Qatar Covers Nude Statutes in Exhibit, Greeks Take Them Back

Good for the Greeks!  Holy Hathor!  And Qatar is trying to hold itself out to the world as a cosmopolitan center of culture and commerce.  Bwwwwaaahhhaaa!  What's that old saying about you can take a barbarian out of the 'hood...

From the two-way, NPR breaking news

Qatar Covers Nude Statues, Greeks Take Them Back

by Joanna Kakissis

April 30, 2013 3:24 PM

 

The ancient statues depict young men, naked and muscled, in their physical prime. The two sculptures were supposed to celebrate the purity and kinetic beauty of ancient sport in a traveling exhibit, "The Olympics — Past and Present."

But when the Greek exhibit reached the conservative Muslim emirate of Qatar, the two statues were placed behind a screen of sheer black cloth.

"The outlines of the statues were visible, but not the details," says Maria Vlazaki, the Greek Culture Ministry's director-general of antiquities and cultural heritage. "They wanted to hide the nudity." Vlazaki was part of a Greek delegation that traveled to the Qatari capital Doha for the opening of the exhibit in March.

One statue is dated to 520 B.C. and is a long-haired kouros from the sanctuary of Apollon Ptoios in Boeotia, says Evridiki Leka, curator of the sculpture collection at the National Archaeological Museum, where both marble pieces are housed.

The other depicts a young athlete with short curls. It's a Roman-era copy of a famous bronze (now lost) by the ancient sculptor Polykleitos, who designed male nudes with mathematical scale and artistic purity.

Vlazaki says the Qatari organizers of the exhibit asked for the two statues, as well as several small bronze nudes that remain on display. But Vlazaki says there were "objections from above" after the statues arrived. The Qatari organizers refused to display them uncovered, as the Greeks requested.

"So they agreed to send them back," Vlazaki says. "It was all done with minimal drama."

Culture Clash

Both countries are playing down the incident as a minor culture clash.

Greece, which is deep in recession and struggling through an epic debt crisis, needs Qatar. The energy-rich emirate said in January that it would invest up to $1.3 billion in a joint fund with Athens.

Meanwhile, the emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, bought six private islands in the Ionian Sea for his wives and children. [Wonder how long before they start to kill each other off, one by one by one -- all through a series of unfortunate accidents, of course, stretched out over the course of several years...]

Others criticized Qatar, which aspires to be a global center of culture. The country has spent billions on museums and art collection, "a remarkably sophisticated exercise at nation-building through art," Hugh Eakin wrote in The New York Review of Books in 2011.

Peter Aspden of the Financial Times wrote that Qatar must "get over its inhibitions" if it ever wants to host the Olympics. (The country led unsuccessful bids for the 2016 and 2020 games).

"There is no understanding of ancient Greek culture and its invention of sporting competition without recognizing its worship of the human form," Aspden wrote. "You just cannot have a serious exhibition on the ancient Olympics without addressing the theme of nudity."

The Qatar Museums Authority said in a statement that the decision was "not due to censorship" but was rather "based on the flow of the exhibition, awareness of the outreach to all schools and families in Qatar, and desire to be sensitive to community needs and standards."

A Doha Debates poll last year showed that 60 percent of Arabs support censorship of art that could be "inappropriate" and offend "religious beliefs." [Baloney!  If you don't like it, don't go see it.]

Vlazaki says she respects Qatar's decision on the statues and says she still views the exhibit as a success.

"Qatar is still opening itself to Europe and the West," she says. "It accepts a lot, but there are still things that it's not ready to accept." [What else would you expect her to say, duh.]

The statues are now back in Greece's National Archaeological Museum.

"The Olympics — Past and Present" runs until June 30 at the Alriwaq Doha exhibition space near the Museum of Islamic Art.

