barren

Over the years, the song's lyrics have been criticised for their patronising portrayal of Africa as a barren land that needed rescuing by Western intervention.

“When I visit this place I remember my childhood memories, the time I spent here. But the barren places, they hurt me, they make me feel sad.”

Nevertheless, the old London Bridge made it to a fledgling desert city Robert started building after spotting Lake Havasu itself on the otherwise barren landscape.

The first colonists would encounter a barren landscape without water or breathable atmosphere, bathed in deadly solar and galactic radiation from which Earthbound humans are protected by our planet’s atmosphere and magnetic field.

They’re both at a loss as to how to make things right in their lives, and in a world increasingly barren of understanding and farther from whatever name one has for divine goodness.