In January there is a big lottery in Argentina called “El Gordo”. The name can be translated either as “the big one” or more literally “the fat man”. It seems to be quite popular here and when I arrived there were many posters advertising the big prize. Normally such posters have symbols of local currency and perhaps a picture of some expensive stuff such as cars, exotic locations, etc. The posters here were however much more aligned with the name of the lottery and featured a sitting chubby man, who in Asian cultures is known by the name… Buddha.
I don’t know if the Argentinean Buddhist community have already contacted the organisers of the lottery protesting about the misuse of Buddha’s image, but I know places where it would certainly happen. Being born in Poland, where people tend to get offended quite easily, and then having spent many years in a very politically correct England, I actually welcomed the smiling fat lottery-Buddha with a smile myself. I’d like to think that he wouldn’t mind this either. If we need to worry about anything it should not be something of such little significance.
No comments:
Post a Comment