Gag Order Issued for Iranian Archaeologists

Report from CAIS: CAIS NEWS © Latest Archaeological and Cultural News of Iran and the Iranian World Iranian Archaeologists are Banned from Interviewing 13 March 2009 LONDON, (CAIS) -- In an unprecedented move by the Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicraft and Tourism Organisation (ICHHTO), all the active Iranian archaeologists are banned to partake in any interview or reveal any information about the organisation or the status of Iranian archaeology. Since 1979 Iranian archaeologists not only have carried out their duties as the ‘explorer’ to shed light on Iran’s past through their scientific works, but also voluntarily they have taken the task of protecting Iranian heritage from destruction. As the result of their endeavours today, most of Iranian newspapers, have an archaeological or heritage section dealing with the latest archaeological discoveries in Iran – and by doing so, they succeeded to bring the heritage matters to Iranian homes. “The heritage matters have been taken seriously by the Iranian media for past few years, and Iranian archaeologists have become the bridge between the ICHHTO and the media – they as the educators have illuminated the significances of “heritage” and “archaeology” in today’s Iran”, according to a report by the Persian service of CHN. The imposed interview ban has raised the suspicions and swayed the public’s mind that the authorities in charge of the organisation and subsequently the government want to censor and filter the news to cover up their incompetency in doing their jobs. Despite this the ICHHTO’s claim that the news would still be available to the public and media via their public relations office. The banning of the archaeologists who are considered to be the heralds of the Iranian archaeological news is in contradiction with the Islamic Republic’s constitution and the move is considered to be illegal. Nonetheless, this is not the first time that the Islamic Republic’s ignores its’ own constitution. By implementing such a ban the regime tries to close the only avenue of obtaining the accurate news about the status of Iranian archaeology. ICHHTO’ Incompetency & the Censorship ICHHTO have unsuccessfully tried to silence archaeologists in past, by channelling the news through the public relation office. However, since last year they stepped up their offensive behaviour towards archaeologists who choose to put themselves on the line of fire to protect their nation’s heritage and since then any experts who have criticised or exposed the ICHHTO misconduct have either received warnings or faced harsh reprimands and dismissals. “Giving an expert view [of the heritage matters] is an absolute right of the archaeologists. Also issuing statements regarding a particular organisation’s internal affairs is the responsibility of their public relation offices, since the individuals including the experts are not fully aware of the protocols – therefore organisations nominate a speaker to execute the task”, said Mohammad-Mehdi Forqāni, lecturer of Media Science at Tabatabai University. “As the experts cannot fulfil the speakers’ job – the speakers and public relation offices are also incapable of commenting about the culture and heritage matters, as it is the experts’ field”, said Forqāni. He added “the banning law not only is revoking the archaeologists’ rights in expressing their expertise views, but also it is the abuse of the freedom of speech.” He concluded “the media generally prefer to obtain the news directly from their sources, by interviewing the experts rather than via a [filtered] liaison office.” ICHHTO executives in defending the banning decision have issued a number of contradictory statements, starting by: “experts are not aware of the cultural matters, and therefore they are providing wrong information.” This is while the majority of organisation’s executives are non-educated elements, who