RAMBLING THOUGHTS OF LEADERSHIP

By Hon. Garry Juffa 

Leadership…. what is it really…. in Papua New Guinea when one contemplates the concept of leadership, it is often related to elected leadership, the politician, the traditional leader in a clan or community. I would like to discuss a different much less discussed definition of leadership. 

Personal leadership. 

That is the leadership that is in you and I, in all of us. 

If we are to consider this and ponder how we are leaders and therefore how we can bring about positive changes in our area of management, wherever we are, whatever we are and whatever we do, there is so much more we can do with our life, with our time. I would like at this juncture to discuss what I have referred to as “area of management”. In this I mean that environment around you and those in it that you can influence in someway, directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly. Examples are your life, your family, your class, your peers and so forth. 

Now I would like to draw your attention to time, that most precious of commodities. It is vitally relevant to life and vitally relevant to leadership. To manage time effectively is the first lesson in leadership, especially personal leadership. Here I propose a lesson for consideration: it is bad enough to waste your own time, strive to ensure others do not waste yours. We spend much of this precious commodity, time, engaging in meaningless activities that do not in anyway contribute positively either within our area of management. Given that one should not be so obsessed with doing positive things that one lives a life without entertainment, without adventure, without even the necessity of welcome boredom, I am merely proposing that if one thought about this to a point where one avoided engaging in activities that were truly meaningless, then one can maximize ones time doing those things that make one happy and are therefore positive. This is of course a matter of perception for each of you as individuals. 

Now this is what I would like us to think about. I would like us to think about what this form of leadership, personal leadership perhaps we can call it, can bring about. I like to imagine that if everyone where able to consider personal leadership and strive to do good or at least an effort to promote positivity, then there would most certainly progress in ones area of management. 

What are the important aspects of personal leadership one should consider? Each person can of course list their own priorities according to their own considerations, passions and objectives. I propose a few that I feel everyone, should consider.

The natural environment, health and well being of your self, the health and well being of others, happiness and the future. Of course there are many possibilities, perhaps even infinite but I believe these to be most important to me. 

The natural environment has never before been so threatened as it is now. This threat is primarily or unilaterally due to mankind’s obsessive and incessant efforts to satiate his greed for profit. Perhaps not all elements of mankind but certainly the portion that is the ruling empire, the ruling empire being Corporatedom, not the waning US or emerging China as many would like to believe but Corporatedom, no fixed geographic location, just a collection of the most powerful entities that control the world’s financial system that they created and its main currency: materialism, its fundamental philosophy profit, its driving force is greed.

If each and everyone of us can contribute to some effort to counter this mad rush towards self destruction, by being concerned about the environment and even better by doing something about it, then certainly those are positive leadership efforts in this most important area of management. One can be physically involved in various ways, such as being considerate of the environment when disposing of our rubbish and protecting flora and fauna, discouraging the use of pollutants and the destruction of our forests and seas and so forth in some way or another, whether individually or by inserting yourself into the numerous movements to counter the crushing footprint of mankind on nature. One can read more about how this world’s population is growing so alarmingly fast that it too is a threat to not just humanity but the world and how man’s very selfishness in this regards - increasing his own population while diminishing that of other species - are certainly threatening the world, the only home we have.

Here let us turn to health. And there are two aspects of this I wish to discuss. The first is the general health situation of the world. Right now the world is unhealthy and exceptionally so. There is the production of absolute poisons disguised as food by giant factories that have taken over farms. Animals live in the most deplorable conditions and are treated in the most cruel manner so that they may be fed to us, canned, smoked, processed and so forth. They are also pumped full of all manner of chemicals and here we are reminded of the importance and significance of time which is most much interest not just to humanity in general but to corporations who measure it in costs and profit formulas. Genetically modified foods and the giant factories that are certainly ending the era of farms, ensure a stream of these poisons, packaged well and promoted by the media machinery of the empire and made available to consumers because that is what you are now, no longer human, just processors who exist to consume. This situation is frightening, how much of what we have here, organic and natural, is threatened by the empire that produces in much volume and is able to be consistent and even cheaper, spewing forth that which is larger, brighter, fresher looking but saturated with poisons and containing minimal nutrition. 

