By Baggio Bear
I hope it doesn’t offend anyone – and by that I mean ANYONE – that a stuffed bear like me should presume to speak.
This is my first column; actually, the first time I’ve ever communicated via the printed word. I’ve asked my mistress if I could dictate it to her. She understands how strongly I feel about what happened last week to That Other Bear in the Sudan, and to HIS mistress, so she agreed. I’m not just speaking: I’m speaking out. I have to take a stand.
As you’ve probably noticed, I was also named after a famous figure – the kids in my house named me for the famous Italian soccer star Roberto Baggio, after we had all watched the 1994 World Cup together (I know, my age is showing). They loved him even though he lost the Cup to Brazil. I’ve always thought there was a certain nobility in that. But I digress. It’s hard not to get conversational when you’re dictating.
You might also have noted my hesitance to say I was named after “a man,” although of course my namesake was one (and what a man!). But the “figure” whose name That Other Bear was given, was Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam – and referring to him as a man might get a free lancer in ALL kinds of trouble – as events in the Sudan proved. And we wouldn’t want that.
This is what happened: After a British lady who was teaching at a private school in Khartoum allowed her Sudanese students to name the class teddy bear “Muhammad” – a very common boys’ name in that part of the world – the Sudanese government last week charged her with blasphemy, inciting hatred and insulting Islam. The teacher, Gillian Gibbons, 54, was arrested, and if convicted, might have faced six months in jail and 40 public lashes. Luckily, the British soccer team is better than the Sudanese soccer team, (let’s face it), so they organized a serious offense against the Sudanese case, and brought their player home. (How am I doing on my reporting?)
I’m told that American writers have powerful protections under the First Amendment, but we may not have the kind of heavyweights in our corner, like the British government, who could get us out of hot water if we insult Islam, so I’m cool with not calling Muhammad a man. My point is really about the men in high places who would whip a woman – or anyone — for giving a teddy bear a name.
Never mind that millions of regular boys (who grow up to be men) throughout Sudan are also named Muhammad. (Would the Prophet have even been NAMED Muhammad if it weren’t already a name on moms’ lists of baby names in that part of the world, way back when?)
Never mind that 20 out of the 23 children in Ms. Gibbons’ classroom voted to name my bear brother ‘Muhammad.’ I have a feeling it’s not really about that.
My mistress tells me that last week, it was reported that the British Ambassador to the United Nations asked the Security Council to address warrants against a Sudanese official and militia leader accused of war crimes in Darfur, the part of western Sudan where more than 200,000 people have died in the ongoing conflicts. I’m just wondering aloud: could the Sudanese government have been using that nice English lady as a pawn, a wedge, a warning, potentially a hostage? Heavy thoughts for a bear.
Call me ‘soft’ . . . on anything, really – I AM soft– but I think public lashings are cowardly. They shock me. I mean, these men are strong. They have legs, they have muscles, they have free will. And God (any god) knows they have guns – big ones, and lots of them. More importantly, they have voices. They don’t need to dictate, like me. What I wouldn’t give for a voice, liberated by the breath of pure life! I am offended any time a life is degraded or extinguished as a tool for power. And with 200,000 Sudanese lives lost in this power grab– mostly Muslim lives, by the way – you would think they’d know by now that it won’t work, that their time in power will come to an end.
These are things you have time to contemplate when you lie quietly for hours, days, and years upon a bed.
And I’ll tell you one other thing before I hand over the mic. When I came out of the factory, my brother and sister bears who were created in the same lot as me were dispersed to the far corners of the world. We stay in touch, in ways that shall remain mysterious to you. And I can say with certainty that it is not only in the Sudan that men presume to have the authority to take over people’s lives based on some hypocritical moral judgment. I have my sources. It’s everywhere. Or at least somewhere, always, in different places, in every time.
I like teddybears also and I like this blog. this is neat