I know this story is long overdue, and that I haven't been writing in a while. There are more things to life than sitting in front of a computer and rambling about whatever comes your way in the news or your daily experiences. But anyways, to the issue at hand. Last year on December the 14th, Muntazer al-Zaidi, an Iraqi reporter from the Iraqi-owned and Egyptian-based Al-Baghdadia TV (البغدادية), threw 2 "size 10" shoes (according to Dubya) at the then pResident of the U.S., George W. Bush (1). All Dubya could do was smile at Zaidi, who was then assailed by Iraqi security forces and taken into custody. Of course, that was all said and done at the time, and usually at other events involving political figures being assailed one way or another by angry protestors, the news of such things tends to die off or remain in memory as an event alone.
Of course, that's for most events of this theme.
Sadly, Western - and unfortunately this time around, Arab - media outlets have a tendency to over-romanticize these "bizarre" events as expressions of cultural norms or something that pertains solely to culture, and de-valuing the role of the individual at that point (2, 3, 4). The biggest example is how some media pundits tend to focus more on supposed Islamic misinterpretations as being behind some major terrorist attack as opposed to examining the individual motives behind the attackers and their socio-psychological histories (5).
In this case, the ever-so-present insult of raising the shoe in Arab culture became the headlines on December 15, NOT the notion of an angry journalist throwing a pair at the man who was solely responsible for leaving Iraq in the third-world developmental nightmare that it is in right now. I would have expected to at least see analysts talking about the motives of this man and questioning as to what brought him to do such a thing, not show April 2003 footage of Iraqi mobs slapping the head of a fallen Saddam statue (believe me, I'd love to join them myself, but that's besides the point; 6). This footage has been added to the repository of images and fantasies that is Orientalism, and indeed we see the hand of Orientalism at play here.
What's surprising is the reaction of the Arab world. Protests in Iraq supporting Zaidi involved banners with shoes on top of them (7). They also appeared in protests against the Gaza bombardment (which I will discuss soon) in places as far as Istanbul and London (8). I once saw a Kuwaiti politician on some obscure Arabic channel raise his shoe at Abbas in protest of the latter's unwillingness to help the Gazan populace in this time of need. Even the brand of shoes that were thrown at Bush had their sales skyrocket following the incident.
Still, though, I wouldn't go as far as to say that the shoe will become the new symbol for Pan-Arab nationalism and resistance.
Salaam, from Saracen
Of course, that's for most events of this theme.
Sadly, Western - and unfortunately this time around, Arab - media outlets have a tendency to over-romanticize these "bizarre" events as expressions of cultural norms or something that pertains solely to culture, and de-valuing the role of the individual at that point (2, 3, 4). The biggest example is how some media pundits tend to focus more on supposed Islamic misinterpretations as being behind some major terrorist attack as opposed to examining the individual motives behind the attackers and their socio-psychological histories (5).
In this case, the ever-so-present insult of raising the shoe in Arab culture became the headlines on December 15, NOT the notion of an angry journalist throwing a pair at the man who was solely responsible for leaving Iraq in the third-world developmental nightmare that it is in right now. I would have expected to at least see analysts talking about the motives of this man and questioning as to what brought him to do such a thing, not show April 2003 footage of Iraqi mobs slapping the head of a fallen Saddam statue (believe me, I'd love to join them myself, but that's besides the point; 6). This footage has been added to the repository of images and fantasies that is Orientalism, and indeed we see the hand of Orientalism at play here.
What's surprising is the reaction of the Arab world. Protests in Iraq supporting Zaidi involved banners with shoes on top of them (7). They also appeared in protests against the Gaza bombardment (which I will discuss soon) in places as far as Istanbul and London (8). I once saw a Kuwaiti politician on some obscure Arabic channel raise his shoe at Abbas in protest of the latter's unwillingness to help the Gazan populace in this time of need. Even the brand of shoes that were thrown at Bush had their sales skyrocket following the incident.
Still, though, I wouldn't go as far as to say that the shoe will become the new symbol for Pan-Arab nationalism and resistance.
Salaam, from Saracen
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