I was there during the first elections in South Africa. I watched them take down the apartheid flag and raise the new flag.
quote by Al Sharpton

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
the home of the slaves
and the land of no freedom
I'm gonna take the south out of South Africa
where George Wallace stood
on the University steps
and said no blacks
no blacks shall enter here
except over my dead
and crippled body
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
where separate but equal means
that blacks lived in the homelands
and not in their homes
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
where Jim Crow laws
have tried to change their colors
but it's still the same old shackles
call Apartheid
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
where young people are detained
...without trials
...without lawyers
...without rights
but never
... without hope
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
poem by Oscar Mireles

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I Prefer
Have you run into the human race
Have you run into the world
Have you run into the system
And I raise the white flag
And I raise the white flag
And thats the way
I prefer... flagellation!
Have you run into your head
Have you run into your balls
Have you run into the human condition
And I raise the white flag
And I raise the white flag
And thats the way
I prefer... flagellation!
I prefer
Flagellation!
song performed by by Ministry

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag who gives that protester the freedom to abuse and burn that flag.
quote by Zell Miller

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Apartheid
once upon a time
there was a bad time
for the people of africa
as there was apartheid
they were treated very badly
as they were inferior to the whites
they were treated as slaves
they were not given money
not even a single penny
not even some food!
but after some years
they felt pity, and had tears!
they realised their mistake
And banned apartheid
from that moment onwards
there was no more apartheid
for the people of africa
and had equal human rights!
Key Word: -
Apartheid- the policy of treating blacks as inferior to the whites in africa (olden days)
poem by sai Susritha

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Day Break Africa
Twenty-one days to an overthrow,
Twenty-one years from a hide-out;
Day break Africa with news around the world!
Out of changes, out of words,
One out of the muse that i bring to you;
Living on One Dollar a day means that,
We have no aids but hunger! !
Day break Africa with words from a bard,
Like a serious rethinking to all mankind;
Life in Africa matters to me a lot.
Braving through the thick and thin clouds of Africa,
Like the time when a party wins;
A muse like this puts up a serious rethinking.
Day break Africa with hunger,
Day break Africa with hospitality;
Mark the beloved child who wakes up early with,
No food at all! Yes, an empty stomach! !
Just like their parents and care-takers,
Just like the things you see around;
A life and death struggle for survival!
Lawlessness! A child is born;
With an empty bowl beside him or her.
This is to learn about the hardships of Africa,
This is to grow up in the mist of nothing;
Where many talents die out easily!
From hope to poverty,
from the North to the South;
From East to the West,
From the mountains to the rivers;
We need our fertile minds to do the thinking.
Gone-East, gone-West, gone out of bounds;
From the North to the South without hope,
Day break Africa with hunger!
More deaths cases are reported on malaria than aids,
But our best works are not even well known to the world;
Since, they rather cloth us with aids! ! !
From O.A.U. to A.U.,
From poverty to aids;
How long can we hoist a flag for our emancipation? !
Day break Africa with words,
Day break Africa with hope,
Day break Africa with Hunger,
Day break Africa with dreams;
Oh, how long can we hoist a flag for our emancipation?
Day break Africa!
poem by Edward Kofi Louis

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How Can I Sing Like A Girl?
Birds are calling to sing along
But my windows painted shut
And all that year of chorus taught me
Is out of style and long forgot
How can I sing like a girl
And not be stigmatized
By the rest of the world?
Tell me how can I sing like a girl
And not be objectified
As if I were a girl?
I want to raise my freak flag
Higher and higher and
I want to raise my freak flag
And never be alone
Never be alone
From the watchtowers Ive been spotted
Fingers pointing at my mouth
Spotlights turn and pivot towards me
But I dare not make a sound
How can I sing like a girl
And not be stigmatized
By the rest of the world?
Tell me how can I sing like a girl
And not be objectified
As if I were a girl?
I want to raise my freak flag
Higher and higher and
I want to raise my freak flag
And never be alone
Never be alone
How can I sing like a girl
And not be stigmatized
By the rest of the world?
Tell me how can I sing like a girl
And not be objectified
As if I were a girl?
How can I sing like a girl
How can I sing like a girl
How can I sing like a girl
How can I sing like a girl
song performed by by They Might Be Giants

