The Power of a Good Doolally Moment
I just love a good “doolally” moment, don’t you? Honestly, who hasn’t acted like a doolally person every now and then and thought afterward, “Wasn’t that lovely?” I thought I knew what a doolally was about until I received today’s A.Word.A.Day published online by Anu Garg. I guessed it was a word derived from a similar silly-sounding word, “lollygaggle.” They look related, don’t they? Doolally, however, has nothing at all to do with lollygaggle. They’re so completely afar from one another as to border on the ludicrous. Doolally is an adjective meaning, “irrational, deranged, or insane.”
Maybe that’s what happened to the Iraqi news reporter who took off his shoes and threw them at President Bush the other day. How dare he become a doolally journalist thus insulting the President of the United States!
In the aftermath of an incident that occurred while Bush was saying goodbye to Iraq and the war he unleashed there but cannot seem to end, Muntader al-Zaidi, a 29-year old news journalist exploded in anger at a news conference with Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki. As Bush was speaking, Muntader al-Zaidi rose and shouted angrily, “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!” Then he threw his shoe at the President, narrowly missing him as Bush dodged the throw.
Before Iraqi security guards could stop him, al-Zaidi shouted again, “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!” He then threw his other shoe, missing high and to the left. al-Zaidi was then subdued and beaten by members of the Prime Minister’s security team who carried him from the room in only his sock-feet. Bush laughed the incident off as if this had happened to him many times before.
So was al-Zaidi behaving like a doolally person? Or was it the response of someone fully sane and expressing the sentiment of a nation that’s had enough of the rebuilding effort that’s been more of an occupation than a rebuilding? Needless to say, a storm of response has been unleashed in the Arab world. In Damascus, shop owner named Muhammad said he was on his way to celebrate the shoe-throwing incident with friends. “This is like a holiday,” he said. “This is just what we needed for revenge.”
Worried that al-Zaidi won’t be able to hire a lawyer to defend himself? More than a hundred lawyers from around the world have said they would represent him for free. Not formally charged as yet, he could face up to 7 years in prison for committing an act of aggression against a visiting head of state.
In Saudi Arabia, an American ally (sort of), a newspaper reported a man has offered ten million dollars to buy just one of al-Zaidi’s black dress shoes. Libyan leader Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s daughter offered him a medal of courage.
The New York Times pointed out that calling someone “son of a shoe” is one of the worst insults in Iraq. But this simple act, this doolally deed, if you will, has caused people in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City to remove their footwear and place them on the end of long poles, waving them high in the air in his honor.
Maybe al-Zaidi was simply having his doolally moment on the biggest stage available to him. Call him insane, call him rude, but chunking his shoes at the President has united the Arab world into calling him a folk hero. Who knows? Perhaps Bush should have sat down with him and listened to his complaints. Maybe he had a point worth consideration.
December 17th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
I don’t know if Bush could have sat down with him and been on equal footing.
He couldn’t stand for that to have happened. He must have gotten cold feet at the last minute.
Ok that’s enough. =-)
Thanks for your thoughts-and the words.
Dwight
December 19th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
I notice there are seldom comments on your blog. I just wanted to tell you that I regularly read your little essays and always enjoy them. Thanks for continuing to write for the great unknown world out here. I appreciate you,
Merry Christmas and I look forward to continuing to read into a blessed New Year,