A Korero Between a Poet and an Activist Accounting Scholar

A Korero  Between  A Poet  and  an Activist Accounting Scholar About COVID-19

by Selina Tusitala Marsh and Pala Molisa

 

Poet: Hey! <

Activist Accounting Scholar: What is that?

Poet: I’m elbow bumping you.

Activist Accounting Scholar: < >

Poet: Double elbow?

Activist Accounting Scholar: Hug.

[EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE]

Poet: What the hell is that?

Activist Accounting Scholar: You getting that on your phone? We all are. It’s the National Emergency Alert.  It’s a simultaneous alarm throughout all New Zealand.

Poet: Well that high pitched ring is freaking the fark out of the cat.

Activist Accounting Scholar: Orwell much?

Poet: Hey Activist Accounting Scholar - can I shorten you to AAS? Or will that get confused with ASS? 

AAS: Excuse me? 

Poet: How about Activist AS?

Activist Accounting Scholar: It took me 9 years to get every one of those letters so, to be clear, no, you may not.

Poet: Self-isolating taking its toll then…

Activist Accounting Scholar: I’m keeping my 2 metre distance in the supermarket queues; I’m elbow-bumping my associates; I’m avoiding getting too close to people on my runs… And you?

Poet: The Waiheke Trail Tribe is tribing it solo now.  But I’ve been thinking...

Activist Accounting Scholar: Mmmm?

Poet: You know how you are...

Activist Accounting Scholar: How’s that?

Poet: Like, you’re right all the time. 

Activist Accounting Scholar: I wouldn’t put it exactly that way.

Poet: See, there you go again. Anyway, I’ve been thinking how monstrously fairytale-ish this whole thing is and thought your way of thinking could come in handy. 

Activist Accounting Scholar: How so?

Poet: Just play along with me and tell me your immediate responses to words I give you.

Activist Accounting Scholar: In what context?

Poet: In the context of the nursery rhyme ‘This is the House that Jack Built.’

Activist Accounting Scholar: But of course.

Poet: I’m serious.

Activist Accounting Scholar: Mmhmm.

Poet: Well, what if the title was ‘This is the Virus that We Built’.

Activist Accounting Scholar: Mmmmmm. Okay then. Remind me of the original?

Poet: Well, the first bit goes:

This is the house that Jack built.
This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

Poet: What would the House be?

Activist Accounting Scholar: Well, even before we get to the “House”, there’s the question of the “Virus” in the title. What would the virus be? The virus - in the context of this COVID-19 pandemic is the consequences of the kind of society we currently live within: a global industrial capitalist complex that’s destroying so many animal and plant habitats, while cutting people off from connection with the earth, that it’s the perfect storm for pandemics to emerge. 

Poet: Um, one line answers please?

Activist Accounting Scholar: Do you want the context and nuance or not?

Poet: I just want a line for my poem.

Activist Accounting Scholar: Well, the first meaning for virus is that it’s the predictable consequences of our society; and secondly,  it’s also a symbol of how our society is currently organised.  How’s that for succinct?

Poet: Better. 

Activist Accounting Scholar: Because capitalism is based on relentless and never-ending growth - just like a virus out of control. So in this sense, the “Virus” and the “House” in the title are one: the Virus/House is Society: the House that we’ve all collectively built together. 

Poet: Ha, some of us more than others.

Activist Accounting Scholar: Totally. Some people do more, have more power and wealth, but we all make up this society, and we’re all responsible for how it is.

Poet: Ok. What would the Rat be?  Those who rat others out?

Activist Accounting Scholar: Not necessarily. Rats are resilient. They’re the survivors - those at the bottom - the most vulnerable, oppressed…

Poet: The vilified!

Activist Accounting Scholar: Those who don’t have a place - the displaced - but who at the same time, make up and produce most of the wealth. 

Poet: So rats are ‘the people’.

Activist Accounting Scholar: Not just people - it’s the rivers, the ocean, the plants and the trees - everyone that makes up Papa’s Circle - Her Community of Life.

Poet: So Malt is not just food, it’s resources -- what Papa needs too.

Activist Accounting Scholar: Totally. Moreover, it’s the wealth that we create by processing the things that Papa gives us to turn into resources. So the malt is the created wealth - the wealth we create as a society. That’s not just the material wealth - it also includes the quality of our relationships - which is what often gets attacked and undermined by this sort of crisis. 

Poet: It erodes the Samoan philosophy of Teu Le Va - the nurturing of inter-relational spaces among people, and between people and the environment.

