I watched the media descending on Justin Trudeau like vultures and repeatedly questioning him, and he repeatedly apologizing for wearing make-up at a costume party when he was twenty nine years old. The vehemence of the questioning seemed to have been contrived, and the repeated acts of contrition by the Prime Minister was pathetic. What did young Trudeau do eighteen years ago to be so ashamed of, and why repeat mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa? The crocodile tears of some politicians bemoaning the costume of Aladdin was also amusing.
If I dress up and act as Shylock in The Merchant of
Venice, am I to be branded as anti-sematic? If I act the part of Othello, am I
a racist? If I put on the costume of Santa Claus, am I anti-white propagandist?
Why should Aladdin’s imagined face offend all the black and brown people in
Incidentally I am an eighty five year old person who has
lived and worked in
(Joseph Pathyil)