Give them the shoe appears to be replacing the boot as a standard in politics. In a scene reminiscent of the Iraqi shoe thrower and George Bush, a protester at Cambridge University threw a sneaker at at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and called him a dictator. As if to prove the dictator point, the Chinese media was promptly ordered not to mention the incident in any coverage to keep the Chinese people in the dark about the story. The video of the incident is below.
The man blew a whistle during Wen remarks and shouted “You should be ashamed of yourselves. How can you listen to the lies he’s telling?”
The protester’s trainer landed a few feet from Wen. The protester was arrested for committing a public order offense.
A comparison of the footwear shows that Wen got off lightly. The Turkish made shoe used on Bush had much more throw weight than this wimpy trainer.
Notably, the man in Cambridge was reportedly released after his charge while Muntadhar al-Zeidi is still in jail and seeking asylum.
For a copy of the video, click here.
You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and they won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an
organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said
fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and
walking out. And friends they may thinks it’s a movement.
Thank you Arlo Guthrie, it’s a movement for peace.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/05/benny-dagan-israel-ambass_n_164289.html
It’ll be interesting to see if and how the US media covers this. I’m guessing that they’ll berate the individual since his target wasn’t American.