Activist Accounting Scholar: Yes - the Va - interesting how indigenous terminologies and languages - like your nursery rhymes - are more poetic in capturing subtle and absolutely vital dimensions of life…

Poet: And the Cat?

Activist Accounting Scholar: The corporations - the Fat Cats. 

Poet: The Dog?

Activist Accounting Scholar: The Dog can be read doubly too. In the rhyme the Dog represents all the forces of life that worry corporate interests. So on the one hand, these forces could include things like economic downturns, recessions, slumps, and market collapses that result in so many businesses going bankrupt and losing wealth. On the other hand, at a deeper level, the Dog also represents all the life-affirming qualities that we have that often aren’t reconcilable with corporate culture such as collectivism, activism, free thinking, and holistic living. The dominant corporate forces of society are always worried about suppressing these qualities in people because if they were to fully flower it would mean the end of corporate capitalism’s feudal rule.  

Poet: Cow?

Activist Accounting Scholar: Our economic infrastructure - the resources we use to produce all the wealth. 

Poet: So who’s the Maiden all forlorn? 

Activist Accounting Scholar: Women - women who make up more than half our global labour force, and do two-thirds of all the work, but take home only 10% of the income, and own only 1% of the world’s wealth. 

Poet: And then when something like COVID-19 hits…

Activist Accounting Scholar: ...it’s the women (and the children they look after) who bear the brunt. Look at global poverty - there’s definitely a feminization of poverty: women (and their children) make up most of the world’s poor, the world’s illiterate, the world’s homeless/houseless. 

Poet: And the Man all tattered and torn?

Activist Accounting Scholar: The man represents the working-class man; the man who does most of the productive labour of society, but who, at the same time, is also the one who is ground down by the “9-5 grind” of workplace and modern lifestyle stress - the one who says “Thank God It’s Friday” (“TGIF”), who mostly lives week-to-week, who’s daily concerns are just putting food on the table.  

Poet: You know, you don’t need to explain the acronym TGIF.  JS. 

Activist Accounting Scholar: Is there a question in that statement?

Poet: JS is Just Saying btw.  So who’d be the Judge?

Activist Accounting Scholar: The Judge represents the Law: the legal system, social mores, the unquestioned cultural values of society that serve the interests of privilege and power.  

Poet: And the Rooster?

Activist Accounting Scholar: The Rooster plays a double role in the rhyme. On the one hand, he’s the Time Keeper. He wakes everyone up. He’s the one who calls for everyone to get up, to get out of bed, to go to work. So he’s the Enforcer of Time.  The Time-Keeper of the Monotony of Work - of 9-to-5. He enslaves everyone to the Rigor(mortis) of Capitalist Time. 

Poet: Clever.

Activist Accounting Scholar: On the other hand, the Rooster also represents The Call of Spirit. The drive we’ve got inside of us to wake up - to become aware, to  be present, to be here, to question, to seek.   

Poet: Hey, your quals are in Accounting right?

Activist Accounting Scholar: That’s right…I enable people to account: to their ledgers as well as themselves and our world.

Poet: Wow, are you playing both sides of the meaning game? 

Activist Accounting Scholar: The (infinite) game has infinite sides. If you get my inference.

Poet: Yeah, I’m a poet, not a dunce. 

Activist Accounting Scholar: Hey. You know I hold poets in the highest regard, right?

Poet: Whatevs. The Farmer?

Activist Accounting Scholar: The Farmer is the hard-working Business Owner - the one who owns some property (land), who invests both resources and labour, who invests now hoping for a return tomorrow. He can also be the landlord who employs other workers to work the fields. He’s the one who sows his corn - and who also owns the horse, hound and horn.

Poet: Yeah, that’s a triple in one line isn’t it? So, the Horse?

Activist Accounting Scholar: Remember - the Horse, Hound and Horn are all tools of the Hunt - the tools of the Hunter - of Predator Culture. So the Horse is the social and economic drivers that power us as an industrial capitalist society with deep roots in patriarchal/colonial cultures: historically, that means the structural drivers of imperialism, white supremacy, and infinite consumerism (infinite material growth). Today, under late capitalism, the global economy is dominated by the FIRE sectors: Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate.  It's  their laser focus on short-term profit that’s so catastrophic for our society.

Poet: Sounds like a Bible-esque One World kinda thing.

Activist Accounting Scholar: Yes. The Horse could symbolically represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - four major life-threatening catastrophes that could bring society (and most life on earth for that matter) crashing down and which are both the basis and the direct products of the current social and economic system - so, for instance Colonialism, Capitalism, Patriarchy, Climate Disruption.

Poet: And that’s why I’m your mate. Cos no other poet would be…

Activist Accounting Scholar: Do you want answers or not?

