My Journey

I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest -(Napoleon)

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Insensitivity at its best


You can trust India to come up with bizarre news too often. The very recent one, which found place in media across the world, was the name of a café in Mumbai. A bright and talented entrepreneur, who is said to be 23 years old, named it as Hitler’s Cross. True to his wishes, his café got instant publicity. Everyone knows that for sake of publicity, any publicity is good publicity and cheap ones are most effective.

Things turned sour for him when the local Jewish community, Israeli and German government raised objection to the name and the Swastika (different from Hindu Swastika). The last news is that the entrepreneur agreed to change the name and the news name is ‘The Cross Café’. Even after everything is settled, there is a lingering question in my mind. What would it take for someone to name a place to dine and socialise on the name of that German dictator, one of the most hated figures of human civilizations? Who would try to glorify Hitler?

This is not a question of Jewish appeasement. As a matter of fact, did Hitler kill only Jews? Hitler killed 11 million people, out of which 6 million were Jews and 5 million others. Even if it was only 6 million Jews, will it be considered atrocity against Jewish population or humanity? Hitler was against mankind, humanity, societal civilization and not only against Jews. How can someone be so insensitive to disregard the slaughter of 11 million people in the cruelest way?

India is a plural society and naming anything after Hitler is perfectly legal. But does this issue fall only under legal ambit or has far broader scope? Does that ‘entrepreneur’ ever read a single book of history? There are justifications like, “there are many other cruel group, sections or governments than Hitler”. True, but does that absolve or lessen the crime of Hitler in anyway?

Imagine people living their life in concentration camps, and later burning in incendiary towers, the ashes falling from the sky much like snow fall? How good the feeling is for a person to name his café after Hitler? Perhaps if he ever gets time from watching cheap Bollywood movies, should see “Schindler’s List”. If he also likes reading then he should read ‘Fateless’ by Nobel prize winner, Hungarian Jew, Imre Kertész who has penned his life in the Nazi concentration camps. Agreeing to rename the café does not change anything. It betrays the mentality of a sick mind.

Is it a mere co-incidence that the café is located in Mumbai, a city lauded for ‘spirit’, which is nothing but euphemism for apathy?

22 Comments:

  • At 12:36 AM, Blogger Koi Pahailee said…

    gold
    i have never had one ever

    :)
    now i have to read the whole post...and reading urs require hell of time and attention cuz u put in so much analysis and history to stuff...
    so wait..lemme read it :P

     
  • At 12:43 AM, Blogger Koi Pahailee said…

    yeah Hitler was bad..or so I heard..:)
    but dont u see the point

    Had the guy named it The Cross Cafe in first place, it would not have been such a big hit
    ...and now everyone knows the Cross Cafe
    even I, who might never be in Mumbai ever :(

    and yes, Hitler was a bad man but may people dont realise it...

    like when Saddam was defeated and found in that hole, I felt sorry for him...and when I dared express my feelings, my dad was the first to give me hell of a shouting...
    I had felt sorry cuz althrough Saddam was a bad man, he defeated by ppl who are worse than him..
    but I was wrong too, Saddam was a tyrant beyond belief...and I should not have forgotten that.
    So my point is that people dont always feel strongly about such characters like Hitler & Saddam (like the Cafe guy)whereas they should.

     
  • At 12:43 AM, Blogger Koi Pahailee said…

    aah, and here is bronze too :P

     
  • At 11:40 AM, Blogger greensatya said…

    Koi - Hey there is no fight on my blog for medals :) all yours :P

    Yeah, the guy named it like that for getting publicity. But my question is, can someone be so insensitive and so cheap for getting publicity ?

    Ignorance can never be an excuse.

     
  • At 12:44 PM, Blogger Shouts of Nothingness said…

    Am going for 'Downfall' the movie about Hitler, today.

