Choose Your Response: A Cockroach Story

Image via Wikipedia

For the very first time, my new boss (of several years already) has sent an inspirational story in the mail. Now this story has quite a strong punchline, a lesson, and for that alone, it is worthy of being posted in my Leading Leads site.

I enjoyed this, and I'm sure I will do my best to apply the lesson it offers.

Hope you do, too.

Read on...

---

CHOOSE YOUR RESPONSE
An intelligent person responds; a fool reacts

by Deepak Shinde

Three women met. Yeah you can guess??? Lots of discussion, exchange of news and views, loads of information. One particular part of their discussion caught my attention. One of the ladies, with a lot of interest, was sharing some interesting facts about cockroach. With a lot of amazement she was telling how a cockroach can run three miles in an hour and can change directions 25 times in a second. A cockroach could live a long time, perhaps a week, without its head. There was nonstop excitement in her voice as she continued saying, "A cockroach has amazing adaptability. It can survive in any climate, in any house condition, inside any crack, etc. Its antennae, which rivals NASA's Global Positioning System, helps it to locate other cockroaches with state-of-the-art precision. Cockroaches could be used to place surveillance devices in military installations. In fact, a cockroach can survive even an attack of atomic explosion."

Suddenly, a cockroach flew from nowhere and sat on her. I wondered if this was the cockroach's response to all the glory that was spoken about it! she started screaming out of fear. With panic-stricken face and trembling voice, she started doing stationary jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group got crank to what was happening. The lady finally managed to push the cockroach on to another lady in the group. Now, it was the turn of the other lady to continue the drama. The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed its movement on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts a started wondering, 'Was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behaviour? If so, then, why was the waiter not perturbed? He handled it to near perfection, without any chaos. it is not the cockroach, but the inability of the ladies to handle the disturbance cuased by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies."

I realised, 'Even in my case then, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss that disturbs me, but it is my inability to handle the disturbance caused by their shouting that disturbs me. it is not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me. in all, it is not something that disturbs me, but it is my inability to handle the disturbance caused by that something that disturbs me. More than the problem, it is my reaction to the problem, which hurts me more."

A natural question popped up in my mind, "Then, how do I outgrow this limitation?"

I understood. "I should not react. I should always respond. The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded. Reactions are instinctive, whereas responses are intellectual. Betwen the stimuli (what happens to me) and the response (what happens through me) if there is no gap, it creates reaction. But, between the stimuli and the response, if I use the gap to think and contemplate, then I can respond thoughtfully. An intelligent person responsed; a fool reacts.

---

What's your experience? Have you anything to say about this?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Scientists Look to Cockroaches as Biomimicry Solution for Super Powered Running Robots (treehugger.com)
• Oregon profs plan giant robotic space cockroach warriors (theregister.co.uk)

Is China really going green?

CLIMATE CHANGE

With more public support for saving the Earth, China looks set to lead the way

 Peter Foster

A wind power farm outside of Urumqi, which will help China generate the 100gW wind power target by 2020. AFP

URUMQI — The speed with which China is now ramping up its commitment to alternative energies has caught even the most optimistic analysts by surprise, with new green edicts being issued from Beijing on an almost weekly basis.

Last week officials pledged to generate 100 gigawatts of electricity from wind power by 2020, more than tripling the original target of 30gw laid down in a national energy strategy published just 18 months ago.

Public attitudes towards the environment have also started to change. In the wind-fields of Dabancheng, the first 13 windmills, bought from Denmark and erected in 1989, are now used primarily as a tourist attraction.

Nuclear, solar and hydroelectricity are also being lined up for massive new investment through China's £400 billion ($880 billion) stimulus package, with 2020 targets for nuclear power raised from 40gW to 60gW, with some officials even talking of aiming for 70gW.

Investment is also being poured into China's electricity grid to enable more renewable sources to be connected, while planners say they want to halve carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 2020.

After years in which China put economic growth before almost all environmental considerations, analysts now see a step-change in attitudes from the central government backed by hard cash and the raw political muscle of China's command economy.

"The old belief that China could follow the model of Western industrial nations by making a mess today and paying for the clean-up tomorrow now appears to be dead," said Ms Yang Ailun, director of Greenpeace's climate and energy campaign in China.

"China's leaders now realise that for long-term growth to be sustainable, they will have to both reduce power usage by finding greater efficiencies."

The desire to take a greener path is not confined to China's all-powerful government. Activists say there is growing grass-roots support for change, spurred by a growing realisation that ordinary people are paying a heavy price for China's old "dirty" development model.

In Beijing, environmental activist Ma Jun cites the efforts to clean up the air pollution ahead of last year's Olympic Games as just one example of how the Chinese public's mindset is rapidly changing.

After the games, there were several popular campaigns by residents who had enjoyed clean air for the first time in a decade to keep polluting factories closed and retain traffic restrictions.

"People had come to accept that it was impossible to have blue skies over Beijing, but during the Olympics they suddenly saw that wasn't true," said Mr Ma. "Now they don't want to go back to the old polluted ways."

It will be a massive challenge, but this week, further optimism was generated by reports that China's was, for the first time, actively considering setting emissions targets ahead of negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto treaty in Copenhagen later this year.

Although decisions have not been taken, analysts saw the reports as yet further evidence that China, after years of arguing that the West should clean up its own act before it took steps of its own, was preparing to take an unprecedented lead at Copenhagen.

"The fact that the country's leadership is now putting a focus on climate change... gives us great hope that China could achieve a second miracle 30 years from now by moving to a low carbon economy," wrote Mr Steve Howard, chief executive officer of The Climate Group.

"But this time, we believe that China will no longer be a developing country following where others have led, but a pioneer leading the way." THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

From TODAY, World – Tuesday, 05-May-2009

Related articles by Zemanta

• 'Green News Report' - May 5, 2009 (bradblog.com)
• Britain to help China on carbon capture (guardian.co.uk)
• Obama's Backing Increases Hopes for Climate Pact (nytimes.com)
• Beijing Olympics Met or Exceeded Green Goals (sciam.com)
• An Upside to China's Slump: Cleaner Air (time.com)
• Environmental Views, Past and Present (nytimes.com)