Speaking of Cold War last time I thought I should write something on the Teddy Bear incident. In July 2012 Belarus was invaded by parachuting teddy bears. This is not some kind of a metaphor or a joke; it is a fact.
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| via OSCE & credit to Studio Total |
A Swedish marketing and advertising agency, Studio Total, well-known for its creative ideas decided to take action against Belarus' authoritative regime which is led by Alexander Sukashanko, 'Europe's last dictator'. In an effort to raise awareness for the violations of the freedom of speech in Belarus and in order to show their support to human rights activists Studio Total planned and implemented the Operation TeddyBear Airdrop Minsk 2012 (documented on Wikipedia): they flew from Lithuania to Belarus in their own private plane and dropped 879 teddy bears in Belarusian territory. The teddy bears were holding pro-democracy slogans and messages. You can watch the Youtube video here.
As expected Sukashenko did not really appreciate this tender gesture and he surely did not have a good laugh. Instead, he fired two generals and initiated criminal proceedings against a journalist who published online photos of the cute teddy bears (OSCE press release asking Belarusian authorities to drop charges) and against a Belarusian border guard. The guard was convicted recently (February 2013) to two years imprisonment in a maximum security prison for failing to report the invasion (BBC news). But the teddy bear row did not end here. Belarus effectively expelled Sweden's ambassador even though no tangible evidence seemed to exist between Studio Total's stunt and Sweden. Sweden in its turn reacted by expelling the Belarusian diplomatic authorities from the country and the EU took an official position supporting Sweden in the teddy bear incident. Studio Total's activists were of course summoned by KGB - Belarus security agency - for questioning over illegal crossing into Belarus' airspace. I have no idea if they went to Belarus to testify; if I were in their shoes I would not.
But I had a feeling that teddy bears' involvement in diplomatic affairs and international law extends well beyond the Belarus incident. Since google did not reveal anything of interest I took the initiative and searched Wikileaks online archives. Teddy bears are implicated in the black market in Saudi Arabia. A cable titled 'Roses are red and blacklisted: Saudi Arabia not feeling the love on Valentine's day' attests the USA preoccupation due to the fact that teddy bears are banned on Valentine's day. However, the cable continues, young lovers travel to other countries to find their teddy bears. The cable worth a read for more details.
Also, it appears that diplomatic personnel are quite keen on teddy bear terminology. For example, back to 2008 the US states that Russia is a country which is 'more a teddy than an Angry bear'. Or the US embassy in Armenia thought that Turkey exploits its 'harmless, teddy-bear image'.
Also, it appears that diplomatic personnel are quite keen on teddy bear terminology. For example, back to 2008 the US states that Russia is a country which is 'more a teddy than an Angry bear'. Or the US embassy in Armenia thought that Turkey exploits its 'harmless, teddy-bear image'.
There are even more interesting cables if you decide to do the same search providing strong evidence that teddy bear tender has developed invisible threads with international affairs. Last but not least 2 days ago it came to the surface that AA Milne, author of the Winnie the Pooh, was a secret propagandist during World War I working for MI7b, a not very well-known British secret intelligence agency.
Nothing shall be the same anymore. I will stop here before I destroy everybody's nice childhood memories. Recommended Song: Elvis Presley, Let me be your teddy bear.
