Afghan Muppets Just Like Regular Muppets, But With More Blown Off Limbs
While the furry denizens of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show have always been available with a cautionary tale about the potential dangers of overindulging in chocolate chip cookies or not properly restacking one's toys, it's not unusual for their counterparts in less stable locations around the globe to have a far more daunting lesson plan. Former Jim Henson puppeteers in Afghanistan, for example, are presently hard at work creating a cast of Muppets who'll teach the local child population about the limb-severing consequences of stepping on landmines:
Now in Afghanistan the creators of Muppet stars Miss Piggy and Fozzy Bear have teamed up with two charities to teach children a lesson in survival: how not to get killed or maimed by the millions of land mines still buried in the Afghan soil.
"The Story of the Little Carpet Boy," loosely based on Pinocchio, is the brainchild of No Strings International, a British charity set up to reach children in war-torn areas and teach them vital life lessons through puppetry. [...]
Chuche Qhalin, the film's puppet hero, loses an arm and both legs until he has learned his lesson and the children watching have learned what mines look like, where they might be buried, and how to avoid them.
No Strings is now looking into using the puppet characters to make another video on the dangers of drug use in Afghanistan, which is the world's No. 1 producer of opium and heroin.
Children being children, we imagine the popular characters will soon lead Afghan youth to pester their parents incessantly for a little landmine victim with a smack habit to call their own; it's a matter of time before a Little Carpet Boy merchandising frenzy leads to tens of thousands of Velcro-jointed "Tie Me Off Chuches" flying off Kabul Toys R Us shelves.
