Kohinoor...unlucky stone
I am black unshaped stone
Simple but famous for quality alone
When cut to size may assume name of diamond
All envy keen interest and passion found
Many may inherit fortune with precious stone
Prosperity may return and poverty gone
It may shadow bad luck and misfortune
Life may go astray with rhythm out of tune
Such is story of diamond “Kohinoor” in possession
Previously found with princely states with obsession
Sikhs got it with downfall and recession
British too lost empire with no concession
Where ever it traveled misfortune followed
Uprooting of states and downfall allowed
Humiliation and shame had to be swallowed
Revenge, hate and reprisal got to be vowed
“Kohinoor” came to be known as unlucky treasure
Cut into size was mounting pressure
British obliged and cut into pieces assured
Not to pass to any one promise reassured
British too were reduced to small empire
Golden days passed with good fame to expire
Many attempted it to claim and acquire
Legal bindings and claims too required
History may not repeat with its curse and fall out
Kohinoor may stay in vault and not invite rout
World may know nothing what it is all about
It is tale of destruction and misfortune spell out
Still it adores British crown
No significance but only in noun
Many countries claim and eyes frown
British too unwilling and claimdisown
poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
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Related quotes
The British seizure of Hongkong was an aspect of one of the most ugly crimes of the British Empire: the takeover and destruction of India, and the use of India to flood China with opium.
quote by Robert Trout
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Were you to read the British press today, you would learn that the British Empire never forgets its defeats.
quote by Robert Trout
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The British Way Of Life
The British people have a good sense of humour
They like to strive on gossip and rumours
I like the British way of life
It can be stressful at times but they don’t dwell on strife
Britain is a country of multi-culture
People from all countries came to the UK for a better future
The British culture is embraced all over
Once ago the UK was the world shaker and mover
English people like to have a party
They will drink and get drunk
But they are generous and like to give money to fight poverty
The UK is a fun loving nation
They embrace multi culturism
But some ethnic group don’t do integration
poem by Clifton Cameron
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Salmon Van As
On a night just as the moon is rising
a British officer comes by horse with a white flag
and the rifle barrels of the Boers follow him,
as they are on guard at the front post.
Evening after evening he comes
and sometimes rides past in a cloud of dust
where he is spying on their positions
and tries to lead them astray with his chattering.
With words that by now they know:
“No nation will win against us.
Surrender tonight,
as you have already lost the war.”
On a hillock Salmon van As is at the front post
and something creaks below him in the trees and bushes
where he is standing with his Mauser rifle at the ready
and he knows of the atrocities of this Englishman
where with a thunder clap he shoots at him.
Some black men run back to the British camp
to tell the story of the shot,
where a red headed major stamps his feet in anger
and swears to God to take revenge.
Convinced of his own innocence Salmon van As
stays openly on his own farm,
where he goes on with his life in Heidelberg
and just after the peace of Vereniging,
when it fits the British,
they insist on his arrest.
He is brought before a military court
where he is not given any chance to defend himself,
as probably he would have succeeded in his own defence
and the British officer says his final say.
At daylight the Lee Metford rifles of the British soldiers fire
and like Gideon Scheepers there’s a Boer that falls,
a Boer citizen is murdered by the British
and in the cliff a thorn tree on his grave still tells that story.
poem by Gert Strydom
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There are no countries in the world less known by the British than those selfsame British Islands.
quote by George Borrow
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Misfortune is not that which can be avoided, but that which cannot.
The Great Three
At one time when the country was ruled by creul british
there came the Tremendous three
who were on mission to make our country free
they distributed templates
to stop their mission
the british called simon commission
they knew it was test of the best
against simon they made protest
but it proved them costly
as their leader was beaten by sticks
furious by their behaviour
it was time to teach british lesson
The officer guilty deserved the punishment
it was justice
After some days
once again the british at its creulity
for their pleasure
they were going with train of treasure
the Revolutionaries decide to do justice
they steal the train
The british pass bill
which made sure that the farmers will not get justice
it was test of best
as they protest
in the Assembly they throw bomb
the british catch the tremendous three
the punishment they get is hanged till death
but fear is stranger to them
as they happily hang themselves
and they still say
long live the revolution
vande mataram
I proud to be indian
poem by Rohan Bendre
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Burden Of Shame
There are murders that we must account for
Bloody deeds have been done in my name
Criminal acts we must pay for
And our children will shoulder the blame
(chorus)
I'm a british subject, not proud of it
While I carry the burden of shame (repeat)
As a nation we're following blindly
No-one stops to question why
Our money's supporting an army
And a boy in soweto dies
(chorus)
I'm a british subject, not proud of it
While I carry the burden of shame (repeat)
Must we go on ignoring forever
The cries of an african son
There's a soldier's hand on the trigger
But it's we who are pointing the gun
(chorus)
I'm a british subject, not proud of it
While I carry the burden of shame (repeat)
song performed by by Ub40
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Canada evolved within the British Empire: it inherited the Parliamentary system, the Cabinet system and all the other features of the British constitutional system which had been in place, for the most part, for several centuries before Canada was even thought of.
