Look Up

Look Up

We have great expectations of business leaders and those who give us our paychecks. And also from those who fill our bellies and our desires for a good life with products and services. Apple. Microsoft. Facebook. Virgin Atlantic. Amazon. (No particular reference to any company due to the current events.) We find their ideas to be aspirational. Not so much when it comes to political leaders. That’s why we elected a few in 2016 and before that. Politics for the everyday person is a challenge that is not their mountain to climb. People debate the merits and demerits of a candidate down to shreds but it is a disservice to use standards set by politicians themselves to judge them. We judge them based on other politicians and the context. One’s sense of justice and what is of value is set aside for our personal/familial and sometimes the community well being. The same sensibility is not applied to elected leaders. Having said that, the Women’s marches and the general flux in the polity has given us hope. We have some good leaders to look up to.

I have been told I am a “consensus driven person” by peers who have seen my work at close quarters. This I believe is a direct legacy of working at Manavi where the collective/cooperative structure gained ground when I was a staff member. All decisions came from listening to all voices- the staff, the board members, volunteers and finally and mostly the women we worked with (as opposed to clients.) Although there was pressure there was collaboration. Listening to all voices was the norm. This is critical to so much happening around us. The downside is that not pushing your agenda is seen as a weakness. Respecting another person’s perspective appears (just appears) detrimental in the long run. But the lessons I learnt at Manavi are for the long run as well.

Leaders are people first. Everyday folks who bring logic and empathy to a situation. People who look at goals and the actors and move to make them happen along with decision making and taking people along. The need to be inclusive is in large part a requirement in today’s polity. If you ask me what about this culture and identity and what about order and organizing? I ask you- what about diversity and equity; what about a new world order? Where and how is that arriving? It’s a process that needs work and one has to keep at it continuously as the pieces shift. The writing on the wall is that the pieces are shifting all the time. Since the time the apocalypse was announced and since the time Yeats famously notified that the center cannot hold.