Copenhagen fairytale

-- To explain the motivation behind the Copenhagen Summit.

Long long time ago, there was a big ship, on which there were 194 passengers. Unfortunately, no one was the ship captain although some always wanted to be. More unfortunately, the ship was leaking, therefore sinking slowly -- Well, if it was sinking quickly, even the most selfish or the most stupid person would take action. But most unfortunately, the ship was going down so slowly that some passengers chose to ignore that fact and started their bargain.

For some the passengers, for example a passenger called Maldives, it was a life-death issue because his cabinet was about to be taken by the sea. But a significant number of the passengers did not care. They were enjoying the sea view and growing their wealth as long as their cabinets were hardly affected. Among them, two major groups were formed. One group, headed by a passenger called America, owns almost all the luggage on the ship. Let's name them the rich. The other group, the brotherhood of the poor, were leaded by four big and strong guys -- China, India, Brazil, and Southafrica.

The first bargain took place in a cabinet called Japan. The theme was "How to slow down the ship-sinking process". In this bargain, everyone agrees that to prevent the ship from sinking we must throw away some of the luggage. And this was where the fighting began.

The poor pointed out that the rich had a lot to throw, "you have to throw another 40%".

The rich argues that what the poor owns were basically rubbish -- heavy and worthless; "you should throw all your belongings".

The poor replied, "That's OK if you compensate us for that". They asked the rich to contribute 0.5%-1% of their annual earnings, about $3,000 for compensation. What's more, they required the rich to teach the poor a few tips of getting richer.

The rich was angry on seeing such a request. "You must be daydreaming! We have already given you $100 a year. Don’t think of one more cent".

So that basically formed the arguments of the "Kyoto Protocol", which urges the rich to throw away their belongings. It targeted at America in particular, who owns 1/5 of the luggage. America was very unhappy about it, thus declined signing the paper. America came out and shouted, "It is true that I own 1/5 of the luggage, but they are as valuable as 1/4 of the all. Look at that China, she owns 1/5 of the luggage as well, but only values 3% of the total. Her luggage is also growing the fastest!"

China couldn't hide behind the crowd any more. She stood out and talked to her poor cousins, "Brothers and sisters, I have been and will continue fighting on behave of you to seek for more benefit. Don't be afraid of the rich. They will suffer more and lose more from the sinking. Let's unite and fight."

The brotherhood of the poor regained their high momentum. They accused the rich to have broken the ship since 200 years ago. "We've only gotten on the ship for a few days ago while you have sit on it for years. It is you who have worn out the ship. So it’s reasonable for you to spend more to fix it." They were delighted to come up with such a unbeatable argument.

The rich was not going to give in. "We had no idea that the ship would sink one day; and we have carried out repairs everyday. You are still caring about getting rich all the time. If not us, you wouldn't know how to repair it or even noticing it is sinking! You owes us great debt."

In order to end this everlasting, all sat down in the cabinet of Denmark. However, the hope worn out quickly since neither side would like to sacrafice their own wishes. The only outcome was so-called the "Copenhagen Consensus", in which it states "We discovered and admit that, the ship is leaking, and will sink."

So, the passengers were satisfied to see the consensus was reached, which reflected a great effort by all. And, the voyage carries on happily ever after.

Merry Christmas!