Elephants Stampede The City, or...

maybe not – well it is #SillySaturday!

On a walk around London's Greenwich today, I came across this trio of concrete pachyderms with the inscription 'Elephanti Sunt Personae' (see extra) on the river's edge opposite Canary Wharf.

Translated as Elephants Are People, the statues are part of the global 'We Are People' street art campaign by Elephantman aimed at changing perceptions of what constitutes a person.

What at first glance might seem ridiculous to many, in fact opens up a whole minefield of ethical conundrums and inconsistencies when examined more closely. 

What is a person? 
The Oxford English Dictionary tells us it is a ‘human being regarded as an individual’; but not so long ago a woman was not a ‘person’ in legal terms, while some corporations are counted as persons. Slaves were not counted as persons, but were certainly human.