How Foolish People Can Be
Sometimes reading the news just makes you weep. Not just because of the death and suffering and tragedy, but because it reminds you of just how stupid and petty people can be.
Take a look at this one for example - 'Iranians rename Danish pastries'. If it's not sad and pathetic enough that a score of people have died over this incident, and that Danish embassies have been evacuated around the world because of the actions of a couple of irresponsible individuals, now Iranians have to make their point known semantically.
Or pedantically, should I say.
To rename Danish pastries 'roses of the Prophet Muhammed' is nothing new, of course: we all remember the silly season story about 'freedom fries' in the US.
On the one hand it's just a bit amusing, something of a harmeless joke to defuse the tension. But on the other this kind of behaviour serves to reinforce and promote nationalistic and xenophobic sentiment in a far more insidious way than mere newspaper reports.
Consider also China's kneejerk reaction to the film 'Memoirs of a Geisha'. Poor Zhang Ziyi can't even step into the PRC these days due to her taking on the role of a Japanese woman in the movie.
Give me strength. She's an actress, for God's sake! It's her job to pretend to be people she is not. Just because she played a Japanese in a film doesn't mean she condones the Rape of Nanking - any more than Ralph Fiennes promoted anti-Semitism and the Holocaust by playing a Nazi in 'Schindler's List'.
How utterly ridiculous. Read the report below.
Iranians rename Danish pastries
Iranians wishing to buy Danish pastries will now have to ask for "Roses of the Prophet Muhammad".
Bakeries across the capital, Tehran, are covering up signs advertising the pastries and replacing them with ones bearing the dessert's new name.
The confectioners' union ordered the name change in retaliation for the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper.
The images have caused angry protests across the world.
The union said that their decision was prompted by the "insults by Danish newspapers against the Prophet".
Danish pastries are very popular in Iran and not subject to a boycott affecting other Danish products as they are made locally.
Ahmad Mahmoudi, a cake shop owner in Tehran, backed the move.
"This is a punishment for those who start misusing freedom of expression to insult the sanctities of Islam," he said.
But others were less convinced."I just want the sweet pastries. I have nothing to do with the name," shopper Zohreh Masoumi said.
This is not the first time a popular snack has been hit by fallout from a political row.
French fries and French toast were renamed "freedom fries" and "freedom toast" at cafeterias in the US House of Representatives in 2003, after France opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Comments
Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please
Posted by: Haibin | April 25, 2006 8:46 AM
Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please
Please Please Please Please
Read the history between China and Japan. Please make some comments after knowing the history then. Otherwise, you won't ever understand the why people in Asia (please notice 'Asia',not only China) are so furious about Japan when it comes to war. I am really appreciate for what you gonna do about what I said (sad?!).
Posted by: Haibin | April 25, 2006 8:54 AM
Of course I have read the history. My answer to you is that you should also read the history of China. During the 19th century, the British committed numerous atrocities in China. I am British. Does this mean that you must hate me?
Of course not. I am sorry for what my people did but I was not there. I was born a hundred years later. The only way we can honour the victims of history is to end the hatred of 'nationalities'. By all means remember the past, but hating people just because of what people did before they were born is simply ridiculous.
Otherwise the same things will happen again.
Posted by: Philip Sen | April 25, 2006 6:39 PM