Racism and Conflict Prevention

My daughter has never eaten at a McDonalds. She’s never even been in a McDonalds. No Mcgriddles, no Sponge Bob watches, no Apple Pies, nothing. I personally believe eating at McDonalds has a corollary. Racism. You learn to be a racist from your parents and you learn to eat at McDonalds the same way.

But she’s only four. More impressive is the fact that my hippie, moose-riding, former-commune-living uncle, who is over 50, has never eaten McDonalds. Now that’s impressive. And he’s not a racist either. I think I’m on to something here.

Now with 31,706 restaurants, McDonalds is the biggest toy distributor in the world. But what a mixed set of statistics this fast-food chain provides. Cities with a larger number of McDonald's restaurants are host to more murders per 100,000 people than those without.

How strange, as according to the "Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention", no nations have gone to war with each other since McDonald's opened up there. This theory’s most remarkable achievement has been in the Middle East with the opening of a kosher restaurant in Israel in 1993 and 18 branches in Egypt. (The McDonald's in Saudi Arabia closes five times a day for Muslim prayer.

The closest the theory has come to being challenged is the Falklands war in 1982. McDonald's has been operating in Britain since 1974, but did not open in Argentina until November 1986, when the country's return to democracy was more significant than the quality of its beef.

I guess the “Palestine Infidata” doesn’t count as war.