Which Animal Should Represent Europe?

Many countries have come to adopt a national animal that they imagine symbolizes their finer qualities. The Mexican flag proudly displays an eagle flying with a snake in its mouth, mythology adhering to its Aztec past. The Canadians are characterized by the beaver, which is an industrious, constructive creature appropriate for a nation whose wealth is partly derived from its abundance of hydroelectric power.

The Russian bear is emblematic of that great people’s strength and fearlessness, while the Central American country of Guatemala has adopted the multicolored quetzal bird for its flamboyant, tropical plumage.

But what of the European Union, which was wished into creation for reasons of commercial ambition and to avoid a reprise of its senseless history of internecine bloodletting. Europe is an entity that can’t agree on a constitution, whose rotating presidency changes every six months, has no foreign policy or integrated armed force.

Europe is a very large achievement with a central bank and stable currency, free trade and free movement across borders for those citizens who wish to relocate, which goes a long way toward smoothing the contradictions arising from free trade among countries at various levels of economic development. It is an ambitious scheme, masterfully executed. But it is still very much an ongoing project. The small nuances of nationhood, like a unified sense of identity or pride of place have largely been deferred to the future by the mechanical necessity of establishing a yet ever-growing entity. 

#ffcc99; ">Nevertheless, the whimsical notion of a European national animal has been seized upon as Europeans, idled by the current economic morass, find they have nothing more useful to do with their time than debate those supranational qualities that unite them and how they might be applied to the nomination of a European animal symbol to represent their aspirations. Finding myself idle as well, I came across this debate while reading up on the current French corporate turmoil as reported on the business web site latribune.fr.

Exhibiting the traditional French qualities of originality and contentiousness, the readers of latribune.fr had no shortage of opinions on the subject, with well over a thousand suggestions on what form Europe’s national animal should take:

Patrice – The wolf, representing the forests of Europe. At once solitary, though living in groups. Symbol of piercing vision. Though territorial, the wolf is willing to traverse frontiers when necessary.

Forestier – The wild boar, an animal of the European forest possessed of great symbolic and historical value.

Pourquipic – the pig. Biologically close to humans. A hypocritical animal (cloven hoof). Eats anything, like humans (genetically modified food, plastic, rubber, iron bars). Doesn’t break down toxins, and likes to expose itself (no fur).

Auguste – the horse, which carries the man who conquers the world.

Henri – the Loch Ness monster.

Canary – the chameleon that changes colors for all the nationalities of Europe.

Emanuelle69 – The swan.

Kiki – the amoeba, which grows any which way and has no shape.

Will – the dolphin, because Europe forged the maritime routes that conquered the world.

Canard35 – the tortoise, for its speed. Or the mole, for its vision.

Lakme – the female wolf, which fed Romulus and Remus and symbolized the Roman Empire.

Taipan – the white bull, which has been the symbol of Europe since eternity.

Bertignus – the duck, which is a water bird but attached to the land. Not aggressive, beautiful without being graceful. The duck adapts to its environment without losing its nature as we do our values. Protects its young. Is sociable but jealous of its autonomy. Expresses itself, like us.

Chepadrole – the fox, who is handsome, tricky, intelligent, clever – in short, the opposite of our politicians and bankers.

Bebert – The rooster, which is the only animal that sings while standing in [manure].

James – the sheep, because 98% of them stupidly obey the other 2%.

Au boulot – the bee, symbol of life, fertility, dynamism, courage and usefulness. The bee was the symbol of Napoleon’s empire.

In addition to the above were hundreds of other suggestions. Among them: the platypus, chimpanzee, dove, ostrich, Nicholas Sarkozy, black widow spider, snake (this one is not so crazy. The snake was featured on one of the first American flags under the motto “Don’t Tread On Me”), snail, unicorn, owl flea, etc.

After a few minutes of reading these ideas I started playing the game myself. My idea: a genetic mutation engineered at the Barcelona Medical Research Park consolidating all of the aforementioned features: the craftiness of the British fox, the fierce pride of the Italian wolf, the courage of the Spanish bull, the elegance of the French dressage horse and the wings of the Austrian eagle.

But would it fly?

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Posted on 4/30/2009 ( Permanent Link )
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