Tossing Shoes - all that is seems?
international |
anti-war / imperialism |
opinion/analysis
Tuesday December 16, 2008 18:23
by thoughtful type who only sees meticulous planning
One thing is sure this is one explanation of a meme we'll remember.
Everyone knows that an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at GW Bush in Bagdhad in December 2008. It's a story which got its global media coverage with predictable attitudes and spin & could easily be forgotten, were it not for a few factoids & considerations as well as precedents. Which I'd like to share with people here without going into too much pseudo-analytic expertise.
It's all about how shoe tossing was immediately explained to "us" as having resonance with muslims in general and Iraqi's in particular.
each a well worn step on the grapevine of global mass emotional interchange
* An meme of contemporary western culture of the last 5 years has been the habit of throwing discarded sneakers, trainers, plimsoles and general sportswear shodding over phone lines which was linked to Iraq in underground US culture.
* Muntada Al Zaidi missed coz Bush ducked the projectiles so well.
* Mr al Zaidi is alledgedly getting a kicking in custody.
* Journalists might have to forego their gucci loafers at press conferences in future.
* A Saudi business man has offered 10 million US dollars (still a lot of money) for each of the shoes when they are returned to their owner and no longer considered evidence. [If he is convicted of the only appropriate charge which appears to have been cooked up - "attempted assault on a visiting head of state" he'll get his shoes back in 7 years] 10 million dollars may still be a lot of money & enough for him to frame the other shoe as a holy relic.
So here are some links to ensure that this story gets it proper place in our serious considerations of :
* how quick GW Bush ducked.
* how slow the US Secret Service were to take a projectile.
* how many things journalists and normally only screened for obvious weapons might be tempted to through at world leaders in future.
* how a youth cultural habit which to most appeared inexplicable may have been rooted in the movie "Wag the Dog" which was released in 2005 but was itself based on the book "American Hero" a 1993 satirical conspiracy theory novel written by Larry Beinhart. It speculated that Operation DESERT STORM had been scripted and choreographed as a ploy to get George H.W. Bush reelected to a second term (taking their cues from Margaret Thatcher's similar invasion of the Falkland Islands), while at the same time analyzing exactly why that conflict had been so popular. The book formed the inspiration and basis for the 1997 film, Wag the Dog. It was republished in 2005 as Wag the Dog: A Novel .......... in that motion picture Wag the Dog, a spin doctor flings shoes into trees as a part of a campaign to call attention to a fictional war hero
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_tossing
& so I'd like to remind you of that moment when supposedly the Iraqi people in general and those ofd Baghdad in particular took of their precious footwear & if not threw them, certainly used them as improvised blunt instruments upon the recently deposed Saddam Hussein's statue. & how it was all really - yes really so fictional and spin. & that is the Youtube link, but the explanatory photos of the selected crowd and assistance by US tanks were in their day made available on indymedia sites including this one.
Indeed in the best of way of crafted memes the toppling of Hussein & the attack of the shoes became our history.
__________________________________________________________________________
Al Zaidi's wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muthathar_al_Zaidi
his facebook campaign http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52545687584
his brother (pictured ) describes his current custody conditions http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/16/shoe-protes...-iraq
Solidarity Shoe throwing things are popping up all over a certain part of the world. It makes the woeful fad of throwing shoes over pylons in the west of the last year's look.........lame.
if we copy him - then our media class are in their stocking feet.
Bush is a quicker ducker they're fleet of foot.
Caption: Video Id: GMgEc9Qds8M Type: Youtube Video
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Comments (25 of 25)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25& so they arranged the spectacle & told people what to say & what to do. The blogger Saleem Pax (later awarded by "the Guardian" recorded at the time on the long defunct site "Al Muajaha" (which almost became indymedia Iraq) that shoes were distributed to the crowds.................
Just so that the people watching telly in the Iraqi and muslim world would get the symbolism.
these boots were made for walking & some day they're gonna walk all over you
I just got an email from an activist telling me that he has sent an old pair of shoes to Bush in solidarity with the Iraqi journalist and telling me to do the same. I just might y'know.
Below is the email:
1. Send your old shoes to Bush, with an antiwar message written on
them (in appreciation of the gesture of Muntadar al Zeidi, the Iraqi
reporter who threw his shoes at Bush saying "this is from the widows
and orphans of Iraq").
I posted mine this morning.
GW Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvannia Ave NW
Washington DC 20500
USA.
Cost less than 5 euros, cheaper than the bus fare from Limerick to Shannon!
