MICHAEL DOM
22 March 2021, Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG Attitude
Yesterday was International Poetry Day and Papua New Guinea’s unofficial poet laureate, Michael Dom, hauled out his trusted, rusted, almost busted Olivetti typewriter to do justice to the occasion with a salute to Bob Dylan’s renowned 1962 protest song, ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ – KJ
How many books may a Maserati buy
Before it rusts in a shed
How many crooks make a government bad
Before it gets through our heads
Yes, and how many times may a prime minister lie
Before we know he’s a thief
Those politicians are blowin’ smoke up our arses
They’re blowin’ smoke right up our arses
Yes, and home many schools may a Maserati fund
Before the end of a year
And how many drugs may be bought instead
Before our people drop dead
Yes, and how many times must we take out loans
Before we sell off our souls
Those politicians are blowin’ smoke up our arses
They’re blowin’ smoke right up our arses
(Feel free to ad lib)
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Ples Singsing is envisioned to be a new platform for Papua Niuginian expressions of creativity, ingenuity and originality in art and culture. We deliberately highlight these two very broad themes as they can encompass the diverse subjects, from technology, medicine and architecture to linguistics, music, fishing, gardening et cetera. Papua Niuginian ways of thinking, living, believing, communicating, dying and so on can cover the gamut of academic, journalistic or opinionated writing and we believe that unless we give ourselves a platform to talk about and discuss these things in an open, free and non-exclusively academic space that they may remain the fodder for academics, journalists and other types of writers alone. New social media platforms have given every individual a personal space to share their feelings and ideas openly, sometimes without immediate censure. The Ples Singsing writer’s blog would like to provide another more structured platform for Papua Niuginian expressions in written, visual and audio formats while also providing some regulation of the type and content of materials to be shared publicly.
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