Hello there!
"I’m surprised how many people outside the United States speak English but I’m more surprised how many English speaking people can only speak English."
That is really astonishing. I guess they just assume everyone else in the world will know English, so... "why bother"?
Since grade school I’ve been conditioned to fear Libya, Iraq, Mexico, Panama, Cuba, Russia (Russia is a big one!), not as big as North Korea, though! China, Japan, Germany, are you getting all of this? Africa, Syria, India, not Israel, though! I’ve always been taught “Israel is a US ally” and pretty much every other piece of land on the globe I’ve been conditioned to fear in some way or another — stay! They even tried to convince me to steer clear of Australia and New Zealand — I hear they don’t like North Americans.
I see Portugal didn't make that list. I guess the people in the American Government must look at a map, search for Portugal, fail to find it and, once again, ask: "why bother"?
Music being banned is sometimes comprehensible, since their lyrics are too violent or extreme. I'm thinking about bands like Cannibal Corpse or Deicide.
But there are cases where I fail to see the logic... for example, there is a band I like, Within Temptation, a Dutch Melodic Metal band, whose lyrics aren't political in any shape of form.
What is the reasoning for Russia to ban this band? I don't know... and I listened to it when I visited Moscow. No one went trough my MP3 player when I got there. And I didn't knew it was banned at the time. Lucky me.
And then there are bands that I understood if they were banned in the USA. But they aren't. Abnormality is a good example. They are from Massachusetts, United States and maybe the US Government didn't ban them because they couldn't understand the lyrics!!! 😂
Thanks for your article. I liked it so much that I've upvoted it with my second account, too... and I will resteem it. 😄