Monday, February 13, 2006

More European Bigotry

Via Hindustan Times, Now, Durga shown endorsing whisky

A disco bar in Greece has invited angry reactions from Indian community by prominently displaying a poster of goddess Durga promoting a whisky brand.

Large posters inside and outside the Balon Oriental Disco Bar in Athens depict the goddess carrying bottles of Southern Comfort Whisky.

“The Indian community in Athens has been trying for the last three months to have the posters removed. But they have totally ignored us,” says Paramjit Singh, originally from Jalandhar, now settled in Greece.

Simply outrageous.

7 comments:

Jing said...

Is this bigotry or is it simply nonchalance in the quest to make a buck. Religious imagery is not uncommon in advertising promotions, not even in the marketing of alcohol. A couple of recent events come to mind, such as the uproar in Lithuania when Jesus was used in a beer advertisement, again in Utah when they had a beer targeted at the Mormon polygamist legacy "Why drink just one?", there is even a microbrew beer named Holy Moses.

libertarian said...

PR: bigoted for sure. However, I don't think we'll be seeing any Greek embassies/consulates burning down - or any Greek products being boycotted.

Primary Red said...

Jing:

"Bigotry" is probably a bit harsh (!) since that requires a deliberate intent to demean others. Here, it's more likely as you suggest.

Still, the posters are extremely offensive to believers -- and, while as libertarian suggests, we will not be burning down Greek embassies (!), Greek contempt for our culture is duly noted.

Best regards.

history_lover said...

The cartoon controversy too started off as a local issue with the local establishment brushing off the protests.It later became an international issue as awareness spread

froginthewell said...

It is positively offensive as PR suggests and not just nonchalance. It is not a christian Europe's bigotry against hindu India, but a more-or-less irreligious Europe's proactive displays of disrespect for religions. Sometime back the government of France had made a ruling banning the wearing of religious symbols in public schools, eg. muslim girls were not allowed to wear veils. Even today France doesn't recognize hinduism as a religion.

Saying certain things to a woman is deemed sexual harassment. Similarly there are charges like slander etc. for personal remarks. I wonder why then religious remarks alone are okay, considering the fact that for many people their religious path is dearer to them than themselves.

libertarian said...

When our society is aging, our economy crawling, and unemployment soaring, we'll likely chest-thump like the Europeans. Instead of tackling those problems, we'll ban head-scarves and turbans. Instead of fighting for what we believe is right, we'll defend ludicrous actions as "freedom of speech". And we'll wonder why the rest of the world can't be civilized like us.

Anonymous said...

The Greek authorities have ordered that the Durga advertisements be removed following stepped up protests from the National Council of Hindu Temples in Britain. The Greek authorities were keen to avoid protests targeted at their embassies.

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