The Citizen, 2014-12-25, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2014. PAGE 5.
Iconsider Winnie the Pooh to be one of the
noblest gifts Canada has ever bestowed on
the rest of the world. And make no mistake:
Winnie is Canadian. As Canadian as moose
antlers, Murray McLaughlin and Margaret
Atwood all wrapped up in a Don Cherry sports
jacket.
Yes, I know that Winnie the Pooh is an
imaginary creature – ‘a fictional
anthropomorphic teddy bear’ as my dictionary
so disdainfully sniffs. But Winnie was a real
fur-and-blood Canadian bear.
He was born in the backwoods of
Northwestern Ontario in the early part of the
last century and sold as a cub on the White
River train platform to a Canadian soldier who
was bound for Europe to fight in World War I.
The soldier, Lieutenant Harry Colebourn of
Winnipeg, was deployed, along with his furry
mascot, to England.
When it came time for Lieutenant Colebourn
to go to the front, ‘Winnie’ (so named after the
lieutenant’s home town) was donated to the
London Zoo where he lived out his life, but not
before captivating a little boy’s imagination –
and more importantly, that of the little boy’s
father, the writer A.A. Milne.
In a way, Winnie the Pooh personified the
Canadian stereotype. He was friendly, helpful,
steadfast, powerful but pacific and…perhaps a
touch provincial for the world stage.
Okay, Winnie was gullible and naïve. “A
bear of little brain”, as his creator would write.
Think Bob and Doug Mackenzie with fur.
What Winnie the Pooh NEVER was is
subversive – but try to tell that to Poland. A
statue of Winnie the Pooh has been banned
from a playground in the Polish town Tuszyn.
Why? Because he doesn’t wear underpants,
that’s why. Winnie is bear-assed, if you will.
“The problem with that bear is it doesn’t
have a complete wardrobe,” explained one
town councillor. “It is half-naked, which is
totally inappropriate for children.”
You know, I never thought of it before, but
the councillor is right. I’ve never seen Winnie
wearing anything more than a red T-shirt and
sometimes a little toque on his head. Shows
what a gullible and naïve Canuck I am, I guess.
The Polish guardians of public sanctity may
have started an international shaming storm for
fantasy bears. Already the British Board of
Film Classification has been moved to slap a
warning tag on Paddington (a movie about
another half-dressed bear). The board says the
film contains “dangerous behaviour, mild
threats, mild sex references and mild bad
language” rendering it “unsuitable for children
under eight”.
Paddington Bear? Really?
I don’t want to panic the good citizens of
Poland or Britain but…have they noticed the
nether quarters of Donald, Daisy and Daffy
Duck? Micky and Minnie? Frosty the
Snowman?
If they can’t handle cartoon semi-nudity they
definitely should stay out of the Canadian
backwoods. Our bears don’t even wear
t-shirts.
Arthur
Black
Embear-assing behaviour Shawn
Loughlin
Shawn’s Sense
It seems interesting that, just a few weeks
ago, I was writing in this space about
home-grown converted terrorists needing
our help and about the breaking point that all
individuals and groups inevitably have and I
think I may have just hit mine.
Thursday morning I woke up to news
of major cinema chains and, subsequently,
Sony Entertainment, pulling a controversial
movie just one week before it was set to
open because of threats made to theatres and
the multi-million dollar entertainment
company.
The movie, called The Interview, is about a
plot to kill Kim Jong-Un, the current leader of
North Korea. Apparently the plot works and
results in a very gory death scene.
In an act similar to threats made revolving
around illustrations of Mohammed being
enough of an excuse for attacks from extremist
Muslim groups, promises of devastation
have been made if the movie is played in
theatres.
As of late, Sony has had egg on its face as
e-mails from employees in the corporation
have been made public after they were the
victim of a hack which apparently originated
in North Korea, lending some credit to the
aforementioned threats, however, I have a hard
time taking either seriously.
My own disbelief aside, the owners of the
movie theatre chains and Sony have made a
unanimous decision to pull the flick before
anyone gets to see it and most recent reports
indicate that the movie may never see the light
of day.
The film, which is a comedy, wasn’t
exactly on my must-see list for the holiday
season.
Regardless of my intent to see the movie,
however, I do feel a spark of outrage that these
people are allowing themselves to be pushed
around and setting a precedent for censorship.
Today a likely inconsequential movie is
being pulled because it might offend a nation’s
leader who has threatened retaliation. I doubt
anyone will be really concerned about the
incident but we should all be concerned about
what it means beyond that.
Today it’s just this movie, tomorrow,
however, it could be any number of things.
It could be a book, a television show or a
newspaper article that paints a terrorist sect in
an unflattering manner that raises the ire of
some group threatening retaliation.
What is the West going to do then?
Sony and these theatres have shown the
world that the West will fold faster than a
cheap lawn chair under Honey Boo-Boo’s
Mama June when threatened.
Don’t misunderstand me here, I get that
people are scared of the retaliation and, to be
honest, if I worked in a movie theatre, I’d
probably be intimidated, but when you get
right down to it, these organizations are just
bullies.
They’re not the, “hurting on the inside
so they’re acting out” kind of bullies, just
the run-of-the-mill I-can’t-be-the-best-so-I’ll-
hurt-anyone-better-than-me kind of bully.
North Korea is sitting a world away and its
leaders are saying they will target the West and
hurt people if the movie is being shown.
