FDR wrote:
> Ubiquitous wrote:
>> NewsBusters.org re****ts on an exchange that occurred last week on "The
>> View," which apparently is a daytime TV show featuring a panel of
>> mostly ditsy female celebrities [1]:
>>
>> Whoopi Goldberg: Now in the Sudan, there's a British teacher who is
>> possibly going to be stoned or lashed... Because, in her class they
>> had some teddy bears and she, one of the kids wanted to name ... his
>> teddy bear Muhammad and she said "fine." Apparently, other children
>> complained to their parents, which is how it ended up in the hands of
>> the religious leaders, and the religious leaders are very very upset...
>>
>> Sherri Shepherd: I think it's like it's sacrilegious to name a stuffed
>> toy Muhammad. But you know, you would think that with her being in
>> Sudan, she would know the rules and customs. Because I know I
>> performed stand up in Turkey, and they gave me a big thick packet on
>> the customs, and what you could and could not do, and how you would
>> offend people. So I'm surprised that she didn't know it might be
>> offensive.
>> Goldberg: Yeah, because you'd think if you're going overseas, I mean,
>> we had this discussion yesterday about people coming to America and
>> learning the customs and knowing what is cool, and what isn't cool.
>> But I find that maybe we are not--and I say we just as European and
>> American, we're not as anxious to learn the customs before we go
>> places. It's just one of the reasons we're called the ugly Americans.
>>
>> NewsBusters' Justin McCarthy is rightly appalled at the ladies' blasé
>> attitude toward the Sudanese threat to beat or execute an innocent
woman.
>
> What says she was innocent?
>
> " Sudanese President Omar al-Ba****r granted her a presidential pardon
> earlier Monday, and she left the country hours later under court order.
> advertisement
>
> Sudanese courts ruled she should be de****ted after completing her
> sentence."
>
> Here she would be innocent, there she isn't.
She was likely innocent even there. The children in her class bravely
testified that they had told her to name the teddy bear Mohammed; it was
not her idea. The Sudanese rat who informed on her wasn't even one of
the children or their families, but a disgruntled former teacher who was
looking for some revenge.
However, you're right about one thing:
Given that this is the same regime that winks at the slaughter in Darfur
(or maybe actually perpetuates it), any Westerner who sets foot in that
country alone has to have their head examined.
In America, the State Department issues Travel Advisories warning
Americans of dangerous places to stay away from. I'm sure the British
Government does similarly. So she must have ignored the warnings to
keep out of the Sudan. I hope that no more Westerners try to help Sudan
in any way from now on, and just let the Sudan sink into the abyss it
deserves.
> Goldberg's comment gives an insight as to why. Note that she
>> characterizes the teacher, Gillian Gibbons, as being among "the ugly
>> Americans," notwithstanding that she isn't American at all. The view
>> here really seems to be that the enemy of my country is my
>> friend--that the "customs" of Sudan's fanatics are worthy of respect
>> because they are based in hatred of America and the West.
>
> No, they said she broke their law. You may not like their law, but that
> is what it is.
But Whoopy Goldberg's gratuitious addition that "It's just one of the
reasons we're called the ugly Americans" was completely uncalled for and
stupid in this context: This teacher is not an American. And she
didn't go to the Sudan to insult their culture, but to help teach their
children in school.
The Sudanese government has now shut down that classroom and those kids
now have no teacher. It's going to be very difficult to attract any
more Westerners to teach there after what happened to Ms. Gibbons. I
don't see how that's an improvement for the kids of the Sudan.
--
Steven L.
Email: sdlitvin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
the NOSPAM before replying to me.
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