When Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi threw his shoes at then US president George W. Bush in Baghdad in December, he started a trend. The next thing we knew, a student at Cambridge University - who turned out to be German - hurled a shoe at Premier Wen Jiabao. And on Thursday, in a combined shoe-and-book attack, the Israeli ambassador to Sweden found himself the target at Stockholm University.
Actually, with tight security at events attended by political leaders, shoes are a natural weapon. It is almost impossible to smuggle in eggs or tomatoes. But everyone wears shoes.
While both American and Chinese leaders were subjected to shoe attacks, the way they, and their governments, reacted reflect significant cultural and political differences.
Mr Bush, who was holding a joint news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, had to duck when two shoes came flying his way. He made light of the whole incident. 'It was a size 10 shoe that he threw,' Mr Bush exclaimed. 'I thought it was weird to have a guy throw his shoes at you, but I'm not insulted.'
He shrugged the incident off without attempting to draw political lessons from it. This is similar to how Mr Bush reacted in October 2003, when he was heckled as he addressed the Australian Parliament. He responded with a quip: 'I love free speech.'
The man who aimed his shoe at Mr Wen called him a 'dictator' and yelled that Cambridge was 'prostituting itself' by allowing the Chinese premier to lecture on campus. Mr Wen quickly recovered his composure and remarked that 'this kind of dirty trick cannot stop the friendship between the Chinese and British people'.
The day after the Baghdad shoe-throwing incident, the US State Department's deputy spokesman, Robert Wood, was asked whether Washington saw it 'as a gesture against Bush or as a gesture against the US in general?'
