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State Department Spends $400,000 of Your Money on Sculpture
Your Department of State spent $400,000 of taxpayer money on a piece of sculpture called “Camel Contemplating Needle” for the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The sculpture weighs 500 pounds. The written justification for not putting the project out for competitive bidding includes a cut ‘n paste from Wikipedia about the artist. The State Department says that the sculpture meets the “values of a predominantly Muslim country.”
The price paid, $400,000 of your money, included crating of the sculpture.
The photo above is the actual $400,000 sculpture.
These are the people in charge.
That is all.
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Rich Bauer said...
1Should be titled “Camel Contemplating a Dump”
03/31/14 1:31 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
2Camel trying to hide from the next drone strike.
03/31/14 1:36 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
3Speaking if camel dung, Brett McGurk is still talking shit
http://www.wimp.com/mcgurkeffect
03/31/14 1:59 PM | Comment Link
U.S. Embassy Pakistan to Get ‘Camel Contemplating Needle’ Sculpture at Reduced Price, Let’s Buy Two! | Diplopundit said...
4[…] State Department Spends $400,000 of Your Money on Sculpture (wemeantwell.com) Share this:EmailPrintTwitterFacebookTumblrPinterestRedditGoogle […]
03/31/14 4:32 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
5Read the fine print:
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than an outlaw nation like US that has killed millions of His children to enter the kingdom of God.”
03/31/14 4:54 PM | Comment Link
Lisa said...
6Too, too rich.
As Rich alludes to the verse from Matthew (it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!), HOW can we be so foolish, such dupes?!?
As we shower these rogue states with our taxpayer largesse, they deliver us this sharp stick in the eye.
Meets the “values of a predominantly Muslim country.” Eh … how would taking no reconstruction efforts or monetary bribes fit in with those values? Just wonderin’.
(State probably won’t be holding open a position for me anytime soon.)
03/31/14 5:49 PM | Comment Link
Helen Marshall said...
7What nonsense – “meets the values of a predominantly Muslim country” by referencing a Bible verse (not to say that the Bible is not acknowledged in a Muslim country, but REALLY!!!!) Nonsense on stilts. I know some good sculptors who can turn out much better work for one-tenth the price. Call me!
Is there no shame at all at State?
03/31/14 9:36 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
8“Is there no shame at all at State?”
What did you expect? State represents US – the DUMBEST COUNTRY on the PLANET.
And for all you good “Christians” who think its okay to sit on the sidelines while the rest of the world goes to Hell, remember “the hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
03/31/14 10:09 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
9“These are the people in charge.
That is all.”
As long as I have my Miranda rights: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2593214/Miranda-Kerr-strips-naked-sultry-shoot-talks-sex-GQ.html
03/31/14 11:04 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
10What I want to know is..WHO is responsible for authorizing this kind of expenditure on fucking “art” in a country that we are fucking DRONING! I mean..LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT.
We spend a hundred billion dollars on the mechanization of autonomous drone war in a country that has continuously chastised the USG for vaporizing hundreds of innocent Pakistani civilians ..and then..some fucking State Department schmuck..has the unmittigated gall..to authorize..close to a HALF MILLION DOLLARS..on a FUCKING CAMEL?????????
Insane. The entire State Department is fucking insane. Certifiably ..fucking out of their goddammed skulls.
Meanwhile….the DOD makes this Camel shit look like a $5 wager at a carnival shell game…
http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/03/31/why-did-dod-wait-over-three-months-to-issue-records-preservation-order-after-sigar-request/
I’ve got $20 that says these Generals are in cahoots with the Contractors..just like the goddammed Navy.
Frankly, I think it’s time the DCOTP wakes up. They are now subsidizing the biggest scam on the entire planet by virtue of the 16th Amendment. What does it take to slap people up side the head.
oh..nevermind. The Kardashians are on TV..DOH!
04/1/14 12:07 AM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
11If $400,000 is spent on the camel, what is the cost for the new embassy it’s supposed to grace??
This cheaply-looking creature is of fiberglass, and — a sole source procurement.
Hope the embedded document in the link below is not suddenly retroactively classified:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/aramroston/exclusive-us-taxpayers-to-spend-400000-for-a-camel-sculpture
It might have been more cost effective to create an artistic homage to an actual Commandment — Thou shalt not steal
Then ask Halliburton, other contractors to be patriots and kick back, erm kick in, from the goodness of their hearts funding for such a noble project — saving our Treasury from having to do so in this time of economic malaise
04/1/14 2:58 AM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
12Justifications for making this a sole source or purchasing at such a high price are omitted – only a vague reference to the ‘uniqueness’ of this
Guessing the embassy is off limits to the average public – who is going to see the fiberglass camel?
