My Life as a Furry Red Monster - Kevin Clash [32]
“Do you want to come and work with me at the United Nations and make peace?” he asks.
“Oh, Elmo would love to. What would Elmo do?”
“I think I would take you on some of the peace negotiations, when people are fighting…to get them to make peace,” Mr. Annan responds.
“Can Elmo wear a tie like that?”
“Well, yes, it will help,” Mr. Annan says encouragingly.
As I spoke to Kofi Annan through Elmo, I thought of a child asking an important grown-up about his job. I focused on my performance, but a part of me was in awe of this man, who regularly deals with heads of state and with turmoil all over the globe. (We even talked about 9/11 and how scared Elmo was.) Yet despite his position of importance, Mr. Annan was gentle and calm, qualities that undoubtedly work for him on the job, as well.
In a very real sense, Sesame Street has its own form of the United Nations in its coproductions around the world. Mexico’s Plaza Sésamo has been on the air for thirty-four years (and can be seen in this country on Spanish-language networks), and Abelardo (Big Bird’s young cousin), Lola, and Pancho are as familiar to Latin American children as Elmo, Grover, and the rest of the U.S. cast are to children here.
In one of the most troubled areas in the world, Sesame Productions and a team from Jordan, Israel, and Palestine developed “Sesame Stories” to promote understanding and goodwill among children in that region and address the specific cultural and linguistic needs of children there. (Currently, each country has its own production.)
Sometimes I think that well-intentioned people believe the notion of diversity involves treating everyone equally. At Sesame Street, we try to model celebrating what makes us different and unique as people and cultures. That isn’t always easy for us to remember as we consult on and oversee some of these international productions. I was a small but proud contributor to Sesame International’s initiative in South Africa, where this issue surfaced.
I worked in South Africa auditioning puppeteers. While apartheid had officially ended, it was clear that remnants of the official policy remained, but the people we worked with and others I came in contact with were inspiring and amazingly hopeful about the future.
The folks at Takalani Sesame were wonderful and also wonderfully aggressive in remaining committed to creating material to address the many needs of young people growing up in the shadow of apartheid and the AIDS epidemic devastating many parts of Africa. Though those of us in the United States were uncertain at first if it was the right thing to do, their passionate advocacy of their cause convinced us that they had to educate children about the disease.
To do so, Takalani Sesame created a character named Kami who was infected with the virus from her now-deceased mother. Pretty heavy stuff for a children’s show, but when you hear of the staggering numbers of dying African men, women, and children, and the horrible lack of education and misinformation and folklore plaguing health authorities’ efforts to stem the tide, you understand how important and how necessary this character and story line are for South Africa’s future.
Kami is a little girl monster Muppet, and she has no outward signs of the disease. Both these facts help to soften the message from a more factual documentary approach to the kind of teaching and learning Sesame Street is so well known for. The other characters are curious about her condition and ask her why she doesn’t seem sick, and Kami offers an explanation