In the middle of the news conference with Mr Maliki, a reporter stood up and shouted “this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog,” before hurtling his shoes at Mr Bush, narrowly missing him. [source]
Here’s the kicker, if by Western standards, Palestinian kids throwing rocks are terrorists, then what about Iraqi journalists who throw shoes?
Things that make you go hmm.
The western standard for this is : Bush has found the WMD he’s looking for, presented directly by a brave Iraqi!
I feel sorry for the shoes, they recieved the ultimate insult.
Bush’s reflex is excellent, isn’t it?
is there anyone who didnt blog about this hehe
a true champion! what honesty! there should be more of that reporter all around the world!
Whatever happened to the shoes? They could end up on ebay :p
i wish the journalist hadnt done that. not because i in any way tolerate or respect bush (because I DO NOT), but because i think the only purpose it served is that ‘fasheina gulna’…. but here we are, gulna mafshoush sitting at our laptops surfing the internet in our warm homes… will sa7afi il maskeen is in prison and will probably be there for a looooong while to come.
was fashet il ghul worth his life? i guess he is one of many …. an arab with lost possibilities.
Deena, I think that the journalist would serve couple of weeks or months in jail then released. He gained the respect of a lot of people, and he is very famous now. Eventually he will be getting many hot job offers. He will benefit a lot from this. Now every possible media outlet want to interview this guy. The whole world is curious of what is going to happen to him. That is a lot of opportunities on his way. Wait and see 🙂
Stephen on Dec 15th, 2008 said:
Whatever happened to the shoes? They could end up on ebay :p
i heard that an iraqi millionaire wants to buy it for one million 😀
Once again, proving that journalists these days are more interested in making the news rather than reporting it.
So much for dialog and influencing the hearts and minds of the Western world away from various stereotypes.
As @Deena put it so succinctly, it only eventually serves the gulna mafshoush – and while the journalist may have the respect of those in the Middle East – it has quite the opposite effect of those in the States.
@mo – you should also ask if there’s mainstream media local/regional who didn’t report on this…. yes there is, Jordan Television! Hilarious strategy on their behalf to ignore it!! Till next Dec 14th – Happy Kundara Day.
Bush saw these shoes coming anyway 😀
I bet he is being tortured till this very moment.
I just can’t wait to watch Letterman and Conan Obrien tonight….too bad I missed The View this morning 🙁
I have to agree with Deena and Dean Peters. The more this shoe-icide bomber is lionized in the Arab world, the more unfortunate stereotypes are reinforced in the rest of the world. Sigh.
The most revealing part of this whole incident is Bush’s comment at the end “I don’t know what his beef is!” I think that was the stupidest thing to say.
@Rima, I think he developed quick reflexes after so many hunting trips with Dick Cheney.
@Deena, I think it’s more likely that the guy will be released soon, but will be banned from the Iraqi press core.
@Dean Peters & Layla, the guy didn’t do something that is out of the ordinary for westerners given the current situation in Iraq. Cheney was told to go fuck himself when he visited New Orleans, the governator was egged, and the Chinese president was heckled at the south lawn of the White House. Just try to imagine a US that is utterly destroyed, with millions of its population rendered refugees in Canada and Mexico, and the guy who caused all of it shows up smiling and acting like there’s no “beef.”
Bush deserve this and more than a shoe in his face, 6 years of mayhem ,atrocities ,massacres,destruction of a whole state ie hospitals,schools,universities,museums,roads,airports,introducing sectarian militias and death squads ,and as result ,millions of Iraqis had to flee their country to neighboring countries,till now Iraqis don’t have clean water to drink or electricity to run their life ,what George Bush deserve is to be brought to International Court of Justice for his crimes against humanity
Muntadher al-Zaydi is courageous man ,who saw the horror of George Bush’s war first hand when he was working as a journalist, It’s not only justified but should be encouraged
Here what some Arabic News Paper wrote إنّها «قبلة الوداع يا كلب»، قال الصØاÙÙŠ العراقي. جملة Ø³ØªØ¬Ø±Ø Ø´Ø¹ÙˆØ± الليبراليين الجدد الذين لم يصدّقوا أعينهم وهم يشاهدون جيوش الغرب عائدةً إلينا لتكمل ما بدأه الاستعمار من تØديث. لكنّها جملة ستÙردَّد أكثر من مرّة. وسيأتي يوم يقال Ùيه لآخر جنديّ أميركيّ يغادر أرض العراق: «إنّها قبلة الوداع يا …».
and here is another by Abad Albari Atwan وداع لائق بمجرم Øرب
عبد الباري عطوان
15/12/2008
بعد ست سنوات من اØتلال العراق، كان من المÙترض ان تكون زيارة الرئيس الامريكي ‘المØرّر’ (بضم الميم وكسر الراء) الوداعية علنية، وسط اØتÙالات عارمة من ‘المØررين’ (بضم الميم ÙˆÙØªØ Ø§Ù„Ø±Ø§Ø¡)ØŒ Øيث من المÙترض ان يصط٠هؤلاء على طول طريق المطار، ÙˆÙÙŠ ساØØ© الÙردوس ÙÙŠ قلب العاصمة بغداد Øاملين الاعلام الامريكية ويلوØون بها وسط عز٠الموسيقى والرقص طربا ÙˆÙرØا، للتعبير عن ØÙظ الجميل، لهذا الزعيم الامريكي البطل الذي ‘Øرر’ بلادهم. ولكن هذا كله لم ÙŠØدث على الاطلاق، Ùقد وصل الرئيس الامريكي متسللا الى بغداد، ووسط اجراءات امنية مشددة، ولم يغادر المنطقة الخضراء مطلقا، ونشك ان يكون السيد المالكي رئيس الوزراء، وجلال الطالباني رئيس جمهورية العراق الجديد قد علما بالزيارة مسبقا، بل Ùوجئا بها مثل الزيارات السابقة.