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Two Flags
Some people are born under two flags.
Their parents are of two countries
and this is the situation of me.
I live under one flag,
but wish I lived under the other.
For a while, I lived under the other flag
and felt the world belong to me.
Now I live under the one flag
and everything seems to be taken from me.
Those who inspire my life
live under the other flag.
While the ones whose flag I live under
fail to recognise the potential within me.
It is a dilemma I face everyday,
whether to go or to stay.
However I am not the only one,
there must be many more just like me
who live under two flags
and wish they lived under the one farthest away.
2 May 2009
poem by David Harris

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Canadian born
We first saw light in Canada, the land beloved of God;
We are the pulse of Canada, its marrow and its blood:
And we, the men of Canada, can face the world and brag
That we were born in Canada beneath the British flag.
Few of us have the blood of kings, few are of courtly birth,
But few are vagabonds or rogues of doubtful name and worth;
And all have one credential that entitles us to brag--
That we were born in Canada beneath the British flag.
We've yet to make our money, we've yet to make our fame,
But we have gold and glory in our clean colonial name;
And every man's a millionaire if only he can brag
That he was born in Canada beneath the British flag.
No title and no coronet is half so proudly worn
As that which we inherited as men Canadian born.
We count no man so noble as the one who makes the brag
That he was born in Canada beneath the British flag.
The Dutch may have their Holland, the Spaniard have his Spain,
The Yankee to the south of us must south of us remain;
For not a man dare lift a hand against the men who brag
That they were born in Canada beneath the British flag.
poem by Emily Pauline Johnson

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Laws protecting the United States flag do not cut away at the freedom of speech guaranteed in the First Amendment... Congress made this position clear upon passage of the Flag Protection Act of 1989, which prohibited desecration of the flag.
quote by Larry Craig

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Delicate Cluster
DELICATE cluster! flag of teeming life!
Covering all my lands! all my sea-shores lining!
Flag of death! (how I watch'd you through the smoke of battle
pressing!
How I heard you flap and rustle, cloth defiant!)
Flag cerulean! sunny flag! with the orbs of night dappled!
Ah my silvery beauty! ah my woolly white and crimson!
Ah to sing the song of you, my matron mighty!
My sacred one, my mother.
poem by Walt Whitman

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South Africa Is Also My Country
From my birth South Africa is my own country
and my people can flee to an island
but my own culture and language stays holy
although this place is not safe,
I still trust on a much higher hand,
from my birth South Africa is my own country.
From my birth South Africa is my own country
even if the struggling government gives me resistance,
do oppress me with unfair laws,
even if nothing can stop the disintegration,
even if I am not safe against the onslaught,
from my birth South Africa is my own country.
From my birth South Africa is my own country,
even if some act with effrontery against my people
I come from a noble heritage,
I am proud on my Afrikaner lineage,
even if people and buildings are set alight,
from my birth South Africa is my own country.
From my birth South Africa is my own country
with no other place I have such a deep bond
and even if here I will never have any job,
I believe in God and a Christian church,
God himself still keeps my ways intact,
from my birth South Africa is my own country.
poem by Gert Strydom

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Surrender
White flag white flag
Jesus be lord of my life
Come and rule that is thine
Fix the shambles And strife
This man is your vassel
Tell me what u want done
Whatever it is, help me i pray
Surrender to one
White flag white flag
Waving in hollow defeat
The enemy has finally won
Brave man hung by the feet
Surrender after surrender
God what have we done! ?
help us please remember
Surrender to one
poem by Joses Tirtabudi

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Our Own Flag
They mustered us up with a royal din,
In wearisome weeks of drought.
Ere ever half of the crops were in,
Or the half of the sheds cut out.
'Twas down with the saddle and spurs and whip
The swagman dropped his swag.
And we hurried us off to the outbound ship
To fight for the English flag.
The English flag, it is ours in sooth
We stand by it wrong or right.
But deep in our hearts is the honest truth
We fought for the sake of a fight.
And the English flag may flutter and wave
Where the World-wide Oceans toss,
But the flag the Australian dies to save
Is the flag of the Southern Cross.
If ever they want us to stand the brunt
Of a hard-faught, grim campaign,
We will carry our own flag up to the front
When we go to the wars again.
poem by Andrew Barton Paterson

