The Old and the New - the Ant and the Grasshopper

[aneeshm]

This is one of the greatest e-mail forwards I have ever received. If any other people have similar stuff (old stories made into parodies of modern times), please feel free to share.

Kerala and West Bengal are ruled by the Communist Party of India. Laloo Prasad Yadav is the Railway Minister of India. Arjun Singh is the Home Minister, and this year, he introduced reservations for the lower and backward castes in educational institutions.

OLD VERSION...

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

MODERN VERSION...

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house.
Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.
Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper.
The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).

Opposition MP's stage a walkout.Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter.

Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for Grass Hopper in educational Insititutions & in Govt Services.

The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by
the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden' Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

MANY YEARS LATER...

The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in silicon valley.100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India...

[Arrian]

Translation: poor people are poor because they're irresponsible slackers. Rich people are rich because they're responsible & hard-working. All of them.

-Arrian

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by Arrian
Translation: poor people are poor because they're irresponsible slackers. Rich people are rich because they're responsible & hard-working. All of them.

-Arrian

Translation: You completely, totally, and royally missed the point.

It's just a great joke, and a gentle jab at liberals who have gone over the edge of sanity into la-la land, where everything is a governmental or conservative conspiracy, like Arundhati Roy or Medha Patkar.

WTF do you have to see conspiracies and hidden things where there are none, and where people are just making a good joke? Total killjoy.

[Nubclear]

It's just a great joke,

Um, no.

[Kontiki]

Of course it's hilarious. What makes it particularly funny is that everyone knows who Arundhati Roy and Medha Patkar are.

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by Tacc

It's just a great joke,

Um, no.

That's because you have no knowledge of the political situation in India, and the idiosyncrasies of Indian politicians. If you did, you'd like this, no matter which side of the political spectrum you were on.

[Nubclear]

Originally posted by aneeshm


Thinly-disguised and "clever" political statements are really funny!! If you don't think so, you're an idiot, just like the poor people!

okay aneeshm

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

I heard this one about 10 years ago wihtout all the Indian nationalism stuff.


ohhh and commies suck.

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe

I heard this one about 10 years ago wihtout all the Indian nationalism stuff.

Seriously, WTF? There IS NO Indian nationalism stuff in this one, either!

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe

ohhh and commies suck.

Not necessarily (though there IS a correlation). Communism, however, unequivocally sucks.

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by Tacc


okay aneeshm

Says the communist!

[Lorizael]

If we're not going to get the joke, just PM it to LordShiva and don't clutter up the forum.

[LordShiva]

[Arrian]

Translation: You completely, totally, and royally missed the point.

Sorry that I am able to see through the hacktastic political commentary masquerading as a "joke."

-Arrian

[Lorizael]

See?

[Nubclear]

Originally posted by Lorizael
If we're not going to get the joke, just PM it to LordShiva and don't clutter up the forum.

It isn't that we don't "get" the joke - it isn't that difficult to understand.
Rather, he is whining that we don't find his hatred for the poor to be "amusing" or "funny"

I think it is a fundamental misunderstanding between cultures. Here in civilisation, Aneeshm, we consider helping disadvantaged people to be a good thing. We don't think it's acceptable for people to just die because they happend to be born in a lower social "caste" (something else that the civilised world has done away with, btw.)

But I realise that there are still many in India who cling to the old ways. You must have been really frustrated when India became a republic, the sight of all those people having freedom...and now India proposes to do away with things like caste and to promote social welfare and prosperity....