Dominique Strauss-Kahn joins the shoe club
While speaking in Turkey, IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn became the latest world leader to fall victim to an attack by shoe: The Fund’s managing director was addressing students on the campus of Bilgi University when a student took aim with a white trainer, chanting “get out of the university, thief IMF.” Television footage showed ...
While speaking in Turkey, IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn became the latest world leader to fall victim to an attack by shoe:
The Fund’s managing director was addressing students on the campus of Bilgi University when a student took aim with a white trainer, chanting “get out of the university, thief IMF.”
Television footage showed security guards shielding Mr Strauss-Kahn and hustling the bearded student, who wore a white t-shirt and sleeveless jacket, out of the room.
Mr Strauss-Kahn later shrugged off the protest. “It is important for us to have an open debate. I was glad to meet students and hear their views. This is what the IMF needs to do, even if not everyone agrees with us. One thing I learned, Turkish students are polite. They waited until the end to complain,” he told reporters.
With this incident, Strauss-Kahn joins the motley crew of shoe-attack survivors that now includes George W. Bush, Wen Jiabao, Indian Home minister P. Chidambaram, and (possibly) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The shoe-chucking innovator Muntazar al-Zaidi was released from jail in Iraq this month.
So, readers, who do we think will be next?
BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
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