Poet: Um, yep, my bad. So, the Hound and the Horn?

Activist Accounting Scholar: The Hound is the police, the army, the military - the attack dogs of dominant culture. They are the enforcers who uphold the rules of dominant hierarchies, and charged with rounding people up.  The Horn is the siren that   sounds the alarm, that calls the men to the hunt - so it’s the Media when it acts as the Mouthpiece of Power rather than as the Public Forum of the People. 

Activist Accounting Scholar: You done yet? I’ve got a zoom session with my client then a live online Pilates session at  5pm.  What’s this whole thing for anyway?

Poet: You’re a co-conspirator in the making of a poem. 

Activist Accounting Scholar:  I do politics, I do numbers, I don’t do poetry. 

Poet: Is that so?

This is the house that Jack built
This is the virus that we built

This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built
This is the wealth that laid the society that we built

           This is the rat that ate the malt
          This is the survivor that made the wealth
           That lay in the house that Jack built
          That laid the society that we built

This is the cat
This is the corporate Fat Cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That killed the survivor that made the wealth
That lay in the house that Jack built
That laid the society that we built

This is the dog that worried the cat
This is the black dog that worried the Fat Cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That killed the survivor who made the wealth
That lay in the house that Jack built
That laid the society that we built

This is the cow with the crumpled horn
This is the bull market, its crumpled horn
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That loosed the black dog who worried the fat cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
Who exploited survivors making the wealth
That lay in the house that Jack built
That laid the society that we built

This is the maiden all forlorn
This is the sweatshop woman, wailing and worn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
Who props the market with crumpled horns
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That loosed the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
Who exploits the survivor making the wealth
That lay in the house that Jack built
That laid the society that we built
This is the man all tattered and torn
This is the worker toiling dusk till dawn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
Who married the woman wailing and worn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
Who props bull markets with crumpled horns
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That loosed the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
Who exploits survivors making the wealth
That lay in the house that Jack built
That lay in the society that we built

This is the judge all shaven and shorn
This is Law and Order a haven reborn  
That married the man all tattered and torn
That married the worker toiling at dawn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
to the sweatshop woman wailing and worn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
Who props bull markets with crumpled horns
That tossed the dog that worried the cat 
That loosed the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
Who kill survivors who need the wealth
That lay in the house that Jack built
That laid the society that we built

This is the rooster that crowed in the morn
This is the rooster crowing against norms
That woke the judge all shaven and shorn
Waking the people all shaven and shorn
That married the man all tattered and torn
Divorcing ideals now tattered and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
Kissing goodbye the ‘good life’ now thin and worn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That crashed the bull all crumpled and mourned
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That loosed Dogs of War to guard fat cats
That killed the rat that ate the malt 
Controlling survivors who make the wealth
That lay in the house that Jack built
That laid the society that we built

This is the farmer sowing his corn
This is 5G digitizing our corn
That kept the rooster that crowed in the morn
Blockchaining the rooster that crows in the morn
That woke the judge all shaven and shorn
Surveilling the judge, the bull’s crumpled horn
That married the man all tattered and torn
Microchipping the man all tattered and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
Human capitalizing the woman, weary and worn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
Who prop AI markets with crumpled horns
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That loose Dogs of War to guard fat cats
That killed the rat that ate the malt
Who kill the ones who make the wealth
That lay in the house that Jack built
That lay the society that we built.

This is the horse and the hound and the horn
This is the Bitcoin, the Global Agenda, the Fourth Seal Horn 
That belonged to the farmer sowing his corn
That belongs to the Davos mob reaping digitized corn
That kept the rooster that crowed in the morn
Through privatized welfare, poor families scorned 
That woke the judge all shaven and shorn
The New World Order, a haven reborn  
That married the man all tattered and torn
predictive analytics weds digi ID porn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
Mass surveillance profiling keeps freethinking stillborn 
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
The digital panopticon makes self-policing pawn 
That tossed the dog that worried the cat ƒ
That loosed the Four Horsemen wearing the cap
That killed the rat that ate the malt
Of Sustainable Development Goals diverting the fault
That lay in the house that Jack built
That splits the society that we built

This is the Fourth Industrial Revolution
And it's viral. 
 

Poet: How’s that?

Activist Accounting Scholar: It’s a bit wordy.

Poet: Expert are we?

Activist Accounting Scholar: Well, where’s the hope? The beauty? I thought that’s what you Poets were for?

Poet: Sometimes, just bringing attention to something is an exquisite thing of beauty. 

Activist Accounting Scholar: < >

Poet: < >