Eric Bogle - Ibrahim lyrics
rate me"Ibrahim"<br />
-Eric Bogle<br />
<br />
(Album: The Colour of Dreams)<br />
<br />
Hey Ibrahim, tell me what do you think of Australia?<br />
Do our beautiful desert sunsets fill you with wonder?<br />
As the sky catches fire, and the trees and the mountains change colour<br />
But I guess the view from this side of the barbed-wire's much better<br />
<br />
So Ibrahim, can you tell me, why did you come here?<br />
What dream were you chasing and what did you hope to find here?<br />
Did you flee from your own native land because your life was in danger?<br />
Or were the reasons much more mundane, just poverty and hunger?<br />
<br />
Wrong path, wrong choice, wrong creed, wrong culture<br />
Wrong place, wrong time, wrong dream and wrong colour<br />
<br />
You see Ibrahim, there's something I've been meaning to tell you<br />
Being hungry and poor bestows no special status upon you<br />
We won't send you back, if you can prove they'd imprison or kill you<br />
But if you're just going back home to starve, I'm afraid we can't help you<br />
<br />
You see Ibrahim, you've become a bit of a problem<br />
This world's full of refugees fleeing poverty, war and oppression<br />
So to take in queue-jumpers like you, well it's out of the question<br />
It would give the world's hungry and poor the wrong impression<br />
<br />
Wrong path, wrong choice, wrong creed, wrong culture<br />
Wrong place, wrong time, wrong dream and wrong colour<br />
<br />
I'm afraid Ibrahim, it's time to be totally candid<br />
You had Buckley's chance* right from the moment you landed<br />
Already to many a threat and a danger you were branded<br />
And all because you follow the prophet Mohammed<br />
<br />
You didn't count Ibrahim, on political opportunism<br />
Our leaders knew that to many Australians, the very word "Muslim"<br />
Meant Al-Quaeda, Hammas, the Taliban, and terrorism<br />
And that's why you and your family are locked up in prison.<br />
<br />
Wrong path, wrong choice, wrong creed, wrong culture<br />
Wrong place, wrong time, wrong dream and wrong colour<br />
<br />
So Ibrahim, tell me what do you think of Australia?<br />
Do our beautiful desert sunsets fill you with wonder?<br />
As the sky catches fire, and the trees and the mountains change colour<br />
But I guess the view from this side of the barbed-wire's much better<br />
Yes I guess the view from this side of the barbed-wire's much better<br />
<br />
*****************************************<br />
<br />
NOTE:<br />
"Buckley's Chance" - Australian colloquialism meaning "no chance what'soever".<br />
The phrase came into use in the 1890's, although it's origins are now uncertain.
