Take the cue from the viral video originating from Wuhan – yes…that same exact city which is the repository and cause of so much of this world’s present day COVID-19 misery.
Latest figures show more than 2,915 deaths in China, 200 elsewhere and a horrifyingly huge – 80, 174 at last count, the number of COVID-19 infectees.
Elsewhere in the world, there are now 8,774 confirmed cases and 128 deaths with Iran, Italy and South Korea the hardest hit.
Daily, advice is being given how simple basic adherence to personal hygiene is all it takes to avoid what has become a deadly virus.
How basic can it get? Wash your hands often – which is what one would, or should do as a matter of course, sneeze or cough into a hanky or paper tissue; and; avoid getting overly-physical.
Now this is where our social mores, traditional methods of interaction and social bonding comes for scrutiny; and modern-day revision.
The most common form of greeting – shaking hands is now discouraged as this form of physical contact is a sure-fire way of transmitting all manner of germs from one person to the next.
Benign as it may appear, each palm-to-palm contact gives rise to the `offer-and-acceptance’ of anything from the current COVID craze to, E-coli! And do you know where E-coli originates? (Hint, hint, it is where you go and what you do first thing in the mornings).
So with this need to be less physical in mind, the weary Wuhanese have come up with a novel (sorry, I cannot resist the temptation) way of translating `ni hao ma’ in physical fashion. Instead of shaking hands, they shake Wuhan – and thence was born – the Wuhan Shake, or maybe we should call it the Wuhan Shuffle.
It is all the rage in Wuhan – when they meet and standing face-to-face, they do the Wuhan Shake which involves thrusting the right foot forward followed by the left foot.
Apparently, it does not matter if the left foot is as virus-laden as the right pedal – because one does not tend to stuff a big toe into one’s mouth!
The Wuhan Shake reminds me of the the Hokey Pokey song by the Snowman that made a novel (that pesky word again) climb up the United Kingdom pop charts in the early 1980s.
They lyrics go : …put your right foot in; you take your right foot out; You put your right foot in, And you shake it all about; You do the hokey pokey; and you turn yourself around.
Indeed, what an opportune time to co-opt the Hokey Cokey, and this time, global survival is the goal, rather than musical entertainment.
This tendency to refrain from physical forms of greeting is now an accepted form of tradition that is being ditched by even the most overly-effete of the Gallic species.
The French and the Italians have been advised to refrain from the traditional two or three pecks on the cheek whenever they meet and greet each other.
That I guess should also apply to other cultures where it is customary to hug and `cheek-kiss’ – even amongst perfect strangers!
So, the advice is, forget Olivia Newton John who memorably scored a musical hit with her Let’s Get Physical (where she goes on to croon that she wants to hear – the body talk!) and opt for now, papal restraint, if not celibacy!
