Aesop Fables-13.4

A man had a dog that most of the time dozed in his basket. Only time he showed some life was when the master had his meals. One day the man asked the dog who had settled by his table. ‘Last night I was the life and soul of the party. You slept through my witticisms. This morning the landlord wanted to kick me out for arrears. While he damned me you slept through. Not even a bite on his calf for disturbing peace.’

The dog craned his neck to sniff. Irritated the man yelled, ’But when you see me you smell food.’

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Aesop Fables Updated-the woodcutter and the axe

A woodcutter went to cut wood and he lost his axe in the forest. He didn’t know where to look for. So he sat there cursing his luck. Hearing him swear high and low in an awful mood Hermes approached him and asked him why he was upset. ‘I lost my axe.’ Hermes said,’That happens to more people. Always losing things.’

Yes the woodcutter lost the means of livelihood. ‘But it is not some trifle that I lost. How will I ever cut again?’

The messenger god promised him a way out.’Look I will make your hands into axes. So you shall never lose it’. The wood cutter thought for a while and said,’Oh no!’ I have a wife and children back home’. The woodcutter didn’t want accidents at home with an axe as flying hands of some parents. Hermes said,’ I can make an axe with free will. Only you need tell it ‘Cut woods for me.’ It’ll cut trees and make you some money while you stay home and enjoy the comfort of a family. Will be alright?’

The wood cutter said, no. ‘If the axe can think for itself it may go out one morning and may be it will never come back.’ Hermes understood the man was right.

‘Ok what will you have then?’

‘Oh a big machine that I can operate myself and cutdown acres of trees by a couple of days. It should have few replaceable parts, low in maintenance and bring maximum profits.’

In opening the woodcutter’s mind to many options available to him God Hermes set him to think of profits, time and motion. The god shook his head sadly realizing the state of the earth in a couple of years. ‘OK go down the road. You’ll find the machine and it is yours.’ The god disappeared.

benny

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Aesop Fables in comic strip-2013

The god brought the other two axes and gifted these as well, saying,’Your rare honesty will only bring honest to god poverty. But gods must compensate you here and now lest our name is dragged in mud by the wicked.’The woodcutter went home happy.
Honey of a man who is ill paid by the world shall be paid in life not necessarily upfront.
benny

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Aesop Fables-2013: in comic strip

Once upon a time Kim Kong-un a gorilla heard that all animals were called to show their talents before the United Nations of A-Z animal kingdom. He hastened to the spot. Meanwhile a camel also heard the call. ‘Oh I have talents!’hollered he. He left immediately to the venue. Seeing his one hump those camels with two humps gathered together and said,’Let us see what this FAT WA-di can do. ‘Allah gave us bellies to hold bilge water! and this flea ridden camel has only heavy water.’
They all sung in derision,’ His sort makes us puke/ while he talks of nuke.’ Oh they despised him but FAT WAdi thrived on such criticisms.
By the time he reached the gathering the ape was finished with his make up and it wonderfully improved his performance.
The fat Buddha twirling a little toy before all did a song- and dance of the wonder of the age. The audience was wowed. They sung,’He has a little rocket /and how does it go in his pocket!’ They all agreed he was a genius who not only had a walk most peculiar but also danced like no other. The camel was most angry. He said he could do better. The animals asked him to prove his worth. The camel did all clumsy moves to impress them. They laughed and rolled on the ground in hysterics. They cried,’Go away, all that bilge water is foul/ Farting makes us howl” They drove him from their company.
The Camel and the Monkey- in comic strip format

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Aesop Fables for the Present Times

The investment banker, Mr. Crow was not just thirsty he was greedy to beat others who were hedging their bets. They had no money of their own. Yet playing with some one else’s pension funds they were behaving like old Spinster alone in the woods. He laughed at their yellow streak.
He thought, ‘when I am thirsty I must have it all’. The jar before him was commodious and of Venetian glass.
‘Afterall Alan Greenspan is in charge and he would just turn his head away when my initiative pays off’ cried he while he nudged his brain. It was time for some skullduggery. So he bought up all the mortgages left and right and he asked no questions. He had them cut up and diced. He had all the CDOs shuffled and these papers in their complexity weighed like bricks. It had AAA all certified by the best in the business.So converting them into rocks he was sure, he was dealing with wealth, the ‘Rock of Ages.’ While he dropped these into the jar the banking sector to a man, made all the appropriate sounds. How they cheered Mr. Crow who made the profit rise to the surface!
At one point there was a sound and it wasn’t ‘plop’ but ‘crash!’ It could be heard miles away. The day Mr, Crow broke the bank there were billions around the world still thirsty and without a cent to their name. Including Mr. Crow.
These risk-taking Investment bankers of which Mr. Crow is but one, have the inhuman knack of converting sweat and blood of pensioners and widows into rocks and only when they break the bank they realize they were clever by half.
benny

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Aesop Fables-the lion and the mouse

Once a lion was sleeping after a kill. It had driven the English forces and it had the land to itself.