Here’s some program ideas that could feature the camel and combine it with other symbolic messages:
– insert a cigarette between its lips
– encircle it with flourescent lighting for an ascetic look at night when citizens can peek through the bars and past tanks to admire it
– use it as a screen to play images from the Ukrainian revolution
– In writing, write out $400,000 divided by $1,250, the average salary in Pakistan
– on the other side, in writing, write out $400,000 divided by $1,000 — the cost of some insurance premiums Americans are getting stuck with that they cant afford
– Pin it with a “Gay marriage now’ button
– Pin it with an outdated “Yes, we can” button
– reproduce a copy of the Declaration of Independence on its flanks with “We hold these truths to be self evident…” in large-sized font, then make everything else unreadable
– In bold letters, across its flanks, “Treat other people the way you wish to be treated”
04/1/14 3:38 AM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
13Drats, i need Pitch’s edit button, I meant to write ‘side’ flanks
04/1/14 3:42 AM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
14Meaningful public diplomacy art – Rockwell’s Golden Rule at the UN:
http://pliable.wordpress.com/tag/united-nations/
04/1/14 3:55 AM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
15Kyzl said
“Guessing the embassy is off limits to the average public – who is going to see the fiberglass camel?”
Indeed. I’ve got $20 that says any Pakistani that happens to see it would shrug and wonder who the fuck would make a fiberglass camel? Can it carry anything? Can it help me make moola? Can it make more camels? Can I ride it? Who are these dumb shits..oh ..wait..Americans. DOH! And if they knew how much money we spent..they’d fall to the ground in gut splitting laughter at the absurdity of the American government.
04/1/14 9:54 AM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
16Pitch, given all the security, it’s kinda a rhetorical question
04/1/14 12:04 PM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
17Furthermore the ignoramus who made that sculpture didn’t know that the “Eye of the Needle” referred to in the New Testament was actually the name of a narrow gate to Jerusalem. A camel could go through it but not if it carried too much luggage.
04/1/14 2:11 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
18The Eye of the Needle also described Hillary’s vagina, which explains Bill’s Blue Balls he got in Intercourse trying to reach Paradise, but ended up in Bird-in-Hand.
04/1/14 3:14 PM | Comment Link
Lisa said...
19To KYZL ORDA,
This is simply brilliant:
– Pin it with a “Gay marriage now’ button
– Pin it with an outdated “Yes, we can” button
– reproduce a copy of the Declaration of Independence on its flanks with “We hold these truths to be self evident…” in large-sized font, then make everything else unreadable
– In bold letters, across its flanks, “Treat other people the way you wish to be treated”
Send your ideas to Chicago-based company CB2 and they will be sure to implement any of these in a new “fresh and fierce” wall-hanging — probably in blue or green — to be manufactured in China of plastic-sim-fiberglass.
PoMo’s vaunted irony taken to it’s logical dead-end. Thank you State, thank you China.
04/1/14 4:49 PM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
20Dear Lisa, i think Rich just topped it. But that’s a great point – is this amazingly unique fiber glass camel to be constructed in the People’s Republic of China??
04/1/14 10:22 PM | Comment Link
Lisa said...
21Kyzl,
Yes — and we shall all pay with our PRC-manufactured tchotchke-sized CB2 versions of the camel while our nation roils under its ever-increasing debt load to the once-and-future Red-menace.
Yes, Rich is brilliant, and there’s no love lost between him and Hillary. Of course, I think most of us here feel the same about her ladyship.
04/2/14 4:31 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
22Brilliant? If I am, why ain’t I Rich?
04/2/14 9:42 PM | Comment Link
Lisa said...
23Well … ya ARE “Rich”, no?
Anyhow, I’m sure the bucks are headed down the pike, soon as you toss off all integrity and join in a KBR project. Or camel model acquisition.
But on that day, you mayn’t play here with PVB anymore. So remember the moral of the biblical verse, smile and be happy that you’re not brainwashed, like the much too many 😉
04/2/14 11:01 PM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
24Exactly what Lisa said. Even the Bible says it, Rich —
“…The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25″It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26They were even more astonished and said to Him, “Then who can be saved? …”
Do you think that is what the petitioner of the sole-source fiberglass camel project had in mind when they failed, oops forgot, to cite a reason for making this a sole-source contract? Maybe they should have just written in “…because G-D has ordained it, Mark too (10;25)..”
Afterall, who can argue with the Bible (insert your fave overly-translated version here)
04/4/14 6:02 PM | Comment Link
Lisa said...
25Yes, Kyzl.
The referent to the title of the piece makes it absolutely, horrifically and unquestionably insulting.
What incredible fools we are, complicit in our own degradation (in so many ways.)
04/5/14 6:05 PM | Comment Link