Slow Progress Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Slow Progress (a long sonnet)

In the last seventy years, little have changed
of technical innovation. we had radio, then
TV and now computers, all in natural sequence
airplanes still fly as before a bit bigger and
faster but the principle is the same.
And for cars they have not changed their appearance
for the last seventy years, except for cosmetic
more colour and easier steering, yet they
still break down at regular intervals.

Politics and money mingle as before corruption
thrives and we the people pay the price.
Privatization is the latest buzz word, but we have
been there before and we ended up with poverty
so bad, the state had to socialise the health service.
Forgive me the news that man has reached the moon
do not impress as much as man has found fraternity
which has been languishing in a basement in Lyon