Gillian Gibbons: Positions Vacant
GILLIAN Gibbons is back home in the UK. The fate of Teddy Mohammed is unknown.
It is with profound regret that the Daily Express chose to ask its readers “Is it right for this British woman to be whipped?” and not enquire as to their feelings of the teddy, surely the real victim in this sorry tale.
“It is a very difficult and delicate area,” says Gillian in the Mirror.
Lord Ahmed, who helped secure Ms Gibbons release notes: “After all she had been through, she wanted to stay in Sudan and go back to teach at the school. That’s the kid of woman she is.”
What kind of woman she is is something Daily Express readers may like to vote on.
As for Gibbons, she says: “The Sudanese people I found to be extremely kind and generous and until this happened I only had a good experience. I wouldn’t like it to put anybody off going to Sudan - in fact I know of a lovely school that needs a new Year 2 teacher.”
And a teddy bear.
Teddy… Go
Meanwhile the peoples of Peterborough are making a stand, showing solidarity with Gillian Gibbons. As the Express reports, Mohammed is now the most popular name in that fair city, ahead of Edward, Rupert and Barnaby…
Posted: 5th, December 2007 | In: Gillian Gibbons, Tabloids, War On Terror | Comments (2) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Gillian Gibbons Pardoned In Sudan
“I AM sorry to be leaving Sudan,” says Gillian Ms Gibbons, thanking the authorities for ensuring that she was well-treated.
Says Gordon Brown: “Commonsense has prevailed. She will be released into the care of our embassy in Khartoum after what must have been a difficult ordeal. Through the course of Ms Gibbons’s detention I was glad to see Muslim groups across the UK express strong support for her case.”
Gillian Gibbons and the Teddy Bear Taliban can be read in full here
Posted: 3rd, December 2007 | In: Gillian Gibbons, War On Terror | Comments (8) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Gillian Gibbons: Sarah Khaward, Ghost Houses And Not In My Name
GILLIAN Gibbons – Anorak’s look at the newspaper reporting on the British teacher jailed in Sudan by the Teddy Bear Taliban
THE SUN: front page: “’Teddy’ Miss to go free. Gillian Gibbons is “on the brink of freedom”
Page 9: “READY TEDDY GO!” – Will she be freed early? Gibbons was jailed last Thursday for 15 days for allowing a pupil, aged 7, to call the class teddy Mohammed. “I’m fine, I’m being well treated,” says Gibbons
Gillian Gibbons is innocent. She’s the victim of a “wicked plot” perpetuated by a “scheming” Sarah Khaward, who had fallen out with school principal Marina Hitchens and used to teddy bear to get “revenge”
Mohammed the bear has been locked in a “Khatoum vault”. “It’s a life sentence for the bear. He’s in a police store and will never be handed back.” We fear for his safety. Ruperts - The Teddy Bear Rescue Centre - has yet to comment
DAILY MIRROR front page: “PARDON HER – Sudan president may step in to free jailed teacher Gillian”. Or may not…
Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir is meeting British Muslim peers Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Lord Nazir Ahmed. They will discuss Gillian Gibbons
Have the gun boats standing by…
Says Rosalind Marsden, British ambassador to Sudan: “We’ve got all our fingers crossed” – Such is the way of modern diplomacy
DAILY MAIL page 9: “Teddy teacher ‘within hours’ of going free”
Says Ms Gibbons: “I have been given so many apples I could set up my own stall”
She is the victim of a “spiteful plot”
DAILY EXPRESS page 6: “’Teddy’ teacher’s hops of release dashed by hatred”
A “saturated hatred” of Britain gives Gibbons no chance of early release. Says Baroness Warsi: “I am hopeful. There is a huge amount of good will here”
DAILY STAR page 10: “TEDDY TEACHER TO BE FREED IN HOURS”
Says Gillian Gibbons: “The Sudanese people in general have been pleasant and very generous, and I’ve had nothing but good experiences during my four months here”
THE TIMES page 2: Gibbons is being held not in a “cockroach-infested” prison but in one of Sudan’s “anonymous whitewashed bungalows…They were once used as ‘ghost houses, the sort of places where opponents would disappear”
THE GUARDIAN front page: “Hopes of pardon for teacher in Sudan jail” –
“NOT IN OUR NAME,” proclaims the small placard being held by a Muslim woman outside Sudan’s London embassy” – another woman holds a teddy and a sign declaring the same message
The arrest of a woman for calling a teddy bear Mohammed is being linked to the so-called anti-war demonstrators who proclaim “Not In My Name”, when it suits
THE INDEPENDENT page 13: Four people are stood outside the Sudanese Embassy in London. On carries a teddy wearing a Union flag T-shirt. “NOT IN OUR NAME” is the message. And mind what name you do use…
DAILY TELEGRAPH front page: “Teddy teacher cold be freed by Sudan today”
Lord Steel, former Liberal leader, and Michael Howard, former Tory leader, are flying to Sudan tonight. This had been arranged before Ms Gibbons’ arrest
“At last 10 teddy bears called Mohammed have been put up for sale on eBay, as a show of solidarity with Ms Gibbons”
Posted: 3rd, December 2007 | In: Gillian Gibbons, War On Terror | Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Gillian Gibbons And Sudan’s Teddy Bear Taliban: The News So Far
GILLIAN Gibbons And Sudan’s Teddy Bear Taliban: The News So Far:
You Decide If Gillian Gibbons Should Be Flogged
Gillian Gibbons: Grin And Bear It
Gillian Gibbons And The UN Convention On Teddy Bear Names
Posted: 2nd, December 2007 | In: Gillian Gibbons, War On Terror | Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Gillian Gibbons: Teddy Bears, Zionists And Imperalism
GILLIAN Gibbons is in jail for calling a teddy bear Mohammed.