In Papua New Guinea, the greatest threat to our health is ignorance. That manifests itself in poor leadership, a lack of consideration and the exploding population. 3%, highest in the region and one of the highest in the world. 210,000 Papua New Guineans if we are to believe the claims that our population is 7 million. Recent and more explicit efforts using modern technology have actually placed it at 11 million. Let us stick to the 7 million for the sake of our discussions today and let us see that 200,000 Papua New Guineans are an entire province. Who will feed and take care of this province? Where is its infrastructure and its goods and services and the necessary government programs that they will deserve. 

I am now going to flag here the second aspect of health in this discussion and that is of personal health. Your health, without health, your life would be very much affected. It is truly the greatest asset you have, the greatest asset. Many take it for granted, many do not realize the awesome machinery that is the human body. Like any machine, it needs to be tended with care and consideration and maintained and regularly overhauled and so forth. Failure to do so will ensure breakdown and eventually engine or systems failure and eventually, it may be rendered obsolete. 

Adequate nutrition, rest and exercise ensure that the machine is functioning at optimal levels, necessary for clear thinking and decision making, that in it self, necessary for sound leadership. I propose here a lesson: leadership is vastly enhanced by great health. The body and mind can only endure so much stress, take care of them, read and think, learn and do. Keep that machine well oiled and tuned up and functioning. Here in PNG, we have the greatest organic food supply in the world, we rarely take advantage of this and are swayed into consuming the poisons sold in the numerous retail outlets proliferating the landscape of this nation under siege by the empire. 

I now turn to the two other aspects of personal leadership I believe are of great significance. Of course, it must be stated here I feel, that these are my views, my thoughts, based on my experiences and education and what I have learnt along the way, the falling and getting up and tears and sweat and blood I have spent along the way have led me to these conclusions and they are not necessary right or correct or the proper way to think about “personal leadership” they are just projections I make and you may decide to take that which you may find useful and ignore those that you do not. 

Anyway, HAPPINESS! A subject matter of such broad definition in itself that one could really be lost in it but we shall confine it to how it relates to our discussion on personal leadership. Everyone wants to be happy. That is the desire of life that burns in us. The search of it, the effort made by individuals and people, whether individually or in groups of various assortments, seems to occupy much of our time, it is how we spend time. But are we truly happy? How so I ask you? I would propose that increasingly we are unhappy in today’s world. Again, we are confronted by the actions and reactions that are carried out or encouraged by the ruling empire. Because happiness is a fundamental aspect of humanity and the empire does not recognize that nor does it care. It is a machine. Its concern is profit and greed and that is its happiness. 

What are we doing in our area of management to encourage this fundamental aspect of life? Are we doing enough to provide and promote and preserve happiness? For instance for our children, we can all recall growing up with happy memories, a Papua New Guinea with great hope and security and optimism. Today, there is miserable and bleak conditions although of course one is always being told how great the economy is doing but this does not translate to happiness that can be felt by our children, the children of today. What are their happy memories? It is something we do not think much of. Because we are so busy, on the laptop or mobile phone or pursuing other aspects of life, career and work and consumerism and materialism and so forth, seeking self interest too, which is not necessary equitable with happiness but can actually be counterproductive to it. 

So if we are to examine our efforts here, are we truly leaders in this regards, encouraging and fostering and promoting and preserving happiness? Perhaps we could do more. Spend more time and be more considerate with those we care about and not just them but others too. 

I wish to discuss the last aspect of personal leadership I feel is of significance. The future. The future is only bright in our bibles and our hope. If we were to discount that and looked at the future as it is progressing now, mankind’s mad march towards total destruction, greed and profit the driving forces, wars and other acts of inhumanity and the destruction of the environment and the violent consequences, the picture is certainly not bright at all. In fact it is anything but. Inroads in technology are certainly improving elements of life. And there is this great effort made by concerned persons about the environment and therefore the future but is it enough? We are seeing the melting of the polar icecaps rapidly, in fact they have melted faster in the last 20 years then they have in the last 100000. This is indeed frightening and the consequences are just too bleak to contemplate without plunging oneself into depression. 