All over the world, people are sending their shoes to Bush to commemorate the chaos he has brought to the world - not just to Iraq, but also to the world economy, through the chaotic deregulation he oversaw.
Please read more here:
America: We were unable to give President [sic] Bush the boot, but we *can* give him the shoe!
http://www.legitgov.org/price_send_bush_shoes_161208.html
For more sites on this topic, please Google the following search terms: send shoes to bush
Perhaps this will become a new Christmas tradition, where every year we can express our contempt for the miserable so-called "Christians" who have launched the most destructive wars of our time.
By the way, would anybody like to set up a stall where we can throw shoes at Bush and make donations to good causes, such as Iraqi widows and orphans, Iraq Veterans Against the War, etc. ?
I noticed some slick manipulation of the story (made all the more easy by the laziness and awed respect of the hacks that pass for journalists these days) as it spread.
Most networks didn't bother to report what Mr. al-Zeidi was shouting, and a lot of press from Ireland to the states to Israel, and beyond reported the anonymous slur from 'unnamed officials', that Mr. al Zeidi was being tested for drugs and alcohol and questioned if he had been paid to do this.
How could someone pay him to throw his shoes, if the visit was top secret until the last minute? And why would he need to be paid, if he was genuinely angry at Bush's war crimes?
I think, like the 'alcohol and drugs test' it was a smear to deflect the attention of fools.
Bush's deft dodging is also exaggerated. When you see the wider angle shots, you can see that Mr. al Zeidi was several rows away, and shouted before throwing the shoes. His aim was pretty good, but he was too far away and gave too much warning for Bush to stand still long enough to be hit.
The real insult however is in throwing the shoes, not in hitting the target. And the words he used were very powerful and dignified considering the scale of the crimes committed. He spoke for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq, and called Bush a dog, which is a label of shame in the Arab world.
Two other reporters applauded the action, and were arrested and held for a short while. Al Zeidi, reportedly got a bit of a kicking, and hit by a rifle but, and locked up in the Green Zone to face trumped up charges and possibly 15 years for throwing shoes at someone who should be in jail for life.
One US network has a good take on it. I saw ABC run a clip where they translated what Mr. al Zeidi said, and explained the cultural significance of the shoe insult, and then played a clip of Bush, later in the day, being interviewed in some comfy room, where he says "I don't know what his beef was". Wow, that's an informed man eh?
Couldn't find a translator in a room full of translators to tell him, "Mr. President, he seems to blame you for the deaths of many Iraqis, from that whole Shock and Awe thing, and Fallujah, and well, the whole occupation".
ABC news at least made Bush look like an idiot, while FOX news tried to paint bush as a hero for ducking a shoe, in some kind of candid camera moment. They even had time to sympathise with the White House spokeswoman, who got bruised by a falling microphone... no mention of dead Iraqis on FOX news of course.
I will raise my size 9s in anger, and off to the GPO I go.
Thanks for the address, and thanks to Mr. al Zeidi for the inspiration.
Please don't be thinking that a majority of "Christians" support Bush's Noo Crusade - many of us support the actions of Catholic Worker 5, Pit Stop Ploughshares, & Amnesty International, against the unjust wars, 'rendition', torture, & detention without trial.
On the same day there were news reports in Erseland regarding the hostage-taking of a Certain
Minister for Europe , whom got locked in a cupboard. I think many people unhappy with the CEO
decision-making and the subversion of democracy by a few well-suited business men who have
literally got so caught up in their lies that anything will be flung at them :
What amazes me is that Bush can sleep and that Roche gets a daily swim and sauna at the Marriott
Hotel whilst the rest of us scrounge and make do. Listen to what people are saying and not to some
claptrap focus group paid indeed , to lie, spin and obfuscate the truth about how pissed off everyone
is with eight years of lies and media twist. Why did they not chuck pretzels? food, mineral water?
Frank Jay makes a vital point when he says that Mr Zaidi shouted first. This gave Mr Bush warning so that he had an opportunity to duck. So this was a symbolic act rather than an act of violence. The objective was clearly not to injure Bush, but to insult him in the most emphatic way an Iraqi could.
Of course, I don't blame Christians for going to war. I think Bush, Blair and company are deceiving themselves if they think they can call themselves Christians and not make atonement for their sins. It's absurd.
We might imagine that the good Catholic Tony Blair goes to Confession, and he says: "Bless me, father, for I have sinned. I am responsible for sending British troops to murder and be murdered in Afghanistan and Iraq."
And at the end, the priest says: "For your sins against the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, I'd like you to say an Act of Contrition and two million Hail Mary's."
