Our president was greeted recently in New Delhi, India by 100,000 or more Muslim protestors shouting “Death to Bush.” The president’s two days in India was to discuss nuclear anti-proliferation and came after a quick, unexpected stop in Afghanistan.
In West Bengal, a new traveling opera is gaining attention from audiences in the rural country side because of its attacks on America and its glorification of Islamic terrorism. This attitude may explain some of the hatred against Bush and the US.
The opera is called ”Osama”.
It started as sidewalk theatre in Calcutta, a city that has the world’s most crowded sidewalks. (Millions of people actually live on them.)Unintentional theatre is everywhere. There is so much to see that frankly I can’t imagine people wasting their time with a stupid opera.
This Opera is not is not meant to be La Boehme or Die Fledermouse. It is pure agit-prop. The Hindu impresarios and actors who organized the play portray Osama as Saint Bin Laden, a robin-hood like character, a benign friend of women and children and very hateful towards America.
Hindus and Muslims in this part of the world have serious conflicts and the fact of Hindus playing the Muslim parts has caused trouble.
But, if this opera succeeds their successful principal actor will star in a new opera, called, no kidding “Saddam”. This Sunday's Danger Zone radio lineup is available here.
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