The "Grass eaters"

The word "Recession" has been doing the rounds in every possible piece of land inhabited by humans across the globe. A couple of years back, you would have your first interaction with this word only from your boring economics professor during college. This same economic terminology today is fathomed in a much more pristine manner even by a juvenile whose birthday presents are not that grandiose anymore just gives an idea of the fury of this wildfire called slowdown. As even the mighty countries grope in the dark to tackle this problem, a score of other problems stemming due to recession are cropping up. While most of them are of grave concern to us, there is this "freak" one which can break any one into a slight chuckle at least:). Believe it or not, recession is bringing the next stage of evolution in men and I solely mean males here. The evolutionary process has already begun in Japan. These new breed of men (Dont't think can refer them as men for too long) are called "Grass eaters".

Japanese males are now being classified as being flesh eaters or grass eaters. The flesh eater, now being seen as something passe, is the stereotypical Japanese executive who works hard and plays hard. His main focus is his company, which will take care of him for life. When not slaving away for the firm, his interests are golf, watches, cars, and a good night out on the town. Enter the grass-eater : A 20-30 year-old Japanese male who lives with his mother, is uninterested in women, is de-motivated at work, and is an herbivore. Yes, that's right, he eats grass, but not bush. We are talking about the young men of Japan. When most of the people of their age are supposed to be basking at the glorious period of manhood, here are a bunch of disgruntled men who have lost all intrest in life and women!. In Japan, sex is translated as 'relationship in flesh,'" Takuro Morinago, who coined the term said, "so I named those boys 'herbivorous boys' since they are not interested in flesh." The situation here though is far worse than lack of libido. These herbivores are gradually becoming effeminate or to put it plainly, becoming women. They spend on make-ups, beauty products and various unmentionables. They even answer the natures call seated! To think that economic aspects can bring about such drastic effects on the biological aspects of these men is simply beyond anyones wildest imagination.

Japan , even though being a developed nation, has to deal with a strange problem of falling population. A large chunk of their population belong to the oldies group with little or no hope of sustaining population growth. The young men are mostly career oriented,so much so that they don't indulge in women at all during their early career phase. Perhaps, the root of the problem of these grass eaters lies here. They dreamed of careers which were as rewarding as the generation before them. The broken pieces of dreams built have wounded them badly now. They are totally disenchanted and feel cheated with their country's economy. Disappointed enough to even loose your manhood? So, can a threat to a countries economic progress actually be a threat to the race of its men? Well, the sliding sales of contraceptives in Japan surely makes a point.

This event can be easily disregarded as territorial and isolated, but its causes cannot be. Just to ring few alarm bells, contraceptive sales in India have dropped in 2008-09 after very long time. Someday, economic stimulus package would include Viagra at 50% discount:)