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gurdymonkey"Egypt's MPs are expected to pass a law requiring royalties be paid whenever copies are made of museum pieces or ancient monuments such as the pyramids." More of the BBC News article here.
This article, or ones like it, have been making the rounds, usually with comments about how stupid it is.
Somehow I don't think so.
Meet Dr. Zahi Hawass. He shows up in practically every single recently filmed program on ancient Egypt made in the past several years. Why? Dr. Hawass is only the Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. He's on the board of the Cairo Museum. He's director of several current ongoing digs. He's That Guy.
That Guy feels like an old friend in some ways, because I actually watch history documentary stuff. He's articulate and passionate about his subject and he's happy to show up and let Discovery film the opening of a tomb or help him tell the world that DNA testing has identified the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut.
I even watched That Guy do the thing a scientist is never supposed to do. I saw him fall in love with an idea and make a statement without definitive proof as he looked at the death mask of a beautiful mummy (or is that the beautiful death mask of a mummy?) and declared that it had to be King Tutankamun's mother.
Dr. Hawass is all over TV because he wants to be. Dr. Hawass made that sweeping, romantic, unscientific statement in front of a camera for the Discovery Channel. It wasn't good science, but it was riveting television.
Is it stupid to get your name and your idea on the news (TV, print, internet)?
Is it stupid to plant an idea, however, "unenforceable" that maybe people who profit from reproduction of Egyptian antiquities should be giving something back to preserve the real thing?
Is it stupid to get people to start thinking, "Sure, Vegas was fun, but wouldn't it be really something to see real pyramids?"
Stupid like the baboon headed deity Thoth is stupid.
This article, or ones like it, have been making the rounds, usually with comments about how stupid it is.
Somehow I don't think so.
Meet Dr. Zahi Hawass. He shows up in practically every single recently filmed program on ancient Egypt made in the past several years. Why? Dr. Hawass is only the Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. He's on the board of the Cairo Museum. He's director of several current ongoing digs. He's That Guy.
That Guy feels like an old friend in some ways, because I actually watch history documentary stuff. He's articulate and passionate about his subject and he's happy to show up and let Discovery film the opening of a tomb or help him tell the world that DNA testing has identified the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut.
I even watched That Guy do the thing a scientist is never supposed to do. I saw him fall in love with an idea and make a statement without definitive proof as he looked at the death mask of a beautiful mummy (or is that the beautiful death mask of a mummy?) and declared that it had to be King Tutankamun's mother.
Dr. Hawass is all over TV because he wants to be. Dr. Hawass made that sweeping, romantic, unscientific statement in front of a camera for the Discovery Channel. It wasn't good science, but it was riveting television.
Is it stupid to get your name and your idea on the news (TV, print, internet)?
Is it stupid to plant an idea, however, "unenforceable" that maybe people who profit from reproduction of Egyptian antiquities should be giving something back to preserve the real thing?
Is it stupid to get people to start thinking, "Sure, Vegas was fun, but wouldn't it be really something to see real pyramids?"
Stupid like the baboon headed deity Thoth is stupid.
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no subject
Date: 2007-12-27 12:04 pm (UTC)I think the move by Egypt's MPs is extreme, but wasn't it "extreme" for Westerners to go into their country in the first place and take pieces of it home with us? Europeans have been doing that to Egypt at least since Napolean's time and probably much earlier. Isn't it about time Egypt profited from its treasures instead of the rest of the world?
(I say this under the gaze of a reproduction anubis statue, but I *did* get it at the King Tut exhibit that was run in conjunction with the government of Egypt.)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-28 12:12 am (UTC)When we went to the King Tut exhibit in LA (the new one, not the original, alas) - we picked up at least 2 books by him - our budget for books from the exhibit was more than our car payment!
I think it's an excellent idea to put in people's heads that these images/ideas/pictures/etc. came from a specific place, and that place was not treated well by Westerners. Whether it'll take off ... heh, who knows? But it's like putting the recycling triangle on things. If you don't raise awareness, nothing happens.