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Thread ID: 9597 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2003-09-07
2003-09-07 14:39 | User Profile
Sesame Street A Path To Better US Image The Straits-Times - Singapore 9-6-3
LONDON -- The US has enlisted Bert, Ernie and Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street to win hearts and minds in the Muslim world.
The BBC said the US Agency for International Development (USAid) is giving US$6.26 million (S$11 million) to produce a show for viewers in Bangladesh - a nation with a considerable Muslim population.
One unnamed official was quoted as saying that the project 'aims to promote greater understanding of American morality and culture'.
The programme, which is already aired in more than 120 countries, has been praised by the US State Department officials who have been given the task of turning the tide of anti-Americanism.
Ms Charlotte Beers, a former advertising executive who left her post as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy in March, had said that she had been 'dazzled' by a co-production of Sesame Street broadcast in Egypt since 2000.
'The children are glued to the set. They are learning English, they are learning about American values,' she said.
However, the Children's Television Workshop, makers of the programme which the BBC said was partly sponsored by the US army, said it did not accept that it was an exporter of so-called American values.
Even a policy for foreign licensing, decided back in 1969, stipulated that non-US versions of the show reflect the morals and traditions of the host nation.
'We don't set out in any way to push American or Western values. That's not our mission at all,' Ms Beatrice Chow, spokesman for Sesame Street's foreign co-productions, told the BBC.
'There are universal values that we encourage, such as sharing, cooperation, respect and understanding. But we see what the needs are of the specific country where the show is being broadcast - such as in South Africa, where we introduced an HIV-positive character because of the Aids problem there.'
For example, Sesame Street has included the Muppet Khokha (Peach) character, who wants to become an astronaut or a doctor, to encourage Egyptian girls to be more ambitious. This empowering of Egyptian women directly reflects the policies of the Cairo government.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, Sesame Street has tried to tackle even thornier regional issues.
Israeli and Palestinian programme makers have tried to combat negative stereotypes by writing sequences which combine both Jewish and Arab Muppets.
A Congressional report released on Thursday noted that US popularity had plunged in the Arab and Muslim world despite a nearly two-year-old State Department campaign to boost the US image.
Polls show that the United States is more unpopular and more resented in many Muslim-majority nations than before the Sept 11 terror attacks, said the report, which was compiled by the General Accounting Office (GAO).
Among the problems are a paucity of language-qualified diplomats to complement the desired message, a lack of coherent methods to assess any improvements the campaign might need and a failure to integrate various programmes, it said.
Copyright @ 2003 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
[url=http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,208374,00.html]http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/sto...,208374,00.html[/url]?
2003-09-07 16:17 | User Profile
A Congressional report released on Thursday noted that US popularity had plunged in the Arab and Muslim world despite a nearly two-year-old State Department campaign to boost the US image.
Was the recent unprovoked invasion of Iraq part of that campaign? :blink:
Polls show that the United States is more unpopular and more resented in many Muslim-majority nations than before the Sept 11 terror attacks, said the report, which was compiled by the General Accounting Office (GAO).
Here's an idea: Let's bomb and invade yet another Muslim nation and maim and kill thousands more innocent people while sending the Israelis even more money. Then the Arabs will really love us. <_<
2003-09-07 16:59 | User Profile
**LONDON -- The US has enlisted Bert, Ernie and Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street to win hearts and minds in the Muslim world. **
They're going to use Bert? Doesn't the CIA realize that Bert is a member of Al-Qaida?
As this picture shows. [img]http://www.angelfire.com/de/cheatsbert/images/laden.jpg[/img]
Even Fox News did a story about how Bert is an associate of Bin Laden [url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,36218,00.html]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,36218,00.html[/url]
:lol: :lol: :lol: