Exegi Monumentum Aere Perennius

The president of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, has irritated Muslims, Christians and prudes by commissioning a forty-nine-metre bronze statue to commemorate the country's half-century of independence. Some imams have registered an aesthetic objection to the Thoracic Renaissance style which was beloved of both Nazi and Stalinist artistic commissars; while Christians have been annoyed by Wade's comparison of the statue to Christ. Since the statue depicts a man, woman and child emerging from a volcano, this does seem a bit of a stretch. Others are apparently worried that the youth of Senegal may be led astray by the sight of a fifty-three-yards-high metal woman in a thigh-length skirt. Wade has also been criticised for spending £17 million on out-kitsching the Statue of Liberty while the residents of the capital city suffer floods and power blackouts. Then again, Wade has a clear idea of the statue's function: tourism and nationalistic boastfulness. That is more than can be said for the creator of our own Millennium Dome, which is unlikely to last as long, which cost forty-six and a half times as much and for which no actual purpose has ever been discovered.