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Contents
2 Every Label Helps 3 Close Call 4 This Green Land 5 River of Blood 6 Her Majesty’s Lost Voice 7-8 Middle Earth 9 Playing With Firearms 10 Send In The Clowns 11 The Sale of a Lifeline 12 Brazil’s Own Goal 13 Going Against The Tide 14 Write-off 15 Quarter (of a million) Pounder 16 Shell Digs Deeper 17 - 18 Filthy Bitch 19 Feral Remorse 20 A Cold Awakening 21 Haiyan 22 A Defining Chapter Now Closed
Each poem has been constructed using only text from the original article published in The Guardian last year. Visit articleanthology.tumblr.com to view the original articles.
26th January 2013
Every Label Helps
O
utrage began at Tesco. Fingers pointed towards Ireland’s slaughter border. Offcuts of blame transported vast distances to Poland. Then came an alert from the French supplier...
“There might be an issue with labelling-” ‘Beef lasagne. 100% equine.’
“-It’s now referred to as full-scale food fraud”. Chasing details through a giant meat processor, the Food Standards Authority tested positive for dead. Every Label Helps.
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16th February 2013
Close Call
P
anic in Chalyabinsk. Obscene language hangs in the morning sky. Calls jammed with frightened observers. All awoken by the death throes, of a cosmic body jumping out of bed. A sonic boom followed the alien vapour trail. An enormous explosion of glass and car alarms. Fragments rained, as conspiracy theories swirled.
A ten-tonne “test of new American weapons”. Zhirinovsky said. Enterprising people, within hours. Offered ‘atmospheric lumps’ for sale. Proof that danger lurks. Not just on Russian roads.
16th March 2013
This Green Land
T
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hose frozen wastes...
Welcomed the potential for economic spill. Invested in polarised opinion, drilled for offshore acceptance, and opened up hugely embarrassing setbacks. Greenland’s prime minister was left shivering. Fishing for consequences. On thawing foreign investment. And surrendering the Arctic. A spokeswoman called an end to global warming. Shell, stuffed with seal skin, said it “did not want to talk”.
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30th March 2013
River of Blood
A
slick of lime green algae covers Shanghai’s officials. Things are a mess. “There are more pigs than fish”, jokes Ms Wu. She isn’t smiling. 16,000 pork carcasses lie dead at her feet. It may just be too late for this sleepy country village. And for China’s seriously contaminated network of waterways. As three-hundred-thousand squealing hogs are butchered and disposed, The remainss blossom in the cities source of tapwater, Inky convenience bobs on the rivers surface, bouncing against the shore. Early tests show a common disease: Black market traders.
6th April 2013
Her Majesty’s Lost Voice
R
escued. By a 50m plan to concentrate on selling music. On a high street ‘where music has no purpose.’ But music lovers and film fans are tough competition. By next year, half of us will be pirates. Months later, the firm had abandoned its plans for revival. Shifting focus instead to coffee mugs branded with artist names. And t-shirts. If only hope could be bought online. Amazon?
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20th April 2013
Middle Earth
8
S
yria’s bloodiest month yet.
Precarious journeys in hushed tones become the blocked moves of flash demonstrations about yawning divides on nearby battlefields as rebel strongholds fight for meagre resources
with ground operations yielding grave ramifications the security installations wont stop the mass defections and there’s no clear set of power relations. Under intolerable pressure this society bled to death. Still, the ‘official’ mood is upbeat...
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27th April 2013
Playing With Firearms
T
he American classroom, A reverred sanctuary, Unsullied by negative influence, Not least, Conneticut’s Sandy Hook massacre. As gun control legislation grinds to a halt, Routine precaution is deployed: Armed guards, shields disguised as rainbow posters, And spring-loaded bolts. Training teachers to block a bullet. Weighing 3lbs, costing $300 and lined with material to stop a 9mm shot of lead. Here, five-year-olds wear a growing need to exploit fear.
4th May 2013
10
Send In The Clowns
F
ruitcake. From Cornwall to Lincolnshire. Unprepared and bubbling off the scale. A colourful bunch made. With giddy chaos for Nigel Farage’s party.
