the way we fall
But don't you worry, there'll be a committee meeting after all
After all, after all
[Verse 3]
A freight train met a bus in Bangkok, eight souls lost in flame
Cars and motorcycles caught, just another ordinary day
An Italian driver ploughed through pedestrians, injured eight
Then passers-by gave chase and caught him, a twist in the tale of fate
Yet North Korean footballers crossed the border into Seoul
For the first time in eight years, they're playing football, keeping cool
The Asian Women's Champions League, a beautiful game breach
Of fortress walls and ideologies that rhetoric can't reach
[Outro]
We're dancing on the edge of something we can't quite define
With viruses and drone strikes and committees drawing lines
The headlines blur together in a chaos we embrace
Another day, another crisis, another endless race
[Spoken]
Don't forget to wash your hands.