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Today Oct 1, 2009 IMF president Dominique Strauss gave a small speech at University of Bilgi. I was in attendence due to the awesome high profile nature of my UN professor, he got the whole class in before even the press got to enter the auditorium. Anways the speech was great, Strauss was reassuring albeit a bit defensive about the IMF during the Economic crisis. He definatly stressed the need for tighter fiscal policy globally and also stated the new agreement for a 0% interest loan for developing countries as long as they meet certain standards for dispersing the money into the economy.
The exciting moment came near the end during the question and answer session, when out of nowhere some student comes down the steps yelling in Turkish and throws his shoe at Strauss. Similar to the Bush situation he gets chased and grabbed by Secret Service and a young lady student carrying a graffiti flag also yelling in Turkish is carted out behind him.
Now i'm all in favor of a good protest, but i cannot stand it when people refuse to listen and instead try to impose their voice over yours. This was the perfect setting and oppurtunity for this group (turns out they are a communist Turkish organization) to ask questions...hard ones and demand answers, and also to give their comments in an open forum. All their yelling and disrespect turned me immidieatly off to their cause and made me sympathize more with the IMF for having to deal with situations like that.
This leads me to my soap box....
I appreciate people speaking their mind, however i don't like when people spout their uneducated opinions as fact and try to sway others to their view through loud misinformation. For example this Turkish communist group hails Stalin as a hero and admires him greatly. I want to tell them that they can admire whomever they wish but the should at least acknowledge and respect the hundreds of thousands of lives that Stalin is responsible for taking.
I admire intelligence, but i respect people that can question what they believe to be true, and at least listen to both sides of everything. It is a challenge i think to open up your mind so that you take in everything and yet still stick to your own set of values. That is the ideal...as for groups that want their voice to be heard....i challenge them to listen to all the other voices out there...listen and absorb and then make their own voice heard. And try to do it without throwing shoes.
Which brings me to my final point, if you want attention, throw a fit...any 2 year old child knows that...minimal brain power. If you want to make a point, sit down and be verbal....use your words...ask questions, state opinions....if you throw a shoe you look like a fool...and if you admire someone who can simply throw a shoe...then you are twice the fool, in my opinion.

bye bye!
Jessi