THE world has been told almost a hundred years ago and is still being told that there is a part of the globe named the free world and that the leader of the free world is the United States. Citizens around the world for almost a hundred years were told and are still being told that, in the free world, governments are more democratic than what obtains in dictatorships like China, Russia. Even large Third World countries that are not dictatorships, like Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, Turkey, are so branded as authoritarian by the leaders of the “free world.”

I am quoting now from the New York Times (NYT); not some obscure social media influencer. In its Friday 29, 2023 issue by Christine Chung, the newspaper ran a story of the hardship people from the Global South have to endure to get a Schengen visa to visit European Union countries even if you are living in the US, UK and other developed countries but you have a passport for another nation.

So Ms. Chung interviewed a woman who lives in London but has a South African passport. The woman gave her first name as Elaine and declined to offer her last name. Here are the words from NTY. I am quoting NYT: “She declined to give her full name, fearing that speaking publicly could sabotage her future visa applications.”

How can this happen in the “free world.” In the free world, you have the right to freedom of expression, the right to speak about governmental wrong-doing, the right to publicly express your views about state abuse. In authoritarian countries, free expression can get you into trouble. But why is Elaine afraid? She is afraid because she is not stupid.
She knows full well that the term “free world” can be misleading. Elaine is simply telling the world that if she goes public with her criticism of the hassles of acquiring a Schengen visa, she may not get one when she next applies even though she is a resident of London. Elaine is telling the world through the NYT that the visa officer from the “free world” will victimize her. I am confused here. Isn’t that kind of attitude you find in authoritarian countries? Do visa officers from the “free world” behave like their Chinese and Russian counterparts?
Well, according to Elaine they do. Now as you read this column, please remember it is not Frederick Kissoon that is saying state officials in the “free world” are vindictive and victimize you for speaking out. It is a London resident; a resident of one of the top countries in the world.

Interestingly, Yahoo News chose that NYT article as part of their news package that Yahoo News gather from dozens of media houses in the United States. I chose to do a column on Elaine’s fear for two reasons. One is because it came from NYT and therefore Elaine’s story will be widely read around the world.

The other reason is as someone trained in political theory, I think I have a moral obligation as a post-colonial person to present a picture of the reality of the world and contribute to the knowledge of Guyanese of the harsh reality of the world. The reality of the world is that post-colonial people while living in a colonial polity have internalised the narratives of colonial hegemony and they accept, up to this day, those narratives, one of which there is a section of the globe that is known as the “free world.”
The “free world” is a contextual construct. The free world as a paradigm must be seen in a comparative context. China, Russia and many other authoritarian nations do not allow the kind of rule of law and freedom of expression that the “free world” guarantees. But the post-colonial mind must never analyse the concept of the free world out of its comparative niche. When such an exercise is done, then the post-colonial mind fools itself.

Elaine is not fooled. She knows that what she has been brought up to accept as the binary of a good section of the world versus a bad part is misleading. Elaine has been treated badly on her application for a Schengen visa and she believes she will not get another one if she opens up to NYT on her mistreatment. Elaine knows that is the type of world we will live in. I did this column so that young people on reading it can become more Elaines and not be deceived into thinking that there is such a binary. A person fooling you is not as worse as you fooling yourself.