One should of course be careful about understanding the meanings
(especially symbolic meanings) of different acts in different cultures.

> It would be like
> a foreigner burning a US flag to start a discussion on the war in
> Iraq.

It is only very recently that I began to understand how much of an issue
this would be to people from the USA (In fact after discussing an
episode of the Simpsons in which Homer burns the Union Jack (the flag of
the United Kingdom) with some American friends).

Generally as far as people from the UK are concerned you can do what you
like with our countries flag and we won't feel insulted (mostly we won't
care very much at all).  If we do see people burning the Union Jack then
we would understand that they were rather annoyed with something the
Government had done.

However this view of our flag will mean that the average person in the
UK won't understand that if they decided to burn an American flag it
would be seen as close to an act of war by Americans.

Trevor Reynolds



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