Climate Changes : Whose fault ?

Earlier today, Al Gore addressed the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia. You will find lots of reports and comments on his speech over the days to come, starting here, thanks to Associated Press and Yahoo.

I won't comment Mr. Gore's sentence : "[] I am going to speak an inconvenient truth: My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali."
The story is, since a couple of weeks I was looking for a nice photo to illustrate an old saying from my first General Manager at the Optical Communications Measurements Division of Agilent Technologies. Coming directly from India to Germany, he often used sayings to push his ideas.
This photo of Al Gore, Nobel Prize, former US Vice-President and former future President, is the perfect illustration of an indian saying on finger pointing.
What is it ? When you point your finger on someone, or vice-versa, when someone points his finger on you to blame you of something, here's the reality : since human beings got 5 fingers at birth, the one you point on the person in front of you tells that this guy is accountable for 20% of the problem; your thumb points either to the ground or the sky : that's Mother Earth, or God (or The Force, you name it), for 20%. Your last three fingers, gently folded on your palm ? they're pointing on you, Buddy. YOU are responsible for 60% of the problem.

Next time you do finger-pointing against someone, better think twice.

post-scriptum : in the case of Mr. Gore, he already apologized for not being able to fight Global Warming when he was at the White House.

Photo Credit : AP Photo/Dita Alangkara.