العراقيون لم يستقبلوا الرئيس بوش بالورود والرياØين ولا بالرقص بالشوارع، وانما بالأØذية، مثلما Ùعل اØد الصØاÙيين الذي كان يشارك ÙÙŠ تغطية الزيارة، ويستمع الى المؤتمر الذي عقده الرئيس الامريكي مع السيد المالكي، واسهب Ùيه ÙÙŠ وص٠انجازاته ومكارمه للعراقيين باØتلاله لبلدهم.
استخدام ‘الاØذية’ كوسيلة تعبير عن الرأي عمل غريب، وغير مهني، ÙÙŠ نظر
Jude – I heard a saudi is willing to pay $10 Million for the famous shoes.
I wonder If any famous shoe manufacturers will use this this incident as a a base for their advertising campaign. :-p
hmm yesterday when i saw this==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttwpFIulpMM
they said in it that he was kicked out of the room, but not arrested… maybe coz it was the first channel they weren’t accurate…
also Maliki’s hand at the second shoe is kinda funny symbolically(although it was only a reflex)
Nadine: Happy Kundara Day ….HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHHAAHA.
Lets do a : Dec 14th , blog about the kundara day…HAHAHAHHAAH
lol, some interesting comments so far…
mo: actually as soon as the news came out i blogged it and saved it, figuring it would wait till morning, by which time everyone else had beaten me to the punch. predictable!
Deena, Dean, Layla: i kind of have to disagree here. this flying shoe is not going to change the stereotypes any non-arab has of the arab world. perceptions of a civilization deemed “lesser than you”, which is a perception historically held by the dominating civilization, never change to the positive until the lesser civilization becomes the dominating one. moreover – less philosophical and more realistic – as Hamzeh accurately noted, we are talking about a country that has been invaded, occupied, destroyed and torn apart by another. and for anyone to expect that the leader of that latter country, the invader himself, to pay his destruction a visit and be treated with, at best, respect and at worst, apathy, is simply folly.
i mean no one really likes the french, but if 68 years ago, a frenchman threw a shoe at hitler when he visited paris, i wouldn’t think any less of him. i would expect it.
nadine: to be fair, i think they did eventually report it. sometimes i think when JTV doesn’t report things we give them too much credit in assuming its a conspiracy or part of state-controlled media. in truth, i think the station just doesn’t have the capabilities anymore to know what’s going on in the world, and they probably didn’t hear about it till later.
happy kundara day!
Disagree as some might, in the States, the incident has become a joke – including many Austin Powers references as such an act is seen as “fighting like a girl.”
On a more serious note, outside of the disdainful college crowd, many in the States see this simply as proof that democracy is now alive and well … begging the question, why didn’t this “hero” do this 6 years ago when Saddam was in power?
Me, I just think it’s a cheap stunt that will have it’s 15 minutes of fame and fade away. No new policy, no new actions, no new initiatives nor changes will occur from it. Only bad feelings on both sides.
I think many people are missing the point here, which is that free speech is not reserved to the individual but extends to any speaker who has been given a forum. Reporters are given special access to officials when space is limited, because they are expected to report everything without interference or intimidation, in order that the public can decide for themselves. A suspension of licence is not unfair since this incident could have alarmed the crowd, even causing a riot. We have a saying in America about the legal right of free speech, “You can’t cry fire in a crowded theater.”
I don’t believe many people in the US, as you said, share this view. Throwing objects at people has never been the measure used to tell if democracy is alive and well. Even Jordanian members of parliament throw objects at each other and nothing happens after that, and we still don’t have democracy.
I also don’t think this incident will generate many bad feelings on the Arab side. To say so would mean that most of them sympathize with Bush, which not even most Americans do today.
that one min video clip is the most valuable youtube minute in the universe. i watched it about 20 times in a row and then got up and summoned those around me to watch it, then, i emailed it and called the people i emailed it to and told them to watch it while i was on the phone so that i could enjoy their reactions. some might call this: lack of a life. i call it: history!
but seriously, i will always remember bush as a murderer who got two shoes thrown at him by a hot arab dude.
ladies! who the hell knew that doing something as ccccccccrrrraaaaaaazzzzzzzyyyyyyyy as throwing a shoe at someone could be soooooooooo damn attractive???????
sigh.
I stumbled across this very interesting blog and will keep reading.
I live just outside of Washington DC. Nearly everyone I talked to saw the shoe throwing incident pretty much as described above: “many in the States see this simply as proof that democracy is now alive and well … begging the question, why didn’t this “hero†do this 6 years ago when Saddam was in power?”
“why didn’t this “hero†do this 6 years ago when Saddam was in power?—
same why as to, why not Tony blair? Sharoon, other arabic leaders.. eetc
maybe cause Bush just exceeded expectations? or maybe cause people are asking baseless question. the dude just happened to be there, and threw his shoes. probably it didn’t occur to anyone before.
anyways, i think he had powerfull personal intentions, for starters Bushs hands reached a much wider range of iraqes(saddam is nothing compared to what US did), plus, Bush was standing unwelcomed in this iraq’s home land, smirking, and telling the world what a very nice favour he’s done to Iraqi people.
you cant compare Bush to Saddam, and you cant measure democracy by such a small act. if the Mom of a Saddam’s victim bumps into Saddam, she will throw much more stuff than shoes in his face you know.
“why didn’t this “hero†do this 6 years ago when Saddam was in power?—
is a stupid lame , movie like, media backed question.
.
What would happen if a average person thew his shoes at a very high ranking Jordain official or the King in Jordan?