I hate to admit it but when I saw the footage of that Iraqi reporter, Muntader al-Zaidi, hurling his shoes at George Bush, I laughed. Yes, I hee-hee-hee'd, because the sight of a startled Bush nimbly ducking the flying shoes ... Twice at that! ... was hilarious.
Schadenfreude! Or should I say, SHOE-denfreude!!! Oh the glee and the nasty satisfaction I felt - "Buti nga sa 'yo!" - kinda mean-spirited, no? But what I felt about the incident was nothing quite like the reactions that that insolent action elicited around the world, especially among Arabs, who hailed Zaidi as a hero, a brave man who did what they've probably been wanting to do themselves but never dared to. I read that the daughter of Khaddafi even awarded him a medal of courage. A Saudi Arabian offered $10-million for just one of the shoes!
Zaidi's gesture - throwing his shoes and saying “This ... is the farewell kiss, you dog!” - is considered a double insult among Muslims. Sad to say but dogs are considered impure or unclean creatures in Islam and are not even welcome in the Muslim home! They believe angels will not enter a house that have dogs in it because angels are supposedly afraid of these animals. Seems like nonsense to us dog-lovers, of course, but... well, there it is. And shoes, too, are regarded as spiritually unclean among Muslims. So what Zaidi had said and done was to insult Bush in the worst way a Muslim could. Poor George Bush!
Yes, I may not like him but I did feel sorry for him. Never has there been a US President so maligned, so scorned and disrespected as Bush is. And for the whole world to watch! OhmiGod, djahe!!! And even your own fellow-Americans not only did not defend your honor, they joined in in laughing at you! Poor Bush! Even though I felt schadenfreude at his disgrace, I also cringed at his losing face in such a mortifying way! I could imagine, maybe even sympathize with, the ngitngit of Zaidi : "Sasapatusin kitaaaa! Etong sa 'yo! Ump!" It's like something many of us would have loved to have done to Imelda but some moral self-control prevented us. Why, we didn't, couldn't disrespect Erap or even GMA to that extent! To reach that point where you are so unpopular - even hated - and people get so exasperated with you that they just lose it and throw their shoes at you - man, I wouldn't have the nerve to show my face after that!
Although I have to hand it to Bush - he sure knows how to duck! He must be so used to getting stuff thrown at him. Maybe Laura does the same thing when he does something that pisses her off! ;-D
