A Poem for the Ages

Conservatives throughout the English-speaking world have complained against liberal media bias for so long that it's gotten old and boring.  In spite of that, when we trip over novel and ever-more-extreme examples, we just can't help but share them, if only to give our Gentle Readers a sardonic chuckle.

In the Land Down Under lives one Gina Rinehart, the richest person in Australia and on track to becoming the world's richest woman.  She is a mining magnate; minerals extraction forms a major portion of Australia's economy and employment.

Needless to say, the environmental Taliban of Australia are just as opposed to anything the makes money and employs people as their counterparts up here; mining companies have been hit with ever-increasing regulations, "excess-profits" taxes, and every possible snarl that a ravaging horde of state-funded lawyers and eco-wackos can dream up.  Yet such is the ingenuity of Ms. Rinehart and her colleagues that they're still making money and providing the world with essential raw materials while providing livelihoods for millions of Aussies and corresponding income-tax revenues to all levels of government.

Not, however, without complaint.  The London Telegraph reports that this billionaire industrialist has personally penned a scathing poem, had it engraved on a plaque, and affixed it to a 30-ton boulder of iron ore that forms the (exceedingly heavy) anchor of an outdoor art installation in her home state.

It would not be possible for the noses of Australia's great and good to turn up any higher; their response to the poem's literary merit has traveled the gamut from contempt to disdain to crediting it as "the universe's worst."

Far from it.  No, her poem "Our Future" isn't Milton or Shakespeare, but aside from a totally wrongheaded accolade of Australia's utterly failed multiculturalism policy, it hits the nail right on the head while maintaining a laudable attempt at meter and rhyme.  See for yourself:

The globe is sadly groaning with debt, poverty and strife

And billions now are pleading to enjoy a better life

Their hope lies with resources buried deep within the earth

And the enterprise and capital which give each project worth

Is our future threatened with massive debts run up by political hacks

Who dig themselves out by unleashing rampant tax

The end result is sending Australian investment, growth and jobs offshore

This type of direction is harmful to our core

Some envious unthinking people have been conned

To think prosperity is created by waving a magic wand

Through such unfortunate ignorance, too much abuse is hurled

Against miners, workers and related industries who strive to build the world

Develop North Australia, embrace multiculturalism and welcome short term foreign workers to our shores

To benefit from the export of our minerals and ores

The world's poor need our resources: do not leave them to their fate

Our nation needs special economic zones and wiser government, before it is too late

Not great, but not bad either; it certainly qualifies as poetry, if not high art.

In contrast, here's a few snippets from a poem by the official Poet Laureate of England, Carol Ann Duffy, in honor of the Christmas season:

THE FIRST GOLD RING WAS GOLD INDEED –
bankers' profits fired in greed.

The second ring outshone the sun,
fuelled by carbon, doused by none.

Ring three was black gold, O for oil –
a serpent swallowing its tail.

The fourth ring was Celebrity;
Fool's Gold, winking on TV.

Ring five, religion's halo, slipped –
a blind for eyes or gag for lips.

The rhythm's marginally better, the sentiments of course immaculately Left - but otherwise, equally political, equally pointed, and equally garbage if so you judge such doggerel to be.

One is lampooned, the other feted - yet one poet provides employment to millions, the other only to herself, and at public expense at that.  Certainly shows what's really important in the mind of the Left!