Friday, November 04, 2005
Turtles Rabbits and Cockroaches
This picture is stolen from Nur al-Cubical's blog where she titles it "Ninja Turtle Brigade". It appears in her article on the US president's current desperate but certainly go nowhere journey to Argentina. Miguel_x98, a Buenas Aires activist, identified them in our Chat Room as professional smugglers who officially masquerade as the Argentinian coast guard. Whatever their day job, the picture recalled some lyrics whose original intent stand in contrast to what the ninja bosses might desire.
Turtle and the Rabbit had a race one day,
Rabbit thought he had it won any old way,
So he lay down and went to asleep.
Well when he woke up,
Why the turtle had him beat,
You know life is a gamble,
People come rain or shine,
You got to keep on a betting,
And you're bound to win sometime.
Related thoughts surface every time I sing La Cucaracha, the revolutionary song deriding government soldiers and sung by Pancho Villa's forces. Satirical verses were often invented on the spot in a contest of seeing who might raise the most laughter. The most common chorus is...
La cucaracha,
La cucaracha,
Ya no puede caminar,
Porque no tiene,
Porque le falta,
Marijuana que fumar.
(The cockroach,
The cockroach,
Still he cannot walk,
Because he has no,
Because he lacks,
Marijuana to smoke.)
The words conjour images of American Soldiers in obvious easily seen environmentally mismatched "camoflauge" clothing with techy crap hanging and sticking out all over them. It would be interesting if a TV producer, in vengful preparation of chucking his job after suffering a career of forced bullshit, made a swan song broadcast of what one of the cockoaches has to do just to take a leak? It is a wonder resistance fighters are effective as they are during breaks from what must otherwise be constant choking laughter. Cucaracha is a fitting name especially in light of what often happens to a cockroach?