     
  • At 12:58 PM, Blogger greensatya said…

    Janefield - Downfall - the German movie "Der Untergang". It is a good movie; I had seen it last December. You can read my few lines about that movie here

     
  • At 7:21 PM, Blogger educatedunemployed said…

    I agree with everything you said in your post, but was disappointed to see you label the spirit of Mumbai as apathy.I would not have been a month ago and would have probably even agreed.
    I would agree that the over rated concept of spirit of Mumbai stems more out of the need than actual spirit of the people who live here.
    But having been in close quarters with blast in two different and large metros..I have one thing to say.Mumbai didn't stop for lack of infrastruction,for lack of support,for lack of resources.People helped each other because they didn't have a govenrment to turn to or await relief funds to get back on track.It didn't take the trains 3 months to get back to normal like it did in London.Yes it is need based.People wont eat if they didn't work the next day blast or no blast.But people didn't wait for high media coverage and empty promises from leaders about fighting terrosim,they were back on their feet next day.May be they know nothing is going to come out of it.It is sad that the city that generates a sizable national income cannot really expect much from its government, but that doesn't mean you can slash on its occupants.The apathy is from office holding money making racquteers not the people who live in it.

     
  • At 10:44 PM, Blogger greensatya said…

    EU - I had anticipated the criticism and I owe an explanation. I had give careful consideration to that line, before writing and even after writing it.

    The spirit of Mumbai can be looked from two dimensions. One is the necessity of the people to carry on with life to support themself. The other one is disregard to those who got killed, and carrying on their life. The second one is apathy. What dimension one sees, depends on where one is seeing from.

    Consider the families of those innocents who get killed. Won't they feel apathy by their fellow citizens to not waste a moment of their time to show support with them. The ineptness of government gets moral boost from such spirit. Imagine Mumbai shutting down for two days, demanding justice for those killed !!

    I guess you got my drift. I don't see naming of a cafe after 'Hitler' in isolation. In any case no offense was meant.

     
  • At 12:47 AM, Blogger educatedunemployed said…

    I understand where you are coming from.You had made a similar remark earlier too.I agree.I also understand that it seems disrespectful to the dead and apathetic to the families that have lost their loved ones.I understand and also agree to what you are saying.

    But I have seen countries carry on a hue and cry for acts of terrorism committed against them and expect the world to stop and listen and do some thing about it.Apart from more bloodshed and more hatred really nothing has come about.If anything life has only got more difficult in those countries.

    There isn't a lack of anger, or resentment.There is even fear,but more importantly there is the will to live on.Directly or indirectly everyone is affected by a crime such as a bomb blast.Everyone in this city faces their insecurity.

    Like I said it is more need based than anything that life has to move on for most part of this city.

     
  • At 10:07 AM, Blogger XVSA013 said…

    most ppl in India are surprised and to a degree amused when they are told Hitler chose Swastika as symbol of Nazi party ...

    ppl are oblivious to ancient aryan symbolism and its linkage to the twisted mirror image with blood red background alteration of Swastika symbol of the third reich ...

    infact some ignorant souls view Hitler as a leader whom his enemies feared ...

    i am not really sure if this guy is really 'smart' ... my guess is he just named his business out of some ignorant mischief ...

    worst is the death toll in USSR ... 27 million ...

     
  • At 1:58 PM, Blogger greensatya said…

    EU - That's correct, you got the context. I know the spirit is also need based, and I had mentioned this once. But it is sad to feel so helpless against this repetitive terror attacks.

    I wish, only once we all rise against our government and fight for elimination of terror. Our government lacks 'will' to guarantee security of common citizens. One might not agree with all anti-terror steps of US govt, but we should not forget there has been no terrorist incident in US after 9/11.

    Appu - I totally concur with you. The guy has given interviews and says that he wanted to have one name and this name caught his fancy !! Unbelievable what he did ?

    Mowgli - Correct and ignorance can't be an excuse. Since India was only remotely and little related to WWII, there is little knowledge about it in India. Imagine if Hitler had won the Stalingrad battle then he would have definitely come to Asia.

     
  • At 5:51 PM, Blogger XVSA013 said…

    the deal between axis powers was India will go to Japan in the 'new world order'

    had that happened we would have ended up loving the Brits ...