occupied the posts just because of their legions to the regime, connections or being the relations of the ruling clerics. Following the above organisation has changed the statement and alleged: “since there is no difference between the experts and non-experts working for ICHHTO, the ban makes sure the prevention of any contradictory news.” And the statement changed again to: “some news dealing with the Iranian heritage [in trouble] is being politicised and since the experts are not aware of the situation, they influence the process of resolving the problems, therefore the news should not reach the media directly.” And in the final disdainful statement ICHHTO stated: “this ban is to ensure the job security of the archaeologists!” The implementation of such censorships and news filtering demonstrates that people in charge of the organisation consider archaeologists as whistleblowers who expose ICHHTO’s incompetency in safeguarding the Iranian heritage. ICHHTO which is responsible for protection of the Iranian heritage have failed in its’ responsibilities, and even have caused damages beyond salvation to Iranian heritage, in particular pre-Islamic sites. One of the most devastating examples was issuing a permit to a construction company to build a hotel over a Partho-Sasanian (248 BCE – 651 CE) cemetery, which resulted in destruction 10,000 sq.m of the ancient site. The permit was issued by the head of ICHHTO provincial office, and endorsed by Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei the director of ICHHTO and the vice-president of current government in power. As the result of pressure from public ICHHTO forced to terminate the construction permit and in a public deceiving interview in July 2008, Rahim Mashaei who himself was one of the collaborators in destruction of the heritage site, tried to distant himself from the case by promising an inquiry, and claimed the wrongdoers will be prosecuted. The case was closed and no one brought to justice – including Rahim Mashaei. Hamid-Rezā Hosseini a veteran Iranian journalist regarding the ban said: “this move in essence is pointless, sine we have well over ten thousand archaeological and historical sites throughout the country, which most are in a devastating and critical status. A significant number of these sites for past three years have suffered immensely and are on the verge of complete destructions, however, by a visiting those sites and simple observation we independently can inform the public about their statues and therefore we don’t require archaeologists to tell us anything.” He added “this ban is demonstrates that there is a rift between the organisation’s management and their experts. ICHHTO’ management is well aware that the archaeologists do not follow most of the organisation’s [irrelevant and bureaucratic] protocols – and in a way the management want to cover up this partition.” “ICHHTO management are imagining that their public relation office is capable to dealing with the cultural news bulletins. They want impose and decide for us what news is to be published and who we can talk to”, said Maryam Khorsand, journalist and the chief editor of Persian daily E’temād. According to her, there is possible connection between the upcoming presidential election in Iran and ICHHTO’s banning of interviews. Today Iranians journalists in cooperation with archaeologists have reached a level of independency and sophistication that the ICHHTO is incapable of controlling and filtering the news – such action is further damages to public’s trust in ICHHTO. “Journalists will continue their relationships with the archaeologists – and archaeologists will continue informing us [in clandestine]”, said Monā Qāsemiyān, a cultural journalist with Persian daily E’temād. Original News bulletin published in Persian by CHN , and translated and modified by CAIS [*] Copyright © 1998-2008 The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS)

