The Chronicle‘s Cynthia Leonor Garza reports that one group of Houstonians is critical of the fast-approaching Lucy fossil exhibit:
Don’t count on too many local Ethiopians getting in line to see Lucy, the superstar fossil from Ethiopia, when she makes her international public debut in Houston in late August.
The Ethiopian Community Organization in Houston recently announced its position against the Houston Museum of Natural Science planned exhibit of the 3.2-million-year-old hominid.
The group blames museum officials and the Ethiopian government for what it says is a politically insensitive and profit-driven decision that could damage the fragile fossil during its trek to America. Museum officials and other exhibit supporters, however, said bringing Lucy to the U.S. is about cultural exchange — not politics.
“We have to be able to differentiate bad government and good government — government that has engaged in massacre, illegal election fraud, imprisoning people,” said Dula Abdu, one of the group’s board members. “As an institution, it would have been unheard-of for them to do business with the Khmer Rouge or Hitler or Mussolini.”
Museum officials defended their decision, saying their job is to display artifacts for the public. The country’s current political state is beyond the exhibit’s scope, said museum president Joel Bartsch.
Whatever the objections to the current government of Ethiopia, the Lucy exhibit truly is a coup for Houston (no pun intended). The Houston Museum of Natural Science exhibit will run from August 31 to April 20. Advance tickets are available on the museum website.
