“Tale of Two Companies”: True stories about corporate greed and human compassion

What Up everyone!

Rise-Ascend here. It’s been a very long time since my last blog entry and we have released new music, so now is a good time to check in with our fans, friends and supports with a new blog.

First of all, I will be discussing our new song “Tale of Two Companies” (TOTC), from our new EP “Lift Them Up.” TOTC is a song based on two real companies, real stories, and real life events. However, out of compassion for the people who work at the company that the first verse is about, I chose not to disclose the actual name of the company and, for the same reason, I will not do so here either. I will simply discuss the situation generally and the overall phenomenon, thus allowing you to do a little research and thinking on your own to figure out who we are talking about.

That said, because the company and the individual that is the subject of the second verse has been publicly honored and publicized for his courage and integrity, I will link the news article to his story below.

As many of you may already know, the Chinese communist party – the current government in China (CCP) – has been viciously persecuting practitioners of Falun Gong – a peaceful meditative practice based on the principles of truth, compassion and tolerance – since July 20, 1999 and the CCP has tortured, murdered and harvested the organs of these innocent people, simply because of their faith.

In many cases, the CCP uses highly advanced technologies to monitor and track these innocent people in order to raid and ransack their homes before taking them into custody for torture that often leads to death.

These advanced technologies include, but are not limited to, firewalls, phone conversation monitoring technologies and other internet networking devices and software used specifically for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners in China.

In some cases, these technologies are developed by a very large IP company based right here in the U.S. How do we know this, well, court documents and other evidence have proven that not only has this large company knowingly developed and provided these technologies specifically for the CCP, but certain high-level executives at the company have known specifically how the CCP is using such technologies. Unfortunately, for the sake of corporate profits, these executives have decided to turn a blind eye to this atrocity and the part they are playing in this horrific persecution.

We can only hope that the executives and individual workers of this large IP company wake up and decide to correct their wrongs and do what is right before it is too late.

I wanted to write a song about this for some time now. However, I didn't want to just focus on the bad decisions that have been made in the corporate community with regards to the CCP’s oppression of the people it governs.

I also wanted to find a way to highlight the people and businesses that have made courageous and righteous decisions by standing up to the CCP and refusing to be affiliated with a government that has proven to be more vicious and inhuman than the Nazis. So, when I heard about Mr. Jeffery Van Middlebrook I was deeply moved by his compassion and integrity in the face of a $60 deal with the CCP. In his words, “I didn’t take blood money from a government that is murdering its people.” 

If more executives at large companies (or the vast majority of the shareholders with stake in such companies) around the world took the moral stance that Mr. Middlebrook has taken, the CCP would not have the financial means, nor the audacity, to carry out such an evil persecution. 

Until next time. Rise!

Epoch Times Article about Mr. Middlebrook (English):
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/69336-60-million-for-your-conscience-this-inventors-not-selling/?photo=2 
Epoch Times Article about Mr. Middlebrook (Chinese):   http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/13/5/23/n3877302.htm

Tale of Two Companies
Lyrics By Rise-Ascend

Intro/Outro:
For the money
The money
The money
For the money
The money
The money

Chorus:
Would you conceal how they kill for the dollar bill
Or, for the Yuan 
Ignore a terrible sin
While you're
Counting the currency all of the demons grin

Would you conceal how they kill for the dollar bill
Or, for the Yuan 
Ignore a terrible sin
While you're
Counting the currency all of the demons grin

For the money
The money
The money

Verse 1:
There's a skeleton in the valley
Giant corporation in Cali
Hands cold and bloody from helping homicide
Profits over innocent families
Aiding persecution though indirectly
Supplier for their communist ties
So they say no piercing the corporate veil
Executives know the horrors clearly but never tell
Fear of breaching the non-disclosure
But when the evil is over
The retribution's eternal hell
For designing technologies for murder
Firewalls and networks
Commodities and servers
Hired by the CCP
To take the persecution further
They track people then torture them
In ways you never heard of
CEO chose to look the other way
Ignoring his conscience
Focused on markets every day
And the dividends
That the company pays/
But do the shareholders know about this moral decay

Verse 2:
There's humanity in the Valley
When a man won't negotiate with killers to cut a bloody deal
His invention they wanted badly
But he told them he would never sell his soul
Not even $60 mill
Tempted by the communist money
Like carrots dangle for bunnies
He thought of how this would make him feel
In the mirror
Scenes of the Nazi era
Made everything some much clearer
The righteous thought strengthened his will
Integrity that's rarely seen
In a world where so many live for the money schemes
So it's refreshing
For corporations a lesson
A man who put his heart and compassion before financial means
And inside
We all know right and wrong
And when the dust from the lies
Is cleared away and gone
You can be sure
Not even money's allure
Can justify ignoring
The persecution of Falun Gong