‽istis ponders...: Pistis ponders - leaders (weekending October 21st 2023)

‽istis ponders – leaders (weekending October 21st 2023)

This weekending, as

· hundreds die - including many, many children - in the conflict dominating the news in a so-called ‘holy land’[i]; in the conflict bumped off recent top spot[ii]; in the conflicts unreported

· a failed British Prime Minister[iii] is appointed to the advisory board of the ‘International Democracy Union’

· Greta Thunberg is arrested in London[iv] at a protest outside the InterContinental Hotel on Park Lane, where oil executives were meeting

· The Pope ‘Tweets’/’Xs’ lamentations and exhortations of peace

· Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet at the ‘Belt and Road Forum’ in Beijing[v]

· ‘The Elders’ view is found on their website[vi] - but the voice of one-time designated terrorist[vii] Nelson Mandela and most-times saintly Desmond Tutu are missed from our news feeds and the world stage

· the British Labour Party win two by-elections overturning very large Conservative Party majorities

· President Biden[viii] and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak[ix] shake hands with Benjamin Netanyahu and Rishi Sunak meets with Mahmoud Abbas[x]

· a majority vote ‘no’ in a referendum to potentially change the Australian Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice[xi]

· UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visits the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip in an attempt to get aid flowing into the besieged Palestinian enclave[xii]

· the UNRWA commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini says: “I have sometimes the impression that the world is now losing its humanity”[xiii]

‽istis wonders whether it is too much to wish for a leader or leaders who might say things a little like the following – some suggestions as a starter (and familiar themes emerge once more), in no particular order:

‽ Perhaps when we forget or pretend that these nations, these states, these flags and anthems, these cultures (multi-, poly-, mono-) are all created and maintained with more or much less participation, agreement, consent or consensus – we are all in danger of being hoisted by our own petards?

‽ Possibly a way to ‘stop the boats’ and manage immigration and migration is to help make everywhere safe and prosperous?

‽ Maybe when we think that competition is better than co-operation - we are already the runners-up?

‽ Perhaps when ‘the richest 1% own almost half of the world’s wealth, while the poorest half of the world own just 0.75%’ and ‘81 billionaires have more wealth than 50% of the world combined’[xiv] - we are all being robbed?

‽ Possibly when freedom of speech is claimed more to denigrate, cause offence or belatedly explain ‘it was only a joke’ than to promote and champion the voice of the more usually voiceless or silenced – not everyone is laughing and all of us are diminished?

‽ Maybe if we think that we have to win and beat the world – we have already lost and lost it?

‽ Perhaps when it is thought again and again that differences can only be resolved by killing – humanity is already on life support and our breathing starts to gasp and rattle, then shallow, then slow, then…?

‽ Possibly when inflated profit is pursued more than ‘fairtrade’ and fair wages - we are all being exploited?

‽ Maybe when we wreak destruction on the environment and scar our beautiful, unique planet home (and spend billions seeking a back-up ‘Planet B’) – we do not deserve to survive?

‽ Perhaps when we can only meet our requirement for doctors, nurses and essential workers by taking them from places with much greater need – we should all be sickened?

‽ Possibly when religion becomes that which divides us rather than unites us in a rich tapestry of wonder, insight and inspiration, of aspiration for our best sacred selves and holy practice for the common good – then we prove that hell is possible?

‽ Maybe when we can only promote our interests at the expense of others – then we are already bankrupt?

‽ Perhaps when confidence is greater than competence – we are all being tricked?

‽ Possibly when we allow the making and selling of arms and weapons to be more lucrative than green tech. initiatives, pandemic preparation or health and well-being research, development and provision; make the training of armed forces more attractive than training for teaching or nursing or social care – we are all more wounded than encouraged and helped?

‽ Maybe when ideology more than evidence drives our thinking and doing – we are all at the whim of uncontrolled variables and maybe we are the uncontrolled and uncontrollable variable?

‽ Perhaps when we think that our differences are more significant than that which we have in common – we are all likely to end up being placed in boxes?

‽ Possibly when empathy and compassion is stifled by selfishness and sectarian passion – all our hearts are a little more hardened and parched up[xv]?

‽ Maybe when ‘history’ is told, raided or stopped at a particular moment to favour a narrative of anyone’s ‘my’ or anyones’ ‘our’ resentment, defeat, maltreatment, exploitation, grievance, atrocity, injustice or justification – we are all in danger of having no shared future to record or look back on?

‽ Perhaps I or we are not responsible for the beliefs and actions, the appalling crimes and misdemeanours, the amazing successes and triumphs of our forebears – but we all have a duty of sorrow and a duty to acknowledge the legacy of the worst and its continuing dynamic and traumatic impact in the present, and also a duty to claim and create the ‘most best for most’ (rather than the ‘least worse for some’) as a restorative, reparative and valuable inheritance for us all?

And my vote for leadership that could take us a step beyond just imagining how different the world could be is guaranteed…

Others, however, may be already focusing the crosshairs, though we might ask who and why?

So, what would you add or delete or change? What might that suggest about how you would lead, or who you wish to be led by, or who you would be willing to follow‽

©‽istis

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme

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and dialogue welcome...

[i] Israel and Hamas

[ii] Ukraine and Russia

[iii] ‘Disgraced former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who unlawfully suspended Parliament, restricted the right to protest, and lied to MPs, has been appointed to the advisory board of the International Democracy Union, the global centre-right group for “freedom and democracy”.’ Byline Times: https://bylinetimes.com/2023/10/18/farcical-disbelief-as-disgraced-former-prime-minister-boris-johnson-is-appointed-as-democracy-adviser/#:~:text=Disgraced%20former%20Prime%20Minister%20Boris%20Johnson%2C%20who%20unlawfully%20suspended%20Parliament,for%20%E2%80%9Cfreedom%20and%20democracy%E2%80%9D.

[iv] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67143600 & https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67143600

[v] https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/18/china/china-bri-forum-opening-ceremony-intl-hnk/index.html

[vi] https://theelders.org/ & https://theelders.org/programmes/conflict in particular