Cameron Diaz's apology for carrying for using a bag that hurt the sentiments of the people of Peru has failed to smoothen ruffled feathers.
The perky star visited the Inca city of Machu Picchu high in Peru's Andes carrying an olive green messenger bag emblazoned with a red star and the words 'Serve the People' printed in Chinese on the flap.
While the bags are trendy fashion accessories in some parts of the world, the phrase has particular resonance in Peru.
In Peru, the phrase reminds about the Maoist Shining Path insurgency that took Peru to the edge of chaos in the 1980s and early 1990s with a campaign of massacres, assassinations and bombings.
Nearly 70,000 people were killed during the insurgency.
The bag had Peruvians up in arms, and Diaz later apologised for hurting their sentiments.
However, Thor Halvorssen, president of the Human Rights Foundation, isn't ready to forgive her just yet, especially as she also has a bit of Cuban blood in her.
"It is bad enough that Diaz wears a bag quoting history's most prolific butcher, but what's even worse is that she is of Cuban heritage and really should know something about the true history of communism. There is a double standard here that boggles the mind: Had she worn a bag quoting Himmler or Pinochet, she would likely face career annihilation, and rightly so," the New York Post quoted him, as saying
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The perky star visited the Inca city of Machu Picchu high in Peru's Andes carrying an olive green messenger bag emblazoned with a red star and the words 'Serve the People' printed in Chinese on the flap.
While the bags are trendy fashion accessories in some parts of the world, the phrase has particular resonance in Peru.
In Peru, the phrase reminds about the Maoist Shining Path insurgency that took Peru to the edge of chaos in the 1980s and early 1990s with a campaign of massacres, assassinations and bombings.
Nearly 70,000 people were killed during the insurgency.
The bag had Peruvians up in arms, and Diaz later apologised for hurting their sentiments.
However, Thor Halvorssen, president of the Human Rights Foundation, isn't ready to forgive her just yet, especially as she also has a bit of Cuban blood in her.
"It is bad enough that Diaz wears a bag quoting history's most prolific butcher, but what's even worse is that she is of Cuban heritage and really should know something about the true history of communism. There is a double standard here that boggles the mind: Had she worn a bag quoting Himmler or Pinochet, she would likely face career annihilation, and rightly so," the New York Post quoted him, as saying
Read More
