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Friday, April 8

Il ne faut pas prendre un faux pas

Prince Charles shook hands with President Mugabe at the Pope's funeral today. From the sound of the report, he was rather taken by surprise when the Zimbabwean President leaned across and held out a hand. I can well imagine that in a similar situation one might well instinctively grasp the proffered hand seconds before the brain kicks in and curses loudly, playing back a list of "Things I'll Say/Do If I Ever Come Face To Face With X" to the abashed hand. The third reaction, following after the other two would be along the lines of, "Oh bother*, what are the Press going to make of this?"

There's been a hasty flurry of statesmen from the Prince's spin-doctors reassuring the British public (and Press) that the Prince does, in fact, oppose Mugabe's regime and offering proofs. As an attempt to further diffuse the situation, criticism is deflected from the Prince with the playground chant of "And anyway, he did it too, Miss, he did it first!" as we are reminded of Jack Straw making the same faux pas.

The thing that really caught my attention was the final paragraph of the article I've referred to, giving a quote from Jack Straw in his own defence:

Mr Straw defended his actions saying the serious disagreement between the two countries did not justify being "discourteous or rude".

Does it not? I would have thought that this would be perfect justification for discourteous behaviour! Given t that this is a goodwill gesture, would it not be a good chance to make a statement that we do not have goodwill towards people who behave in such a fashion as President Mugabe? Surely, in civilized society, rudeness can make a great statement where it is unexpected.

* Insert expletive of choice.

Scribbled by Dragon Mama

Comments: Il ne faut pas prendre un faux pas

Was it at the sign of peace?

I must say I agree with John Simpson that it's a storm in a tea cup. He didn't have time to think.

Posted by James Casey at 09042005 16:38

He probably didn't have time to think. But possibly what flashed through his mind was that this is a funeral. A funeral of a man renound for his efforts at peace making. It would seem highly innappropriate to start being discourteous during such a ceremony.

Posted by Kirsty at 09042005 17:23

If it was an instinctive thing, what does it say about Dubya who managed to be photographed very purposefully avoiding shaking hands with Kofi Annan at the same event? Either that Dubya has better control of his instincts, or that Charles simply wasn't paying attention to whose hand it was, methinks.

Posted by JD at 10042005 09:02

I take your point, but we all know that Charles takes after his father (which is mainly why I look forward to him becoming king) in his diplomatic abilities! Personally, I wouldn't take anything Dubya does as an example to live by.

Posted by Kirsty at 10042005 10:23

It was at the sign of peace, in which case I am now settled in my mind that it was absolutely the right thing for HRH to do. To have refused the handshake at that point would have been rude, which is bad behaviour. Turning to St. Paul's letter to the Romans, I quote [12 v18-21]:

"As much as possible, and to the utmost of your ability, be at peace with everyone. Never try to get revenge: leave that, my dear friends, to the Retribution. As scripture says, 'Vengeance is mine - I will pay them back,' the Lord promises. And more: 'If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; if thirsty, something to drink. By this, you will be heaping red-hot coals on his head.'"

Posted by James Casey at 10042005 14:31

If it was at the sign of peace then I guess that's fair enough. Although I would have expected Charles's press people to have jumped on that and made something of it...

Posted by JD at 10042005 17:56

On the other hand, Jim, I would have said the oppression of the people in your country to the point of [allegedly] stealing an election is pretty rude, and refusing to shake the hand of someone who does that would be acceptable to my way of thinking. Of course he banned any outside observers who don't support him, so we can't be sure about the allegations of election theft...

Posted by JD at 10042005 18:00

Mugabe's 'rudeness' or any of his actions or the essential fact that he's a vicious and quite possibly semi-racist dictator should not influence whether or not we are rude to him in return. Our behaviour to humans should not be contingent upon their behaviour to others. We must set the example in all instances. There may be reasons for bad behaviour, but there are never excuses. Two wrongs don't make a right etc. etc. do stop me if I'm bludgeoning the point home.

Posted by James Casey at 10042005 18:17

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