In 2002, the creative minds behind the South African version of Sesame Street decided that they needed to address the HIV/AIDS issue. The nation was and is crippled by the disease, and many of its pre-school age children were infected with the disease, or orphaned by it. At first the Workshop was going to present a human character with the disease, but there were many questions about which ethnic and class group the character should represent, as they didn't want to enforce any stereotypes. As such, they went with a tried and true method for stepping around the race issue. After all, the original Sesame Street was developed partially in the interest of healing race relations. So what they did was introduce the world's first HIV positive puppet, Kami.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kami_%28Takalani_Sesame_character%29Despite worries, Kami became an overnight success among it's target audience. It taught children to take their medicine, how to cope with the grief of lost parents, that it's OK to play with other children because they won't get infected, and so on.
Here in the United States, it wasn't such a pretty situation. A number of Republican congressmen threatened PBS and the Children's Television Workshop with revoking of their funding. "Christian" groups claimed it was another sneaky attack by the secret Gay Agenda. Television and radio pundits had a field day with the subject. Pat Buchanan called Kami an "abomination." Even some democrats and liberals had a knee jerk reaction to it. So, how what did you initially think of the world's first HIV positive muppet?
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