     
  • At 6:39 PM, Blogger Unknown said…

    the idea of naming that cafe- utterly insensitive and ignorant, to say the least.
    but i enjoyed the intelligent debate between you and EU.- she said all i would've wanted to say- i don't agree with extending the criticism of this cafe to the city which happens to house it.

    p.s: u can update ur blogroll now. i'm going public. :-)

     
  • At 10:53 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Is terrorisnm only an act by the outsiders what about people killing each other and robbing off each other in times like h

     
  • At 10:57 PM, Blogger educatedunemployed said…

    Is terrorisnm only an act by the outsiders what about people killing each other and robbing off each other in times like hurricane Katrina.All said and done, I dont think US can do anything to safe gaurd its own people.Atleast that one needn't worry about when in Mumbai the 'apathetic' city.

    That said, I do agree with what you said.I will accept if you called me defensive.High time someone started speaking for this city.;)

     
  • At 12:48 AM, Blogger greensatya said…

    Mowgli - Yeah man, that would have been real bad.

    Ipanema girl - I still wonder, what made that entrepreneur do that.
    Yeah EU has put up pretty valid points, and I am sure many of us will agree. Yeah me too, I am just trying to put a veneer of my points over them.

    Good, I will fresh blogroll you :)

    EU - Yeah, robbing, killing, muggings are all act of terror. Hurricane Katrina was an equal disaster. The difference is of the proportion. Looting, killing, etc are happening much frequent, so that they don't stand out as much as some terrorist attack like 9/
    11 or Mumbai blast. By extension, apathy or empathy during this time stands out too.

    No, I don't think you are defensive, you are putting valid points. But we both have slightly different context. My context is from 'expectation side', of what the public reaction should have been?

     
  • At 6:34 AM, Blogger Raj said…

    The guy obviously either did it for all the publicity or he might just have thoguht that it would sound cool.

    Either way, its pathetic (and dumb)!

     
  • At 12:06 PM, Blogger greensatya said…

    Raj - I guess it was for both. To be cool and to get cheap publicity. But it amazes me to think the extent which poeple can go for that.

    Scipio - If the name is as simple as "Hitler's cross", then it is for glorifying and rehabilitating him.

    Secondly, Hitler has to be condemned not only by jews but by all of us.

    Thirdly, the kind of theme you propose would have been perfectly valid. Only thing, the restaurant didn't have any such ideas. It could think only of having a name, and in the process glorifying him.

    Don't you think, naming in positive connotation, is same as glorifying ?

     
  • At 1:05 AM, Blogger Expression ! said…

    This has become a new trend in India these days to name your product some thing controversial or put some controversial masala, so that it can get maximum publicity. And I would say people are stupid who help these crooked people in publicizing their product. Now see this guy doesn’t have so publicize his product, which he got free because of ignorant people, who have plenty of time for gossip. In a country like India Mira Nair will make a movie based on homosexuality. She knows that people will have hard time accepting it and there she goes, her movie got the publicity. What else will she want? Do you think she really cares for the sentiments of homosexuals? No Not a wee bit. Some movie director made a movie which had some controversial statement between Mahatma Gandhi and Chandrasekhar. He knew that even if this is not true but this controversy is going to give his movie publicity and that’s what he wants.
    After watching” Schindler’s List” who will name any thing after Hitler? But this guy did, that makes him obviously an ignorant person or greedy of publicity. My view is ,people should ignore these kinds of tricks played on their intelligence and get fooled.

     
  • At 10:21 AM, Blogger P said…

    Such distorted values of publicity management!
    p.s: enjoy the comments space.. almost as good as the actual post itself..

     
  • At 12:32 PM, Blogger pradman said…

    // Don't you think, naming in positive connotation, is same as glorifying ?

    I agree, that in this particular case it is but the guy in question could have taken the efforts to send across the right message. That is something that he did not do...

     
  • At 2:50 PM, Blogger greensatya said…

    Sharda - Nice comment. Yeah, controversies give free publicity, but this guy was so insensitive that he used Hitler's name ? This is unbelievable.

    Perspective - Indeed, distorted and sick !

    Yeah, I enjoyed the comments as well.

    Scipio - Yeah, the guy to me seems an ignoramus.

     

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