Somebody Stop Me

The next time I sneer
at the falsity of the category
'world music', where the aim
is broad commercial appeal,
and support folk musicians.

Please, tell me think again.

In many places across the world
the language of local peoples
is prohibited by rules designed
to destroy local diversity.

There are minority languages
struggling to survive in Estonia,
Basque, Galician and Catalan in Spain,
Occitan and Breton in France, and Ukrainian
in Ukraine under Russian control,
are amongst many, many, examples
where empires and their ghosts
threaten local history and local life.

In these places the local languages
hide in music native to the region,
to which the locals cling to for life.  

Where music producers see life
in well preserved local languages
in folksong, and in local choirs,
remind me to be grateful...