So what do you see in the mirror?

Some bloggers love being provocateurs, meaning that they provoke intense feelings of false devotion and heightened sense of disorientation and delusion. And who is better for delivering your daily dose of provocations than Malkin, who, while being overwhelmed by feeling of hatred for the UN, started imagining things. One of her latest flashy headlines reads: The United Nation Smears Lego. So what is all of this fuss about? Here is the story:

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has presented the following poster in its International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination:

And what a blow that is! It only means one thing for Malkin: The United Nations is portraying Denmark’s most important company, Lego, as racist!! What? Are you sure this is what it actually means? Russell Wardlow disagrees about this interpretation: “ Malkin and others would be right if they just derided the thing for being treacly and tedious, but instead they must glom on to the fact that there's a red lego in the picture!, which apparently means this is yet another dig at Denmark by the baddies at the UN.”

Since it is a theory, a conspiracy theory for that matter, why not the other way around? For example, maybe we can say that the one piece of Lego is the one who is being discriminated against instead? You know, it is more common for victims of racism to be minorities, like a poor lonely red piece of Lego. Or, even better, maybe it doesn’t mean anything other than what it intends: Exclusion is not accepted.

Here is an excellent post by Poliblogger where another, more plausible, scenario is considered:

First, I would note that the Lego is the one being left out. If the goal was to attack the Danes, surely a bunch of Legos would be shunning a black puzzle piece. That would make more sense if the Legos are supposedly representing Danish intolerance, yes?

Second, and even more to the point, the bottom line is that the UN’s poster makers simply like Legos, having used them before in their posters for UNHCR’s campaign on refugees.

I personally don’t believe that a global organization, like the OHCHR, which actually tries its best to defend human rights around the world, would contradict itself in such a tacky manner. The OHCHR works with very limited resources and in accordance to extremely constricting laws devised by certain governments to limit its activities and marginalize it in all ways possible. So, I simply don’t buy it. For me, this looks like a mirror situation: You see your own reflection in the process. And whatever you’re telling yourself [e.g. conspiracies], will be projected in the mirror.

So, what was the poster trying to say? Yes, here it is: Racism takes many shapes, including a blog post!

Comments

[raf*]

dear aya,

i'd have to disagree. after the "danish cartoon issue" ... it was, to put it mildly, "in bad taste" to use a clearly identifiable lego (= danish) brick in that poster. funny enough, the unhcr has taken the poster down after protests.

when i first saw the poster i thought the same thing as many others: "oh, WOW, the unhcr is saying that denmark is racist. now i wonder how long it takes 'till lego gets boycotted."

the o.h.c.h.r. has also come under "raised eyebrows observation" for its rather harsh & biased portrayal of the danish government during the "danish cartoon issue".

personally, i think the u.n. should be neutral ... and there are a gazillion ways to visualize that "racism takes many shapes". this one clearly means "... and one of them is danish."

ciao,

--raf*

[Aya]

Dear Raf*,

(here is a quite lengthily reply to your comment, bear with me)

I think that OHCHR’s response to the cartoon controversy has been taken out of proportion. Here is some information about the report issued by the OHCHR’s special Rapporteurs (who are independent & unpaid experts acting in their own personal capacity- meaning that their opinions can be re-evaluated by the organization itself and by other independent entities)

"The special rapporteurs strongly deplore the depictions of the Prophet Muhammad and are distressed by the grave offence they have caused to the members of the Muslim community," the statement said. Voicing equal concern about the reactions that followed the publications, they strongly condemned "death threats against journalists and intimidation of the media as well as the loss of lives, threats and other forms of violence that have occurred over the past few days" (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0602/S00165.htm) So, basically, we can disagree with those experts, but we can also point out that they called for dialogue and condemned the protesters as well.

I also don’t agree that the OHCHR should be neutral. It is an organization dedicated to the protection of human rights, and there is nothing neutral about that. Some of the cases taken up by this organization are about villages being burned by governments and people being jailed without due process, can we be neutral about such issues? However, I don’t want to confuse the OHCHR with the UN as a whole, since the UN is composed of several sub-organizations responsible for various functions. I believe that the UN secretariat, for example, should be neutral.

And the fact that they pulled out the poster shows me good faith. The UN spokesperson said: "It's unfortunate if the poster is interpreted that way as the racism message may get lost." And this is the real tragedy behind this whole issue, the message was actually lost.

P.S. by the way, I just want to point out that the UNHCR and the OHCHR are two separate UN entities with different roles. UNHCR: High Commissioner for Refugees. OHCHR: High Commissioner for Human Rights.

[ma]

Um, I thought Lego's were an American made product, until I read this post. : > Um, wonder if the puzzle is in the shape of an outline of Denmark? My first thought was the red lego was the discriminated against. Now that I analyze it, wonder why not just one puzzle piece, or more Lego's? Or a bunch of different shaped Legos? or Puzzle pieces? Why not throw some jacks in there as well? Think the message is racism rears it's heads in many ways. Good blog.