BY HELEN J CATALBAS
THE TERM protocol has always been used since the pandemic lockdown in most countries of the world. Since then, health protocol became a 24/7 byword all so suddenly.
Travel and tourism were the most affected by the newly-imposed health protocols then. Millions in the travel and tourism industry worldwide lost their jobs and businesses while others found new ones, put up new business and adjusted their personal, family and ethnic protocols.
The rest is history.
For the diplomatic world in bad times or in good, we observe that protocol plays a very important role as representatives of member-nations deal with each other day by day. Refined movement and way of addressing each other formally in business communication and in state and interstate ceremonies are part and parcel of protocol in the diplomatic community.
Certain layers of society in different countries observe protocols both in their personal, family and professional life. Expectations relating to people within their immediate communities are defined by how their fellows observe protocols within a given space and time.
In certain ethnic communities, more often than not, strict adherence to social protocol is given more premium than the level of education a person has achieved. This is so because of the behaviour, dealings, actions and reactions of people regardless of their level of education are the ones easily observable and discerned.
Take the case of a doctorate degree flaunter who has become ruder, cruder, more gross and callused since acquiring the title. He/she thinks that what he/she is saying pro or against something is the truth even though the greater majority believe these things the titleholder is talking about are the exact opposite of the truth.
We believe there is no universal template for certain protocol in human behaviour that may be described as more ethnic than anything else. By this we mean what is good protocol for one ethnic group may not be so for another.
What remains to be universal are human emotions no matter what ethnic group people belong to.
Our capacity to put these human emotions under a certain level defines our personal protocol that could make or unmake us./PN
