I shall now attempt to "learn the best from each of us, no matter from which nationality or which race" starting with Dr Stefen Tan's, 'American kettle not as black as ours' (Aug 11). From the first few paragraphs, I have learnt not to criticise the former US envoy, J Malott. Because, according to the good doctor, all criticisms would, "smack of mahathirism at its finest," and that, "his (Malott's) critics are either victims or purveyors of propaganda".

Given those options, it would be wise to steer clear of the ex-Ambassador's way.

And moving on to democracy and human rights, he mitigates, "the American kettle may be grey but it is certainly not as black as our own pot. Americans treasure free expression much more than we do."

With such finality in his prejudgment, there remains only one question left to ask.

How black is our pot when compared to, say Singapore, Indonesia, Japan or Israel?

Also, I do wonder could it be that the Americans treasure 'free expression' so much that they have decided to keep it as a national treasure? But, this has, more or less, been forwarded in, 'The less savage notion', Muslim Student (Aug 11)

Undoubtedly, the writer's best effort is when he, self-assuredly, declares, "that there is some kind of social contract between most Americans and the state that inclines the citizenry towards tolerating some of the ugly practices of big business [sic] to a certain extent."

Sadly, he does not bother to elaborate on this absolutely remarkable observation.

Finally, I have to admit that the best thing I've learnt so far is that one does not need to be a doctor to be a xenophobe. I could easily walk into any hotel or MAS counter and still get an unfriendly minus-the-smile service!

Banish xenophobia? You can't be serious!