Dear W W, the letter in question, written by you, was only in reference to the fact that British citizens had to apply for visas into Bahrain and were no longer automatically given one at the airport. At no point in the letter, did you mention an economic or reason-based visa on arrival for business people from other countries, so in that respect, it was racist.

Now for economics. Despite your peripatetic life, or maybe because of it, you do not seem to have noticed that Brittania does not rule the waves any longer, in fact hasn't done so for close to a hundred years now. So an overwhelming majority of English citizens come here to earn money and an overwhelming majority of Bahrainis go to the UK to spend money. This means that the British government, if it were astute, would look at giving Bahrainis visa on arrival instead of the way things are now. Only a discombobulating dolt would not notice this and cling with pathetic desperation to the last vestiges of past glory.

As for Eleanor Roosevelt's quote "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent", It was used in a movie The Princess Diaries and there is no copyright attached to it. All your comments prove is that you are not above using specious arguments to trivialise the discussion.

Besides, at no point did I claim ownership of said quote and nor have I used it in academic or literary circles unless of course, along with "being a leading opponent of apartheid", you also have pretensions to literary grandeur.

Samir Yeshwant Hajarnis