The "Uday Dead on Arrival" doll represents good taste in the U.S.
April 25, 2007
On February 1, 2004, the singer Janet Jackson performed at the halftime show of the Superbowl, the premier
event of U.S. gridiron football. Then, something happened that shocked the U.S.: for about a second, the camera showed a partial
shot of her breast. The nipple was covered with a medallion-style ornament.
Hundreds of millions of people saw this. Within minutes, the outrage began. Sponsors were talking of taking
their business somewhere else. Virtually every religious institution condemned this and said it would corrupt the youth of
America.
In the aftermath, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) called for a quick clampdown on "indecent" words
or pictures on U.S. television. At the time, Colin Powell’s son, Michael, was the head of the FCC. He multiplied the
fine that stations had to pay for infringement of the "indecency" clause 10-fold, from $25,000 to $250,000. A few months later,
on an entertainment awards show, a recipient said, "This is a really fucking brilliant." Powell then went on a tirade of how
the "f" word is so despicable and the most horrendous word in the English language. Evidently, his father, the mass-murderer
who coined the term "overwhelming force" to annihilate defenseless countries, never said the word. Carpet bombing is okay,
but never use the word "fuck" while describing it. Then, you become a sinner.
The recent shootings at Virginia Tech that killed 33 people (including the shooter) took up most of the news
in the U.S. for a few days. The killer, Cho Seung-hui, killed two people in a dorm and then three hours later, went to the
classroom where he killed 30 more people before turning the gun on himself. In the three-hour lapse, he put together a package
of pictures and videotape and sent it to NBC News.
A couple of days after the incident, NBC News received the package and posted some of the photos. Then, the
merde hit the fan.
The public outcry was loud. How dare the public be shown such filth?
According to Dante Chinni, writing for the Christian Science Monitor:
It immortalized him (Cho) and let him, not the events of the shooting, dominate the news cycle. And it desensitized
the audience to an extraordinary and frightening collection of material and ultimately, in some sense, to the event itself.
There have been many outcries by the U.S. government of showing U.S. soldiers on TV. In 1993, Somalis dragged
the body of a dead soldier through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia. A disingenuous barrage of protest followed the broadcast
of that.
In March 2003, a U.S. soldier captured by the Iraqi military, was shown on Iraqi TV. He stated his name and
home town. "Foul," cried the U.S. administration. This was a contravention of the Geneva Convention. However, when the Abu
Ghraib scandal erupted, the U.S. government, until this day, has never come clean about the atrocities. I think the tens of
thousands of innocent Iraqis who have been tortured by the U.S. military would gladly have changed places with the U.S. soldier
who was not tortured, but who was seen on TV stating his name.
In July 2003, the U.S. killed Uday and Qusay Hussein, the sons of Saddam Hussein, as well as Qusay’s
14-year-old son. At the time, they were on the run and conducting resistance activities. A distant relative told the U.S.
their whereabouts and earned a $30 million payday. The killing of the trio consisted of six hours of steady attack, including
bombs, missiles, rockets and bullets.
The following day, the bodies of the Hussein brothers were shown repeatedly on TV stations all over the world.
The U.S. media broadcast the pictures around the clock. Not one U.S. official said this was in bad taste. After all, Iraqis
are not equal to U.S. citizens. They were depicted as trophies in the U.S. "war on terror." "They deserve what they got,"
was a common phrase.
There is one company, www.herobuilders.com that made an "Uday Dead on Arrival" doll. So, showing a partial breast, or saying "fuck"
on TV is indecent. Showing the pictures of a mentally-deranged mass-murderer is out of bounds. But, showing the massacred
bodies of Uday and Qusay Hussein is something to cheer. After all, we’re the good guys in the U.S.
Shortly after dawn on December 30, 2006, pictures of Saddam Hussein hanging from a gallows made their way
to the world media. U.S. TV stations and print media outdid each other in trying to show as many pictures of a dead Saddam
as possible.
The duplicity in U.S. values is incredible. If a kid slips and says the word "shit" at the family dinner table,
he will be reprimanded and sent to his room. But, the same kid will put on his military camouflage clothes that are now in
vogue with U.S. youngsters and display his "Uday Dead on Arrival" doll and the parents will forgive him for his transgression.
Then, after a prayer and a Bible quote, all is back to normal. You figure it out, I can’t.
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