When is It All about Me?
Is this just another example of the Ugly American?
Or is there more to this? Do we believe that Richard Gere is so completely insensitive?
"As pictures of Richard Gere kissing Shilpa Shetty on her cheeks and embracing her was flashed across the country's newspapers Shiv Sena, a conservative Hindu group burnt effigies of Richard Gere and set fire to glamorous pictures of Shetty.Richard Gere bent and swept the popular Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty into his arms and several times kissed on her cheeks before a cheering crowd at the Aids Awareness event in New Delhi.
Observers said it was ironic for Richard Gere to be at the center of such anger in the country of Buddha's birth. The actor is known as the most famous Buddhist in the United States who meditates daily, and as a compassionate man who is extremely keen in eradicating Aids/HIV from India."
In North America, this may have gone over well. But in India, public displays of affection are considerably more muted.
The key to understanding this is the irony, referred to above. Gere put on a spectacular display of breaking rules in order to be persuasive.
"Gere got utmost publicity as it was done before a press conference which was held to spread AID /HIV awareness especially among the New Delhi truck drivers as the disease is spreading among them rapidly." (my emphasis)
Brilliant and what you expect out of an actor. Even if you know that Gere has calculated this effect in advance -the publicity and outrage- it is going to advance his goal of making advancing AID/HIV awareness.
Sellers of income earnings opportunities -franchises, distributorships, and network marketing- instinctively know that it is all about the client. As a consequence, they are excellent mimics -sometimes so good that they make us instinctively uncomfortable.
Unconscious mimicry is known to be an effective tool of persuasion.
But sometimes you have to know when to break the rules.
Comments
I think it is a crying shame that a genuine show of affection and not sex has been treated in this way. If the world showed more compassion and love instead of loathing and hate it would be a better place to live in. The burning of pictures of the stars involved is the crime here and as for a court order that is utterly preposterous. Let the world show more love and tolerance than has been shown here.
Posted by: Garth Tuxford | May 23, 2007 10:29 PM
Interesting observation. But do you agree with my observation that Gere stage managed this event to obtain maximum publicity?
Posted by: Michael Webster | May 25, 2007 2:27 PM