The Free World is back again, folks

Ever wondered why the US president is called the leader of the free world? And who decided that there was even a free world to start with?

Anyone here knows who the leader of the free world is? Nope, not Shri Narendra Modi, though we all know very well India leads in everything. Till January 20, actually, Donald Trump will, in theory, reign as the leader of the free world, as he has been doing kicking and screaming for the last four years. After this, the mantle is to pass to the new president, Joseph Biden.

To those wondering what I'm going on about, the leader of America is often called the "leader of the free world". As far as I know, no one else describes the US President this way except Americans, but thanks to films like Independence Day, you know, everyone is at risk.

When Trump cannonballed into the White House, there was serious doubt whether a man-baby could lead any world, let alone the free world. Some are now wondering how he could pass on the mantle of leader of the free world when he never had it in the first place.

I have simpler questions, as I tend to. Who decided that the planet is divided into two worlds, one of them free and the other presumably captive? Who died and made America the leader of that free world? Is India part of it? Who decides who's free anyway?

There's something thrilling about being called the leader of the free world, like becoming a Master of the Universe or being asked to join the Ninja Turtles. Notice, though, that when America gets a new president, the world does not set off firecrackers and dance in the streets singing, "Yay! Hail to our new global leader!" In fact, only Americans describe their president as the leader of the free world.

Turns out it was Americans who came up with the term 'free world' in the first place and then declared their president king of it.

The phrase was coined around World War II, which the Americans had sworn not to join. Then the Japanese poked the bear in its own cave by attacking Pearl Harbour. No one does that to America. Next thing, you have the Allied Forces fighting evil Nazis, and all those Battler Britton comics and decades of Steven Spielberg movies starring Tom Hanks. They also managed to squeeze a movie out of Pearl Harbour.

The term 'free world' was first used to describe the countries battling supposedly fascist states. Hitler himself set the tone when he said, "Two worlds are in conflict… two philosophies of life… one of these two worlds must break asunder."

America did what it does best, made a movie about World War II right away. With animations by Disney studios, the director Frank Capra produced a docuseries called Why We Fight, showing a mostly white, supposedly free West in mortal combat against a Darth Vader-like Nazi-Japanese slave empire in Eurasia.

But here's a fact check — World War II was actually an epic clash between two totalitarian countries, Germany and the Soviet Union, though everyone was throwing things at each other by the time it ended. Around three-quarters of German casualties were at the hands of Soviet troops; only a quarter were killed by the Allied Forces including the USA, the UK, Canada, France, Spain, even India, and all those glorious countries of the free world.

So who decides who's a free country? A US-based, government-funded NGO called Freedom House does. Every year, it evaluates the civil liberties and political rights of every country and releases a report called Freedom in the World. Its scores represent political rights and civil liberties in countries on a scale from 1 (most free) to 7 (least free). Based on this, nations are classified as "Free" (1–2.5), "Partially Free" (3–5) or "Not Free" (5.5–7).

If I hadn't told you this was about democracy and human rights, you might have wrongly concluded it was about white people versus everyone else. In the map, Free and Partially Free worlds, in blue and green, are mostly Caucasian; the rest are all other colours. Note that Africa is not free, except its white part, South Africa. The one with apartheid and racism. I've lived in Kenya many years and it felt pretty darned free to me.

The USA sits piously in the Free category despite its chilling human rights record of waterboarding, separating children from parents, police killings, gun violence in schools, support to dictators and hacking elections.

According to the numbers, 52 countries are freer than the USA, including Latvia, Slovenia, Estonia and Uruguay. Only three countries score 100: Finland, Norway and Sweden. India, hallelujah, managed to slip in, presumably because who can ignore such a large cellphone market?

While America celebrates its self-nominated leadership of the planet, let's tip a hat to Nikita Khrushchev, once Soviet premier, who snorted. "The so-called free world is nothing more than the kingdom of the dollar."

Here, viewed from there. C Y Gopinath, in Bangkok, throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai, the city that raised him. You can reach him at cygopi@gmail.com

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The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper

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