Fables That Fix Lives: Ancient Code for Modern Problems

  In a grocery store there was a very clever parrot.   In another store there was a myna that could talk. One day the owners of the two stores brought their birds together and decided to have a singing contest. The parrot first sang a poem. The myna followed in a clear, high-pitched voice, almost like that of the parrot’s. When the parrot stopped singing, the myna teased it and tried to talk with it, but the parrot kept silent. The onlookers thought that strange and asked the parrot why it didn’t say anything to the myna. “Its voice is not so good as mine,” answered the parrot, “but it is more cunning than I. If I open my mouth again, it will learn to imitate me.”

A parrot left its own home and flew to another mountain. The birds and animals living there all loved it very much. “This is a nice place,” thought the parrot, “but it’s not my home.” A few days later it said good-bye to them. Several months after its return the mountain caught fire. Seeing this, the parrot loaded its feathers with water, flew to the top of the mountain, and flapped its wings to sprinkle water on the fire. When the Heavenly God saw this, he asked the parrot, “How can you possibly put out the fire with so little water?” “I know,” the parrot answered, “but I once lived here and everyone treated me like a brother. It breaks my heart to see this mountain on fire. I’ll do all that I can to help them put out the fire.” Moved by what the parrot said, the Heavenly God helped it put out the fire.

  An old crow in the south had a son old enough to learn how to cry. “My voice is really ugly and nobody likes me in this world,” thought the old crow. “I can’t change my voice, but I’ll have my son change his.” One day she took her son to the magpie and said to him, “My son wants to be your student so that he can learn how to cry beautifully. If in the future my son’s voice becomes beautiful and everyone in this world likes him, I shall be very grateful and repay you with a handsome reward.” The magpie accepted the young crow and taught him how to cry like a magpie, but no matter how hard the crow tried, he could never do it right. This upset the magpie. He started to peck at and beat the crow, who still couldn’t change his ugly voice. Looking at him hopelessly, the magpie said to the crow, “I can never make you change your voice.” Then he asked him to go back. When the crow got home, he started to imitate his moth­er’s voice and before long, he learned how to cry like a c...

  A Fowler in the East once went to a wood, scattered some grain on the ground, spread a net over it with some lime in it, and was watching from a distance to see what luck would attend his efforts. A great many birds assembled on the trees around the net, and said, "What fine corn that is! We can seldom hope to get anything like it." An owl that was close by said, "How nice that white thing in the net is!" "What is it?" said the birds. "Why, it is our best friend in the world; it is lime. When it holds us in its embrace, we can never hope to get away." The birds left the place at once. Said the fowler, "A clever bird knows the lime!" #CorporateExploitation #Neocolonialism #GlobalEconomy #ForeignInvestment #EconomicTraps #ThirdWorldStruggles #BusinessEthics #SustainableDevelopment #BewareTheBait # ModernSlavery