Posted on 03/04/2007 5:35:27 AM PST by AdmSmith
In Qatar there is only one decent bookshop (that happens to be a Saudi chain) that has a few shelves of English books. Shopping there is hit or miss - you don't go there to look for a title. You go there in the hope of stumbling upon something interesting.
The kids selection is not bad though. The other night we saw Disney's "My Very First Encyclopedia with Winnie the Pooh and friends". We grabbed it and thought it was exactly what we needed for our daughter - not only does she love Winnie the Pooh but she's also started taking a keen interest in nature.
We flipped it open and noticed that some of the pages had been vandalised with a black marker. We figured it must have been bought and returned after some kids had got there hands on it. Further inspection made us realise that this was actually systematic. Someone had deliberately "censored" out each and every picture of Piglet from hundreds of pages in the book with a black marker (my guess is that the book got caught by Saudi Censors enroute to Doha).
From the first page to the last page. Big and small. The black marker was hogging the limelight, so to speak.
Yes, the cuddly cute pink Piglet had disappeared. First, I have no idea who would buy a book that cost about $30 that was marked up like this. Secondly, what the hell were the censors thinking!?
Now as a Muslim, I can venture why they did this. But as a Muslim, I think it is totally ridiculous.
As in Judaism, there are laws governing what can and cannot be eaten. Muslims are forbidden from eating pork, as pigs are believed to be unclean. Now the point of this post isn't to discuss this. The point is, what is wrong with a picture of Piglet in a kids book? I think absolutely nothing!
Well, its a thought anyway.
The book was probably intended for the Saudi market. Most of the Saudi censors do not read English, they are mainly occupied with censoring Arabic texts, including non-Saudi versions of the Quran, and blacking out pictures of girls (and apparently piglets) in Western newspapers etc.
I can hear that entire cartoon in John Fiedler's voice. :-)
Our old English teach (from England) Mr. Stubbs, read us Winnie when I was in the 3rd grade. I can still hear his voice, too.
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I didn't realize they blacked out pictures of girls (as well as piglets!). No wonder they're so violent and unhappy. They can't look at half of God's creation.
I think that is very true. Shortly after 9/11, I read an excellent article (which I have never been able to find again, alas) stating that much of the violence in Islamic practice, even aside from the violence urged in the Koran, was because of the high level of frustration and anger among young single males in Islamic countries. Because of the prohibitions on associating with women, they will never have any emotional contacts with them and few sexual contacts that are not fleeting and probably somewhat unpleasant (prostitutes or with other males) and, in addition, because of polygamy, many lower-status men will never have the chance to marry and leave descendants.
Men and women occur in about equal proportions in nature, and if the more prosperous, higher-status males get up to four wives, that means there aren't enough women to go around for the rest of the males. Talk about a recipe for resentment and anger. But there is so much mind-control in Islam that somehow it is possible to make them focus their overall rage outside of Islam (although the high levels of violence in Islamic communities, with their casual killings of one another, shows that this rage affects their own society as well).
LOL . . . so scary.
Great job, potlatch.
Lol, thank you gal!!
I went to a general store in the 'hood looking for some shower curtain rings. I found some German-made rings that came on a card. The card depicted a woman, barely covered with a towel, stepping out of a shower. Some censor had used a magic marker to black out the woman from shoulder to knee on every card.
The International Herald Tribune used to arrived daily in Jeddah. I went to buy one one day and noticed on the back page, below the fold, was a Jim Beam advertisement. EVERY copy of that issue had the bourbon bottle blacked out.
There were two English-language dailies in Jeddah at the time, and they carried some American syndicated cartoons. In one, Beetle Bailey's General Halftrack was ordering a martini at the O Club. But the "martini" had been whited out and some censor had handwritten "party." In yet another, Andy Capp was in the pub with his arm extended, holding a pint of beer. The pint and his had had also been whited out.
roflmao! Yum, yum, mouth watering pork barbeque.
The pig is a friend to mankind. He eats table-scraps and garbage and gives us bacon, chops, hams, roasts and so-on.
I happen to appreciate the pig, especially when he is on my plate.
Interesting.
Must consume a lot of their time.
Hahahaha. Love it.
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