The Washington Post recently ranked all the ‘official’ presents given to United States president Barack Obama from 2009 to 2012 (2013’s list isn’t out yet) and it turns out Singapore’s, on average, are the worst.
This is how it works: The Post studies a gift and breaks down its donor, value and quality, and ranks each on a scale of 1 to 100.
Based on this, Singapore’s gifts — so far we’ve given him a metal panel with a cityscape view of Singapore and a bronze abstract sculpture both inscribed with “2009 APEC Conference in Singapore”, a uGoGo electronic pulse massager, as well as Creative earphones, headphones, MP3 player and a pocket video camera — are the worst out of 274.
Other than ranking our sense of gifting at the bottom of the list, the Post has also ranked our 2010 ‘hamper’ filled with the MP3 player and massager as one of the five worst gifts they believe President Obama has received so far from a foreign rep.
Philip Bump wrote, “Who was giving MP3 players as gifts in 2010? This was three eyars after the iPhone came out, which, even if your country isn’t making iPhones, you should at least recognize. You know who gave MP3 players as gifts in 2010? Grandparents who got hustled by jerk salespeople at Best Buy. And we’re not going to discuss the massager.”
Granted Bump did disclaim at the beginning of the story his biases against electronics and generic furnishings, as well as one toward things involving dogs, but hey, drink your coffee before making your decisions, mister.
We’re not usually one for defending our country (oops — National Day just round the corner) but the APEC Conference paraphernalia were probably just a “hey, you forgot your door gift” courtesy, and Creative’s a homegrown tech brand that — granted, is no Apple, but — locals feel strongly about. That’s kind of the same reason New Zealand sent a Maori club, which the Post ranked top five best. About that massager…. Man, we have no idea.
Other gifts that were ‘sent to the bottom’:
– A Blu-Ray disc set in a wooden display box – Russia, 2010
– A Samsung Galaxy Tab, a stereo video cable and a Galaxy Tab charger – South Korea, 2010
– A CD holder and some CDs – Russia, 2009
– A swag bag for the game “Witcher 2” – Poland, 2011
BTW, the US president doesn’t actually get to keep these handouts — they’re managed by the National Archives and Records Administration.
Photo: U.S Embassy New Delhi via Wylio
