Granted, but a head of state should know better than to act in such an inappropriate fashion in public, particularly towards another head of state.
It's not that it's a shoulder rub, it's that it's physical contact outside of a formalized gesture (such as a handshake or kiss on the cheek in greeting). That is an enormous faux pas, and even the greenest politician or diplomat should know better. The reasons:
a) It's a personal gesture in a formal professional setting. It is not appropriate for people who are close friends, family, or spouses do not engage in personal gestures in such a work context, much less on the world stage. When politicians are in that setting they're professionals and metaphorical representatives of their nations, not people, and most certainly not *individuals*.
b) It's a gesture implying a certain intimacy -- again, highly inappropriate in that context. Displaying even the most casual of friendship in that situation is a faux pas. A neck rub implies closer friendship than casual (and please don't think I'm dragging the sexual connotation in here, I'm not).
c) It's demeaning to the other nation's status, to imply such a patriarchal stance towards it's leader -- and would have been highly condescending directed to a male head of state, too.
I'm beginning to think that Bush needs a minder at all times, since he's recently acted in ways that would have the most junior diplomat black listed from service in any western nation, with no apparent forethought or consciousness of his blundering. This view has nothing to do with my views about his actually policies. His public behavior as a politician is beginning to resemble an educational primer on how not to act.
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Granted, but a head of state should know better than to act in such an inappropriate fashion in public, particularly towards another head of state.
It's not that it's a shoulder rub, it's that it's physical contact outside of a formalized gesture (such as a handshake or kiss on the cheek in greeting). That is an enormous faux pas, and even the greenest politician or diplomat should know better. The reasons:
a) It's a personal gesture in a formal professional setting. It is not appropriate for people who are close friends, family, or spouses do not engage in personal gestures in such a work context, much less on the world stage. When politicians are in that setting they're professionals and metaphorical representatives of their nations, not people, and most certainly not *individuals*.
b) It's a gesture implying a certain intimacy -- again, highly inappropriate in that context. Displaying even the most casual of friendship in that situation is a faux pas. A neck rub implies closer friendship than casual (and please don't think I'm dragging the sexual connotation in here, I'm not).
c) It's demeaning to the other nation's status, to imply such a patriarchal stance towards it's leader -- and would have been highly condescending directed to a male head of state, too.
I'm beginning to think that Bush needs a minder at all times, since he's recently acted in ways that would have the most junior diplomat black listed from service in any western nation, with no apparent forethought or consciousness of his blundering. This view has nothing to do with my views about his actually policies. His public behavior as a politician is beginning to resemble an educational primer on how not to act.