Steven L. wrote:
> 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.
Well heck if I would go there.
>
>
>> 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.
It isn't. Just to be clear though, the school appeared to be for the
wealthier parent's kids of Sudan.
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