Ethiopia, lyric by Joni Mitchell

from the songs album Dog Eat Dog

Hot winds and hunger cries--ethiopia
Flies in your babies' eyes--ethiopia
Walking sticks on burning plains
Betrayed by politics
Abandoned by the rains
On and on--the human need
On and on--the human greed profanes
Ethiopia--ethiopia--ethiopia

Your top soil flies away--ethiopia
We pump ours full of poison spray--ethiopia
Between the brown skies and sprinkling lawns
I hear the whine of chain saws
Hacking rain forests down
On and on--insanities
On and on--short sighted greed abounds
Ethiopia--ethiopia--ethiopia

Little garden planet-oasis in space
Some hearts hurt--they can hardly stand it
Famine phantoms at the garden gates
Ethiopia--ethiopia--ethiopia

Every sunday on t.v.--ethiopia
You suffer with such dignity--ethiopia
A t.v. star with a p.r. smile
Calls your baby "it" while strolling
Through your tragic trials
On and on--stupidity
On and on--the basic needs are defiled
Good air--good water--good earth
Ethiopia--ethiopia--ethiopia

Little garden planet--oasis in space
Some hearts hurt--they can hardly stand the waste
Ethiopia--ethiopia--ethiopia