And that's the end of it? I don't think so!
These very poor Christians could start by making a public acknowledgement that what they did was wrong, and swearing a solemn commitment to turn away from their evil ways. Then they should set about making amendments through personal sacrifice and works of mercy. It would help if they would donate all their wealth to the widows and orphans of Iraq, and dedicate their lives to the cause of peace through humble service.
I would like to propose shoe-throwing as an annual Christmas tradition whereby we can express our profound abhorrence of war, our rejection of the idea that any supposed Christian can ever declare war without raising profound and persistent questions about his or her faith, and our wish to "throw off" the warfaring ways of our political leaders.
Coilin, what an astounding act of cruel and unusual punishment that would be. There are 40 words in the Hail Mary! not including the Amen. 2 million of them works out at 80 million words. That's more than is in the good book & the average speaking speed would mean an act of contrition which lasted longer than a 1930's style novena.
Wouldn't it just be easier to whip him? or stick something up his bottom?
As some of us can't spare good shoes for the war crim Bush, we cd send pictures or cardboard cut-outs of shoes, python boots, clogs, stilettos, dungy wellies, slippers, snowshoes, moccasins, pampooties, flip-flops, Toe Tectors, etc.,
An Iraqi hero
"Be sure to check out the second video below the first in which we get the overwhelming reaction of support for this Iraqi hero who is being tortured as he is taken away. You hear him screaming as Bush is still babbling on."
Bush and the Shoe Video
Be sure to check out the second video below the first in which we get the overwhelming reaction of support for this Iraqi hero who is being tortured as he is taken away. You hear him screaming as Bush is still babbling on. And please share it as widely as possible. These images and sounds will speak truth to power and the whole world so powerfully.
jamie
http://www.infowars.com/?p=6599
According to press reports, al-Zaidi the reporter who threw the shoes at Bush has had its arm and ribs broken by the security thugs who immediately pounced on him after the incident.
The report quotes the reporters brother as saying:
"He has got a broken arm and ribs, and cuts to his eye and arm"
the office of the Iraqi PM has in a brief statement reported the journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi has "apologised" for his offence. He has received more offers of legal defence aid than anyone in recent history. put it through google if you don't believe me. & so it is fitting Al Zaidi become a household name.
I hope people also read the article and the first comment I left and every time the statue of Sadam is mentioned in the future or the shoes thing - make a little political effort to enlighten others.
what a waste of shoes - they could go to poor Americans or Africans or African Americans...
Maybe we should send some shoes to Biffo! With a message saying, ;troops out of Shannon'. Just an idea.... Would anyone be up for setting up something like that?
This is a fun little game
http://www.desihotmasala.com/2008/12/throw-shoe-at-bush....html
Till we can boot out Biffo & his Merry Marauders, sending shoes/virtual shoes might give them the hint.....just send to his mansion/Dáil, or get email address up.
Postal Address:
Department of the Taoiseach, Government Buildings, Upper Merrion Street, Dublin 2
E-mail: webmaster@taoiseach.gov.ie
Phone: 353 1 619 4000 or 353 1 6624888
Lo-Call Number: 1890 227 227
Fax: 353 1 619 4258
Minicom: 01 6194486
Lulu,
Have you considered writing a short piece on sending shoes to the Taoiseach?
Thanks for the info!!
Conor
Please send used real, or email pictures of, footwear to Our Biffo at the above addresses with a seasonal message, e.g.: Peace on Earth - Stop Warplanes Through Shannon!
Goodwill to All - Stop Irish Complicity in Bush & Blair's Wars!
Or perhaps simply: Shoo!
In this one you can be Bush and dodge the shoes.
http://www.atom.com/fun_games/tocci_bush_shoe_game/
Send your shoes to BIFFO and tell him to get the troops out of Shannon!
Postal Address:
Department of the Taoiseach, Government Buildings, Upper Merrion Street, Dublin 2
E-mail: webmaster@taoiseach.gov.ie
Phone: 353 1 619 4000 or 353 1 6624888
Lo-Call Number: 1890 227 227
Fax: 353 1 619 4258
Minicom: 01 6194486
This idea came from Lulu.
Send some real shoes to Biffo or send an image of some shoes by e-mail with the message, 'troops out of Shannon'. or something along those lines...
Happy holidays
http://www.sockandawe.com
http://www.thankyouforthrowingyourshoe.com/
beautiful fact to know and repeat, cheers iosaf. thanks for the articles!
no pasaran!
Shades of Life of Brian about that.