quote by Stockwell Day
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Napoleon Bonaparte
The world lay at his feet
and the whole of Europe he wanted to unite,
into Asia his armies swept
conquering Russia
until they met up with a fierce winter
and at Waterloo he had the British outgunned
until rain fell for days
and his big guns got stuck in the mud.
Whatever stories history, the Russians
and the British do tell,
against nature and its Creator
Napoleon’s armies did fall.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Indian Mutiniy
British infants who were nobly born
Were from their bleeding mother's bosom torn
And with the bayonet dashed upon the street
There left to lie for native dogs to eat.
But the British Lion he soon o'erthrew
Both the high and the low Hindoo ;
Now they respect the Christian laws
For fear of British Lion's paws.
poem by James McIntyre
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Gideon Scheepers
There’s a Boer commandant
that proofs himself at Magersfontein
and help to beat the British there
and at Paardeberg on horseback,
rides right through them
and they cannot touch him.
When his commando
enters the Cape Colony
rail tracts are blown away
and British trains stand and wait
and there are many Cape Boers
that joins him
to fight against
the overwhelming British might.
The British give guns
to the black population
and send them to farmsteads
to murder women and children
and to rape
and to Gideon Scheepers it’s more than enough
and it hits him like a hammer blow
and every black man
that his commando catches carrying a firearm
is hanged.
Then it happens
that the British find Gideon Scheepers
lying ill in the field
and they execute him
and somewhere in the field
he is pushed into an unmarked grave
and even today
nobody knows where
Gideon Scheepers lies.
[References: The rank of Commandant is equivalent to that of Lieutenant-Colonel. The heroic story of Gideon Scheepers during the second Anglo-Boer war.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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Everyone the world over talks about British actors and British talent and I think that's because we were trained - until now - in theatre.
quote by Brenda Blethyn
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Such a prostitution of judicial power can never occur again under the shadow of the British law, for no jury within the wide circle of the empire would submit to such an infraction of their privilege, even if a judge could be found daring enough to attempt it.
quote by Joseph Howe
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The first condition of success for the League of Nations is, therefore, a firm understanding between the British Empire and the United States of America and France and Italy that there will be no competitive building up of fleets or armies between them.
quote by Arthur Henderson
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To the biologist the problem of socialism appears largely as a problem of size. The extreme socialists desire to run every nation as a single business concern. I do not suppose that Henry Ford would find much difficulty in running Andorra or Luxembourg on a socialistic basis. He has already more men on his pay-roll than their population. It is conceivable that a syndicate of Fords, if we could find them, would make Belgium Ltd. or Denmark Inc. pay their way. But while nationalization of certain industries is an obvious possibility in the largest of states, I find it no easier to picture a completely socialized British Empire or United States than an elephant turning somersaults or a hippopotamus jumping a hedge.
J.B.S. Haldane in Possible Worlds
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Political Advisors Interpret Omen
Babylonian Empire
Egyptian Empire
Athenian Empire
Roman Empire
British Empire
American Empire
League of Nations
United Nations
World Governments
none endures
leadership abuses
splinter parties
when citizen rights
citizen freedoms
are political games
praises gods of gold
silver brass military iron
wood precious stone
'read the writing on the wall'
portent doom inevitable decline
political advisors interpret omen
bodiless hands
flaring brands
seize oil lands
MENE MENE TEKEL PERES
count days profits weigh abuses
divide ill gained spoils nations
arrogance blasphemy has rewards
measure accountability of names
God has numbered the very days
of all kingdoms governments
brings all things to their ends
found wanting weighed scales
divided are kingdoms empires
war conquest given to victors
Medes Persians.... power inherits
poem by Terence George Craddock
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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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You know, the blond guy plays the good guy and I play the bad part, the bad guys. Which is a lot of fun. Playing the bad guy is great. And it's the whole British thing. You know, in so many films the bad guy is British. Gary Oldman makes a living doing that.
quote by Matt Robinson
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I don't enjoy British shows as a rule because British audiences are strange.
quote by Andrew Eldritch
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