- What do you give to a head of state that already has everything? Something really weird, apparently.
The gears of diplomacy occasionally need a little lubricant. And what better way to leave a positive impression on a foreign dignitary than with a thoughtful gift?
Delicacies or fine goods from your homeland are staples of diplomatic meetings. But sometimes, diplomats decide to give a more… Exotic present.
Whether or not it’s intentional, the gifts heads of state give one another can get downright weird. Here’s a collection of eight decidedly bizarre ones.
1) A Komodo Dragon… Or Four
Once-Indonesian president Suharto really liked Komodo dragons. Or so we assume because he gave them twice as gifts to his U.S. counterpart.
In 1986, Suharto gifted Ronald Reagan a pair of Komodo dragons when the latter visited Indonesia. Then, four years later in 1990, he gave another two dragons to George H.W. Bush.
It’s a unique gift in the sense that you won’t find Komodo dragons anywhere but in Indonesia, and in the country, it’s apparently a great honor to receive one. But what on earth were two U.S. presidents going to do with four Komodo dragons?
Well, they tried to breed them, but it turned out they were all male. But that’s fine — thanks to some help from Cincinnati Zoo, the dragons ended up producing dozens of offspring.
2) An iPod and (Non-Functional) DVDs
In 2009, Barack Obama visited the UK. He brought some presents for the late Queen and then-Prime Minister David Cameron — but the presents were a bit…
Well, the Queen, for instance, got an iPod Classic filled with show tunes and videos of her past visits to the U.S. Maybe it’s a nice thought, but come on. That’s stuff you give your mom as a Christmas present.
But it beats what Cameron got. He got 25 classic American movies on DVDs.
One, if he likes movies, he probably already had those. Two, DVDs and DVD players are region-locked, so the DVDs probably wouldn’t have worked on UK players.
Then again, in return, Obama got a pair of rubber boots and some beer. Maybe these guys didn’t like each other very much?
3) A Mistranslated Reset Button
The Obama administration had another gaffe in 2009. As part of attempts to improve U.S.-Russia relations (that worked out well), then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with a symbolic “reset” button.
There was just a bit of a translation error. The Russian text written on the button didn’t say “reset” — it read “overload.”
Apparently, though, Clinton was able to explain the mishap in a way that had the Russians praise her for her diplomacy. We need another one of these buttons.
4) An Unlucky Dromedary
In 2013, the government of Mali wanted to thank France for helping kick Jihadist militants out of the country. So, they gifted then-French president Francoise Hollande a dromedary.
Hollande was grateful for the gift (we assume) but explained that he didn’t really have the facilities to look after the animal. So, he left it in Mali in the care of a local family.
The family then slaughtered and ate the dromedary.
Mali’s government was, understandably, a bit embarrassed. But they made up for it by gifting Hollande a — reportedly — “bigger and better” dromedary.
5) 500 Cases of Canned Pineapple
In 1947, the to-be Queen Elizabeth married Prince Philip. To celebrate their wedding, the government of Australia delivered Elizabeth a gift worthy of royalty.
By which we mean that they shipped her 500 cases of canned pineapple.
It sounds really weird today, but you have to understand that this was nearly 80 years ago. At the time, the UK was still under rationing and its economy was in tatters following WWII.
So, in that situation, pineapple was a rare and expensive treat. It’s all about the context, people.
6) A Grasshopper Wine Cooler
The late Queen has received weirder gifts than an iPod and cans upon cans of pineapple. The French president Georges Pompidou — in power from 1969 to 1974 — was an appreciator of modern art.
So, on his visit to England in 1972, he decided to gift the Queen a giant grasshopper-shaped wine cooler. If you twisted its wings open, it functioned as a wine table.
On one hand, functional art is kind of a neat gift. On the other hand, what the f***, Pompidou?
7) A Penis Sheath
It’s not the Queen of England getting all the attention, though. In Vanuatu, there’s a tribe that worships the late Prince Philip as a god.
Yes, really. We even wrote a story about it.
Anyway, the tribe used to send gifts to their god Philip every now and then. He would often return the favor by sending something back.
But in 2010, the tribe figured prince Philip was missing something. The big shots in the tribe wear large penis sheaths made of straw — but they’d never seen their god wear this traditional symbol of manhood.
So, they sent him one. We couldn’t find out if he ever wore it.
8) Animal Abuse Videos
Donald Rumsfeld was the U.S. envoy to the Middle East between 1983 and 1984. During that time, he met the then-Iraqi president/dictator Saddam Hussein several times.
During the meetings, the two liked to exchange gifts. The ones that Rumsfeld gave were weird enough — like a spiked medieval Warhammer and golden cowboy boots.
But Hussein upped the ante with one gift. It was a video depicting horrific animal abuse.
In the footage, female soldiers bit the heads off of snakes while their male comrades stabbed dogs to death. The videos were shocking, but that was kind of the point.
You see, all the soldiers were (supposedly) Syrian. By sharing the videos, Hussein hoped to ruin U.S.-Syria relations and maybe even get American support for a future war.
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