“People have had enough of the old parties. - I’m fed up. I want a change”, he said. On the doorstep, the party revealed a proportion of eccentrics. Several attracted controversy. One wore a Jimmy Saville mask. A strikingly different face this weekend. Farage said it showed “the blood of rebellion still runs in his veins”.
“Are we losing seats? How many?” cried an in-demand Farage. “I thought maybe four of five at best, but 16!” David Cameron did not attend.
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11th May 2013
The Sale of a Lifeline
T
he pressure was mounting on Western personnel to attract attention. Clothing companies bowed to popular demand. The building stacked like slices of bread. Crowds gathered, some waiting outside for days, hoping for garments. Bare hands angered at the slow pace. Dangerous cracks broke into cries for help. On the run from loose Bangladeshi bricks, and buried alive by political inuence. One-hundred survivors rescued from the rubble. OďŹƒcials fear that many more may still be in Primark.
22nd June 2013
Brazil’s Own Goal
F
ootball belongs in Brazil. But something is amiss. Euphoria has been ripped and burnt down.
With record revenues and white elephants. Sepp Blatter kicked back. Bathing in corruption. While protesters threw stones at Fifa’s inequality-tainted windows. Public fury is now on full display despite a lack of transparency.
“World Cups aren’t made with hospitals, my friend” But the tense situation is hurting. Growing anger at Ronaldo and Pele. A football-mad country, mad at football.
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6th July 2013
Going Against The Tide
I
njustice stepped into the chilly waters of the Caspian sea.
And held a childhood dream hostage. Elham Asghari’s nine-hour, record-breaking, 20km swim is in the hands of men who cannot swim 20-metres. Frustration is painful to wear. A full hijab, covering from head to toe, adds six kilos to her weight in water.
“It always hurts my body. Yet the authorities said no matter how Islamic the swimming gear, it’s unacceptable.” Woman. Women. These people have no place. Not in Northern Iran.
20th July 2013
Write-off
D
ecline is dizzying. The sweeping downtown artery – Woodward Avenue.
Drops through a sprawling post-apocalyptic landscape. Along wide boulevards of abandoned structures. Built on the backs of men saddled by debt. Stripped of their heart and brought to their knees. The wheels of Motor City fall off.
Give Detroit a break? “The city is already broke.”
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3rd August 2013
Quarter (of a million) Pounder
C
ontinued hike in population. Rising sense of public unease. For all environmental motivation. A voracious human appetite feeds.
Forget petri dishes and protein strands. Meat is what powered our ancestral brain. But rising demands for pastured land. Means similar impact to all the world’s planes.
Painstaking research and laboratory grown. The burger costing ₏250,000 to make. Behold a culinary milestone. A viable alternative to our species’ taste.
14th September 2013
Shell Digs Deeper
L
ife here has stopped. The air stinks of market capitalisation. The food tastes of oil. The Niger Delta lies devastated.
“We have an interest in fairness-
Made a generous offer of compensation-
To those who’ve suffered ‘hardship’-
Paid quickly to communities impacted-
After these highly regrettable spills-
At least progress is made over the clean up-
Our habitat and livelihood are completely destroyed” A cruel and derisory £1000 per person.
All we have is poverty.
We’re given nothing, again. Our suffering goes on.”
From 50-year old, rusted pipelines.
Bodo creek has been out of action for five years. And it could be another twenty-five.
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21th September 2013
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Filthy Bitch
Y
ou know how it is. You’ve got money, money, money. Top money, rich money. The Capital’s priciest money. Super-wealthy-prime money. It’s the boom boom money, Rush. Fast. Cash money. Buy, buy, buy money. Rise and sell that money. Money many more money. Then say bye, bye money. Average-asking-for money. Very high up money, isn’t really that funny, Hide money, spend money, Start taxing their money, Stop taking my money,that’s-my money’s worth, no money.
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12th October 2013
Feral Remorse
D
ogs go woof. Cats go meow. What does the fox say? Over 100 million of us want to know.
