A bird's view 1

Life is simple, really, as long as you aren’t a human.

Or it was, till these humans came into our lives.

And then, it became a whole new ball-game, or at least the view from this floodlight seems to be so.

Hi, I’m a bird. Now you may ask ‘Which bird?’ in which case you are most likely a

àRodent

à Snake

àHuman

The reason why I categorize you into these three is this:

A) If you are a rodent, then you fear me being an owl or a falcon or an eagle.

B) If you are a snake, you will most likely make a meal out of me if I were to be a sparrow, but at once fear me if I were to be a hawk.

C) If you are a human, which, given the fact that you are reading this, you most likely are, you neither care whether I am a fowl or whether I am a raptor. You would, and I know this for a fact, only be interested in my genus, my family, my species so that I might interest the people who are producing your film or sponsoring your school/museum or simply paying you a fine sum to stuff me with cotton or whatever you stuff our kind with.

You see, I'm not that dumb. And I can manage some smirk, can't I?

See, that’s the first mistakes you humans made.

You thought that having a 1500cc brain meant you’re the smartest lot on this planet.

Well smartness, my dear sirs and madams, does not arise from inventing the wheel or discovering fire. Fine, so you sorted out your transportation problems and your energy crisis only to have crude oil prices topping 100 dollars and a few holes being punched into the ozone layer. ‘So, what?’ you asked 30 years back; the ozone will repair itself and the oceans gonna absorb all the oil and the hurricanes are gonna slow down eventually and the green peace nut cases are gonna shut up and we can mint all the Dollar bills and we can buy all the oil in the world and make all the commercials and movies and sell all the walkmans and all the colour televisions and all the cars and jets and guns and bullets and rockets and submarines and migs and F-16s and lives and still end up in a profit.

You underestimate us. You think that the only playing field is the earth and its crust and the ocean and its depths and the mountains and the skies above it. Well, the truth is, that's about it. You ain't got much right now. You can't afford to lose it now, can you?

Save this planet, because right now you just can’t run off to your command starship with your tails betwixt your feet.

When Gaia erupts, she takes the mighty titans, the short-sighted cyclopeses, the visionary zeus and his ilk, and all the mortals along with her.

Oh, of course. I still haven’t answered one question. Which bird am I, you asked, did you not?

Well, I am a night owl.