Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Insignia of Protest (1): Shoes and Shoeing


On occasion of the recent protests against German President Christian Wulff, there is left to take a closer look at the insignia of protest, used by people around the world to express their disgust and anger about corruption, cronyism and other features of fake-democracies.

Shoes & Shoeing: Mr. Wulff is currently under pressure to resign from office because of several occurrences, the last of which being the more than impertinent attempt to silence reporting. And after he had even himself called his misbehavior "unworthy of a president" in a nationwide TV program but nevertheless reaffirmed to stay in office, this was the moment to unbox the old shoes.

from "Shoe for you, Mr. President!" https://www.facebook.com/events/265735003480723

Here's a report (in German language) where you can see the old Muslim (?) tradition of Shoeing, surprisingly applied in Germany:


Showing (soles of) shoes or throwing shoes after somebody is seen as a heavy insult in many countries, especially of the Arab world. We have seen on TV people trampling around pictures of Saddam Hussein (2003) and Gaddafi (2011) and Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi throwing his shoes at US president G.W. Bush, thereby expressing their deepest condemnation and disgust. Why Shoes? Shoes, especially soles of shoes, are seen as carrier of dirt and uncleanness and everybody who ever visited a mosque knows that it is not allowed to enter with shoes on. 

Btw, what happened with Mr. Muntadhar al-Zaidi after being detained by the Iraqi army in February 2011? He's the hero of Shoeing. In his honor a giant shoe monument was installed Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein but de-installed later by the Iraqi police.
Wikipedia-entry of Shoeing provides a list of notable incidents regarding this nice tradition. Would you really wonder if this practice is also employed for shoe advertising ... ? (Go to the TrendyShoeShop.com to learn more)


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