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Authorities cover up nude Roman statues to not offend Iranian president

15 points by jstreebin 11y ago

FussyZeus 11y ago
Statues covered up: In my mind it depends where it comes from. - If the visiting Iranian delegation requests it I would say it's a little ignorant and petty for a visiting foreign representative to request something like that. You have to know Italy has naked statues in it. There's no way you can't know that. Asking your host entity to cover them up because you don't like them (or like them too much?) strikes me as extremely arrogant and haughty. - If it comes from the Italian Government, I'd say it's somewhat disingenuous. If they're so much a problem, they shouldn't be there in the first place, and if they aren't, it's just showing the Government is ashamed of it's own culture which is kind of weird. - If it's just the museum going "Hey this guy is visiting, his culture doesn't really dig this kind of thing, why don't we be polite and cover it up" I think that's perfectly acceptable and frankly very polite of them to do. As to his aides asking him not to be photographed next to the statue: Who cares? It's his image, let him maintain it how he sees fit.
hackuser 11y ago
It's an interesting philosophical question, but the only reason this is being reported is because the Iranian President is Muslim. People who believe in Islam should not be subject to extra scrutiny, nor should respect, tolerance and friendship directed toward Muslim people be questioned as some sort of capitulation. If we want a good outcome, we need more tolerance and less divisiveness and paranoia. We know very well from history that the latter results in very bad things - death, oppression, war, etc. - and what good comes from them? IIRC, George W. Bush's Attorney General John Ashcroft had a nude statue in the Justice Department covered because he didn't like nudes.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
  That's right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_Justice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_Justice
- nsxwolf 11y ago
  Regarding "Drapegate", It's not known exactly who ordered the drapes put there or why. Even if it was Ashcroft, his motivation is not necessarily not liking nudes. He may have been annoyed by media photographers standing at odd angles to get photos of the breast next to his head. This was an in-joke amongst photographers that started with Edwin Meese - getting a photo of a breast next to a conservative AG, bonus points if he happens to be bashing porn at the time.
kshatrea 11y ago
Completely OT but somehow relevant in my mind: this kind of submission getting up symbolizes how HN is now becoming mainstream - there is nothing even marginally "hacker" about this post - unless they were using some cool new optic fiber to make the statues "invisible".
- brianwawok 11y ago
  I am not sure the main focus of hacker news is really hacking, it is more "VC backed startup stuff".. then various world news on top of that. When I hear of hacking I think of either black hat (which is basically not discussed at all here) or tinkering (which is discussed here, but maybe a little bit less than good ol slashdot).
- gioele 11y ago
  From https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. I guess the guidelines are not so strict.
- dang 11y ago
  Don't worry, this is just the lapping of eternal waves: stories get posted, stories get flagged. One of the biggest threads yesterday was about an obscure binary sound-control protocol. Most of the apples still fall close to the tree.
cryoshon 11y ago
These statues are artful history of our human heritage... I understand the effortful making nice with foreign diplomats, but come on, the Iranian president has likely seen actual people nude before without exploding into an atomic nova of violated regressive doctrine.
Nursie 11y ago
It seems unclear where the order to do this might have come from, and with the feeling in much of Europe at the moment it will be seen as cultural capitulation by many. It's somewhat scary and the consequences are hard to forsee, but the combination of recent atrocities and the refugee crisis does seem to be reawakening various forms of European nationalism as people (rightly or wrongly) perceive their culture to be under attack. This won't help. What's this doing on HN by the way?
Sleaker 11y ago
When in Rome..... oh wait, I guess not.

15 points by jstreebin 11y ago

Statues covered up: In my mind it depends where it comes from. - If the visiting Iranian delegation requests it I would say it's a little ignorant and petty for a visiting foreign representative to request something like that. You have to know Italy has naked statues in it. There's no way you can't know that. Asking your host entity to cover them up because you don't like them (or like them too much?) strikes me as extremely arrogant and haughty. - If it comes from the Italian Government, I'd say it's somewhat disingenuous. If they're so much a problem, they shouldn't be there in the first place, and if they aren't, it's just showing the Government is ashamed of it's own culture which is kind of weird. - If it's just the museum going "Hey this guy is visiting, his culture doesn't really dig this kind of thing, why don't we be polite and cover it up" I think that's perfectly acceptable and frankly very polite of them to do. As to his aides asking him not to be photographed next to the statue: Who cares? It's his image, let him maintain it how he sees fit.

hackuser 11y ago

It's an interesting philosophical question, but the only reason this is being reported is because the Iranian President is Muslim. People who believe in Islam should not be subject to extra scrutiny, nor should respect, tolerance and friendship directed toward Muslim people be questioned as some sort of capitulation. If we want a good outcome, we need more tolerance and less divisiveness and paranoia. We know very well from history that the latter results in very bad things - death, oppression, war, etc. - and what good comes from them? IIRC, George W. Bush's Attorney General John Ashcroft had a nude statue in the Justice Department covered because he didn't like nudes.

GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
That's right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_Justice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_Justice
nsxwolf 11y ago
Regarding "Drapegate", It's not known exactly who ordered the drapes put there or why. Even if it was Ashcroft, his motivation is not necessarily not liking nudes. He may have been annoyed by media photographers standing at odd angles to get photos of the breast next to his head. This was an in-joke amongst photographers that started with Edwin Meese - getting a photo of a breast next to a conservative AG, bonus points if he happens to be bashing porn at the time.

kshatrea 11y ago

Completely OT but somehow relevant in my mind: this kind of submission getting up symbolizes how HN is now becoming mainstream - there is nothing even marginally "hacker" about this post - unless they were using some cool new optic fiber to make the statues "invisible".

brianwawok 11y ago
I am not sure the main focus of hacker news is really hacking, it is more "VC backed startup stuff".. then various world news on top of that. When I hear of hacking I think of either black hat (which is basically not discussed at all here) or tinkering (which is discussed here, but maybe a little bit less than good ol slashdot).
gioele 11y ago
From https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. I guess the guidelines are not so strict.
dang 11y ago
Don't worry, this is just the lapping of eternal waves: stories get posted, stories get flagged. One of the biggest threads yesterday was about an obscure binary sound-control protocol. Most of the apples still fall close to the tree.

cryoshon 11y ago

These statues are artful history of our human heritage... I understand the effortful making nice with foreign diplomats, but come on, the Iranian president has likely seen actual people nude before without exploding into an atomic nova of violated regressive doctrine.

Nursie 11y ago

It seems unclear where the order to do this might have come from, and with the feeling in much of Europe at the moment it will be seen as cultural capitulation by many. It's somewhat scary and the consequences are hard to forsee, but the combination of recent atrocities and the refugee crisis does seem to be reawakening various forms of European nationalism as people (rightly or wrongly) perceive their culture to be under attack. This won't help. What's this doing on HN by the way?

Sleaker 11y ago

When in Rome..... oh wait, I guess not.