Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite....

...I've just been watching the Republican convention, and damn, if I was an American I'd buy into their Shit. I mean this is the country that brings us Hollywood, and tho' I shouldn't really admit it I watch chick flicks, and yeh sometimes (but only sometimes!!!) they get me, and I feel the tears well up. Of course never when I'm with friends, then its Helicopters and Wagner all the way, Jim Morrison and Dionysis.

So with these kidnapped Frenchmen, I got to thinking about Republics and Freedom, and while the French are as guilty as any of we former colonial powers, the fact is that their republic addresses the fact that liberty must be tempered by equality and brotherhood. I have a some statistics for you when it comes to equality and brotherhood, and it may explain why these phrases are somewhat noticable by their absence from American politicians vocabulary, be them Elephants, Mules, or collectively a load of Asses. So here we go....

There is a term 'ecological footprint' which is calculated to be the 'cost' of an individuals lifestyle dependent on seven major activities measured in Hectares. These activities are; i) growing crops, ii) grazing animals, iii) harvesting timber, iv) marine and freshwater fishing, v) accommodation of residential and industrial facilities, vi) burning fossil fuels, and vii) waste disposal. So let us consider the actual footprint for individuals across our globe. The African and the Asian Pacific individual takes around 1.5 Hectares, under the global allowance which is considered to be 1.9 Hectares. The Middle-East, Central Asia, Latin America, and the Carribean come in at the average of around 2.3 Hectares. Central and Eastern Europe jump considerably to around 4 Hectares per individual, with Western European individuals having the luxury of nearly 3 times that of an African at around 5 hectares. So what of America with its talk of liberty and freedom? Well their ecological footprint comes in at a staggering double that of Western Europe, at 10 Hectares for each individual, on average of course. (Human Evolutionary Genetics, 2004, Hurles, M. E. et al., Garland Science, p.430)

So its pretty clear why American poiticians rarely add the term equality and brotherhood to their statements about freedom and liberty. It was shortly after 9/11 that I recall President George W. Bush exclaiming; '...this is an attack on the free world!' The question is Mr Bush, if we are free, then what are they? Not just the terrorists that you so kindly told us we were with, if we weren't with you, but the every day people around the world struggling to survive. What was it Rousseau said; 'Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains.' The point is, it is we that hold the keys to the locks, and if we are bound by a 'social contract' then let it be more than the hollow clamour for our freedom, let it be 'freedom with equality and brotherhood'.