Truth is stranger than fiction..... [boodskap #27806] |
Tue, 02 November 1999 00:00 |
Francois de Wet
Boodskappe: 226 Geregistreer: August 1999
Karma: 0
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Senior Lid |
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Klink al te baie soos SA !
Francois
> THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER.
>
> THE ORIGINAL STORY
>
> An ant and a grasshopper live in the same field during the summer.
>
> The ant works all day and night bringing in supplies for the winter. He
> prepares his home to keep him warm during the cold winter months ahead.
>
> Meanwhile the grasshopper hops & sings, eats all the grass he wants and
> multiplies.
>
> Come winter, the grass dies, it is bitterly cold. The ant is well and warm
> in his house, but the grasshopper has not prepared for the winter, so he
> dies, leaving a whole herd of little grasshoppers without food or shelter.
>
> The moral of the story is that one should work hard to ensure that you can
> take care of yourself (that simple).
>
> THE SOUTH AFRICAN VERSION
>
> The first part of the story is the same, but because it is in South Africa
> there are a few complications.
>
> The starving, shivering offspring of the grasshopper demand to know why the
> ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed, while next door they are
> living in terrible conditions without food or proper clothing.
>
> A TV crew shows up and broadcasts footage of the poor grasshoppers,
> contrasting this with footage of the ant, snug in his comfortable home with
> a pantry full of food.
>
> The public is stunned.
>
> How can it be, in this beautiful field, that the poor grasshoppers are
> allowed to suffer so, while the ant lives in the lap of luxury.
>
> In the blink of an eye the AGU (African Grasshopper Union) is formed. They
> charge the ant with a species bias and claim that grasshoppers are the
> victims of 30 million years of green oppression. They stage a protest in
> front of the ant's house and trash the street.
>
> The TV crew interviews them, and they all state that if their demands are
> not met they will be forced into a life of crime. Just for practice, they
> loot the TV crew's luggage and hijack their van.
>
> The TRC (Take and Redistribute Commission) justifies their behaviour by
> saying that this is the legacy of the ant's discrimination towards the
> oppression of the grasshoppers. They demand that the ant apologises to the
> grasshoppers for what he has done, and that he makes amends for all the
> other ants in history who have done the same thing to the grasshoppers.
>
> PAGAD (People Against Grasshopper Abuse and Distress) state that they are
> starting a holy war against ants.
>
> The president appears on the S'o clock news and says that he will do
> everything he can for the grasshoppers who have been denied the prosperity
> they deserve by those who have benefited unfairly during the summer.
>
> The government drafts up the EEGAD(Economic Equity for Greens And
> Disadvantaged) Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is
> fined for failing to employ a proportionate number of green insects and
> having nothing left to pay his back-taxes, his home is confiscated by the
> government for redistribution.
>
> The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing off the last of the ant's
> food while the government house he's in (which just happens to be the ant's
> old house) crumbles around him because he does not know how to maintain it.
>
> Showing on the TV (which he and a couple of his friends stole from another
> ant) the president is standing before a group of wildly singing and dancing
> grasshoppers announcing that a new era of equality has dawned on the field.
>
> The ant, meanwhile, is not allowed to work because he has historically
> benefited from the field. In his place, ten grasshoppers only work two hours
> a day and steal half of what they actually harvest.
>
> When winter comes again and not enough food has been harvested, they strike
> an demand a 150% increase in their wages so that they can buy more food,
> whicjh has now been imported because the grasshoppers are not productive
> enough to produce enough food.
>
> The ant packs his things and moves to another field, where he starts a
> highly successful food company and becomes a millionaire by selling food to
> the field where he came from.
>
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