Saturday, December 11, 2021

Handshake Diplomacy

 I sat last night and watched ARD (Channel One, public TV) news.

One of the top pieces of news was the new German Foreign Minister.....Baerbeck, visiting her Polish counterpart (Zbigniew Rau).

For a true description...Rau is a pretty tall and muscular guy.  Baerbeck is fairly lean (maybe a hundred pounds at best) and probably around 5'6" in height.

 So upon meeting....Rau extends his hand (not the traditional elbow thing that German politicians do....to avoid getting Covid).  Then he gives her a good 8-second heavy-duty handshake....literally lifting her off the ground.  

I almost felt sorry for her.  

A demonstration of something, or just the normal typical Pole handshake (hearty and impassioned)?  Hard to say.  Wouldn't shock me if she was visiting the doctor today and a bit sore.  

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