The wai of Thailand in the corona crisis time
To prevent contamination of the coronavirus as much as possible, it is recommended to keep a distance of approximately 1,5 meters between people everywhere and to refrain from shaking hands.
Some alternatives have already been devised for that handshake, such as making a fist of the hand and pressing it against the fist of the person you want to greet. Another way, which I have already seen, is to touch each other's elbows as a greeting.
Defense newspaper
I am not a regular reader of the Defense newspaper, but came across the latest edition on Twitter. One sergeant Peter also noticed the proliferation of greetings and suggested that soldiers should go back to basics, namely salute. Gosh, how I hated that salute in my navy days. Hand on cap for someone you don't know, but happened to have a higher rank. Anyway, I don't see that as a solution for civilian society yet, but it could work well in the military world.
Thailand
My simple solution for the whole world comes from Thailand, where people don't greet each other with handshaking. The Thai greeting is called the Wai. When meeting, one brings both hands in the direction of the head, at the level of the chest or just below the chin and makes a graceful slight bow with the hands together and the fingers spread.
You can read a lot about the history of the Thai wai on Wikipedia, but this blog has also paid attention to it in a fun way, see: www.thailandblog.nl/cultuur/thaise-begroeting-de-wai
Although the Waai is a better solution than a military salute, I like the way you greet yourself in Japan even better. We don't have to copy everything, because Japan has various kinds of bows. But a slight bow to you in front of you is still much easier than a blow (which is difficult to perform when you have your hands full).
The blow is the most beautiful gesture. Of all kinds of greetings, the blow is “waaŕdiger”. I have been using this since January. And I also see it being adopted. Em it remains 1. 1/2 meters or more. For everyone
keep it healthy.
Bernard.
Indeed, dear Sjaak, making a slight bow feels closer to us than the Wai. In contrast to Japan, we do look at the other side.
Great initiative, I'm doing it now and it works best, but outside my (Thai) wife and acquaintances, people around me are unfamiliar with it. Will be at home until April 6, probably much longer I fear, but I think I will also apply this at work where I receive many guests every day (Holland Casino).
Apart from preventing you from infecting someone, I have always found the Thai custom of giving someone a Wai much nicer than us giving Western hands and kisses, of which you often don't know whether the opposite has been drawn up here. .
Especially when the temperatures in Europe also exceed a certain temperature, I often find it distasteful and almost impolite to keep up with this tradition.
Only it is not only the Wai who can prevent an infection, if you would also look after their eating habits apart from the nice Thai greeting.
Despite the threats of infection, many Thais on the land still cling to their eating habits, albeit unknowingly
Often this happens with finger eating, not rarely with a whole group or at least their own family place, where everyone tries to pick the desired food from a large bowl with their fingers, or sometimes with a spoon.
In a time where there is no dangerous pandemic, in the smartest case scenario this can only result in a small cold, which is of course completely different with the current threat.
In the village where I am, I see that most people still maintain this risky eating habit.
When I try to warn my own Thai Family, most of them still look at me very ignorantly with a face, as if they want to say, what is that crazy Farang up to now.
In India, 1,3 billion people have been infected so far.
Here they also put hands together and say Nemeste or RamRam.
People here also wear masks.
Given the ratio of contamination in India to the Netherlands, is Rutte's 1,5 meter an effective measure?
How reliable are those India figures, just as I doubt those Thai figures, I heard stories from my wife that people who had taken out a corona life insurance policy suddenly die of an ordinary flu, they do not have to pay and the government comes also look better.
Stay at home. You don't even have to greet anyone.