Dear Editor,
In his highly acclaimed book titled ‘The Speed of Trust’, Steven Covey opens with the following incontestable proposition:
“There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organisation, nation, economy and civilisation throughout the world – one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love. On the other hand, if developed and leveraged, that one thing has the potential to create unparallel success and prosperity in every dimension of life. Yet, it is the least understood, most neglected, and most underestimated possibility of our time.
That one thing is TRUST.”
One wishes that there could be such hope for our citizenship, our teams of management, our families, our variegated political parties investing TRUST in one another.
Our small village has established a record of riven relationships that earn little sympathy, but much more embarrassing derisiveness from witnesses around the world.
Ours continues to be a culture of contentiousness that earns minimal respect from observers, who note that we do not respect ourselves.
On the contrary, we pride ourselves in being ‘different from’ – meaning that we are ‘better than’, one another. The Motto of ‘Six Peoples’ being one nation has become a fundamental myth.
We need so much trust amongst ourselves so that we can go together in search of once El Dorado.
And while we still mine for gold, we have become submerged in pandemic-stricken oil.
The latter situation is of course compounded by the current (and future) health virus, that is also so mentally dislocative, so depletive of any tendency to Trust. More likely, there can be no successful losers. That is the conclusion we should all recognise – the pretentious strong, the irreconcilable weak, and the equivocative conciliator; not to mention the uninhibited commentator.
In the milieu, members of each grouping may resort to prayers – though less for reconciliation than for retribution. But do they Trust their respective prayers.
So the final question remains: Who, When, How, Where can Trust ever be an investment for our Village of the future?
Would the Cooperative Republic have become the Collective Republic of Mistrusted Relationships?
Yours faithfully,
E.B. John
