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Purely Dominica

Purely Dominica


handshake

In our small island society a firm handshake is solid building block not just in business but it’s also a fantastic way to share germs with each other. Do you avoid shaking hands, particularly in times like now when it’s so easy get infected with transmitted disease.

Neil Swidey over at the Boston Globe, pose a question which I found interesting: will we ever get rid of the handshake?

For as far as many of us can remember handshakes have been around for hundreds of years, and long thought to be a great way for two people to show that they were unarmed.

Nowadays we tend to settle matters with some type of verbal wit and less with actual handshakes; so the idea of this peace gesture has certainly lost some of its characteristic meaning.

Last month, swine flu officially became a pandemic. Public health officials have said so-called “social distancing” strategies — sharply reducing contact with others — have proved most effective in slowing the spread of previous outbreaks, such as the 1918 flu pandemic. And they told us to cut down on our handshakes as much as we could. Northeastern University heeded the advice, asking its graduates not to shake hands when receiving their diplomas during the school’s commencement ceremony in May. [via TechCruch]

Even before local public health officials were urging us to stop our collection of infectious organisms from the hand of strangers, many people were already growing tired of the hand shaking ritual. The way things are going, by the time the future generation reaches adulthood there will be no need for handshakes – thanks to merely internet and technology, we’re slow moving away from how we conduct business or greet a person.

So have you exchanged the handshake with another greeting? Still keep shaking but keep a hand sanitizer in your bag? Let’s hear your stance on handshakes in the comments below.

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