the bow....

[RICHARD]

Why is it that people can not just accept the bow as a sign of respect for another culture? Why does it HAVE to be a sign of showing weakness? Is it just me?

I didn't vote for Obama but for crying out loud people....

Amer. Presidents have never bowed or showed any kind of 'submissive' posture toward any other Prez, PM, King or ?????

We just don't do it.

The people who settled in N.A. came here to get away from under the "King's Thumb".

It's just a bonehead move that this president thinks will ingratiate him (mostly) to the leaders of other states.

---------------------------------

Walk into a room and forget the handshakes - start bowing to people or kissing their rings.

You'll see how they treat you later on.

I walked away from the comp and was doing something when I remembered this incident from when I was a kid.


My paternal GrandMa's house was on the way home from our elementary school.

We would stop to get a drink of water or use the b-room and check in on her on sometimes.


I once was passing by and she had a guest who I had never seen before. She stopped me and intro'ed me to him-I shook his hand and then she began to tell me to kiss his ring.


I was stupid and wasn't really sure what to do so I did it. She began to cackle (sorry granny) after I did and I went away with a real bad feeling about the whole incident.


I went home and told my mom about how I felt and she got pi$$ed. Seems like Granny didn't care for my mom and she would do stuff like that to 'get back at her', So, us kids sometimes got stuck in the middle.

Since that day? I don't 'submit' to anyone or bow, kiss rings or arse.

I will meet you with a firm handshake and a slight head tilt to acknowledge you.
Do not give me the dead fish or try to crush my hand either.

I'm not a politician so I can make my own rules up!

[Catty1]

Businesspeople from different countries learn to bow when they do business in Japan. Japanese business people also shake hands.

Trinityagain, I agree. What's with the "we don't do it so it is weak"? Also, bowing to some figurehead from another country is inviting them to steamroller the nation that bows?

A little macho paranoia, methinks.

JMO

[Lady's Human]

It's the breach of 200+ years of diplomatic protocol.

Pres. Clinton caught hell for it when he did the same.

US Presidents have never bowed to anyone, along the same lines as the US Flag never being displayed lower than another flag.

The really irritating part is the amateurism displayed by the current administration when dealing with foreign leaders, from the bowing to giving the Queen of England a set of DVDs as a gift, the first lady putting her arm around Queen Elizabeth, bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia, etc.. Were this an isolated incident, it would probably be overlooked, but it is far from a one time event.

[sasvermont]

I see no problem with the bow. Times change. Much ado about nothing.

[Lady's Human]

To quote a Japanese poster from another forum, the only people the bow plays well with in Japan are the ultra-right nationalists in that country.

You know, the same people who gave us a little spot of trouble about 65 years ago?

[aTailOf2Kitties]

I take the "when in Rome...." approach. If you are in another country you should abide by their social protocol when it comes to dignified greeting. I wouldn't see it as a sign of weakness, but rather one of willingness to cooperate.

Now if it happened here I could see it as being a big deal, but jeez....

and for the record, I didn't vote for Obama either but I think all of this whiny nit-picking over every little thing he does "wrong" is just childish. Granted it's happened to some extent with every president we've had recently.

[Karen]

Methinks whoever is in charge of protocol ought to be fired, as someone at the White House should know enough history and protocol to advise against these things. He was schooled enough to say "Hello" correctly in the local dialect for Shanghai, shouldn't whosever job that was also have advised him correctly on protocol for bowing or not bowing?

[happylabs]

I'm so short I don't have to bow to anybody.

[Lady's Human]

Having witnessed the occasional ludicrous extremes to which diplomatic protocol officers go to ensure no faux pas, yeah, whoever it is should be fired.....should have been fired after the DVD set.

My mistake, the DVD set was to the PM, not the Queen. The gift from the PM to the POTUS? A Pen holder made from the oak timber of HMS Gannett a Royal Navy vessel whose last missions were anti-slaving patrols off Africa. The gift to the Queen was an Ipod with stock footage from her 2007 visit to the US. How special.

[lizbud]

I take the "when in Rome...." approach. If you are in another country you should abide by their social protocol when it comes to dignified greeting. I wouldn't see it as a sign of weakness, but rather one of willingness to cooperate.

Now if it happened here I could see it as being a big deal, but jeez....

and for the record, I didn't vote for Obama either but I think all of this whiny nit-picking over every little thing he does "wrong" is just childish. Granted it's happened to some extent with every president we've had recently.

I agree with you. Besides, it's no worse that Bush & An Arabian King
holding hands while on a walk together. (It's customary in that culture.)

[Grace]

I agree with you. Besides, it's no worse that Bush & An Arabian King
holding hands while on a walk together. (It's customary in that culture.)

Holding hands - that's not all they did . . . . .