Monday, May 07, 2007
Mickey and Farfur Mouse
The above link is to an article on the A7 website with greater details of Farfur Mouse
I am a huge Disney fan, and one of my all time favorite charaters is Mickey Mouse. I know the history of his creator, but the charater has always been one that calms me for some reason. (My favorite version of Mickey is from Fantasia - Sorcerer Mickey.
The article above details a Palestinian TV childrens show that stars a mouse by the name of Farfur. The mouse does teach some positive things. (Praying the requisite number of times, proper nutrition, etc.) Farfur also teaches many negative things. (Zionist Occupation is bad, killing Israeli's is good, to hate both Israel and the US.)
I find this rather disturbing. I am not particularly shocked that there is an education structure for children in a Muslim country that teaches negative things about Israel, I am willing to bet that this happens in most of the Arab/Muslim countries. I find it shocking that it is being marketed in a 'pretty package' for pre-school aged children.
As Camel cigarettes proved with their Joe Camel ads for years, the right packaging get the message across so effectively. There was a point be for they stopped using the Camel in advertising that Joe was the best known corporate icon in the world among young children. Someone in the PA learned the lesson, create a cute and cuddly character and then let it sell you idea or product for you.
I am not even getting to any of the much deeper issues that I could, only that this really bothers me. Can you imagine the uproar in the US if there was a similar type of charater on the TV today. Song of the South - One of my favorite Disney movies, from what I can remember, from my childhood and Disney will neither run the movie or sell the movie because it will be met with resistance of many minorities. I understand the problem, I just happen to believe that it reflects a particular era with some 'stretching.' Even many Tom and Jerry's and Warner Brother cartoons are not aired anymore because of racial sterotypes. I find this only minorly problematic, as a society we are constantly striving to improve this country and many of those racially negative sterotypes do not need to be seen, because they will only cause additional problems.
Below I have placed copies of both Farfur Mouse and Mickey Mouse.
UPDATE: The above discussed show staring Farfur Mouse has been pulled from the Hamas television channel. Below is the link that will take you to a brief article discussing this fact. My favorite item in the article, how the PA Minister of Information complaining that the foreign media is still discussing this iusse after it has been resolved but never reported on Israeli Human Rights Violations based on video that his Ministry provided in the last few weeks.
My response, Duh. Why well, after the PA's record with misinformation in the past, it might take a media source time to 'check out' any PA produced information prior to airing. Having said this, having read several things about Mustafa Barghouti in trying to track down his exact title, I am not sure that I would necesarily say he is a bad guy. I haven't read much on him before today, but he at least seems to support a situation that creates a sustainable 'peace' with Israel.
