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October 28, 2004
Political Folklore Joke Transcends Countries
A political joke poking fun at the United States circulated in Latin America, reported Francis Pisani after a recent trip to Chile and Venezuela. The same joke has been told by Palestinians for years, with Israel being the butt of the joke.
The Arabic version goes like this:
An elderly man has a garden that will require much more toil than he is able to perform. He also might fear that the Israeli army will shoot him or ruin his fields if he plants anything. However, he needs to plant his crops.
With no other options, he calls his son in the United States.
"Son," he says, "I have an empty field and no way to plant my crops."
"Don't dig anything out in that garden, dad," says the son. "I wouldn't want you to dig up the stuff I have left out there."
The old man is confused but complies.
Like clockwork, the Israeli army storms this man's garden and proceeds to dig hole after hole in the garden, and unable to turn up any bombs or guns, they leave.
The old father, befuddled and a bit traumatised, phones his son in America to tell of the ordeal.
His son tells him not to worry. "This was the best way I could find to help you, father," he says.
The joke has made its way to Latin America. In that version, the father is an Iraqi in Chicago and the son lives in Baghdad. In this tale, the FBI, SWAT teams, CIA agents etc swarm the garden to find out what the son has "left."
The transcendence of the joke into Latin America with the United States stepping in as the bully could be interpreted as another signal of growing suspicion and even ridicule of the US hypersensitivity to potential (or imaginary) threats.
The analogy also involves the United States gravitating toward more similarity with Israel in the amount of antagonistic sentiment from neighbors and the global community that cause this fear and suspicion.
Posted by Lubna Takruri at October 28, 2004 1:35 AM