Zwarte Piet under fire!

When I lived in Belgium, I dressed up as Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) at the request of a staff member who did community service work in Antwerp.  She told me that donning black face paint was traditional and that my role would be to help Sinter Klaas (Santa) hand out the gifts.  Oh, and we went to a refugee shelter downtown which primarily housed folks of African descent.  Nice.

So there I was, in a black clown wig, black face, and black gloves, helping Santa hand out gifts.  Thinking I was an elf, I tried to engage the children, saying hello and smiling, but I was met with fear and strange looks.  Only then did my friend explain that Zwarte Piet traditionally punishes all the "bad" kids while SinterKlaas hands out gifts.

Now there's a growing movement to ban the character from Christmas celebrations:
http://news.yahoo.com/criticism-dutch-black-pete-tradition-grows-142256651.html

I think Norway celebrates SinterKlaas as well?