Kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight

I was never a fan of Bruce Cockburn, but I've always liked this line. 

"kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight"

Cockburn was always political and I appreciate that. I'm an old punk. I do political. I don't do folk.

Cockburn's politics were undeniably left leaning. I'm a centrist but I often find myself leaning - slightly -  left in the current Canadian political environment but there is this thing, by which I cannot abide, be it on the left or the right. i.e. anti-scientific neo-luddism. 

Case in point: Greenpeace and their remarkably adamant, yet ill-informed opposition to GMO technology, specifically Golden Rice. 

Greenpeace makes the standard, boilerplate arguments against the technology: "un tested", "big corporations", "better solutions" ad nausium. 

The "better solutions" argument is the most insidious. What better solutions? Show us where Greenpeace has solved, or started to solve, the tragic problem of Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD). 

Approximately 250,000 to 500,000 malnourished children in the developing world go blind each year from a deficiency of vitamin A, approximately half of whom die within a year of becoming blind. The United Nations Special Session on Children in 2002 set a goal of the elimination of VAD by 2010.

Has Greenpeace made a dent in this, while busily destroying test fields for publicity? How many children have died from VAD during a Greenpeace antiGMO demonstration? How many children have died from VAD while you read this? 


Kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight. 

Comments

Angel charls said…
Kick at the Darkness is a tribute album to Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn, released in 1991. The title comes from a line in the song "Lovers in a Dangerous Time": "gotta kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight".

The album was released on Intrepid Records. Due to the album's success, Intrepid compiled a Joni Mitchell tribute album, Back to the Garden, the following year.[citation needed]

The Barenaked Ladies' rendition of "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" was their first significant chart hit in Canada.
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