Ibrahim Lyrics - Singles - Eric Bogle

"Ibrahim" 

-Eric Bogle 

(Album: The Colour of Dreams) 

Hey Ibrahim, tell me what do you think of Australia? 

Do our beautiful desert sunsets fill you with wonder? 

As the sky catches fire, and the trees and the mountains change colour 

But I guess the view from this side of the barbed-wire's much better 

So Ibrahim, can you tell me, why did you come here? 

What dream were you chasing and what did you hope to find here? 

Did you flee from your own native land because your life was in danger? 

Or were the reasons much more mundane, just poverty and hunger? 

Wrong path, wrong choice, wrong creed, wrong culture 

Wrong place, wrong time, wrong dream and wrong colour 

You see Ibrahim, there's something I've been meaning to tell you 

Being hungry and poor bestows no special status upon you 

We won't send you back, if you can prove they'd imprison or kill you 

But if you're just going back home to starve, I'm afraid we can't help you 

You see Ibrahim, you've become a bit of a problem 

This world's full of refugees fleeing poverty, war and oppression 

So to take in queue-jumpers like you, well it's out of the question 

It would give the world's hungry and poor the wrong impression 

Wrong path, wrong choice, wrong creed, wrong culture 

Wrong place, wrong time, wrong dream and wrong colour 

I'm afraid Ibrahim, it's time to be totally candid 

You had Buckley's chance* right from the moment you landed 

Already to many a threat and a danger you were branded 

And all because you follow the prophet Mohammed 

You didn't count Ibrahim, on political opportunism 

Our leaders knew that to many Australians, the very word "Muslim" 

Meant Al-Quaeda, Hammas, the Taliban, and terrorism 

And that's why you and your family are locked up in prison. 

Wrong path, wrong choice, wrong creed, wrong culture 

Wrong place, wrong time, wrong dream and wrong colour 

So Ibrahim, tell me what do you think of Australia? 

Do our beautiful desert sunsets fill you with wonder? 

As the sky catches fire, and the trees and the mountains change colour 

But I guess the view from this side of the barbed-wire's much better 

Yes I guess the view from this side of the barbed-wire's much better 

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NOTE: 

"Buckley's Chance" - Australian colloquialism meaning "no chance whatsoever". 

The phrase came into use in the 1890's, although it's origins are now uncertain.