PNG's new national sport

[In Papua New Guinea] '...children throw pairs of worn-out shoes up into the power cables in Goroka, capital of PNG's Eastern Highlands province. They dangle aloft as the weather rots them. The prank is designed to cause power outages so that when repairmen come they can be bribed to lay illegal lines to houses. Trapping footwear in the overhead lines has become a sport, with champions able to hurl trainers so that they spin by their laces around the lines and stick fast'

- Economist, 20 May 2009