In light of Monday's White House visit of King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan, I've received multiple requests for a reposting of this previous analysis. It was originally published on 29 October 2017. In addition, US First Lady Melania Trump's visit last Thursday to a "Children's Shelter" in Texas is discussed and contrasted. Updated cross-references are included at the bottom of the page.
In late October 2017, Queen Rania of Jordan visited refugee camps in Bangladesh. In the two months prior to her visit, Bangladesh had received over 500,000 Rohingya people escaping wide-scale human rights violations in neighboring Myanmar, including extrajudicial killings, gang rapes, arson, and infanticides. This is genocide.
Too often political figures' appearances with children are simply photo-ops designed only to serve the leaders' other agenda. In contrast, Queen Rania's emotions and nonverbal displays in these images are quite sincere.
Strong signals of sincerity and empathy are sent when a Queen is not afraid to touch children in a refugee camp.
Note that in all three of these photos, Queen Rania is at or below the level of even very young children. It's rare that leaders exhibit this eye-level and eye contact behavior. Queen Rania is not simply bending over at her waist (such body language is too often performed by adults when visiting and/or speaking with children - and in so doing it sends distancing and patronizing emotional tones). When eye contact takes place at or close to the same physical level, it tends to have a much greater effect in building rapport and empathy.
In assuming this beta posture, Queen Rania elevates all the children to a relative alpha status. It's as if to say, "Although I am a queen - today you are my equals - and even my superiors."
In contrast, First Lady Melania Trump visited a "children's shelter" last week in McAllen, Texas. Some of the children housed in that facility were forcibly separated from their parents - while others there crossed the US-Mexico border seeking asylum and were unaccompanied by an adult.
No photographs or video of any interaction the First Lady may have had with the children during her visit to McAllen are publicly available. However, on the way to and from Texas, Melania Trump infamously wore the message, "I really don't care. Do U?" printed on the back of her jacket.
Stephanie Grisham, the First Lady's Press Secretary and Communications Director said, "It's a jacket. There was no hidden message. After today's important visit to Texas, I hope the media isn't going to choose to focus on her wardrobe."
President Trump contradicted his wife's spokesperson later that same day, tweeting, " 'I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?' written on the back of Melania’s jacket, refers to the Fake News Media. Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!"
SUMMARY: You can take a thousand courses and read ten thousand books on the subject of "Leadership" - you can analyze the behavior of every single leader of every group of free people in human history - and you will never find an example where apathy is flaunted or espoused to be a desirable quality.
Without ethics, what is feigned as leadership is, at best, mass-manipulation.
It wasn't just a jacket. By wearing this message, the First Lady (and, of course, The President) - send a very clear and deliberate message of apathy - where instead, deep empathy and positive action are needed.
“There are two ways to be fooled: one is to believe what isn't true, the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
Søren Kierkegaard
Group Appearances and One-on-One
Online Courses Available
See also:
Body Language & Emotional Intelligence - Analysis No. 4311: Jeff Sessions, "We never really intended to do that"
Body Language Analysis No. 4309: The Little Girl in Red, "Tender Age" shelters, and Empathy
Body Language Analysis No. 4302: G7 Leaders Surrounding Donald Trump
Body Language Analysis No. 4299: Bill Clinton confronted regarding Monica Lewinsky Affair
Body Language Analysis No. 4294: LeBron James, Adrenaline Surges, and Emotional Intelligence
Body Language Analysis No. 4278: Jaws - "You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat" - vs. A Real Shark Encounter on a Paddleboard
Body Language Analysis No. 4276: Waffle House Hero James Shaw Jr. Meets His NBA Idol Dwyane Wade
Body Language Analysis No. 4264: Criminal Profiling • Sketch of Man Who Allegedly Threatened Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) Over Her Affair with Donald Trump
Body Language Analysis No. 4185: Tom Hanks, Embarrassment, and Emotional Processing
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