TWICE WITHIN THE last week, we have seen public refusal by persons to shake each other’s hand in circumstances where it is the normal practice so to do.
These are exceptions and not necessarily a trend, but they are not to be ignored.
They led some Barbadians to recall the occasion in the House of Assembly when Prime Minister Errol Barrow declined to shake the hand of new Member of Parliament, Billie Miller (later Dame Billie) following the bitter May 1976 by-election battle in the Bridgetown riding.
When challenged, he lectured members on the origins of shaking hands, saying that it was a means of men revealing that they carried no swords, for in order to shake a man’s hand, he could not be carrying a sword which is worn on the right hand side. In typical Barrow fashion, he quipped: “The only sword the honourable member [Miller] carries is the sword of victory.”
Barrow rightly pointed out that anyhow, it is impertinent for a gentleman to offer his hand to a lady. If a lady so desires, she must first offer her hand to the gentleman.
In a One-Day International cricket encounter in Bangladesh, English all-rounder Ben Stokes refused to shake the hand of Tamim Iqbal, the opening batsman of the opposite side, at the conclusion of the game. This followed some controversy during the game and gloating behaviour by the triumphant Bangladeshis at its conclusion.
Refusal to greet an opponent in the traditional manner is not conduct expected in the gentleman’s game, irrespective of how tense the contest, how glorious or how painful the outcome.
In another even more publicly observed incident, at the start of the second presidential debate in the United States election, combatants Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump chose not to shake each other’s hand, although, surprisingly, they found a way to greet each other at the closing.
Given all that preceded the debate, perhaps the tension was too great and the anguish too strong at the outset for good-natured pleasantries to be publicly displayed. This latter incident, unprecedented in the history of US election debates, sparked much discussion.
We have come to regard the handshake as the done thing among civilised people, particularly those in public life, to openly demonstrate peace, friendship, trustworthiness and honesty.
Declining to engage in this short ritual grasp is a virtual open declaration of hostility and resentment that both the politicians and the cricketers involved in these incidents may have sensed at the moment of their meeting.
We believe that there is a lesson in these two examples: Public life demands high standards of conduct and respect for traditional values.
