The Towering Blunder

In a land that used to be the centre of the universe, there was a kingdom that was so very rich and prosperous that even the beggars'bowls glittered with jewels. The very richest of all the men in the land was, of course, the king.

The king was, if it may be said of politicians, a good man, though unfortunately sometimes given to foolishness and pride.   He revelled in showing off his wealth with lavish parties whenever a foriegn dignitary visited the land to discuss trade.

One such dignitary, came from  a country so distant and remote that he had not seen his homeland for 3 years, and his language was so foreign and strange that the king needed 6 translators to make polite small talk with him.

When the king asked the dignitary if he was enjoying his meal, the translators chatted busily between themselves, and then in a dialect somewhat similar to that of the visitor's own inquired as to whether the people of his country were hungry. He replied sagely that sometimes the only things that truly satisfied his people were the fruits of heaven. But the six translators did not catch his metaphor and had to call in another translator. He told them  that he thought it meant that the fruit in this strange country were grown above the clouds. The king begged his translators to find out how this could be possible! The faithful statesman's  reply was that the nourishment of his people was made possible only by their leadership's closeness to god.  But despite the best efforts of  2 extra translators, the obscure metaphor was lost on the foolish king, and he assumed that meant that these people lived so high up that God was their neighbour.

The fool king became jealous and devised a plan to build a kingdom to rival his guest's mythic land that must somehow be built in the clouds, nearer to 'heaven'.

The king poured the riches of his kingdom into materials, labour and equipment, not to mention research and development. Indeed, he spent obscene amounts of money trying to build his monuments as tall as he thought ought to be necessary.At first, everyone was grateful for the project, and were excited to bring in top designers and engineers from all over the world to see the project completed and the competition won.  But the tower never seemed quite tall enough.   The king began to tax the people to pay for his lofty ambitions. Even the beggars of the land were forced to sell their bejewelled bowls. Eventually the entire country was plunged into poverty and they ran out of things like materials and equipment. Soon the tower began to crumble under its own weight, and the workers refused to lay another brick.



Not too long after, an army appeared from a land so far away that the king needed 6 translators just to surrender.