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Jorge Guerra Pires

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“America has always prided itself on its multiculturalism and its multireligious communities, just as Lebanon prided itself on its multicultural, open-minded, and multireligious society. Today America’s lack of sufficient immigration and border control, like Lebanon’s, is allowing terrorists and other hostile individuals to come into our country at will. People who want to hurt us are mixed in with other Muslims who have no intention of becoming a part of our nation but are actually working to make America a part of their radical Islamic agenda. Muslims have become a sensitive issue in our American society, with demands and expectations, and a group to watch out for and be careful with. There are barely 6 million Muslims in America today out of a total U.S. population of 300 million, yet their presence has been seen and felt throughout every state in America. Stories of Islamic terrorist cells, Islamic charities linked to funding terrorism, Islamic mosques, and Muslims demanding more rights and acknowledgment are beginning to dominate the news. Islamic communities are harboring terrorist cells within. Their mosques are teaching hate against infidels both Christian and Jewish.”

“If I had the money I could buy a torch and read till dawn. In America a torch is called a flashlight. A biscuit is called a cookie, a bun is a roll. Confectionery is pastry and minced meat is ground. Men wear pants instead of trousers and they’ll even say this pant leg is shorter than the other which is silly. When I hear them saying pant leg I feel like breathing faster. The lift is an elevator and if you want a WC or a lavatory you have to say bathroom even if there isn’t a sign of a bath there. And no one dies in America, they pass away or they’re deceased and when they die the body, which is called the remains, is taken to a funeral home where people just stand around and look at it and no one sings or tells a story or takes a drink and then it’s taken away in a casket to be interred. They don’t like saying coffin and they don’t like saying buried. They never say graveyard. Cemetery sounds nicer.”

“Sprache ist das leichteste Gepäck, und eine schwere Last, wenn man in die Fremde kommt, und mitnehmen kann man fast immer nur, was man im Kopf und im Herzen hat: die Mythen und Märchen, die Erinnerungen, eigene und die Erinnerungen anderer, mit denen man die Sprache gemeinsam hat. Es ist ja kein Zufall, dass jede Unterdrückung mit der Unterdrückung der Sprache anfängt, und damit auch der Unterdrückung der Literatur, wenn man unter Literatur nicht ausschließlich das Geschriebene versteht.”

“Aber ganz egal wie fließend ich in all diesen Sprachen bin, wenn ich nicht Josie spreche, schauspielere ich bloß. Das tun wir alle, wenn wir außerhalb der Kulturen interagieren, in die wir hineingeboren wurden. Es ist sogar unvermeidlich, denn es ist unmöglich, in einer fremden Sprache ganz man selbst zu sein. In der Sprache eines anderen wirst du zu einem Besucher, einem Gast - manchmal ein sehr willkommener Gast, den man kreischend und mit Umarmungen in Empfang nimmt -, aber trotzdem bist und bleibst du Gast. Denn sobald du aufhörst, die Sprache der Gruppe zu sprechen, hörst du auch auf, einer aus der Gruppe zu sein. Und dann bist du allein, egal mit wem zu zusammen bist.”