Muntazer al-Zaidi was released from a prison that he should not have entered in the first place, when he threw his shoe at George W. Bush on behalf of the Iraqis, Arabs and Muslims, and perhaps most Americans and Europeans and the rest of the world, in expressing their opinion about an extremist and failed American administration. For over eight unbearable years, George W. Bush succeeded in achieving nothing, except in avoiding al-Zaidi's flying shoe last December. In fact, had al-Zaidi not cursed Bush while he was throwing his shoe, Bush would not have been alerted and the shoe would have had definitely hit him in the head. Everybody knows this story, so I will not prolong it here, and I will conclude this subject with verses of poetry I had received at the time, and which ask al-Zaidi why he purported to insult his shoe [by throwing it at Bush]. I will continue with other stories: - A Pakistani taxi driver in New York took me back to memories from my Beirut days, that the years had almost made me forget: According to the interesting story published in the New York Times at the end of the week, Mohammad Boota, who is a Pakistani immigrant, is a seventh generation Musaharati (Ramadan Drummer), and is teaching his son this profession since he wants it to stay in his family. I have only known one Musaharati in my life, when I lived on Madame Curie Street near the famous pine tree. Although I do not recall his name, I do vividly remember his drum, and his chant “Awake, those who are asleep, and Praise the God”. He was not on good terms with his neighbour and honoured him for nothing. The Musaharati could not ignore him as there were many other Muslim families in the building, and so had ample excuse to stand and beat his drums and chant and yell until he made sure he disturbed his neighbour before moving on in his tour. Nonetheless, I do not recall that anyone has ever complained about the Musaharati, even when he told us that he was deliberately annoying the neighbour. The Pakistani in New York City, however, is less fortunate, as the hospitality of the Americans does not include accepting to be woken up at 3 in the morning. As such, the drummer Boota records the insults and profanities that he was subjected to, how the police had banned him from going into certain neighbourhoods, and how he can only go to the homes and stores of Muslim immigrants like him. Moving on to other stories from here and there: - Silvio Berlusconi does not even possess one qualification to be eligible to be the Prime Minister of Italy, or even of Malta. Yet, he is in this post for a third term owing to his control over half of the Italian media, be it radio stations, printed press, or television stations. The only thing he is good at is providing a living example of the control of the media in this day and age, since this old man who acts unfittingly for his age has been in the midst of an ongoing, if not worsening, sex scandal for months now, and should have been scandalously forced to resign. However, he is still in power, attacking his opponents in full force, while a businessman even admits to providing him with thirty women to attend his parties, with some of them having been paid for their “services”. This in fact reminds me of something I heard from an American comedian in the days of Bill Clinton and the scandal surrounding his affair with Monica Lewinsky. The comedian said that the president should rape the people as a group, and not one by one. Meanwhile, Berlusconi said jokingly in a recent press conference that he will answer the questions of the [male] reporters, and he will take the phone numbers of the [female] reporters. -My entire family, including my wife and children, accuse me of having bad observation, as I can't remember details related to hair colours or dressing styles or hairstyles. Yet, I managed to notice in the last couple of months the new fashion of women wearing extremely high heels, which seem to be like lifts carrying people to higher floors. I said to myself, this cannot be comfortable. Then yesterday, I read the results of a recent poll which showed that 80 percent of women suffer from pain in their feet, and that 37 percent of them admitted that they were willing to buy uncomfortable shoes just to be fashionable. What is fashion for men? The fashion of the Western suit that I wear has been there for decades and will last for even more decades to come. - Finally, a heartening news story about how the newly rich Chinese have beaten the Russian and Arab rich in spending at London's stores, restaurants, hotels and clubs. In fact, this is a race at which I do not mind seeing Arabs have the last place, while fearing that we might soon go back to “pole position” because the Arabs might be only absent this month since they prefer to stay in their home countries and observe Ramadan there, and not because they have suddenly become self-conscious. This news story in Reuters about spending has left me confused, meanwhile, because I thought that said shoppers were Japanese. The Agency however mentioned that they are Chinese, and I really cannot tell the difference between the Chinese and the Japanese because to me, they are as similar to each other as pigeons. This is not racism on my part, since I prefer them to most other people for their extreme politeness.
