Greetings

I take my turn manning the till in the charity shop where I work.  Standing behind the counter gives plenty of time for reflection and for observing.  I've noticed the different ways people come into the shop.  Some will say a cheery "hello" or "good morning", others will smile and look away, while some never glance in my direction at all.  The difference of approach interests me.

Contrast that with France where a customer would almost without fail greet the shop assistant, and very likely all the other customers in the shop too.  A murmured "Bonjour messieurs-dames" as they come in the door is normally all it amounts to, especially if there are several people around.  Even in a restaurant, customers will greet the assembled company, but probably not in Paris.

I think it could be a matter of public versus private space.  If you're walking down a high street, you don't think to greet everyone unless they happen to be someone you know.  If you're walking your dog in a woods, though, and come across another person, I can't imagine you wouldn't greet them.  But then there is the intermediate zone.  Walking along the sea front yesterday, some greeted, some didn't.

I find the whole thing intriguing, part cultural, part psychological.   Who greets, where and and when?

Oh, and PS, in case it isn't  immediately obvious, I'm talking from the UK.  England, south-east corner, to be precise.

World Heritage List

Next week the UN World Heritage Committee is meeting to consider 37 sites for inclusion on their list for conservation. They haven't published (or I can't find) the full list, but included in the natural or mixed natural/cultural sites are rainforests in Madagascar and Gabon.

Last year the sites which were added to the list included:

• Harar Jugol in Ethiopia
• The stone circles of Senegambia in both Gambia and Senegal
• The Chongoni rock art area in Malawi
• Aapravasi Ghat in Mauritius
• Kondoa rock art sites in Tanzania

Some of these sites date from thousands of years ago. The cultural past of Africa is often forgotten, and indeed the natural history too. According to Unesco, the importance of endemic fish species in Lake Malawi for the study of evolution is comparable to that of finch species in the Galapagos Islands. Today was the first time I found mention of that even though it was 1984 when Lake Malawi was added.

The list of new sites added in 2006 can be found on the Unesco site, as can the full list of sites.

Dancing

At some stage, I think I was about 14 or 15, my mother decided I ought to learn to dance properly and sent me to lessons with a teacher friend of hers. I'd been through the ballet class phase when I was very little and I don't recall disliking it, though not actively liking it either. That was with a friend of my mother's too. Was it her mission in life to keep her friends in business?

Anyway the dancing lessons came to an abrupt end when the teacher, and I can still picture her, sighed and said she couldn't see how I was so lacking in rhythm while my mother was so musical. The little confidence I had was completely shattered and I avoided dancing thereafter.

All this came back to me last week. When the dancing at the wedding started, the very first person on the floor was a young woman on her own, rapidly followed by most of the others, some couples but mainly women - one very pregnant. It was somehow a party within a party with everyone enjoying themselves tremendously. But not the British contingent, oh no. Indeed it became so obvious that I felt the need to make sure all our family were joining in too.

Everyone's enjoyment was total and they had no qualms about dancing around, and with the singers and the professional belly dancer, and nor were the singers or dancers put out by this in any way. Perhaps it's usual in Mediterranean weddings, I don't know (yet).


I was talking about it with one of my sons who maintained we can't dance because we do lack rhythm whereas some people are born with it. I argued that we can't dance because we are full of inhibitions resulting from our upbringing and culture. There may however be another element. I noticed that the little girls from a very young age were joining in and being shown how to move by other female relatives. Anyone can undoubtedly be taught to sing and paint to a reasonable level, so I am sure they will be good dancers before they are old enough to feel in any way self conscious.

Perhaps if I had been taught to dance from that sort of age I too could have done this.


Well, I can dream ....