social sins

More trivia. Presidential gifts listed.

In 2006, gift-minded world leaders made sure that US President George W. Bush could listen to all of Mozart while smoking a cigar and reflecting on Gandhi's "Seven Social Sins," according to a US government list.

…An Indian lawmaker, Nirmal Deshpande, gave the US president perhaps the least expensive present of his time in office: The yellow linen scroll with Gandhi's warnings, with an estimated worth of seven dollars -- or one per sin.

They are "politics without principle," "wealth without work," "pleasure without conscience," "knowledge without character," "commerce without morality," "science without humanity," and "worship without sacrifice."

If someone gave me a scroll warning against “wealth without work” in Gandhi’s very own handwriting, I’d flog it on e-bay. Not that I’m a cynic, you understand: just a lover of irony.

There are lots of clunky expensive watches on the list. I suppose people just couldn’t think of anything else to give him by this stage, though the bloke in charge of Azerbaijan presented Dubya a rug with his own features cunningly woven therein. Now he can wipe his feet on his face every time he comes in out of the rain.

Comments

[dsquared]

"Forty pounds of human eyes" presumably ruled out by modern health and safety laws I suppose.

[Alex]

Tony Poe; didn't he end up living in Brisbane? I wonder what he thinks, if still in a position to think, of the Situation?

[ejh]

There are lots of clunky expensive watches on the list. I suppose people just couldn't think of anything else to give him by this stage

Presumably these were considered amusing after he either did or did not have his watch lifted in Albania.

[ajay]

Alas, Tony Poe died in June 2003 in California, of diabetes. I have no idea what he would have thought of the Situation. (And I believe it was ears, not eyes, that he sent to the US embassy. Makes sense. Ears are more robust and easier to carry around.)

[dsquared]

I was thinking more of Ante Pavelic:

http://bloodandtreasure.typepad.com/blood_treasure/2006/11/holiday_reading_2.html