“A Japanese company and a North American company decided to have a canoe race on the St. Lawrence River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.
On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile. The North Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat.
A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the North American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing. So, North American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.
They advised that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.
To prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team’s management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager. They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder.
It was called the”Rowing Team Quality First Program“, with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices, and bonuses.
The next year the Japanese won by two miles. Humiliated, the North American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments in new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year’s racing team was outsourced to India.”
What is interesting is that so many Americans love this joke I wonder if it was written by an American or not. Nevertheless, one question remains, who are the Americans this joke is referring to? It surely cannot be the Americans who love it. Who then? The corporate chiefs and CEOs in USA? The U.S. government? The American patriots? The conservatives?
From the above observation, I can conclude thus, that many American citizens do not really consider themselves Americans...or at least responsible for the country they reside. These perhaps have the encouragement to think so because they believe their heritage is not American but foreign when they or their parents immigrated here. Despite their eventual settlement and obtaining citizenship here in this country, they do not see themselves as Americans, especially when America is viewed in a negative angle.
There will be a great tragedy from this because while they don't hold themselves responsible for their "alleged" country, their children who are most certainly born and raised in this country definitely have an opposite opinion about this. I suspect there are very few of us who realize this and therefore has a sort of advantage for the future. But the moment must be seized quickly.