Noli Irritare Leones

As Joel has mentioned, a British teacher from Sudan was arrested for the crime of letting her schoolchildren vote to name a class teddy bear “Muhammed”; though Muhammed is approximately as common a name in Muslim countries as Jesus is in Spanish speaking ones, this was taken as blasphemy. Behold the teddy bear from hell. Not only does Muslim blogger Aziz have a photo; he also has an update, from the Muslim Council of Britain’s demand that the Sudanese government free the teacher, to comments by a blogger who once attended the school in question.

I have no doubt the teacher in question will not be subjected to the full barbaric punishment (only because Sudan’s version of Sharia law is so cosmetic and floggings, amputations and stonings rarely, if ever take place) but what is worrying is how far the Sudanese local authorities are willing to go to flex some muscle.

Reactions have been typical, ranging from the ‘what do you expect from Muslim savages’, to the exaggeratedly tolerant ‘we have to respect their culture’ but there are a couple of issues of note which have not been sufficiently covered. Firstly, having had the dubious honour of attending the said institution (the choice of ‘well heeled’ Sudanese and expat children) for some time due to one of my father’s random diplomatic postings, I am aware that there has always existed an uneasy truce between the highly Westernised elite that chose to send their children to the school and local government authorities who resented the very existence of such an elite and their access to the admittedly exceptional education the school offered. Were it not for the ironic fact that high ranking government officials mostly sent their children to the school, the co-existence would have been much more challenging.

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Drima the Sudanese Thinker doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but does round up several more annoyed Sudanese bloggers, and three “Free Ms Gibbons” Facebook groups, two of them started by Sudanese.

On to lighter Friday matters. I still haven’t seen The Mist, since Joel proved not to be in the mood to be dragged to the movie theater last weekend. We used our tickets to the Bowman Bowers museum in Santa Ana instead. This has art from various countries: Chinese art, costumes from around the world, etc. Also a gift shop where I could have bought presents, if I hadn’t already bought the last of the nephew/niece presents on Black Friday. This weekend, Joel has a cold, so I don’t know whether he’ll prove to feel well enough for me to take him to the movies.

In the meantime, I’ve been reading reviews of the movie, which are mixed, though Steven Barnes liked it. Minor rant: one of the reviews complained that Andre Braugher was “fat.” A) What the heck? If he’s fat, what should I call the rest of the guys my age? B) What the heck? If a male character actor, who isn’t even all that heavy, can’t avoid complaints about his weight, I hate to think what it’s like to be a woman in Hollywood. In Hollywood, I think, I would be fat. On a friendlier note, here’s another interview with Andre.

Movies we did see this week: we Netflixed two French movies, The Country Priest (mine) and The Valet (Joel’s). The Country Priest is from the 1950s, and is drama/tragedy, while The Valet is more recent, and comedy.

The Country Priest: It starts slowly, with small details of the priest’s difficulty adjusting to his new parish, and lots of voice over of the priest writing in his diary. You can tell it’s a movie from the 1950s, because, among all the priest’s crises of faith, he never once doubts his celibacy (always the first problem of any struggling priest in a more current movie). Not a single kiss, not even a longing glance at a woman, on the part of either the protagonist or his priestly mentor (though another priest does lapse and live with a woman). Instead, he struggles with his health (living on dry bread and wine), struggles to figure out how to work with his parishioners, and struggles with prayer. The older priestly mentor grew on me and Joel as the movie progressed.

The Valet: The valet is hired to live with a supermodel, and pretend to be actually romantically involved with her, to persuade the supermodel’s billionaire lover’s wife that he isn’t, after all, cheating on her. Complications ensue, of course. The wife is entertainingly conniving.

Bechdel test: Both movies have multiple named female characters, with distinct personalities. I’m not sure whether either passes the Bechdel test, though, because the women in The Country Priest are seen talking to the priest rather than to each other, and the women in The Valet, who routinely talk to each other, talk to each other mostly about their relationships with men.

Of this week’s random iTunes, #10 is Joel’s (“Rippy the gator went chomp, chomp, chomp … passing the time by ending children’s lives”). No opera this week, but I’ve started trying to learn arias again, and think I almost have Vissi d’Arte down. #1 is a Christian hymn.

1. “In the Garden”
2. “Harriet Tubman” by Holly Near
3. “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze”
4. “Cutest Lil’ Dragon” by the Danielson Famile
5. “Anema Core” sung by Dad
6. “Surrexit Dominus” from Greatest Hits Gregorian Chant
7. “Gloria in Excelsis Deo” from Greatest Hits Gregorian Chant
8. “Chiste o Paese da Sole” sung by Dad
9. “Generations” by Si Kahn
10. “Rippy the Gator” by the Arrogant Worms

Blog maintenance note: Rushton defenses are being permitted on the race and IQ posts, as topical though dead wrong, so they can be rebutted, but with the provision that I’m keeping Rushton defenders on my moderated list, so that I don’t wind up turning my blog over to the white supremacists. It is, after all, my blog, paid for by my money, and not a free speech zone.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 9:00 am and is filed under Movies, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.