IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM

All that’s said and done because we believe in everyone’s rights to be free, sometimes forgetting that freedom is their choice and not ours to force upon them . . .


The world has come to the cross-paths where the freedom of one may be the enslavement of others. Such an affirmation seems to be out of tone in the era we have just commenced.

Nevertheless, the events in the scarce five years that have elapsed since the turn of the century into the New Millennium seem to indicate that we are faced with a growing collective hysteria leading to a generalized clamor about individual freedoms. Everyone thinks about his rights but few worry about their duties.

This tendency has, in fact, developed over the last decades of the 20th Century, making the turn of the century one of the worst periods in Modern History. Plagued with undeclared wars and devastations, the inheritance of the century that was has been the seed of hatred and distrust, all in the name of freedom.

The growing barriers between different political styles and confronted cultures have created blocs with rabid defense of the consolidated bloc definition of the word – FREEDOM.

Insofar, the Western Bloc has seemed to be the self-appointed Defender of Freedom ever since the defeat of the Nazi-led Axis Powers, this group of nations headed by the United States of America, the United Kingdom & France have formulated the Western stand on freedom. Curiously enough, the now disintegrated U.S.S.R. that was part of the victorious forces in World War II stood off on its separate freedom platform for almost half a century whereas the German Republics resulting from the Nazi defeat finally ended in unification and integration into this very Western Bloc. In a similar manner, Japan emerged from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki into the very threshold of the American-sponsored democracy of the millenary Imperial Archipelago. Finally, all of the aforementioned nations have been integrated in this bloc.

If apparently, all nations that stood on one side or the other of the last worldwide conflagration sixty years ago, now stand all on the same side of freedom, we must then ask ourselves - Why are we all still in conflict ?

We have heard quite a few replies that hurl out reasons so varied as their authors’ subjectivity and individual political & cultural beliefs. Curious enough, we all tend to demand our rights and few of us remember that each right has beforehand the corresponding obligation.

In the name of freedom we demand that the rights of independent states be abolished, irrespective of whether the citizens of said states wish our intervention or not.

In the name of freedom we impose our own style of life and our own beliefs, not knowing if those that receive our recommendations desire such life-style or wish to practice our customs and habits, or our religion.

In the name of freedom we send our influence through the commercial channels, never knowing just how much good such influence will have upon the recipients of same.

Honestly, in the name of freedom we try to make other citizens of the world more like to the image of our Western world, never knowing if truly these members of our globe populations desire to become part of this “free western world”.

With the best intentions, we try to implant procedures and implant manners that have nothing to do with the base cultures of citizens of other parts of the planet. Sometimes, with not the best of intentions, we impose “our system” as the only alternative to attain freedom.

All these we do in the name of freedom.

We have often asked ourselves whether we sincerely believe that all our actions are for the best of the recipients all over the globe, or on the contrary, we have reached such pretentious self-esteem that as Westerners we have exclusivity on the definition of good & evil, and be the self-appointed spokesmen in the name of freedom.

Having lived in the different continents and shared minute details with citizens of states & nations across the globe, we have come to value the contributions towards my character of the cultures I have had the honor to come close to. The habits of the numerous peoples of this Blue Planet have taught me respect and tolerance for the co-citizens of a diversified world that goes form the beauty of Nature in the jungles of a rain forest in Asia or America to the awesome technologies of solar or wind energies scattered all over the globe.

We have learned from the patience of a smiling Thai, from the perseverance of an Eskimo, from the improvisation of a Spanish businessman and from the practical sense of a Brit. Curiously, we see how others have forgotten to take note of others’ traits & cultures as we have tried to do ourselves.

We feel sad when we hear opinions expressed without a real working knowledge from how the other people are truly like. We frown at the lack of interest of some towards others point of view or habits. We worry when we feel the force of intolerance and pre-potent attitudes prevailing over the intent to communicate and share with others.

The diversity of cultures, beliefs and habits makes this world a better world to live in. We, the Western developed victors have still a lot to learn from the East, the defected and the underdeveloped, before these can really crown themselves as the spokesmen of all mankind, in the name of freedom.

In the name of freedom and for freedom’s sake for all the citizens of the world, let us learn to learn the real valuable lessons of living in peace and harmony.