Taboos when dealing with different cultures

    Many people are aware of the circumstances around this topic. For those who are not, let me describe what happened in some detail.
    Truck drivers are the group of people in India who are in the highest risk category. They travel a few days at a time hauling goods from one part of country to other. At many stops on the way they avail the services of prostitutes. Most are illiterate and not aware of AIDS(Acute Immune Deficiency Syndrome) or how it is contracted. They engage in unsafe sex and get infected. Then they go back to their wives and spread the virus to them too.
    Richard Gere was present at a Mumbai(previously Bombay) function as part of a UNICEF program to impart aids awareness among the truck drivers. The Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty(of the UK show "Big Brother" fame) was on the dais when Richard came on to the dais. He mimicked his dance moves from his movie "Shall we dance" and kissed her on the hand. This was followed by a couple more dance steps and ended up as a kiss on Ms. Shetty's cheek. She obliged gleefully, and seemed quite happy and amused. The audience of truck drivers cheered them on. Mr. Gere exhorted them to use condoms while having sex.
    Later when it was shown on TV channels, protesters started showing up on the street. There were burning of effigies of the duo as well as street protests. There were a few cases filed against Ms. Shetty for indecent behavior. Ms Shetty tried to defend Mr. Gere saying that he didn't do anything wrong as the kiss was not on the lips. Later Mr. Gere apologized for the hurt feelings he caused, if any.
    Some of court cases resulted in court proceedings being started against the actress. She has currently approached the Supreme Court to quash the petitions. One of the judges who issued an arrest warrant was suspended from his post by his higher authorities for over zealousness. Some of complainants as well as the judge were seeking cheap publicity.
    May be Richard Gere under estimated the cultural taboos associated with the third world.
    At the same time a small fringe of the moral police and right wing in the country were looking for some political gains as the keepers of the values of the country. But then the values of the country were never like western countries. India was much more developed in sexuality as is visible from the ancient book "Kama Sutra" by Valtsyayan. You still can see a lot of sexually explicit statues on the walls of many temples and in the caves of Khajuraho. It looks like India became much more conservative now than which was the case 5000 years back.
    There were surveys conducted by all newspapers and TV stations asking whether it was okay to be kissed in public. And in most surveys Indian supported the show of affection in public. It is quite common to see couples in embrace in parks in public places in cities here.
    Another curious thing is the scene in movies made in India. The commercial movies are full of sexually provocative dance routines with scantily clad ladies. They run in packed houses with whistling crowds enjoying the scenes. May be they don't care about what happens between Indian actors. But if the man is a foreigner then that may be a taboo or an attack on their tribal assets. Women are traditionally considered to be men's property in many parts of the world even now. That could be the reason for the anger shown on the streets.
    Sex is a taboo subject here as in many parts of the developing world. The recent moves to start sexual education was met with stiff resistance here and in many schools they stopped teaching it. They prefers the half truths and ignorance to the scientifically imparted education. May be the parents can see kids as their little angels only. They cannot think or comprehend how devilish their kids could be.
    Given a half chance all these right wing nuts will get all the sex they can get themselves. I have seen my religious zealot buddies rushing to strip clubs in USA and prostitutes in Bombay. But in public they are the double-faced, church going hippocrats.

Additional Note ***