“My God, Help Me Survive This Deadly Love”
A kiss ( also known in old English as cyssan, or coss ) is an old action, behavior of showing gratitude, love, passion, respect , friendship , peace etc. It depends from one culture to another , from one tradition to another, It may be one , two , or three.
Some people kiss the cheeks , turn each others cheeks to touch, lip kiss . Others just be so annoying and make a fake kissing sound with their lips , busting up the eardrum .
This topic came to Lievens mind in a non intentional way , when Omar and Lieven had a discussion of the ways and times people kiss. It may sound funny to write about “ Kissing “ but the message behind smooching or snogging is a myth specially in politics.
But what does smooch has to do with politics? Why is there so much snogging( kissing) in politics?
So how did this politics of kissing started ?
It started during Ancient Romans and Persians established a ritual of meeting in a sense of a dare kiss . This tradition would later show if the meeting individuals are equals (full-on, mouthy kiss, the basium), having a small gap in between (cheeky peck, an osculum), or wide range of inequality (by means of kissing the foot , showing some humor and respect). Even top generals of state treated people in this way.
Nothing was more weird than the era of the USSR , Soviet Union, leaders used to kiss( the soviet intimate kiss) and were tested on how close these communists leaders were. Mimicking the tradition of the “trinity” kiss from the Orthodox Church Easter greeting, three kisses on the cheek has to be done. Some even kissed on the lips to show gratitude and humbleness of brotherhood. For instance when Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev and German Democratic Republic leader Erich Honecker met in East Berlin in 1979 , the whole nation noticed an intimate lip kissing , which later became one of the most famous political kiss in history . Many Soviet leaders had intimate moments with comrades, one of them is the Great Dictator Stalin, took part of smooching Ivan Spirin a Soviet Aviation pioneer. But this image was not a concern to the media like Brezhnevs. A joke spread in Russia after the incident in East Germany describing Brezhnev “ a rubbish politician .. but a really good kisser ..”
The Act of kissing
After the Election of Mr Donald Trump where the elections were accused of being intervened by Russian policy and in particular the president Vladimir Putin, who was criticized for his treatment to the LGBT community by banning propaganda of non traditional sexual relations. He was viewed same as Donald trump with his racial and unethical behaviors towards the world. The image of the two presidents kissing became a landmark outside a restaurant in Lithuania , where the artist said : “Two leaders , two big egos.”
The image of kissing became a weapon for LGBT pro activists, for example in France two straight socialist parliament members kissed in public to show their support to the same sex marriage law of a demonstration held in Paris in January 2013 for marriage equality in France.This later became a global campaign around 45 countries “The kiss for equality movement ”.
But, how are whatever remains of todays politicians getting along, smooch wise ?
