Okay, I have now read the whole transcript. Looks like I got to hear the last half of it when I saw part of the show.

I have no problem with anything Harry Belafonte said. Sounds like straight, honest truthfullness to me...and it will not surprise Europeans, Asians, Africans or very many other people except a certain number of North Americans who aren't used to hearing such views openly expressed.

I'm sure it was upsetting to Colin Powell, but Harry was speaking metaphorically, not literally. He was trying to make a point about national policy and the apparent support of that policy by Colin Powell, a man whom Harry Belafonte clearly respects and in many ways admires.

I'd say it was a wake-up call. Whether it has that effect will remain to be seen.

I believe that Harry Belafonte is very appropriately defending not only the black community, but all humanity. And that is as it should be. We are simply one human community, and we should behave accordingly, rather than playing favourites, pandering to elitism, and perpetuating gross inequality. It is the inequalities in the world which have led to all the conflicts with which we are beset.

- LH