 | | | Subject: Teddy Bears for Freedom - Are They Reading h2g2?
Posted Aug 2, 2012 by  Dmitri Gheorgheni
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 | | It is often said that 'life imitates art'.
Now, we don't want to claim that we thought of it first - but, well, we did. Some years ago, yours truly wrote a jeu d'esprit on this site concerning those jolly galactic jokers, the citizens of the imaginary nation of Gotha - who play Goth baseball, have a pennant rather than a flag, and specialise in playing practical jokes on their political enemies. In one of these pieces, I described how the Goths attacked the humourless Romulans by staging an 'invasion' of cute teddy bears.
To prove I did this, here is the link: A68957356
Now, I'm not claiming that the intrepid Swedish advertisers who put this prank into practice were h2g2 readers, but it makes you wonder. And crow with delight.
On 4 July, the two Swedes flew a light plane under the radar of Belarus' defence system, and dropped 879 parachuting teddy bears carrying human rights messages on Minsk and environs.
Yay, Swedes! You are true to the spirit of Gotha. King Terry says, 'May our national bird, the Bluebird of Happiness, light upon you.'
Apparently, the ruler of Belarus, a fella named Lukashenko, fired two top generals. After all, he's been boasting that his country is an impenetrable bulwark against NATO, or some such.
Plush toys for freedom, that's the ticket. Let us praise inventiveness, courage, and humour in the service of human progress, wherever their inspiration came from. 
Story and video here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...-teddy-bear-invasion_n_1732734.html
This protest group are people after our own hearts: among other initiatives, they have organised the Pillow Fight World Cup, according to the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/w...-bear-airdrop-vexes-lukashenko.html
Let us salute them - long live guerrilla peace studies!
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| | | Subject: Teddy Bears for Freedom - Are They Reading h2g2?
Posted Aug 2, 2012 by Titania and Ripley the unau
This is a reply to this Posting
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2
 | | Thomas Mazetti (the man in the photo in your first external link) is one of the founders of the PR company Studio Total and it was the company that staged this - a profit driven company and by no means any idealists.
*If they did this (and most media in Sweden doubt that it happened at all and that it was all staged) they did it on behalf of one of their clients.
Let's assume it actually did happen - who would that client be?
And the reason Swedish media doubt that it happened is that the main piece of 'evidence' that Studio Total has managed to present is a video - made by themselves.
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| | | Subject: Teddy Bears for Freedom - Are They Reading h2g2?
Posted Aug 2, 2012 by Dmitri Gheorgheni
This is a reply to this Posting
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4
| |  That's interesting, Titania. So the Swedish media aren't buying it?
Deutsche Welle seems to believe them. Here's their interview:
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16139066,00.html
Al-Jazeera is behind it, with a picture and interviews:
http://m.aljazeera.com/SE/20127279351012537
If I'm understanding this correctly, the Belarus government says it happened. As a result, it is claimed, they fired two generals and arrested at least two people for posting pictures on the internet.
I'm sure it can be argued that this kind of thing might be counterproductive, since it will just make a nervous government more paranoid...
Still researching...have you got a link we can read in Sweden?
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| | | Subject: Teddy Bears for Freedom - Are They Reading h2g2?
Posted Aug 2, 2012 by Dmitri Gheorgheni
This is a reply to this Posting
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18
| | Well, I suppose nothing is ever knowable, in an ultimate sense...and saying they did it, without doing it, would not only be cheaper, but safer, too...
I doubt, however, that Belarus would fire two generals on the basis of an internet hoax, nor do I think it is logical to assume that this government would state publicly that their airspace had been invaded when it hadn't. At least, I find that hard to believe. 
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