The Industrial world! Look at its splendours! See the cotton mills in England, with the cloth being deported all around the world after being rolled from the factory floors, ready for many a lady’s fine dress, a fine man’s waistcoat, a young child’s bed covers. See the steam engines rolling down the road; the future of our world! Look how they pump the oil from the ground in Texas, the lifeblood of the nation. And there, in the distance! The suspension bridges are rising to show how we’ve conquered the world, connecting us to the entire world.
Out on the blue of the ocean, can you see it? The steam driven ship comes ever nearer, as her land based brother does, bringing her cargo of coffee and sugar. And there on the horizon, there are the trains on their newly laid tracks. And the chimneys of our iron mills will sprout over every corner of the globe. Is it not spectacular?
Of course, while all you ponses sit up there on your high horses, sipping on your nice tea and coffee, lauding over your ‘great empire’, we’ve got to stay down here, in the mines, digging up the coal that fuels your magnificent machines, where the old men go blind, the children die, and the women lose their unborn children before they even leave the womb. Here we are in your precious linen factories, losing our fingers as the machines slice them off, starving from the low wages.
And where did your money come from to build so many grand places? Ah yes, the colonies, where the slaves do your work, picking and sewing in the sun and mud, whipped for no reason other than their skin colour’s not the same as yours. And their women? You know what, I don’t even want to think about it.
It’s not just the industries your funding is it though. You’ve got those wars too. America wants independence, but England’s not going to give it up just like that, and they’re going to spend a hell of a lot to keep it. And France? Ol’ Bonny just won’t die will he. I suppose Wellington’ll get him soon, but then what? The soldiers’ll come back and we’d all be out of a job. And there’s India too, but what did you expect after all those years of oppression.
As you read this on your computer screen, you may think to yourself “at least it’s not like that now!” Think again.
Even now, there are wars waging in foreign countries. Even now children are dying from hunger because their parents have been killed or are unable to earn enough money to pay for even the smallest of meals.
You think, as you drink the cheep coffee bought for £1, as you look at your watch, play with your expensive necklace and text on your disposable phone, think of the workers who get paid pennies for the sugar cane that sweetens your drink, that risk their lives in unstable tunnels searching for precious stones that fit in your time pieces, who become poisoned by the mines they work in, the children who scrounge around in scrap heaps to find the small bits of metal that is worth their living.
Think about it.
The Industrial revolution is over, but some things will never be.
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Abstract and thought-provoking! Really liked how the ending put it all in perspective with today's life. Sketch compliments the writeup. (Not as per the given theme)
Rating - 108/200
Total Points after 2 Rounds - 195/400 Points
Judge - Mohit Trendster
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