Dear Editor,
I thought about this a million times before finally deciding that I had to write this letter. I just have to say it out loud, I can’t hold it back any longer; I just can’t. There is a worrying feature that is present in both this current administration and the previous one, and it is arrogance, or to put it nicely, the lack of humility. I have had several discussions with persons who have recognized this problem and some persons have decided to talk to a few individuals, pray about it and use a number of other approaches, but I believe that there comes a point when one has to look at an issue and call it what it is – it is plain arrogance.
There is a difference between being assertive and being arrogant. A friend once told me, “There is a thin line between confidence and arrogance and sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.” While that is the case in some instances, I find it a very painful experience to watch some of our leaders perform while people are suffering in this country. In many cases it is a clear case of lack of wisdom, knowledge and understanding.
There is arrogance among our leaders, arrogance on boards, arrogance in Parliament, arrogance in public offices, arrogance in the private sector, arrogance in the opposition, and this is a hindrance to our development. When are we really going to settle down and talk to each other respectfully, sensibly and in a progressive way? Are we going to spend the next 50 years biting at each other’s throats? We have an 83,000 square miles country with 750,000 people and a whole lot of resources, but we are so divided. What is even more painful is that it is poor people who suffer.
Our leaders are not listening; they are hearing but they are not listening. We listen with three parts of our body – with our ears, our eyes and our hearts. Our leaders need to focus on how not to lose elections rather than on how to win elections. Mind you, this is excluding the President and the Prime Minister and a few others. As a matter of fact I think that the President can teach many of our leaders what is emotional sustainability.
We need to see more humility in our leadership. Emotional sustainability is critical if we are to truly going to develop effective solutions that are essential for us to survive and be competitive. Our problems are complex; as a matter of fact the world is complex and demands that our emotional strength and resourcefulness be sustainable if we are to be a successful people.
So can we settle down and really focus on finding sustainable solutions, please, please?
Where are the thinkers and strategists who would not get carried away doing fire-fighting?
Yours faithfully,
Audreyanna Thomas
