Destination Mars

The routine can make you tetchy
in this little ship of ours,
cooped up in here for two months now
with the destination Mars.
And even if we survive,
you still think were gonna
make it out alive?

Easy days are hard to take.
In space, no one can hear you bark.
The birdsongs play in the hydroponics bay,
but isn't it just whistling in the dark?
And even if we survive,
you still think were gonna
make it out alive?

What is it that we lost? What have we undone?
All we were looking for was another sun.
Where are we headed now? It's into the unknown,
but it doesn't look like we'll be going home.

So the nebulae are blooming
around the heart of a neutron star.
Am I awake or am I dreaming?
Maybe we have come too far,
and even if we abide
will we ever dare to take a step outside?

Last week, it was a belt of asteroids
that was keeping us on our toes.
Some days it's hard to know what this is for.
Maybe just see where this wormhole goes.
But even if we survive,
I wonder if we're gonna
make it out alive.

What is it that we lost? What is it that we won?
All we were looking for was another sun.
Where are we headed now? It's into the unknown,
but it doesn't look like we'll be going home.









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ukraine: The politics of institutional reform: Zelenskyi’s “de-oligarchisation” drive, Dec 2021

The president's “de-oligarchisation” drive addresses issues vital for Ukraine’s development, but is unlikely to produce lasting change (December 2021, for the EIU) The president’s claim that a Russian-linked coup is being organised against him may be part of a wider domestic political struggle set off by his “de-oligarchisation” drive.  De-oligarchisation addresses the key developmental issue facing Ukraine. This is that, by restricting political and economic competition, the collusive, behind-the-scenes politics of Ukrainian elites has acted as a fetter on economic growth, helping to explain the country’s low living standards. Concerns have been raised that the policy could be applied selectively to damage the president’s political rivals.  The measures may be too limited to produce lasting change. Moreover, Zelenskyi appears to lack both the resources and the durable domestic political alliances that would be required to affect a long-term transformation of national governan...
Read more

Falling between two stools

A review of Marko Bojcun’s Towards a Political Economy of Ukraine: Selected Essays, 1990-2015; Ukrainian Voices, vol 3; Ibidem-Press, Stuttgart. A. The history of post-Soviet Ukraine could be written as that of a succession of self-serving political leaderships, and of inspiring but failed popular protests, resulting in chronic economic underperformance that has left the country’s dwindling population among the poorest in Europe. A glance at IMF data, for example, shows the country vying for bottom place in the European income rankings with Moldova. In these essays, written close on the events they analyse, Marko Bojcun reminds us that this need not have been the case, and that other trajectories at times seemed possible. One example is to be found in an article from 2001, in which the prospect of Russia’s European integration is still in the air, just about, whereas from the vantage point of today, this is almost unthinkable. B. The collection covers key waypoints in the politic...
Read more

Ukraine: EU begins to disburse next tranche of financial assistance, Oct 2022

In late September, EU bodies approved an additional €5bn in macro-financial assistance (MFA) to Ukraine, and in early October, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, announced that the first payment, of €2bn, would be made shortly, with the rest to follow by the end of 2022. This is the second instalment of a €9bn package first announced in May, and follows the delivery of €1bn in early August. It is designed to address the substantial budgetary shortfalls facing the Ukrainian government linked to the ongoing war with Russia, which has closed off access to capital markets, but led also to agreements with creditors for delays in debt repayments. The latest EU funding comes in the form of “highly concessionary” long-term loans—that is, at a low interest rate, but still adding to the stock of public debt. The form of the final €3bn of the facility—whether it will be offered as a loan or a grant—has yet to be decided among the 27 EU member states. As the EU Commiss...
Read more