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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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 Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:40 pm Post subject: Piglet banned EVERYWHERE!! |
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Since this incident gets trotted out so much on these boards, I thought I'd do some research to find out what happened. Here, from a Conservative activist's website, is a letter from a member of the Dudley Council.
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Dear Mr Ayling,
I have been asked to reply to your e-mail as a spokesman for the controlling Conservative Group on Dudley Council. A number of people have made comments similar to yours with regard to the ��Pig Ban��. I would like to set the record straight or at least put the issue in perspective.
A member of staff in one department did, indeed, complain that the presence of rubber stress toys in the shape of a pig were offensive in the run up to Ramadan. The employees departmental manager, in line with the Councils employment and equal opportunities policies (based on legislation from Central Government) was obliged to give due regard to the complaint and asked other staff in the department if they would consider keeping the toys out of sight. Another member of staff obviously thought it would be ��fun�� to tell the press. In common with most media, the Express and Star decided to inflate the story into a wholesale ban of all pig images. This then got picked up by national newspapers and hey presto a great politicallly correct attack is in progress. Made even better by the fact that it is a Conservative administration.
The AA Milne tissue box is probably the result of office chit-chat. I can hear it now, ��Huh, I suppose my box of tissues with a picture of piglet on is offensive as well!��
I have no intention of defending the comments of Councillor Rahman. His use of the word tolerence in this context is almost laughable.
The serious point here is that what started out as an internal issue relating to one employee in a small department of an organisation employing thousands has now, through media exaggeration, given any extreme racist group another flag to pin to the mast and may well have created an impression among sections of the white population that there is some hidden agenda within the establishment to pander to prejudice from one section of our community at their expense. This is not only untrue but dangerous, made worse by the fact that it was totally unnecessary.
I can confirm, as a member of the Cabinet at Dudley MBC, that the elected members were not asked for a policy lead on this issue and I am quite certain that if we had been, it would have been rejected by all sensible members of the Council. This was entirely a day to day management issue and was dealt with as such (I leave it for you to judge how well). I can also confirm that following the original story we were contacted by a Muslim who said he was ashamed that anyone should take such a position and that he worked in a pork processing factory which in no way had any effect on his faiths requirement not to eat pork.
For the record, since taking control of the Council, we have:
Re-introduced the civic celebration of St. Georges Day
Re-introduced the use of the Union and St. Georges flags on public buildings at appropriate times.
Supported and funded Christmas lights in our Town Centres.
I mention these particularly because I beleve that there is no conflict between promoting racial harmony and firmly supporting our national and religious traditions.
Are we happy that this story arose? NO! Could we have avoided it? Possibly, but then hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn��t it!
Cllr. Les Jones
Cabinet Member for Economic Regeneration
Dudley MBC
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So, at least according to this councillor, one employee complained to one depatrmental manager about pig imagery being on display during Ramadan, and pig imagery ended up being banned in one department. And the decision was made entirely by that one manager. .
Make of that what you will. If anyone has an alternative rendering of the facts in this case, I'd be interested in reading it.
Last edited by On the other hand on Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:44 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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AbbeFaria
Joined: 17 May 2005
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:32 am Post subject: |
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Whether it was exaggerated or not, it's still fact that a muslim employee, based on his religious beliefs, got a department to change it's behavior. His coworkers are not muslim and do not share his beliefs on pigs, why should they have to bow to one man.
It wasn't telling a dirty joke, it wasn't sexual harrasment, it wasn't a dress code violation where someone was showing to much thigh/a$$ or brea$ts, it was a pig. Not even a pig being depicted in a lewd or lascivious manner. Just a pig. A porcine mammel. He was not being asked to play with it, eat it, lick it, wear it as a necklace, hold it's hoof, sing it a song or read it the heroic tale of The Three Little Pigs. It was at someone else's desk, minding it's own business. He should have done the same. Shame on him and shame on the department manager.
��S�� |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 9:03 am Post subject: |
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| shame on him? give me a break. He didn't like it, he complained. I blame the manager 100% for bowing to such pettiness. |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 9:08 am Post subject: |
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| It's "Merry Christmas" all over again. |
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bigverne
Joined: 12 May 2004
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| Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 9:14 am Post subject: |
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| I blame the manager 100% for bowing to such pettiness. |
But the reason he bowed to such pettiness is because all public institutions in the UK, and in particular local councils are in thrall to PC ideology and are loathe to upset any 'victimised' minority group. This pig story may seem insignificant and irrelevant, but it is just a silly example of a wider trend in society at large. Personally, I am more worried about our Foreign Secretary kowtowing to muslims than a jobsworth manager in an obscure town council. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 9:29 am Post subject: |
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shame on him? give me a break. He didn't like it, he complained. I blame the manager 100% for bowing to such pettiness.
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Whether you blame the worker, the manager, or both, my overall point is that there were no more than two people involved in making this decision, and it couldn't have effected more than a handful of workers. And yet it seems to get referenced in every other Dave's thread as if it proves something about the state of modern British society.
