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| © Philip Grey |
My experience as a guide, and other like
experiences in later years, taught me something that we all know but that I
would like to take this opportunity to emphasize. Whatever the country, freedom
of thought and expression are universal human rights. These freedoms, which
modern people long for as much as bread and water, should never be limited by
using nationalist sentiment, moral sensitivities, or—worst of all—business or
military interests. If many nations outside the West suffer poverty in shame,
it is not because they have freedom of expression but because they don’t. As
for those who emigrate from these poor countries to the West or the North to
escape economic hardship and brutal repression—as we know, they sometimes find
themselves further brutalized by the racism they encounter in rich countries.
Yes, we must also be alert to those who denigrate immigrants and minorities for
their religion, their ethnic roots, or the oppression that the governments of
the countries they’ve left behind have visited on their own people.
But to respect the
humanity and religious beliefs of minorities is not to suggest that we should
limit freedom of thought on their behalf. Respect for the rights of religious
or ethnic minorities should never be an excuse to violate freedom of speech. We
writers should never hesitate on this matter, no matter how “provocative” the
pretext. Some of us have a better understanding of the West, some of us have
more affection for those who live in the East, and some, like me, try to keep
our hearts open to both sides of this slightly artificial divide, but our
natural attachments and our desire to understand those unlike us should never
stand in the way of our respect for human rights.
(...)
I have personally known
writers who have chosen to raise forbidden topics purely because they were
forbidden. I think I am no different. Because when another writer in another
house is not free, no writer is free.
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