{"id":26835,"date":"2017-08-18T08:50:43","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T12:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=26835"},"modified":"2017-08-18T09:00:15","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T13:00:15","slug":"reminder-the-statue-of-libertys-burka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2017\/08\/reminder-the-statue-of-libertys-burka.html","title":{"rendered":"Reminder: The Statue of Liberty&#8217;s Burka<font color=\"#FF0000\">*<\/font>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center>Words and narration by Heathcote Williams. Montage by Alan Cox.<\/center><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b9ggn8TGYqk\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The President is obsessed with deporting Arabs<br \/>\nAlthough, by a superb comic irony,<br \/>\nIt was an Arab who modeled for the United States\u2019 icon \u2013<br \/>\nNamely the Statue of Liberty.<\/p>\n<p>The sculptor\u2019s monument was initially designed<br \/>\nFor the opening of the Suez canal:<br \/>\nThe original depicted an Arab woman holding a torch.<br \/>\nIt was destined for the canal\u2019s southern portal.<\/p>\n<p>His first drawings show \u201ca gigantic female fellah, or Arab peasant\u201d<br \/>\nWith a veil modestly hiding her lips,<br \/>\nThe sculptor told Egypt\u2019s ruler she represented \u201cProgress\u201d<br \/>\nA beacon, to light the way for oncoming ships.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for the artist, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric-Auguste Bartholdi,<br \/>\nEgypt\u2019s bankrupt Khedive couldn\u2019t afford its installation<br \/>\nBut undeterred, Bartholdi recycled it and offered it to New York<br \/>\nTo commemorate the American revolution.<\/p>\n<p>Its first title had been, \u201cEgypt carrying the Light to Asia\u2019<br \/>\nBut now the figure\u2019s veil would be removed<br \/>\nAnd for his prospective US clients Bartholdi called it,<br \/>\n\u201cLiberty enlightening the world\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>But despite Bartholdi\u2019s tweaking the flowing Arab garments<br \/>\nAnd his turning them into Graeco-Roman dress,<br \/>\nIt\u2019s still a huge stone Arab that occupies New York Harbour,<br \/>\nMaking fun of the President\u2019s petty mindedness \u2013<\/p>\n<p>And of the President\u2019s paranoia for far more Americans die<br \/>\nAs a result of their falling out of bed,<br \/>\nOr their being stung by bees rather than being killed by terrorists<br \/>\nNever mind their fellow-citizens shooting them dead.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the most worthless President in US history<br \/>\nWishing to banish all Arabs from his shores<br \/>\nAn Arab giantess in New York is welcoming migrants<br \/>\nAnd giving the lie to his immigration laws.<\/p>\n<p>However much the President may demonise Arabs<br \/>\nThere\u2019s one who\u2019s rooted to the ground,<br \/>\nMaking a better job of symbolising American liberty<br \/>\nWithout her having to utter a sound.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/title\/statue-of-liberty-a-transatlantic-story\/oclc\/984822935&#038;referer=brief_results\"><font size=5><font color=\"#FF0000\">*<\/font><\/font><\/a> Khedewi Ismail Pasha; cf Edward Berenson, <em>The Statue of Liberty:  a Transatlantic Story,<\/em> Yale University Press, 2012, pp. 10 to 31<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Words and narration by Heathcote Williams. Montage by Alan Cox. The President is obsessed with deporting Arabs Although, by a superb comic irony, It was an Arab who modeled for the United States\u2019 icon \u2013 Namely the Statue of Liberty. The sculptor\u2019s monument was initially designed For the opening of the Suez canal: The original [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,18,4,20,23,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-26835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-art","7":"category-literature","8":"category-main","9":"category-media","10":"category-news","11":"category-political-culture","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-6YP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26835"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26843,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26835\/revisions\/26843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}