[LJ2ME] Barrack O-bow-ma
Much ado about nothing?
There's this Youtube clip, painstakingly researched and spliced together, that juxtaposes Obama's latest greeting of the Japanese Emperor with that of a whole slew of other international leaders meeting the man on the Chrysanthemum throne.
Edited for gratuitous exploitation of the moment, it plays up the split-second bow by freezing it in time with a still photograph where the statuesque Obama is nearly bent double, bringing his height down to that of his diminutive counterpart.
It is meant to force the debate of Obama's supposed subservience and servitude to Japan, by evidencing the absence of any such protocol among the other leaders. As the comments posted show, the public is divided as to whether he was right or wrong to do so. Basic Japanese etiquette or diplomatic faux pas?
I'm with him on this. A bow is equivalent to a handshake in Japan and it is only pandering to foreign influence that they shake hands at all. It only alludes to Obama's sense and sensibility that he adopts the local customary greeting, not in deference, but in respect to the Emperor, his elder and senior. Also a nod to his upbringing in Indonesia where Asian mores were cultivated?
Oh well, what does it matter anyway? It will soon be swept under the carpet, dredged up only from time to time to illustrate a precedence. Remember Michelle Obama touching Queen Elizabeth?
There's this Youtube clip, painstakingly researched and spliced together, that juxtaposes Obama's latest greeting of the Japanese Emperor with that of a whole slew of other international leaders meeting the man on the Chrysanthemum throne.
Edited for gratuitous exploitation of the moment, it plays up the split-second bow by freezing it in time with a still photograph where the statuesque Obama is nearly bent double, bringing his height down to that of his diminutive counterpart.
It is meant to force the debate of Obama's supposed subservience and servitude to Japan, by evidencing the absence of any such protocol among the other leaders. As the comments posted show, the public is divided as to whether he was right or wrong to do so. Basic Japanese etiquette or diplomatic faux pas?
I'm with him on this. A bow is equivalent to a handshake in Japan and it is only pandering to foreign influence that they shake hands at all. It only alludes to Obama's sense and sensibility that he adopts the local customary greeting, not in deference, but in respect to the Emperor, his elder and senior. Also a nod to his upbringing in Indonesia where Asian mores were cultivated?
Oh well, what does it matter anyway? It will soon be swept under the carpet, dredged up only from time to time to illustrate a precedence. Remember Michelle Obama touching Queen Elizabeth?