The City Mouse and the Country Mouse

Here are some speeches for my Toastmaster:Once a country mouse invited his cousin who lived in the city to come visit him. The city mouse was so disappointed with the simple meal which was nothing more than a few kernels of corn and a couple of dried berries. He invited the country mouse to visit him in the city. The country mouse could not believe his eyes. There was bread, cheese, fruit, cereals, and grains of all sorts scattered about on the dinner table. He had never seen so much food in one place. .But before they barely took their first bites, a cat appeared and the two little mice had to run away quickly. "Goodbye," said the country mouse, "You do, indeed, live in a plentiful city, but I am going home where I can enjoy my dinner in peace."So the country mouse ran back to the country and the city mouse stayed in the city and they both lived happily ever after. Are you more of a city individual or a country individual? Some people perfer life in the city rather than the country or vice versa because of many different factors. One factor is the pace of living; some people prefer a fast paced city life compared to the slower, more relaxed pace in the country. Out in the country life never seems to change. In fact many grandchildren might attend the same school as their grandparents went to when they where little. People live in the city are usually more in to the very active busy, ever changing life style. Population is also a factor; people may desire to live in a densely populated area similar to the city rather than a sparsely populated one similar to the country. Another factor may be transportation; large cities tend to have public transportation that chauffeurs people throughout the city, where in the country that kind of transportation is either not needed or is not provided. These factors influence the way people make decisions on whether to live in either an urban or a rural area. The fast paced city life offers more entertainment, sports, shopping, and career opportunities than a slow, more relaxed country life.Like it or not, the steps of urbanization seem never stop in all countries after the World War II. A study from the United Nations shows that Canada’s urban population has grown from 60% to 80% during 1950-2010 and predicted it will reach 88% in year 2050. As the city is becoming bigger and bigger to accommodate the growing population, people have to spend and longer onger hours on the road to commute to and from work. This ever growing demand on public transportation has created many problems, and is one of the central debating issues for the recent Ottawa municipal elections. To solve this issue fundamentally, one could either move home closer to work, which is not practical sometimes; or move their work right into home. Working from home has been a growing trend. E.g., the company I used to work for, Alcatel-Lucent, have promoted remote working aggressively. In one of its major office in Paris, nobody, including the executives, has a permanent office in the building which could hold several thousands of employees. Every cubicle has computer and telephone hooked up and is ready to be used on a first-come, first-served basis. You could imagine someone coming in late in the morning; he/she will have a really hard time looking isle after isle, floor after floor for an empty spot to work. That is really encouraging people to work from home to save the energy and time on the road. Some people are born to be a city person and really want to live in the core, while some others are longing to be living a more relaxed country side. This is neither good nor bad from which ever you prefer. As long as you keep living the life you want, everything else will fall in to motion.