The Mouse that Roared

The Mouse that Roared

is a a 1955 Cold War satirical novel which was turned into a comedy movie in 1959 movie starring Peter Sellers. It is about an imaginary country in Europe called the Duchy of Grand Fenwick that declares war on the USA and wins.

I just returned from seeing it done by a group of local High School students – it was hilarious and made me think of each us trying to defeat the great power out there in the world – whether it be climate change or dirty politics or wars like that in Yemen or… you get the idea. Each of us is like the Duchy of Grand Fenwick – we are seemingly powerless and yet…. we can ‘win’.

Now clearly I recognize that this play is a satire and yet symbolically each of us can do our little bit to dismantle the power structures that are destroying us. In England Extinction Rebellion just finished a week of very disruptive protests which even made the CBC news on Thursday!

They have 3 simple demands:

1. Tell the truth

   Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.

2. Act Now

   Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025 [2050 would still be tough].

3. Go Beyond Politics

   Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.

   I joined them while back – you can too – as there is a CDN branch! We have our particular challenges, as this picture makes clear.

   Guess where this is?

   You may feel powerless but you aren’t – IF, and only IF, you unite with others of like mind.

   I would like to make a point using a metaphor from Nature. I am a beekeeper and yesterday I was extracting honey from my hives that was made last year. Did you know that an average worker bee [that means you] makes only about 1/12 teaspoon of honey in its lifetime? Thus, to produce 1 pound of honey, 2 million flowers must be visited. A hive of bees must fly 55,000 miles to produce a pound of honey. However, in spite of this one bee colony can produce up to 100 pounds of honey per year!

   So, if you ever feel like a worker bee, don’t feel bad, worker bees actually have a happy, if brief life. You should actually feel sorry for the Queen Bee. Yes, she lives up to 3 years, but except for 1 day when she is inseminated she spends her entire life in the dark hive being pushed around and forced to layup to 2,000 eggs per day!

   What’s the punchline? When we are brave enough to roar like a lion [although we are a mouse] and work as a team to demand change [as extinction rebellion is doing] we can accomplish miracles like every bee hive and make the world a much sweeter place!