AIBU be absolutely horrified that this product is widely sold in Egypt?

[notamum3210]

Backstory: I'm half Egyptian and was recently there with family. We needed to buy some pesticide and this product was recommended by a local shop.
My fiance is certainly horrified. He posted this to reddit last night www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/3r96k8/my_fianc%C3%A9_went_to_egypt_and_went_to_buy_some_bug/

Warning: there's a lot of awful commenting.

I know that casual anti-semitism is rife across the Arab world and even, shamefully, my extended family but even this shocked me. According to the shopowner, it's one of their topselling products and sold across the country. He also seemed to find it hilarious.

LOL

Whoever buys it is ignorant as far as I'm concerned.

'Absolutely horrified'? Really?

It's pretty weak humour in poor taste (which is the entire substance of the joke), but the ridiculous hyperbole is unwarranted.

(Misses point of thread)

I was highly amused to discover the top selling flykiller in Kenya was called "Doom".

There's a lovely plainess to some phrases. We had a yoghurt type drink called "Mziwi lala" - literally "sleepy milk".

It's bloody awful,what were the makers of that product thinking and what on earth would make someone think to buy it.

YABU. I see it as ridiculing him, not Jewish people, as in, he's only fit for cockroaches.
Is this the first time you've been abroad? Different countries have different mores.

What is reddit? I've never been sure.

It is in poor taste, butI do think it is a joke, so it wouldn't worry me. I wouldn't buy it however.

The second world war was about a lot more than anti-semitism.

The causes were complicated and the victims not only the Jews. Hitler was anti-semitic - no doubt about that -but his destruction of London and his invasion of Poland to name only two things, (one close to home) were not about the Jews.

Dm promote reddit.

The same percentage of German Jews lost their life as disabled people, so not just about Jews.

Jug It bugs me that some people seem to only acknowledge the holocaust when discussing WW2. There was a lot more going on that sometimes seems to be forgotten.

Indeed, look at the forced Anschluss and invasion of Czechoslovakia, Denmark, etc too.
Egypt suffered during the second world war too.
When I read your OP, I thought the picture was going to be a horrible characterisation of a Jew, which would be unacceptable, and not a joke in any way.
Humour is odd, isn't it?

I also can't see why this is so terrible. There's no mention of jews or anything to do with anti-semitism on the packet (is there...?) It's Hitler, a famous merciless genocidal killer, being associated with a bug-killing product to make you think it will really do the job. Also because it's "German" formula they've made that link. It's not exactly tasteful but I can't see that it's offensive.

I do think Hitler/Nazism has become this incredibly over-sensitised subject where for some people just mentioning them is somehow offensive. I think that's bad, as it's part of history, definitely needs to be remembered and shouldn't be censored. Yes, Hitler did terrible things to Jews, the disabled, gays and many others, but that doesn't mean images of him should be banned. There are/have been a great many other dictators and evil people and the same hysteria doesn't seem to apply.

You're correct OP - and you know the context better than others on here as you're half-Egyptian. I would be prepared to put money on the fact that it is anti-Semitic and that the 'Germany formula' is a reference to the product being as 'good' as Hitler was in terms of its extermination abilities. I LOVE a joke and have a hugely risqué sense of humour but find nothing funny in this at all. Anyone with an understanding of the attitudes towards Jews in parts of the Arab world (as OP does) would get that this 'joke' is not innocent.

I suppose however, if in context in Egypt (I admit I know nothing much about its culture) it would be widely understood as obviously anti-semitic, that is worse. I don't see it as offensive myself but I could understand if in Egypt something like that would make everyone make a connection between bugs and Jews, then it's bad. IYSWIM.

Sorry x-posted sand

As sandsnake points out, the reason why this is more sinister than a tasteless joke is because of the context, especially the shopkeeper's holocaust denial when I expressed shock at him presenting us with this product.

He said that the Jews 'claim to have been burnt in ovens during WW2' - when I told him that a) it's not a claim it's the truth and b) that I've visited one of the places where this happened (Auschwitz)

he laughed it off and made a joke saying that if it was true, Hitler's one mistake is not finishing the job off. I was fuming. He even offered me a 'gift from his shop' to say sorry for upsetting me.

I'm well aware that the holocaust did not just affect Jews but this reeks of wider anti-semitic sentiment. I don't think that counts as ridiculous hyperbole.

I never understand anti-semitic holocaust deniers. If shopkeeper approves if Hitler exterminating jews, why would he also want to deny it happened?

OP I have changed my mind and do think it's bad in the context you describe. When I see it, I think it's just silly tasteless nonsense, but that's because of my cultural background. In Egypt I can see that it is as bad as you say.

I think in this country it would mostly just be seen as a weak joke, i.e Hitler killed millions, therefore our product is good at killing, and the joke would be the same if the Hitler image was substituted for a fictional character such as Freddy Kruger. However in the context of where it's being sold I don't think that's the intended meaning of the "joke". I see it as drawing a parallel with Hitler attempting to eradicate the Jewish race and people killing insects, as in the Jews were pests in need of getting rid of.

Pretty horrific spelling of Hitler, that's for sure.

Then why didn't you put that detail in your OP? It puts it in a different context.

Sandsnake- I didn't assume that the OP necessarily knew anything about Egypt or its culture. My friend is half Egyptian, he's never been in contact with any Egyptian culture other than a week in Sharm El Shaik

I have Egyptian ILs and I think this is pretty bad, but far more shocking is seeing how widely sold Mein Kampf is in a number of Arab countries I've been to, albeit often alongside what seems to be line-up of material about dictators including saddam hussein, gaddafi etc. So it's not clear what spirit it's being sold in- whether ignorance of the content (quite possible), a sensationalist angle in sharing a lurid historical text, a lack of the kind of sensitisation that Europeans go through in their education to make the subject of Nazism extremely taboo except through carefully prepared and vetted sources, or if it's on the other hand some kind of twisted celebration..

I didn't even see the packaging as a joke. I saw it as Hitler was a killer and his image is being used to show that the product is also a killer (but of insects).

Looking at the product alone in 2015, I'd say it was offensive to modern German people.

I don't exactly understand how the product is denying the holocaust took place when it's saying the product's killing power is similar to that of Hitler. Surely that's actually acknowledging the holocaust did take place.

In any case it's all in poor taste if it was intended to be funny. Nothing about the holocaust is funny.