Bear, Diah and Pasha

Shoes and Bush

Posted on the December 16th, 2008 under News by Papa Bear

They are the hottest words in the news today and they have  nothing to do with buying shoes as Christmas present or anything to do with shoe fetishism… The bush that appears in the title has nothing to do with shrub or anything related to low woody perennial plant usually having several major stems or anything similar to that…

We are talking about the President of the United States here. It is about George W. Bush, who is supposed to be or claimed to be the most powerful man (in the absence of Superman, Spiderman, Cicakman and other superheroes) in the world that had recently been given an unofficial flying-shoe-farewell by an Iraqi reporter.

It was not a simple “ceremony” that we can just forget after a few days as we are talking about about an event that includes two throws, two ducks (not the quacking type), two flying size 10 shoes,  a room packed with surprised witnesses and a humiliation on a worldwide scale.

It is something that every blogger must post in his or her blog to mark one of the _________ (fill up the blank with a: greatest  b: funniest   c: worst  d: use your own word) historical moments in 2008! What a perfect timing that was as we are about to leave 2008 behind…

Below is a video that you must watch to see  how Bush were attacked by the the shoes wielding reporter!

This is what his brother said:

Dhirgham al-Zaidi, who sometimes worked as his brother’s cameraman, described the reporter’s hatred for the “material American occupation” and the “moral Iranian occupation.”

Muntadhar al-Zaidi’s feelings were influenced by watching the agony suffered by everyday Iraqis. Most of the reporter’s stories focused on Iraqi widows, orphans, and children, said the brother.

Sometimes the 29-year-old journalist would cry. Moved by the tales he reported of poor families, he sometimes asked his colleagues to give money to them. On most nights, he returned to his home in central Baghdad — one of the country’s most violent slums and the epicenter of several of the war’s pitched battles.

Dhirgham al-Zaidi said he is “proud” of his brother whose act, while rash, was a statement of behalf of “millions” of other Iraqis. Dhirgham said the shoe throwing was “Iraq’s reaction” to the war and years of U.S. sanctions against Iraq before the conflict began. The reporter was not motivated for personal reasons, or because he has “anything against the American people,” he said.

More news can be read at:

Iraqi journalist throws shoes at Bush in Baghdad
Shoe-thrower’s brother: He wanted to humiliate ‘tyrant’
TV station urges release of shoe-throwing journalist

ps:
I have nothing against the American People in general. In fact those Americans that I personally know are decent, friendly and helpful people. Hopefully Obama would bring a new beginning to the U.S especially in the eye of many other countries in the world.