Those who help themselves will win in the end

In the original Greek version of the Aesop fable, "The Ant and the Cicada," the cicada wastes away the entire summer by singing. When winter comes, the cicada has no food and goes begging to the ant, who had worked hard all summer to stock up on goodies.

In colder regions of the world where cicadas are not so common, the fable refers to a grasshopper as the proverbial slacker, and the fable is called "The Ant and the Grasshopper."

There are different versions of the story, with different endings. In the original Greek version, for instance, the ant coldly refuses to help the cicada. In another more "charitable" version, the ant gives the cicada a lecture, but relents and gives him food.

The moral of the original version is that one must always try to help oneself and put something by for hard times while one is still able to do so.

As if to urge us to prepare for this winter, the World Health Organization has raised the swine flu alert level to Phase 6, its highest alert level, to indicate the pandemic has spread. That declaration was made in response to growing cases of contagion in the Southern Hemisphere where winter is approaching.

This is the first pandemic alert in 41 years since the 1968 Hong Kong flu caused 1 million deaths worldwide. In Japan, most of those who came down with the new swine flu suffered only mild symptoms, and whatever panic people experienced has since faded. I imagine some people are wondering what to do with all the face masks they rushed out to buy.

But this particular virus may turn more virulent as it is passed among its human carriers. What frightens people in the Northern Hemisphere is the possibility that a "second wave" of illness following the bug's rampage in the Southern Hemisphere.

Reportedly, swine flu vaccine enough for only 25 million people, 20 percent of the total population, will be available in Japan this year. From autumn to winter, the start of the vaccination drive may coincide with an outbreak of the swine flu. So who should get priority for the vaccines, and how will the authorities deal with hordes of patients? Much needs to be sorted out in advance.

In Aesop's original Greek version of the tale, the ant coldly tells the starving cicada, "Since you sang all summer, you can try dancing all winter."

Let us hope that the merciless swine flu virus won't be repeating this line. We need to start making all kinds of preparations for winter, before the cicadas stop singing.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 13(IHT/Asahi: June 22,2009)