Holocaust-themed Rio Carnival float causes strain

reuters ^ | Tue Jan 29, 2008 9:33am EST | Pedro Fonseca

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RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A Carnival float with a pile of model dead bodies commemorating the Holocaust is causing unease before the lavish parades in Rio de Janeiro this weekend.

The Viradouro samba organization, or school, plans to feature the grim display when it marches in the Sambadrome parade strip on Sunday, despite objections from a local Jewish group.

"Really, it makes no sense addressing this theme with drums and dancing girls," said Sergio Niskier, president of the Israelite Federation in Rio de Janeiro state, referring to the slaughter of Jews by Nazi Germany in World War Two.

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WTF?

[3AngelaD]

The leaders of the Viraduoro Association have been hitting the caipirinhas way, way too hard.

[Pablo64]

I guess that some things just don’t translate well culturally...?? Seems very odd.

[Dante3]

Extremely offensive.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Barrossaid the Holocaust float would be the only one without dancers on top.

“If we had people dancing on top of dead bodies that would indeed be disrespectful,” he told Reuters.

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The parade is about dancing... I don’t get it.

[Slings and Arrows]

I don’t think that the Viradouro samba organization is trying to be cruel so much as they’re...tone-deaf. (No pun intended.)

[Comparative Advantage]

Kind of funny, in a perverse sort of way.

[Michael.SF.]

Maybe next year they could honor their African heritage and feature a slave ship themed float.

/sarchasim

[Slings and Arrows]

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[RichInOC]

Indeed, Holmes. Makes one pine for the tastefulness and high-mindedness of Carnival time in New Orleans, it does.

[Slings and Arrows]

Call me plebian, but I’ll take booze, beads, and boobs over a cartful of corpses any day.

[martin_fierro]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[ReignOfError]

This is clearly way over the line, but I can kind of see how they got there. Carnival is supposed to be irreverent -- to laugh rather than cry in the face of horror.

Members of the Zulus, the oldest black krewe in NOLA, paint themselves in blackface despite being black to begin with -- they faced racism by mocking it. Mexico's Dia de los Muertos has rituals that seem macabre to folks who weren't raised in that tradition. Even our own Hallowe'en has its roots in spitting in the face of the devil and his demons on the eve of All Saints' Day. Gallows humor on Shrove/Fat Tuesday -- there will be plenty of time for contemplation during Lent.

The first post-Katrina Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans and Mobile were filled with floats depicting shattered homes with blue tarps on the roof. It is the last wild revel before the solemn, contemplative Lenten season. But the New Orleans floats didn't depict bloated bodies in the streets. To repeat myself, this is way over the line.

[Comparative Advantage]

Those Brazilians are a crazy bunch, I tell you!

[Caipirabob]

In 1999, I went to Carnaval in the Sao Paulo Sambadrome. Good time... = ) Beside that, the Escola De Samba Vai-Vai did a "Nostradamus" theme. Predictions of the future and wars and such. One group in the school was dressed as Silver coated Nazis. Swastikas and all, including a silver, black and red Nazi Herald (emblem ) carried by the group. The like-dressed "Nazi samba dancers" were an "enigma" I barely remember. Dang, it sounds like the title of a "Troma" movie...

We were all so wasted we didn't think about it much. My passing thought was "You just don't see that every day" and later "That was probably a bad idea". It hit all of the broadcasts the next day, some people complained. The Brasilians brushed it off say "It's Carnaval!".

[dangus]

>> “Really, it makes no sense addressing this theme with drums and dancing girls,” <<

But it makes perfect sense celebrating the Passion of Christ this way?

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pingaling

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BANNED!

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