While the lion slept on the land was seething with activity. From east to west railway tracks were laid and there was gold fever from Alaska to California; and the whole nation was suddenly crawling with fortune hunters and they needed coolies to do the dirty work. Many Chinese coolies were brought to build dams and lay tracks for iron horses. Many died of malaria and sheer exhaustion. All through it all the libertarian principles of the young nation slept on. In a manner of speaking the spirit of the nation slept like the lion.
In 1885 a mouse by name Chan Ping or Hoe Ha or whatever, appeared on the scene. Some say he is the spirit of all those miners killed in Wyoming (In Wyoming, white immigrant miners rioted killing 28 Chinese miners, wounding 15, and destroying 75 of their homes. The US Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard responds indifferently, indicating that the Chinese brought it upon themselves by being different and unassimilable.) Others say he is the Chinaman dispossessed from his land when the US annexed Hawaii. Suddenly the lion is faced with a moral dilemma. What to do with the yellow peril?How to showcase its credentials as bulwark of freedom and liberty? All men are equal but to give the yellow or brown people the same equality? Well it was a moral dilemma.
After many soul searching and through the rise and fall of the politicians,- the ilks of Samuel Gompers(AFL-1901),McCarthy(1950) et al, the lion tackled the Chinese question. Great many injustices were at last put to rest when President Nixon opened up relations with China by a state visit in 1972.
The lion had ran up debts up to trillion during the Bush Presidency. Who was there to help but China?
(The Wall Street Journal reported last week of October 2006 that China’s holdings of foreign currency and securities would soon top $1 trillion, a fivefold increase since 2000.
For several years, China’s loans have helped to keep prices and interest rates low in the United States, and to finance big tax cuts. But excessive borrowing under Bush has made the United States unnecessarily vulnerable.)
Moral of this story is the nations which pride in their might are relying on the strengths of various weaker nations and in the changing dynamics of international politics such pride is misplaced.
benny

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Aesop Fables: Death and Fame

Mr. Death and Madam Fame

Mr. Death had a large household and he wanted a housekeeper to look after the house. Many came and he found all of them had either their credentials over inflated or they were by nature too ill-suited to the rigor of the office. In the end Madam Fame came with her CV and Mr. Death said,” Your work-experience is perfect. But I must decline.”
When asked why he explained: “ I gather all, while you scatter fame of all those whom I bring here.”
benny

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Aesop Fables: Fly on the Wheel

Spreading Charity

“ Millions of flavors I have here!” cried a fly seated on an ice-cream vendor’s cart,” come one, come all. Everything must be cleared ! Grand Clearance for FREE!” The fly was very loud; the vendor who was busy collecting pesos from the locals heard him. He swatted the fly away.
The fly buzzed away sighing,” People have lost the art of giving. If it was in my power I’d give it all away.”
benny

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The Rabbi Ben Weiss Stories-3

It was the year of Universal Peace. The Prince of Peace had ascended to the throne and Jerusalem thronged with people who had come to celebrate the event. The aliens simply were not to be seen.
When I went to Paris on some business for the Messiah,- I was his personal secretary, I asked the Rabbi how he was doing without me. He looked in surprise,’What Jake were you absent?’ Rabbi Benn was my friend so I said as if I wasn’t pained by it,’I missed you, rabbi’. I had reinvented myself in so short time, oozing with charm for my new position had rubbed on me immensely, and I was a man of the world, suave diplomat, my diplomatic box full of papers that I had to pass on to various movers and shakers of the city. No one would have said I was a never-do-well lounge lizard at Lido. I explained how I had got rid of the aliens from Jerusalem.
My friend got interested, and I said,’I stuffed their mouth with gold and sent them all to claim the rights to the mines of methane in the Arctic Sea. They think they are going to be oligarchs but I have set my own plans to give a surprise to them.’
Rabbi Benn Weiss raised his eyebrows. ‘I never knew you could be a Machiavelli in so short a time. What is the secret, Jake?’
‘I am the personal secretary of the Messiah. He put his trust in me. I who never wanted a thing than a hand-out for a square meal and a bit of loving and a fine-cut of evening dress to impress the Smart Set, I am full of plans!’
My friend was sure I was beginning to look like the fly who sat on the coach and thought all that cloud of dust raised by the carriage was its doing.’
‘Is that Aesop? Rabbi Benn Weiss, I am not the fly in any case. May be the carriage running on the state’s errand.’
There was an uneasy silence. I was hard up for time. I had to run errands for my master, the Prince of Peace. I got up and said,’Rabbi, I can fix an audience with the Messiah. Imagine the glorious Prince of Peace! One hour interview I can squeeze in any time of the day. Think over it.’
Rabbi Benn Weiss waved me away saying,’ I shall settle for the Messiah of the Book.’
‘What you don’t want to meet him in person?’
The rabbi shook his head and said,’I don’t like the bad company he keeps.’
‘But I am good enough to be your friend!’
‘That is true,’ Rabbi Benn Weiss said sadly,’You are good for the likes of me, but for the Prince of Peace, oh No!’
benny

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Aesop Fables-the fox who lost his tail

Basher al Badawi a fox unfortunately lost his tail and how it grieved him! He had called it some sweet names while he had it. My Milk and Honey,Sweet End and so on. The name he loved most was Jerusalem. But what can he do? He lost Jerusalem because he was very careless and accident prone. Having lost his pride all that he got was a handlength of beard which he hennaed it and thought it made him look holy. Then he went to other foxes and said,’See this radical new look! Call me Oozing bin Leaden. The foxes who had many other things in their mind looking after their families community and their business did not give ear to him. ‘We are moderates’, said they. ‘We obey Allah who gave us tails and you look out for yourself’. The fox with the beard was wroth and said ‘I will make your name stink! Because you didn’t do as I tell you!’
benny

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