Thriving is Costly

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Dr Newton

Tuesday, 08 May 2012 02:30

By Dr. Isaac Newton

It is comforting to view ourselves as misunderstood models of virtue or as underestimated libraries of wisdom.

Thriving is not simply an option between a glowing sky and the promise of the day.  It begins in the mind. It is the bi-product of our moral imagination. It is the source of costly excitement.

Aren’t we good at crushing each other to death? Better, perhaps at condemning one another to irrelevancy. This public-rattle noise bruises the Caribbean spirit.  And we do these things using the politically juicy jargons of “corruption, wickedness in high places, and incompetence.” We have enough democracy to make us mad.

Think of how we proclaim ourselves defenders of freedom, venerators of the status quo, and destroyers of everything despotic.  When given the opportunity to serve the public, we end up on the wrong side of public service. By contrast, we become cheerleaders of private privilege.

CARICOM is flirting with common fire. From attempts to weather scandal after scandal to responses of denials pampering denials, many leaders have focused primarily on surviving in politics.

There’s a precise, sharp, line to be drawn between surviving and thriving.  Surviving is accepting forces that limit expression and shutting down empowerment. It’s a state that oppresses.  Thriving is releasing human imagination to act against perceived obstacles and real blockages. It takes initiatives.

Surviving is cheap

It is curious that our reach has not gone beyond our grasp. Our obsession to destroy each other is omnipotent. Pragmatic politics is effective as long as it wins. Our political culture lacks a moral function. Intermittently, we are powerful opponents of undemocratic values when practiced by the other side. In an era of global pain, we are satisfied with ‘not me’ excuses. We do some good and much harm.

The plight of broken promises from successive governments has forced us into a paradox. We are wiser at what we don’t want, but more ignorant about our needs. Fixation on small size is blinding.  Small-minded codes stem from having no passion for a boundless future open to new beginnings. It disconnects us from our social realities, and does not transform them.

Insolence, intolerance, and impotence are a deadly combination. They keep life lost in inhospitable strangeness. These characteristics justify self-promotion and convey half-amused dismissal.

When we survive, we simply agree to live beyond our moral and social means. We cheapen the essence of our beings. Our souls scramble for crumbs. As Grenadian born Dr. Kenwyn Williams has said, “We cater to cronies.”

Few leaders are beginning to display thriving in governments and in oppositions.  Some are realizing that the source of their legitimacy is the people’s moral duty to participate in government.

Those within the inner circles of campaign management should be intelligent enough to know the success rate of appealing to persuadable voters by unleashing a laundry list of ‘disabilities,’ will yield little at the polls.

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Repairing images may be necessary. But managing change and finding a strategic focus demand far more than PR cosmetics. That’s why it’s puzzling that so many political leaders are using their popularity to explain all the challenges they have had to face.

They want the people to pray for their daily bread, but hardly want to create conditions for food sustainability. This survival technique indicates that good governance has not yet arrived on time to save political organizations from making possible today what appears impossible yesterday. 

Surviving is cheap. It does not function concretely in our everyday world of home, community, school and work to make things better and worthwhile.

Thriving is precious

But we are heirs to an unlimited capacity to be just, to love, and to envision greatness. There is a call for caring leaders. The Caribbean intelligentsia working with those supportive of grassroots experience must do more. They must conserve a vision of our brightest future, not our worrying past. They must create ideas that change governance structures and philosophies. They must concentrate on tangible deliverables.

In this sense, they will inspire leaders to devise innovative answers to complex situations that accent human flourishing. As a result, leaders will dignify the incredible value of the average man and women on the street.  Both leaders and followers will take action against injustice, exclusion, discrimination, self-rejection and neglect of all things CARICOM.

Stark reality is good as long as it resist domination and mental slavery. To thrive is to acknowledge that the recurring failures of several governments will not produce automatic victories for opposition parties. History warns that the best is forged out of disbelieving the worst. Our leaders should evoke a vision of the possible, not lobby for our fears.

The marks of thriving are discovered not in the wisdom of a few leaders. They are found in the goodness of every island person.  They are distilled in people working together to eradicate poverty. They are revealed in shared ideas that invest in abundance, not in scarcity. They are located in instances where Caribbeaners free themselves from being determined by outside forces.

I sense that Caribbeaners are waking up.  Island voters are beginning to demand excellence. We want to know what policies and operational changes will be believably pursued.  This is no rueful chuckle. This is life and death business.  We want to see how articulated transformations will be differently arranged and better implemented. That is the heart of the matter.

We need a shift from empty competition to creative endeavor. This will yield untold achievements in education, in discovery of healing sources, and in creating economic value for ourselves and the global community.

Thriving gives meaning to our creative spirit.  It embraces the challenges before us. It explores our indigenous frontiers of cultural identity, curiosity of mind, and an investigative spirit. It changes the outcomes of our everyday fatigue and limited endowments.

CARICOM can soar beyond surviving. But we must be careful not to substitute the unexamined mind for the uncommitted life.  I’d like to see our faith inform our ambitions. I’d like to see our eloquence transform our deeds. I’d like to see our fertile minds enrich our social consciousness. Surely, we can thrive for sane and compassionate partnerships that spread prosperity from Guyana all the way to the Bahamas.

Everything that can create an era of success for CARICOM, begins with you!  You are undeniably creative! You are unmistakably intelligent!  Release your faith! Exercise your hope! Express your love! With clear-eyed boldness backed by regional confidence and love for each island state, CARICOM will thrive. 

Dr. Isaac Newton is an International Leadership and Change Management Consultant and Political Adviser. He specializes in Government and Business Relations, and Sustainable Development Projects. Dr. Newton works extensively, in West Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America and is a graduate of Oakwood University, Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia. He has published several books on personal development and written many articles on economics, education, leadership, political, social, and faith based issues.    

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