Jul 7

　　George W. Bush can expect a reasonably ceremonious welcome when he visits the German port city of Stralsund next week on his way to the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg. He was invited by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up nearby, as a sign of warming U.S.-German relations. But Germans can be a prickly lot, and a row has broken out

　　The show is an updated version of the 1960s show Hair. Its central prop is a huge, friendly-looking 12-m-tall Statue of Liberty, but instead of raising a torch of freedom to the world, she is raising her middle finger. Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union party was outraged. "Artistic freedom is going too far here," fumed Lorenz Caffier, general secretary of the CDU in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. "This lacks any respect." The party has demanded the statue, which Caffier called "tasteless and stupid ... and unacceptable" be taken down..

　　But the show's director, Anton Nekovar, is standing by his art. "Nobody can order us to do anything," he said in an interview with Time. Noting that the play was planned long before Bush's visit was scheduled, he said that he was not unhappy about the coincidence: "Hair ... opposes war-mongering America in the 1960s," he said. "We must not be prevented from transferring these topics to today."

　　自由女神竖中指

　　布什来访起争吵

　　乔治·W·布什下周前往圣彼得堡参加8国峰会途中顺访德国港口城市斯特拉尔松德时，他可以期待一个理性的欢迎仪式。他是应德国总理安杰拉·默克尔之邀前往那里的，因为默克尔是在那一带长大的，这也是美德关系升温的一个信号。但是德国人也许是尖刻的，一场争吵由此爆发了。

　　这出戏是20世纪60年代的《头发》一剧的现代版。剧中最主要的道具是一座巨大的、看上去很友好的12米高的自由女神像，但是，她举起的不是面向世界的自由火炬而是竖起了她的中指。默克尔保守的基督教民主联盟党被激怒了。梅克伦堡-前波末瑞州的基民盟秘书长洛仑兹·卡菲耶愤怒地说道：“艺术自由在这里过头了，这样做毫无敬意。”该党已经要求去掉这座卡菲耶所谓的“毫无趣味的、愚蠢的、不可接受”的自由女神像。

　　但是该剧导演安东·内科瓦尔坚持他的艺术。他在接受《时代》杂志采访时说：“没有人能命令我们做什么。”因为该剧是在布什的访问确定之前很久就已经策划的，他说，对于这个“巧合”并没有感到有什么不愉快。“《头发》一剧是反对20世纪60年代的战争贩子美国，我们不应该被禁止借古喻今。”