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President Obama = King Tut?

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Bianca
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« on: May 31, 2009, 11:40:13 am »













                                                     President Obama = King Tut?






Jake Tapper
ABC NEWS
May 31, 2009 10:18 AM

In anticipation of President Obama's June 4 speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, Jim Zogby writes at the Huffington Post that expectations are high though in Egypt "he will face a nation hardened in its negative view of the US and its role in the region, and unconvinced that this or any American president can or will change policy."

He adds that it is "precisely because of the persistence of these strong negative attitudes that Obama's decision to go to Egypt was the right choice. It is there that the US President must convince skeptical Arabs that the change he promised is real. Given Egypt's sheer size and the importance of its role in the region, if President Obama can't sell his message there it may not have its desired impact anywhere."

Zogby says the speech "must be more than banal clichés ('we are not at war with Muslims') or a repetition of hollow visions. It must be bigger, more consequential and more substantial."

ABC News correspondent Lara Setrakian finds this t-shirt being sold in Egypt that compares President Obama to King Tutankhamen, who ruled Egypt from 1333-1324 BC.



               



One possible aspect at play here is the insistence by some African-American activists that Tutankhamen was black, though in 2007 Egyptian antiquities expert Zahi Hawass said that "Tutankhamen was not black, and the portrayal of ancient Egyptian civilization as black has no element of truth to it."

Hawass was responding to protestors in Philadelphia who objected to images of King Tut with lighter skin than they thought accurate in the exhibit "Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," soon to open in Indianapolis.

On the other hand, maybe the T-shirt vendor was just using the name of the most famous Pharaoh to sell some shirts.

- jpt
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Bianca
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« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2009, 11:42:02 am »











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Posted by:
MarkLeavenworth
| May 31, 2009 11:46:12 AM

 
The possibilities of what the t-shirt would mean are endless. As MayBee notes, it is in English, so surely for tourists, or for the press they know will trail the president.

My first thought was that the maker knows his Egyptian history and was making an interesting and subtle statement. King Tut is known in America for his fabulous treasure, but most know little else about the "boy king." He had a brief reign, but it was most notable for the contrast to the previous pharoah's reign. Tut's father was Akhenaten, the pharoah who tried to change Egyptian society completely by outlawing the worship of the traditional Egptian gods and goddesses and instituting monotheism. Akhenaton (and his wife the sublimely lovely Nefertiti) worshipped the sun god Aten, and closed the temples of all other gods. There is much debate over whether this was a purely religious move based on his sincere monotheistic beliefs, a political move that crushed the competing power of the elite priests of the various temples and consolidated religious power in the hands of the pharoah, or a combination of both. (I fall in the combination camp, but then, I'm a moderate. *G*) Regardless, the man attempted drastic changes in Egyptian life-- not only did he change the religion, he moved the capital to a new city in the desert, which he also called Akhenaten (his name was one he adopted to reflect his religious beliefs-- it means 'beloved of Aten'-- not his birth name, Amenhotep). This was another example of his determination to make a fresh start and put his own unique mark on Egypt.

When AKhenaten, who probably suffered from Marfan syndrome, died, his son Tutankamen came to power (there was a period of two or three years where things were in flux) and reversed his father's changes. He reopened the temples, reinstated the priests, and moved the capital back to Thebes. It was as Akhenaten and his radical ideas had never existed. The young pharoah ruled for only 9 years.

So maybe the t-shirt references the "clean slate" approach Obama touts, or is designed to celebrate him as one who appreciates Egyptian identity. Who knows? But given the major changes instituted by Obama, an argument could be made that he is the Akhenaten figure in this tale.
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