h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Prince Charles has been criticised for shaking Mugabe's hand at the Pope's funeral. Jack Straw did the same at a UN summit last year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4425385.stm

Were they both taken by surprise by the outstretched hand & reacted with automatic politeness? Would the obvious discourtesy of refusing have been constructive?

I was watching the Pope's funeral on tv last night and when I saw Mugabe there my first response was - *what is that f**ker doing there???'

Of course, it's all about political protocol, isn't it?

As are the handshakes.

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I personally feel that the refusal to shake hands with such a person would be a beautiful political moment. If anyone ever had the guts to do such a thing.

Mind you, everyone also shook hands with George Bush.

az

You took the words right out of my mouth az

It is surprisingly hard *not* to shake a hand if it is held out to you with sufficient confidence.

It is a classic way of demonstrating the power of the subconscious, and used sometimes to do just that for training in hypnosis.

It's firmware, obviously, but deeply instilled nonetheless.

Ben

Was not Jack Straw faced with a similar situation and he said something to the effect that he did not recognise Mugabe all he saw was smiling face with a lot of white teeth so just shook hands as a reflex action.

Bearing in mind that Charles was at the funeral of the Pope in Rome and that I believe Mugabe was banned from travelling to Europe surely Charles can be forgiven for automatically reacting with politeness to an outsetetched hand from a fellow mourner.

The Vatican City (Or Holy See) is not actually a member of Europe (see below) it has only been a proper state since 1929. Hence, Mugabe, technically was not travelling to Europe and he is a Catholic so the Vatican could hardly say no to him.

And the page from the CIA website detailing the state. Interesting thing I noticed was that there is no break down of the gender of the population.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/europe/holy_see/

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/vt.html

So, Prince Charles shook Mugabes hand any intelligent person in the world will see it as just that a hand shake in a difficult situation. Now does Mugabe actually win on the hand shake? He keeps saying that Britain keeps interfering in his country and yet HE still shakes hands with a person who will be Head of the Commonwealth at some point(the club the Zimbabwe got suspended from and then walked out of a bit later trying to save face). Isn't that a bit hypocritical of Mugabe? How will Mugabe get any political boost from this within Zimbabwe itself? Will it give him credence? Headlines: Newly elected President Mugabe gets congratulatory handshake from Prince Charles of the United Kingdom.

Yes, Mugabe is a vote-rigging toturing dictator but isn't that becoming the norm these days for various heads of state?

I'm sure it was automtatic. Possibly also both would have prefered not to make a scene in their respective situations.

Of course you can be just as insulting with post handshake actions. Have a look & see how often someone wipes their hand soon after.

No, he was not travelling to Europe, per se, but in order to get to the Vatican (which has no airport of its own) he had to land *in* Europe. And then travel through a bit of Italy to get to the Vatican.

Frankly, if the man is not allowed in Europe then he should not be allowed full-stop.

Even if it's only for an hour or so.

az

Az,

It basically shows you that the Italian government are not willing to stand up against the Vatican. It shows how much power the Vatican has.

Italy is a Catholic country and no politician is going to p*ss off the board of the company that has most of their voters in their pockets are they?

"The protocol required that participants shook hands as a formality ... it had no political significance"
This is actually a quote from the Syrian president referring to shaking the hand of his Israeli counter-part but it could so easily be used by Prince Charles. It's silly how much fuss these various handshakes have kicked up. I think Charles was right to just shake the man's hand without kicking up a fuss at the time, it was somebody's funeral, it would have been completely inappropriate to cause a scene. Also Mugabe's regime would have probably used it as part of their moronic propaganda campaign

Couldn't agree more. Using the funeral to make a political statement by, say, refusing that handshake, would have been a whole lot more disrespectful of the dead pope than of Mugabe.

NBY

I'm surprised that the person who wrote that piece for the BBC didn't understand that. After all, the opening sentence states as fact that "Prince Charles has made a diplomatic gaffe on the eve of his wedding, by shaking hands with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe at the Pope's funeral". It's the kind of journalism I would have expected from the tabloid press, but not from the BBC

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Good points, it's no doubt just automatic courtesy.

Though I wouldn't want to shake hands with Mugabe myself, I can understand why being selective could be extraordinarily difficult for heads of state.

Exactly *where* would you draw the line when working out who to shake hands with?
How much press speculation do you think there would be based on exactly who had or hadn't offered or accepted handshakes?

The best you could do is physicallly separate people who would rather not meet and shake hands, but coordinating that could become rather difficult.