In the spirit of the Christmas gift-giving season, I was perusing the website of the Museum of Presidential Gifts in Iran and had a few chuckles at some of the absolutely horrific gifts that various Iranian presidents have received. Some of the gifts are cool, some others...well....
The Arab countries give "over the top" jewels and jewel-encrusted daggers and swords. The Pakistanis dispensed with the girly jewelry stuff and went straight for pistols and submachine guns. Much more practical.
My vote for the ugliest gift -- a very difficult choice -- goes to multicolored hunk of stones given by an anonymous Russian President, followed by a close second, this platter from Armenia, third worst is this statute of "tow" birds given by the "Embassador" of South Korea (the typos are apparently due to the fact that the cataloger of gifts had by then torn his own eyeballs out of their sockets, so as to not have to see the ugly anymore.) The coolest present is the Girls Karate championship medals and trophy.
Not sure what some of the other gifts are. This one, I think, is supposed to represent God or Death giving advice to Simon Bolivar, the liberator of Latin America. Why the Malaysian President would be giving gifts of Bolivar for the President of Iran is beyond me.
I guess I need to explain this to my non-US readers: One of the secrets of the Christmas gift-giving season in the West is what to do with the really ugly and terrible gifts we're given. Thankfully, in the US, it is normal though still a little gauche for gift recipients to return their gifts to the stores where they were purchased, in exchange for something better. More gauche is to "re-gift" your gifts -- to pass them along next year to someone else (some gifts are passed around for years in this way, occasionally ending up back in the hands of the original purchaser!)
However, when it comes to diplomatic gift-giving, there is no such option and you're left stuck with whatever you've received. Yikes!
It seems that the Pakistanis know Mr.Ahmadinejad better than the others!
Posted by: B. | December 14, 2009 at 05:05 AM
Some odd gifts.
The Saudi necklace: is this intended for Mrs. Ahmadinejad? Somehow, I think this doesn't match her taste in fashion.
That Algerian dagger is neither impressive or functional.
The Saudi sword is ridiculous. Do they even make these hulks in-country? I doubt it. I mean, what do they make in-country?
That Pakistani pistol is an unimpressive make, made even more tacky by the finish, etching and selected grips.
Now the Pakistani HK SMG is a puzzling choice. Are they showing off their inferior manufactured guns made by European license? Iranian manufactured HK's are markedly superior.
The Armenian platter probably looks better in person. It's probably a local handicraft and is a practical choice.
The Russian hunk of stones is clearly an insult.
The Korean tow of birds is nice.
The Simon Bolivar statue is funny. I think the Malaysians thought that Pres. Ahmadinejad would identify with God speaking into the ear of Bolivar. However, the finished piece is comical.
Posted by: Pirouz | December 13, 2009 at 03:33 PM