There are some important issues involved, related to just how sensitive secular society should be to peoples' religious feelings. However, I don't think the worker in the story was doing anything different than what has been done hundereds of times in recent memory by non-Muslims...
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Assistant Principal Gretchen Plewes proclaimed that Zeeland High doesn't allow clothing bearing any references to obscenity, drugs, violence, or sexual innuendo. Her reason for suspending Van Hoven was because she found his shirt "vulgar, obscene, and insulting". We at Rock Out Censorship find the idea of suspending a student for wearing any type clothing an insult to the First Amendment. But, what we find even more insulting and just plain stupid is that the t-shirt Eric Van Hoven was wearing when he was suspended displayed NOTHING MORE THAN THE BAND'S NAME: Korn. Perhaps Gretchen was a bit too displeased with the bands spelling skills???
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| One South Carolina high school principal and two in Tennessee have banned the Indigo Girls from playing free half-hour concerts at their schools. The South Carolina performance was cancelled after the principal of Irmo High School, Gerald Witt, received complaints regarding the bands sexuality. |
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This time the T-shirt in question has 666 in the front and a lovely portrait of Rob Zombie from the group White Zombie. The student in question is Robert Parker of Westerly High School in Westerly, RI. And no, school officials did NOT approve of Parker's shirt and decided to suspend him, twice! Assistant Principal Jim Spellman's concern was that some people believe that the number 666 is a biblical reference to the devil and therefore, disruptive to other classmates. Does any of this NOT sound familiar?
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http://www.theroc.org/updates/incident.htm |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 6:33 pm Post subject: |
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| There was also that charming tale of the person in a mall in the US a few years back who was kicked out for wearing a shirt that said "give peace a chance" or something along those lines. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 6:48 pm Post subject: |
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| There was also that charming tale of the person in a mall in the US a few years back who was kicked out for wearing a shirt that said "give peace a chance" or something along those lines |
This one if my personal favorite:
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Yep! Another student has gotten himself in trouble at school for wearing a t-shirt the officials didn't like. And just what offensive death-metal band graced the kid's chest? Cradle O' Filth? Marilyn Manson? NO! Pepsi Cola! Mike Cameron,19, a Senior at Greenbrier High School in Evans, GA, was suspended for one day for wearing the Pepsi t-shirt on official Coke Day! "In my eyes, I didn't do anything wrong," said Mike.
"We had the regional president (of Coca-Cola) here and people flew in from Atlanta to do us the honor of being resource speakers." complained Gloria Hamilton, the principal of Greenbrier High, in defense of Coke Education Day. "It's not a Coke-Pepsi war issue. It has nothing to do with that. It was a student deliberately being disuptive and rude." The event was organized as part of a $500.00 contest ran by the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Augusta.
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AbbeFaria
Joined: 17 May 2005
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 4:46 am Post subject: |
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Don't get me wrong, I hate it when christians go about banning things for their religious views as well. The US is rife with laws banning or prohibiting all sorts of things based on religion. It's sort of a drawback of having a nation founded by Puritans. They suck just as bad, though. Get half a dozen threads on christian bullying and I'll post on those too.
��S�� |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 5:05 am Post subject: |
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The incident in the OP is a good example of what I was saying in my post. Elements of the Western press are distorting events in order to create an atmosphere of anger, hostility and hatred.
The question to ask is: Who benefits? |
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bigverne
Joined: 12 May 2004
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:49 am Post subject: |
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| Elements of the Western press are distorting events in order to create an atmosphere of anger, hostility and hatred. |
The press reports stories that it thinks will sell papers, and stories about councils banning pigs are the bread and butter of tabloid newspapers in the UK. However, what is far more likely to spread 'anger, hostility and hatred' is muslim protestors outside an embassy screaming for people to be massacred. When the police sit on their hands and do nothing, people start to get angry. It is muslim intolerance (including intolerance to porcine cartoon characters) and the PC reaction to it that causes hostility and hatred, not the reporting of such events. |
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red dog
Joined: 31 Oct 2004
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 10:37 pm Post subject: |
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Love Piglet, don't eat him.  |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 11:13 pm Post subject: |
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| AbbeFaria wrote: |
Whether it was exaggerated or not, it's still fact that a muslim employee, based on his religious beliefs, got a department to change it's behavior. His coworkers are not muslim and do not share his beliefs on pigs, why should they have to bow to one man.
It wasn't telling a dirty joke, it wasn't sexual harrasment, it wasn't a dress code violation where someone was showing to much thigh/a$$ or brea$ts, it was a pig. Not even a pig being depicted in a lewd or lascivious manner. Just a pig. A porcine mammel. He was not being asked to play with it, eat it, lick it, wear it as a necklace, hold it's hoof, sing it a song or read it the heroic tale of The Three Little Pigs. It was at someone else's desk, minding it's own business. He should have done the same. Shame on him and shame on the department manager.
��S�� |
Reminds me of an old episode of the Drew Carrey Show. |
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