A sculpture of an enormous bronze-coloured shoe has been erected in Iraq to honour the journalist who threw his shoes at ex-US President George W Bush.
The sofa-sized artwork was formally unveiled in Tikrit, hometown of late Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein. The report from BBC News can be found here.
According to Forbes Magazine, the incident has been a gold-mine for the Turkish shoemaker, Ramazan Baydan, who claims to have made the shoe thrown at the now ex-President, now renamed the Bush Shoe.
“People are calling from all over the world to order this shoe I designed a decade ago. We have so far 370,000 new orders from Europe, the Middle East and the United States compared to only 40,000 orders of this particular model in December last year,” Baydan told Forbes.com during a phone interview through an interpreter.
At least Bush sparked an economic recovery for somebody. The full article in Forbes can be seen here.
January 31, 2009 at 5:00 am
Shoe monument in northern Iraq taken down
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1456781.php/Shoe_monument_in_northern_Iraq_taken_down_
January 31, 2009 at 5:16 am
That made my weekend. Excellent idea. Pity the Fool had to travel south of the Abyss in the first place.
January 31, 2009 at 5:20 am
Oh no, they destroyed it. ‘I did take the shoe down immediately and destroyed it; and I did not ask why,’ Shahah Daham, the head of the charity organization, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Did not ask why.
I’d like to ask why but I’m afraid I already know the answer. Another sorry day for freedom.
February 1, 2009 at 5:06 am
if the Iraqis use their democracy similarly to Americans, then they will re-construct the shoe sculpture after U.S. forces leave and make it twice as big as the first one
February 1, 2009 at 8:41 pm
I think it’s fantastic!!! There should be one put every 30 feet!