“ALL BECAUSE OF A TEDDY,” says the Sun’s front page. “MOB WANT BRIT TEACHER DEAD.”
“KILL HER,” says the Express.
“KILL HER! KILL HER!” echoes the Mail.
“Mob calls for teddy bear teacher to be shot,” says the Telegraph, a fact illustrated by a picture of an angry looking Muslim with a, er, sword.
Says Gillian Gibbons:
I still cannot believe this…Never in my life would I have ever thought I would be accused of deliberately insulting someone or something. I am simply not like that… It was my dream to come here so why should I have come and then insulted Islam? If I was that type of person I would have never come in the first place or I could have done that sort of thing in London or Liverpool.
In Liverpool, calling a teddy “Boris” is ill met by large women in replica football tops. A London-based teddy called “Anthea” was recently thrown on the top of a bus shelter.
But this goes further. No-one sane goes out of their way to cause offence, even Mel Gibson, and it is with an eye to human-to-human harmony we look at the teddy bear in Western society and suggest some alternatives:
- The Teddy Bears’ picnic is now an all-male affair. The female teddy bears luncheon will feature guest speaker Rupert Hill (Coronation Street’s Jamie Baldwin!)
- Teddy boys will be required to rename brothel creepers “God whisperers”.
- The short lingerie item the “teddy” will be rebranded as the “vest”.
- Teddy Sheringham will address the Government’s Inter-Faith Dialogue at Loughton Bowling Green and Rotary Club this Thursday afternoon
- Teddy Pendergrass’s hit album Life Is a Song Worth Singing will be adopted as the official anthem of the One World Unity Teddy movement
Says a spokesman for the Sudanese Teddy Liberation Front: “Teddy Bears are Zionist agents. A thousand cuts on Beary Poppins, Queen Elizabear, Bearie Antoinette, Sarah Bearnheart, Abearham Lincoln, Albeart Einstein. Queen Elizabear, Cyrano de Beargerac, Lauren Bearcall, Tony Bear, Bear Mitzvahs…
Posted: 1st, December 2007 | In: Gillian Gibbons, Tabloids, War On Terror | Comments (25) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Gillian Gibbons And The UN Convention On Teddy Bear Names
IN light of news that British teacher Gillian Gibbons has been spared the lash and sentenced to 15 days in a Sudanese choky for naming a teddy in an improper way, Anorak looks at the position of teddy bears in society.
The Sun focuses on ten-year-old Georgia Leyland, who bought her teddy in Harrods and named it Mohamed, in honour of Mohamed al Fayed.
“She’s just a little girl and she doesn’t understand,” says her father Mick. We should not rush to judge. Says Georgia to Gillian: “You’ve done nothing wrong. It’s just a teddy and you should be allowed to call it Mohamed – just like I’ve done.”
Why Miss Leyland should name her bear after a business leader is odd in only that more children don’t follow the convention. Teddy bears are, after all, so called in honour of President Theodore Roosevelt, who was fond of a Square Deal and once advocated war with Spain.
Other toys - the Gonk, the Troll and My Little Pony – are rarely if ever named after world figures. It is the teddy bear that occupies a special place.
As such we need clarification on what we can and cannot name our bears. The UN Convention of Teddy Bear naming has yet to reach a consensus. And to be on the safe side all new teddy bears bought this Christmas should be named “Teddy A”, “Teddy B” or “Boutros Boutros”.
Children should resist all urges to name their Barbie doll Hillary or their Bratz collection after Al Qaeda’s leaders…
Posted: 30th, November 2007 | In: Gillian Gibbons, Tabloids, War On Terror | Comments (10) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Gillian Gibbons: Grin And Bear It
GILLIAN Gibbons is in jail on a charge of “insulting Islam”, as the Sun puts it. She is “timid” Gillian. She is the Express’s “teddy bear teacher”, and so too the Mail’s.
