Papua New Guinea anger over Obama witchdoctor image

From AdelaideNow News

Papua New Guinea has become embroiled in an American race row after US President Barack Obama was depicted as a witchdoctor by opponents of his healthcare policy. In the offending image, a headshot of Obama was superimposed on a photograph of a Papua New Guinea Highlands region Huli wigman in full traditional costume, supposedly to portray the black president as an African witchdoctor.

A US organisation known as The Tea Party mocked up the image as part of their three-week series of protests across the US against controversial healthcare reforms. The image has upset Papua New Guinea citizens, particularly those living in the United States, and ignited a furious debate online and in Papua New Guinea newspapers.

Popular Detroit-based Papua New Guinean blogger David Ulg Ketepa said the image was disgusting. "Many Papua New Guineans living in the US and around the world are angered by the picture,'' he said. David Ulg Ketepa blogged that media organisations have flooded his email inbox seeking interviews. "The sad thing that I noted from this bunch of emails is that, nobody knew where Papua New Guinea is,'' he said.

"It gives me an impression that most Americans are ignorant and do not want to reason out things before opening their mouths,'' he said. US news network Cable News Network (CNN) asked Tea Party member Joe Wierzbicki whether the image was racist or satirical.

''(It) says to me that a lot of people in this country are angry about the direction that the Administration and Congress are taking us,'' he said. Former US president Jimmy Carter described Republican Joe Wilson's outburst "you lie'' during Mr Obama's healthcare address to Congress earlier this month as the "aversion to have a black person as president''.

Earlier this year, a US university student was arrested after putting up digitally altered posters of Obama as Batman comic villain the Joker.

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