A slap in the face

[Night Stalker]

Pritchke I won't deny the artistry or considderation that went into the piece. Or say that it was any more or less important than the gift by the mayor. I just think this is a non-issue.

Also, if that staff member did call and say "Hey what's this thing worth?", that would just be gauche.

johnny! You kill me! [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Animal: Dollar Value of a gift? That reminds of me the sterotypical rich Texan oil tycoon? It's not about the dollar value, it's the craftmanship and materials that make it a choice piece, and quite honestly if I'm given a gift, I show some manners and look at it, irregardless of who gave it to me. I guess that's why I'm not the president.

Animal - you and your countrymen are correct - it should be the thought that counts. And it sounds as if your Prime Minister actually put a great deal of thought into exactly what type of gift he could give to the visiting heads of state that would represent a unique reflection of Canadian resources.

It's a shame the gift never actually made to President Bush for him to evaluate. Maybe his reaction to the gift would have been different and maybe it wouldn't have. As it was, the gift was received by an underling who was apparantly unimpressed due to his erroneous and poor judgement. I wonder if the Mayor had given his gift first? That might explain the underlings error in judgement. While President Bush was supposedly informed about the gift, how excited would he be expected to get when his underling says "The Prime Minister just gave you a pen holder worth no more than 20 bucks."?

Something else the article completely ignores - What did the other heads of state do with their pen holders. Did they recognize the true value of the gift and appreciate the thought that went into it? Or did they also think the Prime Minister had just given them a cheap pen holder?

I'm not justifying the U.S. reaction, I'm just wondering if we were the only ones that misjudged the value of the gift.

[mysticelt]

Okay so pritchke is right!

The US overlooked the gift of the pen set without properly making a statement to it's value.

On a scale of 1 to 100....WTF?

Did Bush personally use his bad American/Texan manners and pinpoint Canada as the victim for his pissed off attitude and disregard for everything canadian?

NO.

[Djinn Raffo]

Originally posted by mysticelt: Okay so pritchke is right! The US overlooked the gift of the pen set without properly making a statement to it's value. On a scale of 1 to 100....WTF? Did Bush personally use his bad American/Texan manners and pinpoint Canada as the victim for his pissed off attitude and disregard for everything canadian? NO.

Exactly!

[pritchke]

Maybe it was $800 CAN. At that time that would of been $20US

[antryg]

I think everyone misses the point. US law requires that any gift given be turned over to the archives and not used by the president. This is to preserve even the thought that the head of state is accepting a bribe from another country or citizens/companies. How excited would you get about a "gift" that you touch one time and never see again? I don't think it would matter if the value was 25 cents or 25 million dollars. It ain't yours! Sometimes gifts are given and the prez actually touches it, other times the prez never sees it and it goes into a warehouse.

At least concerning gift giving to the United States, maybe other countries should start presenting our prez with a card stating "A donation in your name was made to fill-in-the-blank charity.". (Before anybody asks, I do thin fill-in-the-blank is a worth charity.)

[Ar-Cunin]

Originally posted by Night Stalker: ........... I just think this is a non-issue. johnny! You kill me! [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

I agree - with both statements [img]graemlins/laugh2.gif[/img]

[Melusine]

I agree this is a trivial matter. Regardless of how I feel about Bush, he's the bloody president of the United States, and I can imagine he has other, more important things to do than minutely inspecting every gift he has. Would be pretty disturbing actually if he spent valuable time on that. Of course he has people who do such things for him, and so a mistake was made. I'd feel impolite myself too if I didn't appreciate people's gifts, and from here I'd say I'd always try to show my appreciation... but I do understand there are more important things to worry about when you hold an important position in the world so maybe from their position I would act differently.
And Antryg, that's a great idea of yours! Donations to charities as gifts, I like it. [img]smile.gif[/img]
I've actually seen instances of it before, with normal (non-presidential ) people. For instance on a funeral, when the deceased passed away because of cancer, the card will say "instead of wreaths/flowers, please make out a donation to the national cancer research institute". I've always thought that a great idea - some people actually do similar things on their weddings or birthdays (asking for donations instead of gifts) But I'm drifting off-topic now... [img]redface.gif[/img]

[ 07-18-2003, 05:43 AM: Message edited by: Melusine ]

[Sir Taliesin]

I too think donating to a charity is a fine gift. But don't forget that one man's charity, is another man's Terrorist organisation! (Sorry couldn't help myself! I'm in one of those moods.) I don't know how they are in Canada, but I can guarentee you that here in the states, there'd be alot of fallout if that money ended up someplace other than a politically correct correct cause. (Does that make sense?) ... I.E. Suppose Mr. Chrétien gave Bush a "Fill in the blank" donation and he gave it to the National Right to Life Organization (believes in outlawing all abortions), the Democrats would have a field day with that!!! And of course if a Democratic President gave a similar donation to Planned Parenthood (wants to help families and women all over the world plan families and includes abortion among it's choices) the Republicans would do the same thing. Stupid I know, but that's exactly what would happen.

NOTE TO EVERYONE: I am simply using abortion as an example!!! I do NOT entend on turning this thread into an Abortion thread so don't go there. Also I do not espouse or condemn abortion here, so do NOT be reading anything into this post!!! It's an example ONLY!!!

[Timber Loftis]

Originally posted by Djinn Raffo: quote: Originally posted by mysticelt: Okay so pritchke is right! The US overlooked the gift of the pen set without properly making a statement to it's value. On a scale of 1 to 100....WTF? Did Bush personally use his bad American/Texan manners and pinpoint Canada as the victim for his pissed off attitude and disregard for everything canadian? NO.

Exactly! [/QUOTE]Ditto.

Now let's go dredge up something else to fight about. [img]graemlins/fight.gif[/img]

[ 07-18-2003, 12:34 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]