Add to that the other acts of madness man has been responsible for, the destruction of our forests, incidentally Papua New Guinea has the 3rd largest rainforest resources in the world and it is disappearing at an alarming rate. The consequences of that too are profound. We are not just poisoning ourselves but we are also eradicating what are essentially the cleansing systems that exist to ensure clean, fresh air and promote therefore life. Discussions of the death of marine life and the ecosystems that live there, for instance the bleaching and the terrible reactions therefore would take much more time and be equally or more depressing. All brought about by mankind and his irresponsible ways. 

Anyway, if we are to stop at any time in our existence and pause and look back. If we can observe the path of destruction we have left behind us in our history and take stock of the flora and fauna, we can see the last farewell of many species from earth, never ever to be seen again. Yes, we have arrogantly believed that this is “our” earth. 

It is a depressing topic, you cannot see this from here, you cannot tell from the confines of your favorite social media platform, from the obsession with material goods and the lack of information promoted by the media whose only purpose seems to be to encourage you, directly or indirectly, to consumer, playing its role as a primary tool of the ruling empire. The other is the government, increasingly under the control of the empire. Developing policies to suit the empires objectives and ignoring the very people it claims to represent. Just take for example Nautilus and Ramu Nickel and all the other examples of instances of land-grabbing, illegal logging and so forth in the economy.

We have perhaps digressed but I feel necessarily so, let us think about this. The final aspect of personal leadership is that of the future. 

What it means for Papua New Guinea and Papua New Guineans. 

Increasingly it is not our future. It is theirs, who are “they”? They are those who own the economy. Yes, it is not “our” economy that is just what we have come to believe, the reality is it is owned by others, “they” and they are aspects of the ruling empire. 

Increasingly therefore we are marginalized. Increasingly we are but mere processers monotonously living our increasingly consumerist lives and encouraged to do so, occupied by technology and the various aspects of globalization and the informal sector and all that goes with it and the keeping of ourselves fascinated and busy with really nothing. Meanwhile, powerful forces have entered this nation and they have seized the opportunity of a weak system of protection and promotion of a peoples interests, you and I, and they have recolonized us in various efforts and there you and I are and our children and theirs too, merely spectators, fashioned and influenced and intended to be irrelevant in our own home, even that debatable, the concept of “our” home. Just take a trip to 5 mile and take a look at the walls coming up there on what was a stretch of public land. Increasing examples of this abound in case you are not convinced, just do some research.

So here I have made you think I am sure, you are now perhaps even anxious. If so then I have succeeded in creating that yearning in you to do something about it. That is your personal leadership stirring. DO not suppress it, do not let it fold up and hide away in you again but nurture it and grow it and become it. 

“What can you do about all this?” I hear.

That is what I am asking. You can be concerned, you can be agitated enough to defer some of your activities that are perhaps not as important as you have come to believe and you can invest your time in doing something for your country, your future. You can learn more, you can discuss and debate and seek out how best to develop your personal leadership so that you are able to do something to help educate and create the awareness that our people are starved off so that they too may know and understand and be concerned. 

You can go forth and armed with knowledge and more importantly concern, you can take up efforts to counter the empire, you can take back aspects of our life that were wholesome, the caring and sharing and giving and being considerate and order and cleanliness and so forth, the environment and all that it means. We are after all part of it and we should not allow it to be attacked and modified to suit the interests of profit and greed. 

Let us take back Papua New Guinea I say! And therefore as leaders here, do what you must to learn, to gain not just the knowledge offered here but what is available on the global scale about your world, your country and how the future is looking and think and ponder and debate and discuss and be sufficiently agitated to do something. 

That is the personal leadership I wish to encourage, an effort in humanity, most needed now, when man behaves in the most inhuman fashion ever since he walked this earth.