“Ring-ding-ding-ding-der-ding” in Vegas. “Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho” on Jimmy Fallon. A string of synth-led and lyrically vapid international No.1’s predicted. For the Norweigan comedians, now signed to Warner.
“It’s scary. It was mild amusement.” We screwed up.” “Sorry.”
19th October 2013
A Cold Awakening
H
uman rights crumble in this industrial port city. Solitude. Proudly displayed in a steel cage. Tolerates no interference. Outside on the ‘Street of Tears’, there is little sympathy. Rusted metal gates front a heavy sense of foreboding.
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And the rotting futures of the Greenpeace 30, as fabricated charges decay hope. Round the clock blackness, draws closer to the Devon-born. And her concrete block, Heated well below zero. None of the activists expected the Arctic Sunrise to set.
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9th November 2013
Haiyan 235mph wind Category 5 12 million at risk 370-mile-wide 2.5 million require food And likely to rise 1 million in shelters Waves 5-metre-high 29 Philippine provinces Typhoon #25. Within 24 hours the numbers just take o.
6th December 2013
A Defining Chapter Now Closed
H
istory’s last great statesmen. His every move, a wave of good-will. Felt in passing. Moving us all. Now lifted from the world, a towering hero. An ideal that all humanity should aspire to; “For which I’m prepared to die”, clings to this beautiful land. We human beings, can change for the better.
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Sources
January 26th
April 27th
September 14th
Unpalatable truths
Can’t ban guns? Buy a bulletproof schoolbag
Victims of huge Niger delta oil spills reject ‘derisory’
Felicity Lawrence
Dan Roberts
compensation offer from Shell
Photo: Darren Staples / Reuters
Photo: Rick Wilking / Reuters
John Vidal
February 16th
May 11th
1,200 injured by exploding fireballs as meteorite
More suvivors found in collapsed Dhaka factory
September 21st
brings choas to Chelybinsk
Syed Zain Al-Mahmood & Jason Burke
Why money, money, money isn’t so funny in rich
Howard Amos
Photo: Kavin Frayer / AP
Photo: George Osodi / AP
man’s world of London property Miles Brignall & Hillary Osbourne
Photo: Reuters May 4th
Photo: Oli Scarff / Getty
March 16th
‘Send in the clowns. We’ve been abused by
Greenland voters send warning to oil and mining
everyone ... now they are stunned’
October 12th
companies
Esther Addley, Paul Owen, Shiv Maik & Sam Jones
What does the fox say? 100m of us want to know
Terry Macalister
Photo: Olivia Harris / Reuters
Tim Jonze
Photo: Bob Strong / Reuters
Photo: Steve Marcus / Reuters June 22nd
March 30th
Huge protests cast shadow over Brazil’s World Cup
October 19th
River of blood: mystery of the 16,000 dead pigs left
Jonathan Watts
Frozen lives: the Greenpeace 30 facing a brutal
rotting in Shanghai’s water supply
Photo: AFP / Yasuyoshi
Arctic winter in Murmansk prison
Nicola Davison Photo: Peter Parks / AFP
Shaun Walker & Sam Jones July 6th
Photo: Dmitri Sharomov / Greenpeace
Woman swimmer goes against the tide in Iran April 6th
Saeed Kamali Dehghan
November 9th
HMV hauled back from the brink
Photo: Farvartish Rezvaniyeh
Strongest typhoon ever to hit land batters the Phillipines at 195mph
Sarah Butler & Rupert Nate Photo: n/a
July 20th
Kate Hodal
Wheels fall off Motor City: Detroit files for bank-
Photo: Charism Sayat / AFP
April 20th
ruptcy over debts totalling $18bn
This is our worst crisis yet, says head of UN refugee
Dominic Rushe
December 6th
body
Photo: n/a
Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, dies aged 95
Martin Chulov Photo: Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP
August 3rd
David Smith
Scientist makes his own lunch: the first ever
Photo: n/a
lab-grown burger Alok Jha Photo: David Parry / PA Wire
Concept & Design: Tom Bird // Text: Tom Bird // Illustration: Fergus Dowling Thanks to the folks at Mr. President for advice & proof-reading. Printed at The Newspaper Club, Glasgow