Is Mohammad Muslim? Ask Al Capone.
I’m holding a text book in my hand entitled “World History for a Global Age: Age of Imperialism to the Present”. It was published in New Jersey by Pearson Education, Inc., 1993. For what it is I find it a worthy text book to use for my Special Ed grade 12 class currently studying this topic. I mention this book only as an exemplar representing just about any history text book I may pick up in the library at my school in Kuwait. This book has been stamped on the cover page indicating that it has gone through the censorship process through the Ministry of Education.
On page 121 I come across an opaque piece of green tape covering a few paragraphs of text. On the next page is a large piece of red coloured paper glued on to the page in order to cover the text beneath. On the next page, with silver marker, someone has meticulously stroked out another paragraph, typical of censorship in this country.
My students are the ones who demonstrate that by holding the pages up to the window it is possible to read the taboo words that lie beneath. The topic is Israel and the holocaust. The red covered page is a picture of Jewish concentration victims. The green covers a paragraph on the death camps. As I casually page through other parts of the book I get a rainbow effect of alternative pages of red, green and silver. Someone has been very busy.
If I go to my computer and Google those same censored topics, using the same search words buried by the censors I can quickly find whatever it is I care to know. I begin to think that the work of a censor is never done. It’s like the street cleaners on Kuwaiti streets. Every day there is more litter and every day they clean it up. It is perpetual. Everyday there will be another web site. One must pity the task of the censor…there is just too much truth to be covered.
Magazines and movies are also censored here. Many western magazines are available here. It seems that western publishers seem to believe that women in various stages of undress and allure sell magazines. Works on me. However, pick up such a magazine and any of the offending skin and/or cleavage is covered with a black magic marker. Just imagine somewhere in this country are a group of dedicated men hired to do this daunting yet pointless task. I would love to be a fly on the wall and hear what the censors might have to say as they work.
“Hey Assiz check this babe out. I would love to have 70 just like her.”
Co-censor Suleiman listens, looks longingly at the picture and answers, “Why, do you think she’s a virgin?”
Assiz ponders the question as he bites his tongue while tenderly fondling the page adding just the right amount of black marker to the offending cleavage and answers, “Is Mohammad Muslim?”
Movies are also censored here. A movie with sex will never make it to a theatre near you, while a movie with violence will barely get touched. Values?
The Disney version of Pocahontas has a scene in which John Smith and she kiss, but not in Kuwait. There is a gap in the viewing as the British imperialist swine imposes his value system on the lovely, yet naïve, Pocahontas.
My students often say they prefer to watch movies in America where they aren’t censored. This is of course grossly unfair to the censors who have worked long hard hours in the film industry only to have travel happy Kuwaitis leave the country to watch the feature presentation in an uncut format.
I would just hate to be a censor here as it is probably the most unappreciated job going. It’s like working immigration and customs at the Kuwait International airport taking alcohol away from westerners. There seems to be an infinite supply. Although, prohibition did work well in America, just ask Al Capone.
What I really think is XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, but of course who would believe me!
Marty (last name withheld)
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