How soon they forget.
It's no coincidence that the nations enjoying the closest approximation of "democracy" were settled and run for a while at first by Anglo-Saxons; Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, the UK. Similar concepts of favouring individual liberty over state edict do not exist in, for instance, those lands "settled" by the Spanish. Power there derives from the top down. For all the cries of "Reforma!" heard over the last two centuries, the average latinamericano will, given power, expect to be obeyed, and to get rich quickly. This is why I have yet to buy a single share of Crystallex despite your enthusiastic recommendation - I've been there, done that, got away clean and don't want to press my luck.
Then there's Russia and the remains of her empire, the various -Stans. The people there have never experienced democracy, they have absolutely no conception of what it could and should mean, they've gone straight from the Tsars to the Commissars to the Mafiosos, it'll be a while before the average citizen there has an essential sense of self-worth, if ever.
No, the Anglo-Saxons take it hands down. You just don't get more Anglo-Saxon than this;
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure
these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People
to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
Mind you, Hidalgo and Ju rez and Zapata and Bol¡var and Castro all mouthed words like that, "Land and Liberty", but nobody really believed it. Strong guys rule, everybody knows that, little guys do as they're told, smart little guys get strong or hide.
I couldn't believe it when they demanded a passport from me at Heathrow in the 80s. I am a British subject, and have the right to pass freely "without let or hindrance" to all the pink bits on the pre-50s maps. "A Canadian citizen is a British subject" - Page 1 of the old passport. How dare they treat me as a foreigner, could they not smell this Saxon blood, my people were at Agincourt and Waterloo and Vimy and a lot of other places. But it didn't count.... I got a ride into Earl's Court with a Negro cabbie who had a Cockney accent.
Times change, countries change. Earlier this evening, I was helping fill out an inch-and-a-half thick set of immigration forms for a mexicana who will soon be a Canadian. One more brick in the wall? Maybe, but they sure throw great fiestas over there. We have three flags in this house, the Verde/Blanco/Rojo (M‚xico), the Union Jack, and the Red Ensign. Can't stand that Liberal all-red garbage, if the side thirds were meant to represent the shining seas, they should be blue. Ahh.... but that is a Tory colour, and would never do.
But folks are folks, wherever you go, I'll drink beer with them all. Most just want a home and some food and clothing, a few luxuries like a sense of security. Politicians are the problem, and that force within each of us that drives us to politics, to the desire for power over others. And no culture has a monopoly on that.
Tierra y Libertad! and God Save The Queen ...... marcos ... (in British Columbia) |
