Adieu, Mr. George W. Bush!

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The derailment of the US economy under the leadership of President George W. Bush
Cartoon © Ujjal Peter D'Costa

US President George W. Bush's eight-year presidency is over. The newly-elected President Barack Obama is already sitting on the saddle and has started his four-year leadership and administrative journey since yesterday among unprecedented fanfare and public adulation. President Bush came to power facing controversy over improper voting and left his power amidst more controversies over his failed policies and mismanaged actions.

President Bush had received worldwide support over his global war on terror after the September 11, 2001 destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. Then one by one he began to take decisions and actions that failed miserably.

His most irresponsible decision was the unplanned and baseless war on Iraq. That very action was the beginning of his undoing. His empire then began to fall with domino effect. His government's amateurish handling of the Hurrcane Katrina destruction and lack of proper oversight of the financial institutions leading to massive crisis will remain as a blot on his administration. All these made the Americans gradually withdraw their support from him and ultimately attracted them to Barack Obama's promise of change and appropriate action plan for the futue.

President Bush vs. President Obama: A Bird's-Eye View

Now let's see these two persons and how they relate to each other:

President Bush: A native of the State of Texas
President Obama: A native of the State of Hawaii

President Bush: A Republican
President Obama: A Democrat

President Bush: A White
President Obama: A Biracial (half-black and half-white)

President Bush: Aged 55 years at the time of his first inauguration as the President (January 20, 2001)
President Obama: Aged 48 years at his inauguration on January 20, 2009

President Bush: Inherited a surplus budget and strong economy from previous administration of President Clinton
President Obama: Inherited a deficit budget and the weakest economy

President Bush: From affluent family background
President Obama: From middle-class family background

President Bush: Reactive personality
President Obama: Sensitive personality

President Bush: From an integrated family
President Obama: From a broken family (absent father, single mother)

President Bush: Secretive and inward looking
President Obama: Open and outgoing

President Bush: Media averse
President Obama: Media friendly

President Bush: Inarticulate speaker
President Obama: Eloquent speaker

President Bush: Anti-abortion, anti-same-sex marriage, anti-embryonic stem-cell research
President Obama: Pro-abortion, pro-same-sex marriage, pro-embryonic stem-cell research

President Bush: Pro-engagement, pro-war
President Obama: Pro-dialogue, pro-negotiation

President Bush: Pessimistic attitude
President Obama: Positive attitude

President Bush: A non-author
President Obama: An author of two autobiographical books

President Bush: Old style politics, encompassing the middle-aged to elderly persons
President Obama: New style politics, encompassing the young, middle-aged and elderly persons

Shoeing in Iraq: The Second "Shock and Awe"

When US President George W. Bush, on an unannounced fourth visit to Iraq, was speaking at a news conference in Baghdad on December 14, an irate Iraqi journalist threw both of his shoes at him. Mr. Bush ducked and was able to avoid the flying shoes coming straight at him one after the other. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki was also standing beside the US President, who was on a farewell visit to Iraq before the end of his second term of office on January 20, 2009.

Muntazer al-Zaidi, 29, a Shia journalist with the Iraqi-owned al-Baghdadiyah TV network in Egypt, yelled at the speaking President and said in Arabic: "This is a farewell kiss, you dog!" The security guards overpowered the journalist and took him in custody. The audience was stunned at the incident, but President Bush vainly tried to brush aside the incident with a humour.

Iraqi and American security services checked the shoes thoroughly to ensure that they did not contain explosives and then destroyed them.

"Shock and Awe"

The unexpected behaviour of the journalist marks another shock and awe after the US invasion and bombing of Baghdad, triumphantly termed as "shock and awe" by Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defense Secretary in 2003. The shoe-throwing incident is a shock because the US President being the head of the most powerful nation in the world faced hurling shoes in the most secured zone in Iraq and an awe because a mere journalist at the risk of his life did the daring.

What the Iraqi journalist did is against the accepted norms and ethics of journalism. A journalist in now way should involve himself in the event that he covers. By actively engaging himself in the event he becomes a partisan and thus he loses his journalistic neutrality, credibility and power of judgment.

Yet Muntazer al-Zaidi acted as he did and vented his anger at President Bush. His action is symptomatic of the general feeling of resentment and rage against the American occupation and presence in Iraq. That's why he was instantly hailed as a hero in the region.

Shoes in a Cultural Context

In most Asian cultures, used shoes are considered to be filthy because they tread on dirt, germs, and animal and human waste on the mud paths and roads. That's why people leave their shoes outside the doors before entering houses, places of worship and the like. Moreover, regular washing of feet has a prominent place in many societies.

Kicking a person with a shoe, throwing a shoe at him, or making someone wear a garland of old shoes is considered an extreme form of insult. Besides, calling a person a "dog" or "child of a dog" is also disparaging. In the Indian subcontinent there is a tradition of making a criminal or antisocial person wear a garland of shoes and parading publicly on streets in face of mockery and even physical abuse of the onlookers. The purpose is to reform him or teach him a lesson for his vile deeds. Indian subcontinental countries also have a common term joota maara (to thrash with a shoe) used when intended to insult or punish a person for his or her unacceptable words or actions. In Bengali, the language prevalent in Bangladesh and the State of West Bengal in India, joota-peta kawra (to repeatedly strike someone with a shoe) is another term used for the same purpose.

I don't think that President George W. Bush could realize this cultural context of shoes. Could he?