The king is but a man, as I am,

The violet smells to him, as it doth to me,

The element shows to him as it doth to me,

In his nakedness, he appears as a man.

— Shakespeare

What that quote is purporting to say is that everyone is equal, whether they be king or commoner, millionaire or mendicant, potentate or peon, prince or pauper. All men are created equal, is what someone said, but I beg to differ.

All men are not created equal, and neither are women. Just look around and you’ll see for yourself, the world is full of gross inequality, and perhaps that’s what makes it such an interesting place. People are always clamouring for equal rights and justice because they realise the inequality of societies and want to level the playing field. But can they really be equal?

Someone once said that if you took away everything that people had and told them to start anew, the very same individuals who were wealthy would attain that wealth and return to what they were, and the poor would fail to climb out of their quagmire, remaining exactly where they originally were.

Have you ever noticed how some people will leave here and go to foreign lands where ‘opportunity abounds’, yet after many years their status hasn’t changed and they’re boxing around in those countries often begging you for money when you visit them?

That’s because all persons are not equal, and water will always seek its own level. Whether that’s true or not is moot, but that fact remains; all men and women are not equal, neither were they created equal.

Some of you may take offence to that statement, but let’s examine it more closely, right after these equal responses to what I had to say about ‘Long-suffering women’.

Hi Tony,

Some women put up with their physical and mental suffering because they have no choice. They have no financial means and nowhere to go if they leave their partner. They have no one to stand up and defend them, or they are masochists who initiate and welcome the suffering. Men who administer suffering to their women should be very careful, as some of these women may turn on them when they sleep, leaving them without their manhood.

Sandra

Hello Teerob,

You are correct when you pointed out that some women not only accept their role as long-suffering souls, but actually welcome and justify it, saying that it’s their lot in life. It’s a question of low self-esteem and acceptance of the role of the victim. Fortunately, most women aren’t like that, and break free of that yoke of self-oppression.

Janice

Are men and women created equal? I think not, at least not in the physical and intellectual sense. Let’s take the physical first. Just look around and you will see the vast diversity in God’s creation, with some men being tall, some short, and others medium height.

Right then and there is an element of inequality, and with it a hint of envy or jealousy on the part of some men. No man who is tall wishes that he was short, yet men who are deemed to be short secretly wish that they were tall.

So much so that there are even special shoes built to add inches to those men who have a desire to be tall, and there is even a special surgery that can add sections of bone to the legs to make men taller. It’s painful and expensive, but is a sacrifice that many will make to add a few inches to their frame.

But it was Toulouse Lautrec who said, “The measure of greatness is not found on a yardstick,” and perhaps he was right, for many vertically challenged men throughout history have turned out to be giants in their fields of endeavour.

But the true test of equality is really in the private parts of men, ergo, the phallus, the member, the penis. It’s not spoken about much, but its importance has rocked the world of men since the dawn of time.

In this area all men are definitely not created equal, much to the chagrin, dismay, despair, despondency and disappointment of many men who just happen to come up short. And don’t believe them when they say that size does not matter either, they say that just to appease men who come up short in that area.

No one is saying that you have to be endowed like a horse, but being endowed like a mouse is definitely not ideal. This has been the bane of men for centuries, with many living lives of abject misery and humiliation because they don’t measure up.

But nature is kind, and many otherwise short men are blessed with the endowment of a stud horse, making them equal after all. This has been the obsession of millions of men around the world, and in the same way that they have special shoes for enhancing height, they also have special concoctions and devices designed to increase size and length in men who feel short-changed.

It’s a ticklish subject and one not really spoken of openly, but it’s a concern harboured by almost all men who wonder if they are adequate in that department. Now, tell me that all men are created equal. I think not. If they were, they would not go to great lengths to match up with other men.

Do you think that all those great men throughout history were equal to their peers? Some were born to be kings, others destined to be serfs, vassals, peons, paupers. As the saying goes, ‘Some were born to be great, others achieve greatness, while others have greatness thrust upon them.’

An example is Usain Bolt. He was born to be great. Sure, he had to train extremely hard to hone his skills and achieve greatness, but the fact remains, the elements of greatness were bestowed on him from the day he was born. Take another baby who was born on the same day as Bolt, put him through the same rigours and training that Bolt went through, and I guarantee that he would not achieve the greatness of Usain. That’s because all men are not created equal.

Boxer Muhammad Ali and basketballer Michael Jordan and others of their ilk fall into the same category of greatness, and were not equal to others of their generation, but stood out like beacons in the night sky, a colossus among pygmies.

The brain capacity of humans is also not equal, and no matter where a person is born or what environment they come from, their inequality will shine through and manifest itself or flicker and smoulder. Many geniuses were born and grew up in poverty, yet because of their brilliant minds, emerged to become doctors, lawyers, captains of industry and other great members of society.

It’s because they were not equal to their peers why they rose to the top. Conversely, there are others born in the lap of luxury and opulence, surrounded by positive elements, yet achieving nothing. Dem head tuff, their brain cells do not have the capacity for learning, they are not equal and remain in suspended animation throughout life, floating in the phantom zone.

All women are definitely not equal either, and history has highlighted this for centuries. A woman’s beauty is her crowning glory and sets her apart from other women. Like it or not, women are not created equal in that area.

Because of this, women will go to great lengths to level the playing field and become equal with others who society deems to be beautiful and a cut above the rest. Beauty contestants are revered, adored, glorified, exalted and sought after, because they are not equal to other women. Many are born beautiful, while others get a little help.

You might not like to hear it, but when they have a contest for Miss World Ugly, or Miss Universe Ugly, then you can refute what I have to say. All women are not created equal, and that’s a fact.

But just like the men, there are ways to bring about a semblance of equality in women. There’s the weave, wigs, booty booster, extended lashes, hip wideners, waist slimmers, lipo this and lipo that, just to achieve parity and equality with other women.

That being said, Jamaica has the most beautiful women in the world, and for that we have no equal. Yes folks, all men and women are not created equal, but we all end up equal eventually. As Shakespeare said, “Meek and mighty, rotting together, have one dust.”

More time.

seido1yard@gmail.com

Footnote: In all the years I’ve owned cellphones I have never had an issue with them until recently when my on/off switch got stuck and I also needed to change the battery. Just by chance I found these phone repair guys upstairs Pavilion Plaza in Half-Way-Tree. Well, I was blown away by the expertise of those technicians who, I suspect, are self-taught, as they skilfully dismantled the phone with their tiny instruments, unscrewing screws as small as a sand fly and manoeuvring their way inside the complex instruments. As I sat there watching them work, patrons came with all different types of phones for repair, from expensive iPhones to ‘bangers’ and got the same expert treatment. I marvelled at the skill level of those guys who reminded me of surgeons operating on patients. We truly are a gifted people.