Book Burning

Burning books - the very thought raises the hairs on the back of my neck. I came out of the womb with a book in my hand, and I've never stopped reading. Reading is the primary way in which people take in knowledge. (Photo: Nazis burning books in 1933 Berlin, (c) Corbis) The only defense we have against those who present lies as truth is our own personal knowledge store. It really is true that knowledge is power. Therefore, they who control the knowledge control the power - a primary tenant that leads to censorship and intellectual suppression in authoritarian governments and of religious fundamentalists (whatever creed) the world over. As dondelion told me years ago, media carries the message; control the media, control the message. I gauge a person's character by how he/she feels about books. I look with suspicion and horror on anyone who talks about banning books in libraries just because they don't like the content. If John McCain wins the Presidential election in November and dies in office, our next President could ban books because she doesn't like their content. Now that is a thought more scary to me than Osama bin Laden or the threat of economic melt-down. Into an environment that is ripe for book-burning these days (just ask the Taliban and Sarah Palin) comes "A Universal History of the Destruction of Books: From Ancient Sumer to Modern Iraq" (Atlas, 367 pages, $25), which was reviewed by Eric Ormsby at The New York Sun: Book-Burning and Other Bibliocausts By ERIC ORMSBY September 24, 2008 The clay tablets of the Babylonians seem clumsy and strangely vulnerable. They weren't gathered in books or protected by bindings; they crumbled easily. And yet, they had one great advantage over all our media, from parchment to CDs: When baked by the sun or fired in kilns, clay tablets become virtually indestructible. Neither fire nor water nor hungry worms can wreck them. If they break, the shards can be pieced together again. As a result, thousands of ancient records incised in clay, from bills of lading to personal letters to such literary masterpieces as the "Epic of Gilgamesh," survive to this day. By contrast, of the 120 works attributed to Sophocles only seven complete plays and a handful of fragments are extant. Sappho wrote nine volumes of verse but only two whole poems of hers survive. And in fact, we ourselves aren't much better off than the Greeks. Books printed in the 19th century on acid paper crumble in our hands as we read them. Nor do we even know for sure what the actual life span of digitized records will be. To make matters worse, as Fernando Báez makes plain in "A Universal History of the Destruction of Books: From Ancient Sumer to Modern Iraq" (Atlas, 367 pages, $25), translated from the Spanish by Alfred MacAdam, the book has always been doubly inflammable. Its contents inflame hostile readers while its physical format is temptingly combustible. When conquerors put vanquished peoples to the sword they destroy their books too. The Mongols under Hulagu sacked Baghdad in 1258 and devastated its centuries-old libraries; the Christian missionaries who accompanied the conquistadors made bonfires of the Aztec and Mayan codices. And as recently as August 1992, Ratko Mladic, the Serbian commander, ordered incendiary shells deployed for three days to destroy the National Library of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo. In a perverse way, such murderous vandals paid tribute to the value of the book: They understood, however dimly, that conquest can't be complete until the entire written past of the conquered has been razed to the ground. Mr. Báez is the director of the National Library of Venezuela, and so this melancholy history of destruction is close to his heart. His title makes ironic allusion to Jorge Luis Borges's "Universal History of Infamy." This is all the more fitting since Borges himself not only served as director of the National Library of Argentina but in one of his most famous fictions conjured up the shadowy "Library of Babel," a fabulous repository "whose extent is infinite." Unlike Borges, who delighted in inventing titles which don't exist (but should), Mr. Báez describes books and whole libraries that fell prey not only to fire and flood but to sheer human malevolence. He is an eloquent chronicler of such "bibliocausts." Whether he is describing the systematic destruction of books carried out by the Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang in 213 B.C.E. — only works on agriculture, medicine, and divination were spared — or the conflagration which incinerated the famed library of Alexandria, probably at the hands of a zealous Christian mob, in the fourth century C.E., Mr. Báez sets each act of destruction in its historical context. And he provides an excellent, if harrowing, array of illustrations. Lurid photographs of Nazi book-burning are set against crude images of those earlier pyres on which the writings of outcast and "heretical" groups, such as the Albigensians in medieval France, were consumed. Unfortunately, for all Mr. Báez's impassioned eloquence, this is an uneven book, and several chapters are marred by glaring errors. In the chapter on libraries in the Islamic world, for example, dates are given incorrectly, names are mangled beyond recognition, and historical events are misrepresented. Thus, the great wave of conquests that took early Muslim armies from the Arabian Peninsula to Spain in the West and India in the East within a century did not begin in 661 with the Umayyad dynasty — which Mr. Báez persists in calling the "Ommiads" — but was launched 30 years earlier; the great ninth-century translator from Greek into Arabic was Hunayn ibn Ishaq, not "Humayun Ibn Ishaq," and so forth. These are small mistakes but there are too many of them. Such breezy carelessness is especially disturbing in a book that laments the misuse of books. To his credit, Mr. Báez is no mere academic chronicler of what he calls, somewhat awkwardly, "biblioclasty." He has stood amid the ruins of great libraries in Sarajevo and present-day Baghdad and he has been active in efforts to rebuild their ransacked collections. Still, his infamous history leaves a lingering puzzle: Why does the destruction of books — inanimate objects, after all — provoke such a distinct sense of horror in us? In many cultures, of course, the book has been revered as a sacred artifact and even today we feel this; we'd rather give a book away than destroy it. But the true reason may lie deeper. Books are made out of words and it is words that define us. We are the rational, the speaking, animals. To burn a book is to aim a blow at the very meaning of what we are.