Those attending High Level Week at United Nations Headquarters will no doubt want to take home some souvenirs. Western politicians and diplomats are not poor people, so “shopping” will obviously be dizzying. This time New York has prepared a surprise of the highest category for them. One hundred elephants were “brought” to the city for sale.
If you enter the UN through the main entrance and go down to the first floor, you will come across two local attractions: a UN cafe and a souvenir shop. Throughout the “ministerial week” (as diplomats call High Level Week among themselves) long queues form.
THE UKRAINIAN FORCE WAS VALUED AT $123
The coffee, to be honest, is so-so. The prices are the same: 500-700 rubles per takeaway glass. But it is worth spending half an hour of your time in the souvenir shop. It’s eye-opening to see trinkets with the UN logo: pens for $5, T-shirts for $10, umbrellas for $30, and even cufflinks for $25.
But this is only part of the store. The showcases with national souvenirs from many countries around the world stand out. Here the prices are already less affordable. There are Russian, Bulgarian and British gifts there.
Ukrainians are also available. A plate with the large inscription “POWER” for $183, a “WILL LIBERTY” mug for… $123. And a teapot with an angel and the inscription for some reason only in English “PEACE”. It was valued at $216.
TWO MILLION FOR AN IDEA
To get the big surprise of this “ministerial week,” diplomats will have to get into their limousines and head to the other end of Manhattan. There a herd of elephants “graze” peacefully. They are all for sale. The prices are high, to put it mildly. From $8,000 for a typical 1.5-meter (5-foot) elephant calf to $22,000 for a 4.5-meter (15-foot) tusked elephant.
I suggest that wildlife advocates relax immediately. After all, elephants are made of plants. Until October 20, the traveling art installation “The Great Elephant Migration” is on display in New York’s Meatpacking District.
It was the idea of British-born animal rights activist, environmentalist and arts activist Ruth Ganesh. At least that’s how it was presented in Vogue magazine.
“I came up with a vision: to create a herd of 100 elephants and lead them across the United States,” Ganesh said.
Then, a long search for investors and material with which life-size elephants could be made. Finally the money was found. And quite a bit. Corporate sponsors helped finance the $2 million exhibit.
INFINITE STOCK
All elephants are made from dried lantana, a weed that grows in India and displaces native vegetation, reduces biodiversity and encroaches on wildlife habitat. So not a single environmentalist will criticize the material.
Ganesh did not immediately dare to send his flock to the United States. They decided to test, so to speak, the interest of consumers in the United Kingdom. The first stop of “migration” during the pandemic was Hyde Park in London. The elephants were then transported to India (Lalbagh Botanical Garden in Bangalore). And only then the exhibition went to the United States.
This summer, elephants were “walking” the scenic Newport Rock Trail in Rhode Island. And as of September 6, they became guests of Manhattan. After New York, the installation will travel to Miami, then Browning, Montana and Los Angeles.
Ganesh has set an ambitious goal: “If we sell 1,000 elephants over the next year, we will reach the $10 million mark.”
Where will a thousand elephants come from if only a hundred are for sale? The animal activists turned out to be good businessmen. For the production of elephants they set up a real mobile conveyor belt. As soon as one is purchased, a new one is placed in its place. And supplies are replenished all the time.
Ganesh won’t say how much money he’s made from his idea, but he says there’s a lot of interest in his elephants: “I’ve seen people in suits walk up to them, hug them or put their hands on their sides and look them in the eye.”
The net proceeds, which also include private donations, will benefit 22 environmental non-governmental organizations around the world, he said.
WHILE THE ELEPHANT SLEEPS
By the way, the UN already has its own elephant. And there is a pretty spicy story related to this. If you approach the UN headquarters from 48th Street, the elephant is clearly visible through the fence. Although the UN did a lot to hide it as much as possible in the thickets of the garden.
The idea of molding a wild elephant and capturing its image in bronze occurred to sculptor Mikhail Simeonov one night in the 1970s. He is originally from Bulgaria, but later moved to the United States.
It took 18 years to create the sculpture. In the early eighties, Simeonov found three sponsors. They were the authorities of Kenya, Namibia and Nepal. The sculptor traveled to East Africa, where, with the support of the Kenyan government, he slaughtered a wild male and then, while he slept, made molds of it. The process lasted two hours. The elephant returned to its herd completely unharmed. The molds were then used to make a bronze sculpture.
In 1998, Simeonov donated his “Sleeping Elephant” to the United Nations. Accepting the gift, then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said: “The sheer size of this creature humiliates us. And so it should be. Because it shows us that some things are bigger than us. This tells us that the Earth is not ours, but a treasure that we keep for future generations.”
COVERED IN POT
It is no coincidence that the Secretary General spoke of “enormous size.” This is how the AP news agency described what happened: “Before the dedication ceremony, they brought in potted plants and trees to block the animal’s side view.”
– You can imagine the sculptor’s reaction when he learned that some UN employees were offended by the size of the genitals (60 centimeters) of his multi-ton elephant. At first they even considered the possibility of an “operation,” but then decided to surround the sculpture with tall bushes, the New York Times clarified.
“I took it as a joke,” Simeonov immediately responded. – Until I saw how the bushes were planted. This is where the problem lies between humans and wildlife. They create a limit.”
