The good folk at Qatar Living recently did a post on the absolute stupidity of censoring a child's book:

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).

Being the curious sort that I am, I decided to call up the 100 Acre Wood and ask for my friend Piglet to see what Piglet thought about the whole brouhaha.

Ring, Ring, Riiiiiinnnnnnggggg!!!

Voice answers:

Helloooo? Christipher Robin here."

Me:

Christopher, it's me, GM. May I speak to Piglet please!"

Christopher:

Oh, hello GM, sure, let me get Piglet for you."

Piglet:

GM, so nice to hear from you once again. How have you been doing my friend."

Me:

Piglet, I'm doing fine. The wife and daughter are well also."

Piglet:

Oh GM, I'm so very glad to hear that. What can I do for you this fine February morning?"

Me:

Well Piglet, this is maybe a little insensitive of me, but I was wondering what you thought of having your picture magic markered over in Qatar?"

Piglet:

Oh yes, I read about that on one of the blogs just this morning with my cup of tea. I had Pooh over and we made scones with his favorite hunny. Well, GM, to be honest, I didn't think much of it. The people that did that really have no idea what they are doing, they are so confused and so backwards in their thinking. Besides, the last time I checked I was just a little insignificant cartoon.

"Oh, wait, they get really upset about cartoons don't they GM, well, as Pooh says, "Oh Bother."

Me:

But Piglet, do you mean to say that it really doesn't bother you at all? That you don't think it is anything to be worried about. After all, you live in England where there is a lot of unrest about what is going on in the Muslim world."

Piglet:

No GM, it really doesn't bother me. You see, I snuck into that bookstore in Qatar, you know the one owned by a Saudi chain and I fixed the problem I think. Here, let me share my "fix" with you. I'll send you an email with a picture of the fix."

Me:

Thanks Piglet. I knew I could count on you to figure something out. You know, if those folk had half your smarts, they wouldn't be as backwards as they certainly seem to be. Well, good bye my friend."

Piglet:

Good bye GM, and thanks for thinking of me. You know, we really must get together some time soon. When will you be back near the 100 Acre Wood?"

Me:

You never know Piglet, sometimes I just turn up and it may be there soon. Good bye again."

To see Piglet's solution, exactly as he emailed it to me, continue reading

And so ends another day at the 100 Acre Wood, Qatar and GM's Corner!

Posted at 11:00 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment
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