Saturday, May 01, 2010



Tintin in trouble again



Tintin in the Congo accused of racism in Belgian court
"He was, perhaps, Belgium's greatest 20th-century figure; a globe-trotting reporter who earned worldwide recognition for his adventures in the company of a faithful dog and a drunken sailor.

But Tintin faced ignominy yesterday as he was dragged before a court in his native land to be accused of racism and xenophobia. Lawyers told a judge in a Brussels civil court that “Tintin in the Congo” _ the second book in the series _ should be banned in Belgium or at least sold with a warning that it contains material likely to shock readers.

The case was brought by Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, 41, a Congolese accountant who says that the work, first published between 1930 and 1931, perpetuates colonial stereotypes.

Source

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another attack on reality.

Anonymous said...

You cannot or should not censor the past and the views of another time or culture. If that cartoon series continues, I presume it is not in the same mindset as the 1930s (?).

Anonymous said...

leftists always want to rewrite history, and having an accurate depiction of history easily available to the masses is therefore something that can't be tollerated by them.

And these cartoons are both historical documents (in that they both describe historical situations (at least some of them) and as well as mindsets) and readily accessible to even small children barely old enough to read.

Robert said...

The case was brought by Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, 41, a Congolese accountant who says that the work, first published between 1930 and 1931, perpetuates colonial stereotypes.

Well duh! If I remember what I've read right, the Congo didn't gain independence until the 1960's, and it was a colony until then. And the book was written at the time it was a colony, so of course it's going to express the thinking of the times it was written.