Shoes!

I got shoes on the brain, though I didn't catch the news at all yesterday - I was too busy arguing at a shoe store.

A Dutch journalist friend with a name like a fan manufacturer bought a pair of shoes, workman boot types, from a store in Jeramana. He paid quite a bit, 1200 lira. Within the first day of wearing them, he realized there were problems. The left one had unfinished leather that rubbed against his sock, making holes, and the right one's toe was made improperly and cut into his foot. He hobbled around painfully before calling me up to try to return them and get a less painful pair.

Tariq and Ali, came with, predicting success was a longshot. "But take me and I'll speak Allawi," joked Ali.

The salesman, whose eyebrows were so light I thought he didn't have any at first, took one look at the shoes.
"These have been worn. I can't take them back."
"They were only worn once. This is obviously a flaw in manufacturing. The toe of the left one is fine and the toe of the right one is crap."
"Obviously some one stepped on it."
"THIS from someone stepping on it? It's obviously manufactured differently."

Tariq led the charge, with the Dutchman's and my occaisonal input. Ali mostly hung out in the background, offering mostly moral support. The salesman, and his manager, maintained that someone must have stepped on the toe of the shoe, resulting in it to be a different shape.
"How weak is that shoe? When he bought it the salesman assured him they were the strongest shoes available. One day and it breaks?"
"All the shoes are like that! I can get out other pairs and you can see."
"Ok show us."
"Ya Ahkhi there's nothing wrong with that shoe, it got stepped on. It would happen to all shoes."
"He can't wear the shoe it's so painful."

Tariq challenged the man to prove that it would happen to all shoes. The shoes' twin, for example, held its shape despire being worn for a day. The salesman assured him that, if stepped on, it would hold the same shape. Tariq put the shoe down, stamped on the toe a couple of time, and put it back on the counter. It held its shape, not sharing its brother's fate.
"It must have been stepped on in a different way."

The argument was getting quite dramatic, what with shoe-stomping theatrics. The Dutchman turned to a customer about to buy the same type of shoes and told him, "Don't get them. These broke after one day. They're bad boots." The manager did not appreciate the quality review. He told us to take the shoes to the goverment goods office, or offered to ship the shoes back to the factory. If there is indeed something wrong, it's from the factory and not from me.
"You're responsible for what you sell in your store," the Dutchman maintained.

The manager posited that he had nothing to do with the shoes once they left the store. You could walk out of his store and have a car run over the shoes and that's not his responsibility.

"Do you think he had a car run over his boot? For fun?"

The manager agreed to send the shoes back to the factory. Though we failed, Tariq enjoyed the arguing, so all was not lost.
"It's hard for me to speak when I'm angry," the Dutchman said.
"Oh, just wait. Angry Arabic is the most fun of all," I told him.

Today I was told twice before noon about Bush's shoe incident yesterday, where an Iraqi journalist for al-Baghdadiyya threw his shoes at Bush. First while buying fatayir for breakfast, then at the internet cafe where I am filling in more grad school applications. The guy working there was joking with another about it, then turned to me.
"You don't like Bush, do you," he said, joking. The first time I came into this internet cafe he asked me the same question more seriously. I told him the majority of Americans in Syria don't like Bush, as his supporters are probably scared of Arabs and Syrians especially.
"Bravo to the journalist!" I said.