When i was in London a while back, had the opportunity of "loitering" around the Hyde Park free speech corner on a Sunday.
As usual the banters i encountered were some amusing to the point of hilarity but some did have interesting serious debates and dialectal discussions.
30 years ago when as a young student the main theme of all the discussions had been capitalism against socialism/communism.
Now that particular argument has been to bed with the fall of the Berlin wall, the flavour theses days as i noticed that Sunday was on religions. I can see few Islamists debating with fervour against some mainly Christian activists....hmm how times have changed or is it a circle being witnessed again?
In all great respect i cant also help observing that the once much revered Hyde Park place of free speech has become just a playground for some "regulars" on a Sunday to poke fun at some of the speakers, a bit sad .
I remembered 30 years ago when i was at the Hyde Park and there was an interesting argument between a British speaker and some German tourists on who were more superior. In exasperation when the British speaker lost his plot ,he asked this group of German tourists what was the exchange rate of the Pound to the German Marks? "Four German marks to the Pound" was the reply and this witty Brit then pounced and sealed the whole debate," ha you see ,it takes 4 Germans to beat 1 Brit!!!"
Well, while all the debates and arguments i had observed on that Sunday a while back at Hyde Park had not increased my intellectual awareness dramatically , i can still admire the fact that people can still argue on all range of subjects without a recourse to violence and even killing each other. Ya Hyde Park is an institution renown throughout the world...
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