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Where cries begin when a broken tear smiles
I rest under a shady tree
Autumnal faded leaves tremble
with the peevish wind.
It looks like a Beethoven's symphony.
And I gaze at a faraway roof top flag post.
Torn flag waves in its sad rhythm
But the flag post stands straight
Like a young recruit.
Oh! If I am a newly painted flag post in the battlefield of life
Then I could have teach the flag how to show its true colors.
* To my unseen friend the silent song smith Nick Percowycz.
No palpitation heard since a long time from your territory. [Anchorville/Michigan] Are you passing well my dear?
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga

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We believe that the world, too, can destroy apartheid, firstly by striking at the economy of South Africa.
quote by Oliver Tambo

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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My Flag My Country
Wind blows, my flag dances, in the wind
The anthem is sang, souls in unison bond
My flag is tough in the wind, none would
Blow my flag a way, my country I'm proud
Defender is me, the glory of spilled blood
During emancipation from slavery,
The ills washed, and made white as cotton
The struggles, the quest for victory
My flag flies, in wholeness,
The sweet, reminiscences of my country's history.
poem by Charles Jagongo Ogola

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Our Flag
see
my flag is colourful
your flag is very nice
but this kid love the red....
you like the other
we can raice our flag
we can be proud
we can raice in high
I wish to hang it up
raice it up
fly with my loving stars.....
poem by Thampi KEE

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Freedom's Battle-Song
RED, white, blue, the flag that leads us on,
Stripes as red as blood well shed by many a hero gone.
Now 'tis ours to storm the towers of tyranny and wrong,
Freedom's sons who front the guns with Freedom's battle-song.
Fly the flag from dome and steeple,
Fly the flag from home and school,
Flag of Freedom's birth,
While we battle that the rule
Of the people
By the people
For the people
Shall prevail o'er all the earth.
Red, white, blue, the flag that leads us on,
White as peace for whose release our fighting gear we don;
Peace enchained, crushed, profaned, shall yet in beauty stand,
Yet shall bless with fruitfulness her desolated land.
Fly the flag from dome and steeple,
Fly the flag from home and school,
Flag of Freedom's birth
While we battle that the rule
Of the people
By the people
For the people
Shall prevail o'er all the earth.
Red, white, blue, the flag that leads us on,
Blue as skies whose starry eyes shall see our victory won.
Freedom's sons and champions, to her our hearts are true,
We who fight for Human Right, and the Red,
White, Blue.
Fly the flag from dome and steeple,
Fly, the flag from home and school,
Flag of Freedom's birth,
While we battle that the rule
Of the people
By the people
For the people
Shall prevail o'er all the earth.
poem by Katharine Lee Bates

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Six O'Clock News
he sat in the parking lot,
a Vietnam vet, breathing hard,
fog rising in the cold....
across the way two kids
were getting ready to raise
the flag... just another day....
they'd been married for 30 years.
he met her when he was thirty,
and she was just sixteen....
now he was over sixty,
and his health was bad....
and she'd been fooling around
with a man her own age.
he just couldnt see, just couldnt
believe... nowhere to go.
he watched her walk from the
building to her car, fumbling with keys.
walking up behind her, he called
her name... she turned, a look of horror,
just a deer caught in the headlights.
he pulled the pistol and shot her....
before her body even fell
he put the barrel in his mouth,
and fired again....
the two kids stopped, flag
at about half mast.... sunlight
barely piercing the fog....
America dead, two bodies strewn
in a parking lot... another feed
for the six o'clock news!
poem by Eric Cockrell

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Revolt 25 June 2009
Bursts of noise
officials in full school uniform enter
excitement as we
hug and laugh
I’m wearing Tiaan’s track suit
his school cap – his blazer
he wears himself
I’m bursting with delight
so many people
commemorating 1976 when
South Africans refused
to go to school
I can’t wait to run through
the building from floor one
to ten to check on everyone
see what the others
have done
Sylvia looks fantastic in
her school gear, Karen will soon
be here and the day will really
begin – no work is the general cry –
that is what they did in 1976
we have to stick to the spirit
of their revolt that dismantled
apartheid and
bought freedom for all!
25 June 2009 - Department Arts and Culture
commemorates the 1976 school protests
against apartheid in South Africa.
poem by Margaret Alice

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