(no subject)

[chipotle]

I'm sure glad that every time the Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at President Bush gets referred to, some analyst or blog/journal commenter points out that throwing your shoes at someone is "a grave insult in the Arab world." Otherwise, I'd surely have assumed that it was a sign of goodwill and respect, like it is in Western culture.

I'm just saying.

Comments

[brerandalopex.livejournal.com]

[Brer] Just the other day I was throwing shoes at people in the Mall. Even though neither they nor I were of Arab descent, they seemed to take great offense at it. Granted I was out of wooden shoes so I was throwing steel-toed boots, but...

People just don't respect the old traditions anymore.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

Maybe this is a backhanded way of calling Bush a Goody Two Shoes? :)

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

In the West, you don't throw shoes, you beat on tables with 'em...

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

This made me giggle.

[elusivetiger.livejournal.com]

I get a kick out of Bush's expression - he's initially startled of course, but it's quickly followed by an amused, rather than angry or troubled, look as the camera pulls out.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

Probably thinking it could have been a heck of a lot worse, given where he is and how many people would just love to assassinate him.

[elusivetiger.livejournal.com]

Definitely! He gets points for being so quick and casual. ;)

[susandeer.livejournal.com]

I loved the Mercury News headline today:

"Message to Bush in Iraq: Shoo!"

[iridium-wolf.livejournal.com]

There's a paper out here that had this headline:

"Lame Duck!"

:D

[susandeer.livejournal.com]

Bahahaha!

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

(snicker) Well said.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

C'mon, Chipotle. In Western culture it's simply a wierd gesture, vaguely offensive, vaguely violent, vaguely insulting, vaguely off in any number of ways. In the Arab world, it's highly culturally charged and specifically intended to be completely insulting. I'm drawing a blank for an analogous gesture in the US. Maybe giving someone the finger, as opposed to giving a thumbs-down (which a foreign observer might not really tell apart), though I understand the shoes are considerably ruder.

Something like slapping someone with a glove used to be, as opposed to slapping someone with a dead fish. People used to take the glove a lot more seriously than the fish, though on the surface the fish might seem to be the more obnoxious gesture.

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

While it certainly isn't irrelevant to note that this is a ritual insult over there in a way that it isn't over here, what engenders my wry amusement is the tone I perceive of "it's one of those ineffable cultural differences between East and West," which permeates a lot of coverage here of what happens there. There are many cultural differences, but I think many of them are, in the final analysis, pretty damn effable.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

I thought it was something Mom did to you when you mouth off to her but you're too far out of reach for the wooden spoon...

[kereminde.livejournal.com]

Out of range of a spoon? Well . . .

My mother charged across the kitchen and lifted me a foot off the floor before hissing in my face to grow up. I was 15 at the time. I never failed to take her seriously again.

[krinndnz.livejournal.com]

Patrick Nielsen Hayden had the same thought, and it make me chuckle all over again here. It's important to remember how fundamentally strange these foreigners are!

Also, metaquotes naturally has something amusing to say (http://community.livejournal.com/metaquotes/6960208.html).

[otter3.livejournal.com]

*throws oversized paw plush at you*