No sex please, you're in the UAE

According to a story in our newspaper, www.thenational.ae (shameless plug )a 30 year old British expat in Dubai is facing a six year jail sentence after she was caught having sex on a public beach with "Vince", a British tourist she had just met that day. The pair, apparently, had spent the afternoon indulging in one of the city's many free-flowing Friday afternoon bubbly brunch buffets before engaging in the said "criminal" activity. Now, as the expat prepares for court, the government, fearing the emergence of mass orgies on its holy day, plans to dispatch teams of moral poice to patrol from the streets to the shores on Friday afternoons to stamp out any signs of intimacy.

So the other sex that UAEites won't be getting any of here is Sex and the City. Censors were at first considering allowing it to run, but without the word "sex" in the title, yeah, right ... "And the City" won't exactly pull in the crowds .. but then I guess someone watched it and decided that it was a little risque, and gave it a big NO. No matter - it's available on pirated DVD, already circulating around the office.

Censorship is another one of those issues where logic just seems to have no place in the decision making. I went to see 21, about a university student who outplays a casino in Las Vegas - even though gambling in any form is illegal here. Yet, Iron man was slashed to pieces, with huge chunks taken out as Rob Downey Jr's Hummer is being attacked by Arab terrorists. Actually, these scenes were in the film the first time I watched it, but missing the second time around - as though perhaps someone had complained it showed Arabs in a bad light (yes, I understand that - but just those scenes????) and they were later pulled.

But probably the funniest cut has had to be in Friends. In one episode, Ross is explaining to his son about Hanukkah, and every time he mentions Israel, or Jews, those words are beeped out ... surely it would have made more sense not to the show the episode at all; as the result is only to make people more curious.