The Shoeshine Boy Act
11/22/2009
Jose Miguel caught my attention in the Dominican Republic a year ago with that sunny smile and entrepreneurial spirit. Which is not even a tiny fraction of the attention the Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor is getting exactly on the one-year-in-office anniversary. What has he done? Apparently, he made good on his promise to clean the national football team’s shoes if they won in the decisive match against Russia, which took place last Wednesday. It was stated immediately that the PM kept his word, but no material evidence was provided, except for a sad-looking shoe brush, which immediately raised doubts regarding the claims of the PM cleaning up.
Now, a video was released, which has or has not put those doubts to rest. Whether you think the whole thing is cool, that it’s a populist stunt or that it never actually happened, one thing is sure. It feels good to argue about something of this calibre for a change and not yet another aspect of macroeconomics. Comforting, even.
Gotta love the circuses. Tough to enjoy them without the bread, though.
alcessa said,
November 22, 2009 @ 2:17 pm
Exactly! (all of it)
But, do you think anyone can make/persuade/trick people into discussing something so … less intelligent, if they don’t want to?
dr. filomena said,
November 22, 2009 @ 4:17 pm
Of course not. Like I said, it feels comforting to discuss something more… worldly. And how dare you imply that football is a ‘less intelligent’ matter, anyway! 😈
pengovsky said,
November 22, 2009 @ 4:20 pm
@alcessa: left to themselves, people tend to imitate one aother.
@drfilomena: football is the penultimate source of modern philosphy! 🙂
alcessa said,
November 24, 2009 @ 2:02 pm
Dr. Fil: not football, but the very existence of the shoeshining act 😆 Do you really care/Are you all really curious about whether he did it or not? It sounds soo… uninteresting. Especially if compared with the good news about the victory.
Pengovska: so the question “Did Pahor clean their shoes or not?” is the most repeated one right now? 😆
BTW: the latest Terry Pratchett book is all about football…