Hitler Restaurant In Mumbai
This is spectacularly wrong on so many levels: "Mumbai, India (AHN) - A Hitler-themed restaurant that opened last week in India's major financial district is causing an uproar. The restaurant's title - "Hitler's Cross" - refers to the swastika that symbolized the Nazi regime, and the restaurant's interior is decorated in red, white and black - the colors of the Nazi party.
The road leading up to Hitler's Cross is lined with posters, one of which reads "From Small Bites to Mega Joys." An enormous portrait of Hitler is the first thing visitors see when they open the door.
According to the store's owner, Punit Shablok, his establishment is not promoting Hitler.
Shablok tells Reuters, "We wanted to be different. This is one name that will stay in people's minds ... we want to tell people we are different in the way he was different."
Restaurant manager Fatima Kabani says they are planning to open more branches in Mumbai.
"This place is not about wars or crimes, but where people come to relax and enjoy a meal," the manager says.
Jonathan Solomon, chairman of the Indian Jewish Federation, is among the infuriated.
"This signifies a severe lack of awareness of the agony of millions of Jews caused by one man," he says. "We are going to stop this deification of Hitler.""
Bet the lager tastes bad.
“we want to tell people we are different in the way he was different” …..well they both have no respect for human life or dignity so fair enough.
By weird coincidence I read about this mad bitch on the same day I looked at this post…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savitri_Devi
Bet Savitri have loved a swift half at the wacky cafe!
“We are going to stop this deification of Hitler.”
That’s fair enough. But the response to the portrayal of Hitler in movies such as Downfall and Max was that it’s wrong to humanise him. So what do you do?
I think there’s a culture gap; because Asians did not live through the war in Europe, they don’t associate Hitler so much with it (any more than French people think of Tojo in this light). They know he was an evil man, but he’s not such an icon of depravity. Which is why, in the Philippines, people name their kids after him.
Asians have their own bogeymen, whose impact may not be understood in the West. Mao killed more people than Hitler, but in Camden, there’s a restaurant called The New Cultural Revolution. Well?
Of course there’s a huge degree of inevitible cultural relativism caused by how far-flung people are to the monsters in question. To be honest I can imagine zany Idi Amin restaurants in all manner of places; here was a truly off-the-wall wacky tyrant who you may well find funny if you’re not the one being tortured by him. It doesn’t stop it being wrong though.
I don’t hold with the communist/fascist moral equivalence thing. There is a very good reason why Hitler is considered the purest essence of evil and Mao isn’t, and that’s because however many people have been killed under the name of “Communism” this is still a noble ideal gone disastrously wrong, while fascism/nazism is a hideous ideal going according to plan.
Body counts are very messy things. Mao certainly killed more than Hitler. On the other hand, the British Empire killed many millions itself. Churchill directly instigated the Bengal famine which killed over a million. Sanctions against Iraq probably led to more deaths in the country than the subsequent disastrous invasion.
P J O’Rourke at his smuggest said “I don’t mind being called a Nazi, no-one ever fantasised about being tied to a bed and ravished by a liberal”.
But the very fact that Nazism is synonymous with S&M, and that there has never been any Communist sadist pornography, (is that right Chris?) shows that even in the popular consciousness people can very easily see the difference between a good idea gone bad, and a monstrous idea going tickety boo.
So, ramble over. New Cultural Revolution restaurant? Silly, shitty, bad idea. Comparable to a restaurant named after Hitler? No way.
Cogent analysis Tim and Ben. I’ll content myself with pointing and sniggering.
As for “Communist sadist pornography”, I’ll get right on to making some
It’ll never work. There’s just something inherently unsexy about tractors.