They smile at you when first you get aboard
and smile again whenever you should meet.
But what's behind the smiles? They can't afford
to look depressed, although they're just dead beat.

Not when their jobs are hanging by a thread.
Just one false step and they'd be cast aside.
Their folks would starve. So they just smile instead
and finish all the work before the tide.

It's bitter sweet this holiday, for me;
to see them work so hard for little pay,
whilst I enjoy a life of luxury,
the sun the sea, a new port every day.

But what if I could say 'no more of this!'?
The cruise to end, the staff all sent back home.
Back home to what? Hardly a life of bliss!
And maybe here they're luckier than some.

So then I ease my conscience with a tip;
something to give their folks some better days.
But all I do is subsidise the ship;
the more I give, the less the liner pays.

These days you can't do right for doing wrong!
To save the planet we recycle clothes.
In Africa and they're going for a song
and so the local factories have to close.

We send free food so people there might eat
and so the local farmers there are starved.
The farmers in their turn admit defeat
and soon enough the food supply is halved.

We make enormous gifts in foreign aid
but all we do is fuel corruption there.
The poor don't see a dime, the rich get paid
and only the arms dealers get a share.

A tricky thing these days, this doing right;
to live life well and still sleep well at night.