Tobacco Road: "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"

"plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"
"the more it changes, the more it's the same thing", 
usually translated as "the more things change,
the more they stay the same"

I was born in a dump
my mother died
my daddy got drunk
they Left me here to die or grow
in the middle of  Tobacco Road

I grew up in a rusty shack
And all I ever owned was hangin' on my back
Lord above know how much I  loathe
this mean ol' place called Tobacco Road.

Malawi's child tobacco pickers 'being 

poisoned by nicotine'

Children in Malawi who are forced to work as tobacco pickers are exposed to nicotine poisoning equivalent to smoking 50 cigarettes a day, an investigation has found.

Child labourers as young as five are suffering severe health problems from a daily skin absorption of up to 54 milligrams of dissolved nicotine, according to the international children's organisation Plan.

Malawian tobacco is found in the blend of almost every cigarette smoked in the west. The low-grade, high-nicotine tobacco is often used as a filler by manufacturers, reflecting a long-term global shift in production.

Tobacco farms in America declined by 89% between 1954 and 2002. Three-quarters of production has migrated to developing countries, with Malawi the world's fifth biggest producer. Seventy per cent of its export income comes from tobacco and the country is economically dependent on it.

And the daddy still gets drunk.

source: Guardian Johannesburg