I will start by saying that the kissing is not only on the hand but also on the ass but hey! mass-media is not allowed "down there" in order to take pictures. Nonetheless, kissing the hand, as a political overzealous act, is well documented in Romania's recent history and defines this new type of feudalism that appeared in Romania after 1989. We call it "cățeleală" and it is a verb; the word is derived from the word "cățel" which is the Romanian word for "dog" and the action can be similar to the English expression "to fawn" but with political interests.
1991. A Bucharest resident kisses the hand of a miner, one of the thousands of miners that came down to the capital city in what was the fourth small civil war called "Mineriadă". Credits and source go to the author of this historical picture, Dinu Lazăr.
A little bit of hand kissing history
There are some low esteem characteristics that my people, the Romanians, have. The kissing of the hand is maybe the lowest of them, it comes from the ancestral plains of history that instead of being corrected during the modern 20th Century, was instead amplified by the communist rule. Though the communist nomenclature was trying to transmit the message that it looks to modernise the man that they took over from the royalists, in fact, they loved the hand kissing mentality. It was for them the only psychological way proper enough so they could keep these people at bay while they were driving the country on a protectionist path with closed borders, hunger, lack of basic goods and cultural degradation for almost 50 years. Propagating the common idea that some hands have to kissed in order to get tomorrow's loaf of bread fit them like a glove.
The fact that the educational system reflected that was their doing also. You had to show unconditional respect to all the professors (some of them were mere peasants that only kissed the right hands for that job), you had to bow your head even when you were totally right and you even had to accept their "correctional beatings" (yes, you read that right) because the teacher was always right and you are not allowed to judge anything. Having this kind of an educational system, going up even to University levels, had some advantages but of course, a lot of disadvantages. First of all the content that was being transmitted to students was created and modelled in order to reflect this kind of attitude. Little practice, a lot of theory (that you couldn't verify for yourself) and the constant attempt to align all the students (through clothing, hair-cuts and imposed respect for the superiors) created people like the one pictured above: in the first years of "freedom" they were more inclined to accept any form of totalitarian regime and control, over democracy, even if that was coming from somebody way less prepared than them. Even worse: they were not used to think for themselves so even a crowd of miners that came to Bucharest in order to beat the students that were protesting against the second line of communists that took power, were enough authority for them and they welcomed them with open arms.
Some of these people are still live. Unfortunately (sorry for being so cynical but you can't remodel a rabid dog so I'm not into that "only good words about the dead" thing). Some of them transmitted this attitude to their daughters or sons. Though the spreadability of this actions has lower density now, the attitude still exists and creates political monsters and stupid voting individuals.
The former communist court jester, Vadim Tudor, now dead (thank God for that!) is getting his hand kissed by one of the biggest communist film directors we've had (actively implicated in the Romanian Revolution) - source
Hand-kissing by force in modern Romania
Mass-media destroyed these former communist whales. Don't get me wrong: they like their hand kissed of course. In a sexual behaviour that I can't really understand, a lot of them love the ass kissing too - suspecting that the worse of them even request private licking in the bathrooms too, not only metaphorically. But I guess that's why we call mass-media "the guardian dog of democracy": in their frenzy to catch "the sensational" while it's expanding, mass-media will photograph anything out of the ordinary. Nowadays they really behave like dogs battling for a piece of meat. So many TV stations, so many ways to transmit anything for free, no costs, no investment and the auditorium just gets bigger and bigger. Don't really know if it's getting smarter but that's another story.
Of course, they don't like getting photographed while idiots kiss their hands. Especially if they are men - ladies in politics can dissimulate that it was a gesture of women general respect (I despise that gesture nonetheless). They will get the public shaming and laughs, all the facebook comments and the decent electors will surely regard them as "old habits politicians" with fetishes for people ready to bow in front of them as if they were Gods. And you can see when this gesture is happening because of this false respect that translates to "Please, bless me with your political power in exchange for my limitless loyalty!". The lips are pointed, the kiss is very deep and the hand is pulled towards the kisser's face with power. It looks as if they would like to eat that hand. They usually keep it with both of their hands and in some cases, they rub it on their faces before or after the kiss, as in a gesture of lovemaking with the saviour's hand. It's disgusting to watch. Repulsive in a way that it makes me feel shame for their ignorance and low self-esteem. You are a God damn human being, not an animal that licks the owner's hand for that plate of food!
Our Agriculture Minister, Petre Daea, getting his hand kissed. Yes! This is 2018. Source
This practice and especially the acceptance of it is accustomed by almost all the political parties in Romania. Nobody complained, nobody (with the exception of Putin here :)) ) never had anything against this practice.
"Hey, you wanna kiss my hand like they were doing it in the dark ages? Here you go. Suck my dick while you're at it too, yes?"
One of our former Foreign Minister (socialist to his bones), a guy who tried to win the Presidency and failed miserably, a very educated guy with the face and speech of a nerd (source)
Though this is a something that we associate with socialists and what was born from the death of the communist party, the kissing of the hand is deeply inscribed in the souls of those who would think of themselves as "democrats" or even "liberals". I guess being hungry, poor and undereducated can do this to you, can get you so low on the ladder of values that your brain would tell your lips to kiss the dirty hand of a politician. And yes...all politicians hands are dirty. Some with blood...some with germs from all the hands they've been just shaking in vain.
This guy, whose hand is being kissed during his colleagues' celebrations because he was nominated County President, happens to be one of my former high school colleagues. Though 2 years older than me, "Monkey" (his nickname was like that) became a hotshot in my area's politics and after kissing the correct hands he got to deserve his own hands kissing. He was never promising to become so "huge".
It's like a scene from "Godfather" but the only things missing are style, decency, respect and noblesse. These guys are only peasant, enriched by their schemes which always aimed to take the money collected by the State and give it to their groups of interests, which, in turn, because they are so "loyal" that they would kiss their master's hand, will re-distribute based on the previous agreements.
It's like mid 17th Century again but it's on TV.
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