YOUNG VOICE
Cockroaches
Are they really that annoying?
Animal magnetism exists in some people. There’s Noah with his wooden staff, he can fill an ark with animals lining in pairs. There’s Dr. Doolittle with his uncanny gift of talking to animals. There’s Cinderella with her glass slippers, who has mice and birds fixing her an evening gown worthy for the prince’s ball.
I wish my kind of animal magnetism works in the same manner. Too bad it doesn’t. I spent three days scratching three inflamed spots in my body caused by an animal that was lured by my charms, the cockroach.
If you were bitten by one, especially the smaller kind, you’ll know how their tiny bite can quickly evolve into a sting that seems to have been caused by a colony of ants and a swarm of bees.
For three days, I wondered why these puny little pests existed. Many have formulated the best cockroach repellants but, they keep on coming. Many slippers and rolled up newspapers have tried their luck to do their share in their eradication. But, still they lurk at every dim corner. There are around 4,000 species of cockroaches and each has millions of members. With that, they can join antennae, revolt against humans and rule the world.
Cockroaches were said to have lived 390 to 260 million years ago, earlier than us humans. Would you agree that they already have lived enough? But before any advocate accuses me of violating cockroach rights, let me tell you, that even if they have caused me annoyance, I still want them around.
Cockroaches, despite their gross nature and seemingly insignificant existence, have a role that mustn’t be underestimated. Think about it, without cockroaches we won’t be reminded to clean our rooms, kitchen sinks or bathrooms. When we see those creepy crawling cockroaches, we know that our rooms need a little sweeping or our kitchen sinks and bathrooms need a little scrubbing.
Cockroaches also play a huge ecological role by helping decompose forest land animal waste and are also food for scavengers (those animals that eat decomposing organisms), thus they propagate the food chain.This goes not only for cockroaches. These goes for all annoyances like power failures, corrupt government officials, slow unlimited SMS services, among others. Without brown-outs, think about the millions of candles, flashlights and AA batteries that will be immediately phased out. Without corrupt government officials, (well actually that would be the best that could happen for our country), people won’t be as politically sensitive and concerned. Without slow unlimited SMS services, there’ll be non-stop texting 24/7 and less time for actual conversations with your mother who's been waiting for some heart-to-heart talk.
We often think that without annoyances, life will be a lot better. But, when our patience is about to reach boiling point, nuisance or not, every thing has a role to play to make our lives a little better and more significant.
Cockroaches are misunderstood creatures. In laboratory experiments, household species of cockroaches are said to be capable of contaminating food and other objects with disease-forming organisms, but surprisingly they have not been implicated in actual disease outbreaks. In fact, cockroaches spend more time bathing themselves than humans. I just don’t know if greedy politicians with their habitual washing of hands works in the same hygienic lifestyle as cockroaches do. They might be misunderstood creatures as well.
The little cockroach’s bite will mark on my skin for quite some time. But, the little guy doesn’t know that he’s more that just some insect feeding on fresh garbage.
Without him, we might forget to clean our rooms.
(Comments and reactions at reylangarcia@gmail.com; view http://www.theyoungvoice.blogspot.com)