After shouting, "How can you listen to this unchallenged?" Or something similar, the man removed his shoe and threw it. The Iraqi journalist was a much better shot, this guy didn’t even come close, but he got his point across.
Funny, though how the mind performs associations. What this brought to mind was an incident I was sort of involved in during 6th grade.
I was part of the 6th grade all town chorus which drew from all the schools in the town for a performance for some event I can no longer recall. We met in a central location under the tutelage of the high school music director, affectionately known as Old Lady Humphreville.
Now, standing to my right was a kid named Manny who was a bit of a cut up. During practice he would poke me and whisper stuff and I would hit him and tell him to shut up, all the while watching Ms. H. who would turn and stare at us. After this happened a few times, without warning – SHE TOOK OFF HER HIGH HEEL AND LOBBED IT AT MANNY! Hit him square in the forehead, fortunately not with the heel.
These days, I’m sure she would have been arrested, as both this protester and the Iraqi journalist before him were. The Iraqis had a large bronze shoe sculpture for a few days but the government made them take it down. Even so, this could be the start of an interesting new trend.
We're seeing a moment of global culture-creation. Shoes are becoming the universal symbol of derision for political leadership. Expect more shoes thrown at more podium-potentates, and expect more such memes to emerge.
ReplyDeleteRocky, all the shoe jokes you didn't want to read:
ReplyDelete"You've got to give Bush credit. I mean, the guy moved pretty quickly. ... Too bad he didn't react that way with bin Laden or Katrina, bin Laden or the mortgage crisis, bin Laden or Afghanistan, bin Laden or the Lehman Brothers." --David Letterman
"It's not just President Bush, today somebody threw a pair of shoes at Sarah Palin. And she was very upset. She said, 'Do you have these in black?' and threw them back." --Jay Leno
I don't think Bush really has dodged anything like that, well, since the Vietnam War." --David Letterman
-- U.S. occupation forces comb areas throughout Iraq in search of terrorist shoe factories.
-- An emergency Arab League meeting elects to shut down all shoe stores when Western officials visit.
-- By presidential decree, Hosni Mubarak will hold all future press conferences inside a mosque.
I'd say it's an excellent form of protest.
ReplyDeleteIt's really a shame it has to lead to arrests, though I guess it makes sense. al-Zaidi was reportedly beaten extensively - that does not make sense.
I'm old enough, Rocky, to remember the days of eraser throwing teachers. Erasers caked with chalk were especially useful, if I remember correctly, for making a "discipline statement." Nothing like a "chalk tatoo" to mark you for poor behavior.
ReplyDeleteRocky, beware! An old 8pus like me is the Gattling Gun of shoe throwers.
ReplyDeleteBrian - I'm with you, the punishment hardly seems to fit the "crime."
ReplyDeleteSquid - isn't it amazing how much things have changed in such a short period of time. I remember the eraser throwing also. Back then, the teacher ruled the classroom and the LAST thing you wanted to hear is, "we will be calling your parents."
8pus - for crying out loud, give a cephalopod one shoe to chew on and look what happens! (Although, I must admit, I enjoyed the shoe jokes.)
Here's what I'm thinking; we should start a business marketing an areodynamic, weighted single shoe for throwing at various government officials. The Palin Pump, the Bush Boot...
OK, Rocky, you asked for it:
ReplyDeleteAl Zaidi was an angry soul
Who hated Boosh beyond control.
When he threw his shoe
It caused a hullabaloo
And made everyone in Iraq say 'LOL.'