I’m not saying that this particular film is
worth fighting over, but the idea of bowing to
censorship accompanied by the threat of
violence makes me beyond angry.
What happens when you bow to the
demands of a bully? He keeps coming back.
To co-opt an old phrase, bullies could keep
returning to the same well because the water
keeps coming.
I realize that applying these inter-personal
anecdotes to world politics and struggles is a
bit ill-fitting, however, the main message
behind my argument is as sound as anything
else: We now find ourselves on a slippery
slope where any despot or terrorist group
can say “Do what we want or we’ll hurt you”
and we know that at least some sectors of the
West are more than willing to be cowed like
that.
Some may want to call me foolish or entitled
for believing that I have a right to see a
comedy portraying a foreign dictator in a less-
than-positive light but whenever a situation
like this arises (and to be fair I guess there have
only been two in recent memory), I remember
back to elementary school.
When I was in elementary school, I was
taught about the World Wars and what they
represented. I was told that men and women
fought and died for this country so we had the
right of freedom.
If we choose to use that freedom to see a
movie about Kim Jong-Un getting killed in
some ridiculously zany way, then that’s our
right.
We shouldn’t allow ourselves to be
oppressed in anything we do because the
second we do, we’re not honouring the people
who gave their lives so we could make those
choices.
Maybe it will lead us to another armed
conflict which, as I said in my other terrorism-
related column, is not something I wish to
happen in my lifetime. Maybe we will simply
end up calling the bluff of those looking to
oppress us, but regardless of the outcome,
the second we allow ourselves to be dictated
to, we’re no longer enjoying the freedom
our predecessors fought for and died
protecting.
Again, this is just a silly movie brought to us
by people who have glorified drug use, casual
sex and what surviving the apocalypse and
living post-rapture would look like. It’s not
like we are defying oppressors here to
preserve the integrity of the Mona Lisa, but the
content of art isn’t what’s at stake here, the
existence of art at all is what is being
threatened.
When we allow foreign dictators to
influence what is and isn’t allowed here,
we’ve already lost something very
valuable.
So if another threat comes regarding a movie
or a television show or a book or... anything
really and it’s something you are interested in,
be sure to show these bullies that you aren’t
interested in what they have to say.
Buy, watch, read or listen to whatever it is
you want to listen to. If you don’t, and please
forgive me for using this sentence in a serious
manner, the terrorists win.
Denny
Scott
Denny’s Den
Christmas fitness
In the past, I have heard people talk about
putting on weight around the holidays and
I haven’t paid it much mind... until now.
This is the first Christmas that I’ve really
noticed what a big part of the holidays food
really is.
As I have mentioned in a previous column, I
will be attempting The Ride to Conquer
Cancer in June as a part of a team (the Fire
Riders) featuring local riders Jeff Josling of
Blyth and Central Huron Councillor Marg
Anderson, among others. It is a mammoth,
two-day bicycle ride that runs from Toronto to
Hamilton on the first day and from Hamilton
to Niagara Falls on the second day.
Because bikes are expensive (I wish
someone had told me this before I agreed to
risk life and limb on one in the name of
charity) my family and friends have all
chipped in and bought me my bike for
Christmas.
It’s an absolutely lovely gesture that
humbles me every time I think about it. That
these people care enough about me to help out
in this way is something that floors me over
and over again.
A few weeks ago there was a bike sale, so I
pounced and purchased the bike with all the
fixings, including an in-home trainer (a
reasonably-sized steel bracket that turns my
bike into a stationary bike for the winter).
I have been pretty good about the whole
process. I have been getting used to riding a
bike, something I haven’t done since I was
likely a pre-teen. I have also been trying to
square away the other side of the equation as
well, eating better and trying to stay away
from any extra-curricular foods.
For the most part, I haven’t really had to
worry about weight gain, so I haven’t really
“watched” what I eat much over the years. So
it’s funny to me that when I finally try to
buckle down and make fitness a priority,
moron that I am, I do so around Christmas.
I have probably been too busy stuffing my
face around the holidays to notice just how
intertwined the holidays are with food – most
notably, food that is in no way good for you.
Trust me, I’m not trying to make anyone feel
bad for what they eat over the holidays. I
would, if anything, encourage people to eat all
kinds of food over the holidays, because that’s
what Christmas is all about.
However, while trying to limit my
consumption of the aforementioned foods, I’ve
developed a bit of a hypersensitivity to them.
Around the holidays, everyone is offering
cookies, whether it’s at the office, or at
restaurants or cafés. Something about the
holidays draws people to their ovens to bake
things that taste very, very good. And once that
process is done, something else (maybe the
same thing, I don’t know) draws them to give
you whatever it is they’ve created in the oven.
And it’s not as if you can turn it down; that
would be rude and I think I’d rather be fat than
rude – but again, that may just be me.
People buy chocolates and candy for each
other constantly around Christmas. Again, this
is something I hadn’t really noticed before,
because I didn’t care. And I am as guilty as
anyone. I have bought numerous boxes of
chocolates for people this holiday season,
leaving me now to wonder if those people are
happy about it, or if they’re left cursing my
name.
Regardless of what the holidays bring,
cycling training will continue, because I’m not
sure if you’ve checked lately, but it’s a long
way from Toronto to Niagara Falls by car... let
alone on a bike.
Other Views
Terrorism-fueled censorship
Wouldn’t life be worth the living,
Wouldn't dreams be coming true,
If we kept the Christmas spirit
All the whole year through?
– Author Unknown
Final Thought