Opinion: Annoy the Presidents of our time, expect the authorities to knock-on your door!

 

Well, were living the year 2019 and some things doesn’t change, the Excellences and the high above are still filled with vanity, which even make the kings of the middle-ages a bit jealous. They are all living in mansions, having power to end people’s lives and give it those who begs them mercy. That is who these men are, these President who has the armies behind them, have security organizations and have the police. If they are lucky, they have appointed all parts of the Courts, to ensure and secure the verdicts of Court cases to go their way.

That is why, it is dangerous to paint or play with photographs of the President of out day. If you do so in Burundi. You will get into trouble and get possible jail time. The same can happen, if you put a hijab over the Tanzanian President. You will get into legal trouble too. If you make a mockery of the United States President Trump in a cartoon, you might even be sacked from your newspaper. The same might happen if you mock the elite and the President in Kenya too. In Rwanda political satire is banned and also political cartoons, because of the fragile mind of the President. He cannot handle that someone makes fun of him and his ways. His vanity self-destruct, every time someone write something funny about him. That is why Kigali is so clean, because nobody is writing silly cartoons about the President. In China, Winne the Pooh, Peppa Pig and other cartoons are banned, as they have been used to mock the President and he cannot handle that. That is why they are banned too. That is just the way the world moves these days. The freedom of speech is limited to these men.

You better not speak of their wives, their kids, whose possible succession is on the horizon. If you do so or call a President a thief, a liar and hypocrite. Expect that you will be arrested and taken to the Courts. No one annoys a modern day President like Museveni on Facebook. No one dares writing something offensive. Especially not something, that might even be true. Because, your only supposed to publish content that has been written by syncopates like Uganda Media Centre, NRM SOMA or GCIC. The rest are supposed to Netflix and Chill, not speak up against the President.

That is just the world we live in, where it is dangerous to annoy our Presidents. They are so high and mighty, but show shallow and prestigious. They are representing us and the citizens of the state, but they are only supposed to kneel to their majesties, not mock them or speak the truth about them. No, we are all supposed to blindly following their footsteps and be honoured to share the same air as them.

We are really living in interesting times, when were supposed to be educated and be able to function as human beings. Where our leadership is supposed to represent us and govern us. Not be almighty gentlemen, who thinks its their right to govern us, they are there because someone has too. It could be their cousin for Gods sake, it could be our nephew, but it is them. Well, they don’t get that and thinks its their divine right and therefore, we better not shatter their calm. That is just the way it is.

As long as we accept this nonsense, that we cannot challenge, cannot joke or poke at the leadership of our time. Than, they will act live demigods, acts like they are above the rest and use the power to assault our freedom. Piece by piece, legislation by legislation. That is just the way it is. Don’t expect gifts, when they are only taking things away.

We need to annoy our Presidents, they need to get annoyed and think why we are doing so. Because, we have the rights to play, critique and ask questions, because they are there for us. Not the other way around. Peace.

China: Banning yet another cartoon character!

The Chinese authorities are cracking down on more cartoons, because of their messaging. The regime is afraid of their messages. Just like in 2017, when on Chinese Social Media the public was mocking the President with the nickname and pictures of Winnie the Pooh. Xi Jinping doesn’t like jokes and not on his expense. Therefore, during July 2017, Winnie the Pooh was a no-go.

Now the second coming here and this time its the Peppa Pig. But for other reasons. It is not because someone said the pig looks like the wife of the President or anyone in the cabinet. However, the authorities, doesn’t enjoy the message. So we can expect a lot of censorship, to extent we haven’t seen before. Because of Peppa Pig has a wrong message. Most of Disney Channel, Cartoon Network or Looney Tunes can be forgotten in the magic kingdom of China.

Manya Koetse reports: “According to a list of Douyin’s guidelines that have been surfacing online, Peppa is just one amongst various topics and themes banned from the platform. Other types of banned content include those relating to smoking, drinking, cross-dressing, cults or religion, and anything insulting the Chinese government. Over the past few months, Peppa Pig has become a subversive symbol to a Chinese online youth subculture dubbed ‘shehuiren‘ (社会人), literally ‘society people’, which is a group of young adults that is anti-establishment and somewhat ‘punk’ in their own way; going against mainstream values and, as state media outlet Global Times puts it, are “the antithesis of the young generation the Party tries to cultivate.” (Manya Koetse – ‘The Power of Peppa Pig: The Cultural Icon of China’s ‘Shehuiren’ Punks’ 02.05.2018, link: https://www.whatsonweibo.com/the-power-of-peppa-pig-the-cultural-icon-of-chinas-shehuiren-punks/)

So clearly, the message of Peppa Pig is insulting Chinese Government, just like nicknaming Xi Jinping as Winnie the Pooh. Because both of these characters are such firebrand of revolutionary voices. Their striking artifacts of Western-Civilization, that can inspire cults and make dissidents go off the rails. This just show how far the censorship is in China at this point. They are already blocking dozens of pages, news-outlets and social-media pages. Therefore, there are other pages that the Chinese uses, as they are trying to connect as well. However, these are also strictly monitored. If it wasn’t so, than these cartoons wouldn’t be subject of scrutiny.

The Communist party is really afraid of the free voices. Since they cannot manage these cartoons, because of how people are using them. But they are not thinking. That the same people will find other ways and other types of communications. Will find new symbols and the rally for censoring more will go into the ridiculous.

What is next Jessica Rabbit? Donald Duck? Mickey Mouse? Whose up?

Who knows right? But this is just a sign, just another proof of how controlling the media, the social media and the powers of censorship is in the Republic of China. They are not stopping and has no planning to do so. Because they have all the powers of doing so. Peace.