QUO VADIS, HOMO SAPIENS? 

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. This is your favorite Charles Richi, and we are on your favorite Radio show "Nothing Talkers". Today the topic of our debate is - our civilization. Is it good or bad or, in other words, is it progressing in the right way and will there be a bright future? We humans believe in contrasts, and always love to fight: black and white, revolution or evolution, war and peace - to be or not to be and so on. For this purpose, we've invited an extraordinary guest - a primeval man - and I am very excited. I don't know how scientists brought him back to life - so don't ask me - but it has something to do with their everlasting experiments. Also, I do not really know how scientists taught this man English but he'll speak this language. He appears to remember his life in the ancient society and he'll critique our civilization from the viewpoint of this society. And who will be his opponent? You know for sure. Because I am so smart, I will be the other party in our debate. The name of our guest is Shumashu.

Hello, Shumashu. So, as far as I understand, you do not like our civilization. Why?

SHUMASHU: "Hello, pals. Hello, everybody. You know, your civilization is the biggest collection of crap I've ever seen. And I'm gonna tell you why. In our society we lived in close contact with nature, which of course contained perils, such as some mastodon rushing into your cave - but it was OK. We hunted wild game, then we ate around the fire, then we made babies - and life was good. We were not constantly nervous about many stupid things like whether or not I am going to enter the university or get a job or get mugged in the street or, where will I keep all the money or, what brands should I change or what haircut should I have etc. etc.…. 
CHARLES RICHI: But you do not want to say that the life in your society was that good, do you? In fact, scientists say your life's length was only thirty years. And after that you are critiquing our…
SHUMASHU: (coughing) Don't interrupt me, dude! Well, yeah, I confess: sometimes life was very difficult. We used to beat each other over the heads - but then, we would get reconciled - or eat a corpse. Once, I remember, a dinosaur was hunting my tribe, and half of my men - I was the chief, you know, because I am so strong and clever - so half of my men died just because of fear and half of them became seriously ill. But those were VERY REAL THREATS. And as the chief I had to lead the fights, not like now your leaders send fresh young soldiers to die on alien battlefields!! It's bizarre that in your civilization, you would be ill or die because of something you've created with your own hands. Your unneeded cell phones and computers just kill your health and where on earth have you "purchased" this weirdo habit of smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol - you do it and at the same time you're aware of the danger. Look at the big boards showing beautiful women and men smoking and at the same time warning everyone of cancer. What kind of perverts are you? You are the most disorganized and mean people with the worst health possible. Hell, my nose ain't running every time the temperature is under zero or when there is a lot of dust around - and some of you have big green "waterfalls" from you nose even during the summer. Your people get allergic when they see, hear or smell blooming nature! It's just crazy!
CHARLES RICHI: OK! Now that my brainless friend has finished his stupid speech - hey, what do you want? AHHHHH, don't beat me! Guards! - Ok, that's better; keep him in bounds so that he would not be able to move - so, now that the speech of our guest is finished, I am going to talk. 
As you may know, ladies and gentlemen, in spite of all bad characteristics SHUMASHU applied to our civilization, he missed a lot. There is unbeatable argument in our favor - we live two or even three times more than they did. Of course, we have an abundance of different diseases but on the other hand, there are plenty of pleasures available….
SHUMASHU: Like taking drugs and sleeping with women/men for money?
CHARLES RICHI: Shut up and do not interrupt me, you hairy ape-man! I'm quite annoyed with you already. So, where did I stop? Oh, of course. So also, we are very clever here; guys in your time did not know algebra or the fact that Einstein is a genius. Unlike them we are FREE and not tied to only one way of life - to hunting animals. Well, of course some of us hunt criminals, some hunt money; some hunt beautiful women or men - but it's absolutely normal. We have a lot of other possibilities. Our scientists have invented many useful things - starting with narcosis and condoms and ending with microscope and laser. And, and, and… well, SHUMASHU, now you may talk. What will you say in response to this?
SHUMASHU: In addition to what you have just said, your scientists have created nuclear bomb, which can in any minute fall on your not very clever head. Not only that, your so-called genius scientists created many things which led to weapons of mass destruction and their use by terrorists. And you have to now crawl the world over to find them. By the way, I hear loud noise on the roof; what is it?
CHARLES RICHI: (with a sort of fear glancing at the ceiling, he starts packing his things) who knows, who knows? It may be that somebody fat has stumbled and fallen up there, but it also may be a terrorist. (Feverishly he runs out of the apartment, yelling: save your asses - terrorists and bombs are flying down on our heads! -run!) 

Dmitro Kalinin