But there is – alas – no mention of Sudan’s Teddy Taliban, who have seen fit to incarcerate Gibbons.
What readers do get, of course, is to read the account of Gavin Sherrard-Smith, who today appears in the Mirror, having already told Mail and Express readers of his flogging in Qatar for breaking that country’s alcohol laws.
Mr Sherrard-Smith tells a good anecdote, one in the eye for those who return from Arabic country’s with only a pair of Giorgio Ferrari sunglasses and slides of them haggling for a discount on the “Tommy Copper” hat. But having heard the story three times, the pain is growing dim.
The danger is that by the time Mr Sherrard-Smith reaches the Telegraph, readers will have grown immune to the news, some even writing in to say how had the beaten Britisher gone to St Albions School he would have considered his treatment as no more than a light tap on the knuckles.
Over in the Mail, the tabloid voice of Islamic womanhood, former Apprentice wannabe Saira Khan, says the issue is “deadly serious”. It is “far from funny”.
Indeed. It is almost beyond satire.
The call is for the fundamentalist to show sense. Boris Johnson, writing in the Telegraph, talks of a time when Britain would have sent a gun boat to rescue her. “Civis Britannicus sum,” he cries. “I am a British citizen,” says Gillian ‘Gordon’ Gibbons. “We used to send gunboats to your part of the world. Ruddy fuzzy-wuzzies.”
But one thing has been left out: the identity of the teddy bear.
A soppy Rupert, a mentally negligible Paddington or a rabble rousing, not to forget Buddhist, Winnie The Pooh?
Posted: 29th, November 2007 | In: Boris Watch, Broadsheets, Gillian Gibbons, Politicians, Tabloids, War On Terror | Comments (3) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Gillian Gibbons And The UN Moratorium On Teddy Bear Naming
LOTS more news of Gillian Gibbons, victim of Sudan’s Teddy Bear Taliban.
In the Sun, one Mohammed, aged 7, says the class teddy was not named after the prophet of Islam but him. Says he: “The teacher asked me what I wanted to call the teddy. I said Mohammed after my name.”
“WE NAMED THAT TEDDY BEAR AFTER ME, NOT THE PROPHET,” echoes the Mirror’s headline. Says Dr Khalid al Mubarak: “I am certain this minute incident will be clarified quickly and the teacher cleared.”
We hope so. But not before Gavin Sherrard-Smith – yesterday he was in the Express - tells Britons and Old Etonians just how much it hurts to be whipped across the back by a bamboo stick wielded by a arge and possibly angry man.
The message is clear. We need a clear UN-approved naming convention for teddies. With the Giving Season almost upon us, it cannot come soon enough.
Approved Teddy names are: Big Ted, Little Ted, Ted, Teddy-Edward, Teddy Sheringham, Ted Kennedy Boutros Boutro and Rupert…
Names best avoided include: Ken, Anthea and any member of the victorious German football team of World Cup 74
Posted: 28th, November 2007 | In: Broadsheets, Gillian Gibbons, War On Terror | Comments (9) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
You Decide If Gillian Gibbons Should Be Flogged
THE story so far: Gillian Gibbons has been accused of insulting Islam’s holiest prophet.
The British primary school teacher at a school in Sudan allowed pupils to name the class teddy bear Mohammed. If found guilty she will be sentenced to 40 lashes and a lengthy jail term.
Gillian Gibbons is on the front pages of the Guardian, Mirror, Telegraph, Times and the Sun.
And she’s on the Express’s over, where the paper responds to the news with a question it would like its readers to respond to: “Is it right for this British woman to be whipped?”
The Express calls it a “barbaric class of values”. And it is. In the Sudan, Gillian Gibbons will get a trial and a chance to defend herself. But in the Express, she is afforded no such thing, and it is left to the readers to decide her fate.
Should she be flogged? You decide…
Posted: 27th, November 2007 | In: Gillian Gibbons, Tabloids, War On Terror | Comments (63) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Gillian Gibbons And The Teddy Bear Called Muhammed
IF you go down to Sudan todsay…: “A British schoolteacher has been arrested in Sudan accused of insulting Islam’s Prophet, after she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad.”
Colleagues of Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, said she made an “innocent mistake” by letting the six and seven-year-olds choose the name.
Ms Gibbons was arrested after several parents made complaints.
The BBC has learned the charge could lead to six months in jail, 40 lashes or a fine.
It’s no picnic…
Posted: 26th, November 2007 | In: Gillian Gibbons, Twitterings, War On Terror | Comments (14) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
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