Opinion All the PM’s horses
When animal diplomacy becomes the elephant in the room.
Contrary to popular belief, diplomacy does at times require one to look a gift horse in the mouth. At least, if said horse is gifted by the Mongolian government to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his visit to the country. Twitter pictures are all that India will see of Kanthaka the horse, named after Buddha’s mount. According to a rule made by the ministry of environment and forests in 2005, animals presented on diplomatic visits cannot be brought back into the country. Most end up in zoos or miserable in conditions very different from their natural habitats. Zoological diplomacy is a tricky art. Very often, it does not travel well.
China has some skill in this field, having instituted panda diplomacy in the 1950s. Nothing says “I love you” like a live demonstration of eats shoots and leaves, apparently, and from 1958-82, nine countries were bestowed with these herbivorous ambassadors.
The komodo dragon presented by Indonesia to US President George H.W. Bush in 1990 also flourished in an American zoo, spawning 30 offspring. But not all moving tokens are successful. Witness the camel that ended up as stew after it was presented to French President Francois Hollande in Mali. Or Winston the platypus, named after Churchill. He set sail from Australia in 1943 and, tragically, died within days of reaching Liverpool, forcing the British PM to make do with a stuffed platypus sent to him earlier.
Speaking of gifts that do not travel well, Australian PM Kevin Rudd’s jar of Vegemite nearly caused a diplomatic incident when US customs wanted to examine the dangerous brown fluid that had been allowed on board a flight.
And US President Barack Obama gifted 25 classic American movies to former British PM Gordon Brown, but the UK DVD players were having none of it. The movies included, rather worryingly, Pyscho and Raging Bull. Too bad he didn’t think of taking a copy of Lost in Translation.
Share
