Letters 1 7.5.25

Lies that strike fear in hearts of ignorant

Dear Sir,

Pro-Palestine students in the US have been warned that “ freedom of expression” is allowed to only US citizens.

This seems like another lie to strike fear into the hearts of the ignorant and it reminded me of a joke I heard over 40 years ago. It went like this:

“An American tourist guide was showing a Russian around Washington DC and as he pointed to the White House, he proudly proclaimed: ‘That is where our president lives. We have such amazing democracy and freedom of expression in our country that we Americans can actually walk up to our president and call him a stupid ass and he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it!’

"The Russian laughed and replied: ‘What’s so great ?

"We can also do the same.

"We can also walk up to your president and call him an ass and he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it!"

Which goes to illustrate that even foreigners could stand up in public and shout anything they liked in that country without being persecuted, detained or deported.

Of course, there were other occasions during the Cold War when certain Americans (some were famous Hollywood actors) were accused of showing sympathy towards Communism. There were also restrictions after September 11 and during the War on Terror. So this attack on free speech is not new, but whatever facade of freedom of expression that ever existed in the US has now fully gone. And that is no lie.

| Ebrahim Essa Durban