From an email forward, fresh version of the story of the lazy Grasshopper and the hard working Ant which I was asked to help forward:
New Kind of Survival
Older Version
An ant worked hard in the sweltering heat all summer, building its nest and laying up supplies for the winter.
A grasshopper thought the ant was stupid not knowing how to enjoy life. It spent its days laughing, singing & dancing thoroughly enjoying the summer.
Came winter, the ant was warm, comfortable and had no shortage of food.
The grasshopper had no proper shelter, no stored food, and couldn't find anything to eat from the snow-covered ground. So it died and the story ended.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
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Modern Version
An ant worked hard in the sweltering heat all summer, building its nest and laying up supplies for the winter.
A grasshopper thought the ant was stupid not knowing how to enjoy life. It spent its days laughing, singing & dancing thoroughly enjoying the summer.
Came winter, the shivering grasshopper called a press conference and demanded to know why the ant should be warm and well fed while he was cold and starving.
TV1, TV2 & TV3 showed up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper alongside to a video clip of the ant in his comfortable home with a table full of food.
The majority of the Malaysian Parliamentarians were stunned by the sharp contrast. How could this poor grasshopper be allowed to suffer?
Khairy staged a demonstration in front of the ant's nest.
Nazri went on a hunger strike along with other grasshoppers demanding that they be relocated to warmer climate area during winter.
The Malaysia Government immediately passed a law forbidding all ants from working hard in the summer so as to bring about equality of poverty between ants and grasshoppers.
Hishammudin increased 'More Special Reservations' for grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services..
The ant was fined for failing to share 30% of his food with the grasshopper. The Prime Minister announced that this was part of the NEP. No ant should question it. (Don't forget, Tax Audits & GST were introduced and targeted at certain individuals who were eventually penalised heavily for not contibuting enough to the well-being of the grasshoppers).
Many years later...
Some ant migrated to the US and set up multi-billion dollar companies there.
Hundreds of grasshoppers still died of starvation despite the 'More Special Reservations'.
Losing significant number of hard working ants and free loading the grasshoppers, Malaysia remained a developing country, despite its abundant natural resources. All because the remaining ANTS were still doing their work .............................
Latest finding showed that almost all the grasshoppers in the political arena and civil service were hoarding corrupt wealth which they refused to share with fellow grasshoppers.
LATEST (VERSION 3)
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain 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 shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.
Channels 7, 9 and 10,the ABC and SBS 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.
Australia is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'
Acorn stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Cardinal George Pell then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.
Prime Minister Rudd condemns the ant and blames John Howard, Robert Menzies, Capt James Cook, and the Popefor the grasshopper's plight.
Bob Brown exclaims in an interview on Today Tonight that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, Labor in conjunction with the Greens draft 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’s food 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.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang ofspiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2011.
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. Don’t bother sending it on to any grasshoppers because they wouldn’t understand it, anyway & delete my Name for the forward list.
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