The Ant And The Grasshopper

The ANT
AND THE
GRASSHOPPER

This one is a little different....
Two Different Versions ...
Two Different Morals ... 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 is a fool and laughs and dances and 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.

MORAL OF THE OLD STORY:

Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN
VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the rainy season.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the antshould be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.

Rupavahini, ITN, Daily News, Observer, Silumina and Dinamina shows up to provide pictures and cuts of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. Sri Lanka is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such economic growth and where a person can have a square meal for LKR 2,500 a month, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on ITN after News with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'Kanta NE Bonta Ne Badgini Badagini, Sadukin Pelenawun Negitiyaw...'

Occupy the Anthill stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the Kelaniya Organzer singing, Api Okkoma Rajawaru.

Then the Leaders of the Buddhist Priests has the group kneel down and observe Pansil ad pray for the grasshopper's sake, while they condemns the ants.



Minister of Housing stages a hunger strike in order to show the UN that this is a coup by the international community.

President condemns the ant and blames Past Presidents Kumaranatunga, Wijetunge, Premadasa, Jayawardene, United Nations, and the Channel 4 for the grasshopper's plight.

Secretary to the Treasury exclaim in an interview with CNN that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the Governor of the Central Bank drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and,
having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and given to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant'sfood while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again, and rumour says that he has changed his name and is living in Australia and is more prosperous than when living in Sri Lanka, and some say that a white coloured van has hijacked the ant.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and peaceful, neighborhood.

The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.


MORAL OF THE STORY:


Be careful how you vote in the next election.



I've sent this to you because I believe that you are an ant
not a grasshopper!

Make sure that you pass this on to other ants.

@Backstage wrote:Then the Leaders of the Buddhist Priests has the group kneel down and observe Pansil ad pray for the grasshopper's sake, while they condemns the ants.

It is better if you have not dragged the religion in to ur modern story.

This is not something that I have written ,but received. I don't know who wrote it . I should have mentioned that at the bottom.

@Backstage: Irrespective of who wrote it, it's a very interesting version that takes an exaggerated look at the society that we are living in.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading it; thanks for sharing.

Good one to read.
Thanks a lot.

Yes, it would make a great theater script or even a creative political satire cartoon. But brave directors and produces are still well within the woodwork.

Thanks Backstage. Good one. Another lesson to be learnt is be friendly with grasshoppers or bribe them all the time for your safety.