Afriqiyah Airlines & Arab TV

Recently I was lucky enough to travel with Afriqiyah airlines. Afriqiyah is a relatively new airline with hub in Tripoli, Libya, so naturally it is quite difficult to ignore them.
Anyway, up to now I took several flights to Europe with them and in some ways they positively surprised me. First, they allow you to carry 30kg in economy and I believe there is no need to stress how unique that is. Second, if you need to change your travel date, you can do it for free (even though it says on the ticket that the cost is 30 dinars which is still cheap). Third, their tickets are cheap compared to, oh lets say Austrian or any other established airline flying to Libya.

So if these points are the most important ones for you be prepared for the negatives.
Stewards are Libyans so be prepared for rudeness and lack of customer service. There is only water and horrible orange juice to choose from in the drink cart. All the stewards/esses (and there are at least 6 of them!!!!) are going to spend most of the flight in the back of the plane loudly talking and smoking cigarettes. Naturally, if you have seat in the back they will ask you to move forward so they can amuse themselves in privacy. And since the planes are mostly empty, it is better for you to do so. Food, well all I can say is that it is eatable.

And then to the most interesting part for me.

Several times I flew with them, there were TV on each seat. Quite nice perk considering that it is only few hour flight! Touch screen worked, headphones worked, sound was clear enough and I was impressed with the choice they had of TV amusements. You can choose between music, Hollywood (films), short features and surprise surprise - Quran recitals... Also, there is Info section which shows maps, flight progress and direction and distance to Mekah... Everything one could need..
So I checked the short features which were quite cool and moved on to movie selection. There were 2 brain dead American comedies and one action film (forgot the name). The later was about American president (who else) coming to Barcelona for a summit where (what else) terrorist attack happens. It covers more or less an hour and a half of "real time" plot cut into sections in which we can see what one, each time different character sees from his viewpoint. It is fast moving and not all that bad (if you would ignore the fact that yet again, American president is portrayed as righteous one). So, back to the interesting part. At the beginning of the movie it said that "this movie is adapted to in-flight screen and has modified contents". Most of the movie is filmed in a big square where the summit takes place. There are a lot of people there and camera often sweeps over the crowds.
And every time there is a woman anywhere in the shot wearing anything but burka (which there is not many) they fog over her shoulders and breast area. And I assure you, there was nothing indecent in their clothes. We are talking normal T-shirts. I mean COME ON PEOPLE!!! Why do you do that?!? Are you seriously trying to negate existence of female breasts and female shoulders or you are so bloody twisted and horny that you can not even see a woman (completely dressed) in a movie and not think of something sexual? And what kind of stereotype that builds? Every time someone sees foggy part the only connection that person is going to make is - forbidden, shame, wrong, indecent.

It is pure brainwashing and the best part is - it works!! There are whole cultures out there (including Libyan) that see any flesh viewing as sexual taunting or even offer of sex. Does not matter if it is a wrist or an elbow....They are raised to make fast connection between seeing any part of female skin/hair and a slut or sex or forbidden. And of course, like everything that is "forbidden" it is all the more interesting for them. They are so deprived of any normality (yes, I use that word here) that they probably can not see the difference any more with normal and extreme. I can imagine that there is quite a bit more heavy porn downloading going on in Libya than in a country that has soft porn on TV. If their youth reacts to me (completely dressed walking down the street) in such an extreme ways, there is not much more extreme they can react when seeing something truly explicit. No wonder they have no idea how to behave when they get out of their country. Imagine what it must be like for them to come to a country where women wear mini skirts?!

Connected to that, we have few Arab channels which are not dubbing, that I watch occasionally. Watching MBC channels (Dubai based TV) is just killing me. All the commercials are for cleaning stuff depicting humble woman proudly scrubbing the house down with 3 children in a tow, and young brats driving expensive cars or drinking Coca Cola while girls are watching from the background... Or, the best one - 3 grown up woman meeting on the roof at midnight to do what else- eat chocolate! And then there is unescapable beauty factor - paler the better - and promoting the products such are "Fair&Lovely" which supposedly bleaches your face... It is like watching TV for children. Except these are not cartoons...

Needless to say, all the "sexual" content is completely cut out of any film they show which makes it for a quite short and numbing experience most of the time. I mean, why bother? Most American movies already come in several versions, one that is already cut out would be surely interesting to MBC and would look more professional...But I guess that would not be good enough for MBC since they leave all the gruesome scenes depicting violence in the movie intact... Sexual harassment scenes are also left on, because thats ok too... Because this is done for the sake of adults, not to spare the eyes of young and gentle children...

The movies on MBC2 are the worst of shallow stereotypical American comedies, action and horror films there are. For the shows on MBC4 - well does Dr. Phill, Americas got talent, Good Morning America, Moment of truth and Desperate Housewives tell you something? La femme Nikita, Red Bull, The Unit, TNA Explosion, Monster trucks and The Shield govern MBC Action Channel...

Violence, ridiculous cars, films that are all the same, stupid talk shows...
It hurts my brain to watch this stuff, and if I do I feel bad and weird after a while.
Luckily for me, we have our satellite channels to which I escape every time I fell like a bit of TV. I heard they even started something like TiVo as well, so I can watch when I please. And you know what - they even show soft porn occasionally!
Which is btw probably illegal to watch in Libya...