Carnival season is in full swing across much of the world, from Rio to New Orleans, from Venice to Düsseldorf and in numerous destinations throughout the western hemisphere.
As you would expect, the resurgent Greek bailout and debt crisis couldn’t go unnoticed by ingenious float creators.
In Cologne, for instance, one float shows radical left Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras holding a slingshot aimed directly at … Angela Merkel.
Moreover, the powerful German Chancellor is portrayed as a “Cyclops” — Polyphemus? — the one-eyed giant of ancient Greek mythology blinded by Odysseus (Ullyses) and his men in the ogre’s cave.
Whether the float insinuates that Tsipras is the crafty Odysseus remains unknown.
In a related dispatch, the Deutsche Welle website publishes a report on the fact that some German carnivals are avoiding other, more sensitive topics, such as the recent Charlie Hebdo massacre and digs on religions – particularly the one associated with a half moon.

According to DW:

“US President Barack Obama is caricatured as a lame duck. Russian President Vladimir Putin wears a bear costume and turns an oil spigot. The German defense minister rides on a useless weapons arsenal. These are just some of the latest designs of the floats featuring figures made from papier mache and polystyrene… We have a special responsibility to our visitors. They should be able to enjoy a worry-free carnival,” said Christoph Kuckelkorn, who heads the Cologne parade, which is the country’s largest. Out of concern for the safety of visitors, he and the Cologne carnival committee stopped one carnival float from being completed. They feared Islamic extremists could take its subject matter as a pretext to attack. The float didn’t criticize politicians – who are used to being ridiculed at carnival time – but Islamism and terrorism. A drawing shows what was planned: a defiant response to the deadly attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. A clown stuffs a pencil into the barrel of a terrorist’s gun, rendering it unusable.”