Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better start running.
The previous quote is an African proverb. The first time I read it was more than a year ago in the context of a comparison between China & USA or the other countries who joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) earlier than China -who just joined it in 2001-. It was mentioned that an American-trained Chinese manager of a fuel pump factory in Beijing posted that African proverb, translated into Mandarin, on his factory floor..!!
Actually I liked the proverb, kept thinking of it & of its significance. Though, I felt that I don't like to apply it on all the levels coz personal & global levels differ in many aspects. For the personal struggles, competitions & pursuit of success & happiness should not turn into a war where some people step on the others or "eat" them like the wild life.
On the other hand I believe that the proverb is somehow applicable on the global level where the conflict of interests between the countries is a crucial factor & where trying to outrun the others is the only solution to survive.
Thinking about all that , I couldn't prevent myself from thinking about our status in such a competitive world.They used to call our country developing or such names, but actually I feel that it's the wrong name .That's due to the fact that a developing country should have joined the race, realized the rules of the global game & pictured itself as a lion or a gazelle a long time ago. But unfortunately this is not the case coz the leaders of the country & even some individuals don't embrace the attitude of lions or gazelles in the global forest, unlike the Chinese manager who wrote the mentioned proverb on the factory's floor to remind each & every individual of the battle they are part of.
So whether we want it or not we are involved in the battle & we have to make our choice, to run & run & run to survive as a dignified lion or gazelle OR to be eaten with no honor...!!
