The Kind of Leaders the World Needs
The world does not need greater people to be a better place worth living; it only needs people that value other people’s lives.
Since the beginning, the world has had great people — in science, economics, politics, the military, and philosophy. The principles they developed and the agreements they came to at meetings like the Berlin Conference shaped the world as we know it.
The question is: Is the world of today a place worth living in for each and every human? No doubt, the answer is NO.
The world we are living in today is crazy. Just take a look around — war in Syria, terrorism crises in many countries, people dying from hunger in South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen. A man campaigned on a promise to build a wall between countries and became the President of the most powerful country in the world. Humans have developed medicine and telecommunication, but they have also built biological weapons and nuclear bombs to kill as many people as possible. Social injustice and economic inequalities are flourishing — eight men own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity. The gap between rich and poor is far greater than ever before.
A recent Oxfam report highlights: “The richest are accumulating wealth at such an astonishing rate that the world could see its first trillionaire in just 25 years. To put this figure in perspective — you would need to spend $1 million every day for 2738 years to spend $1 trillion.” Big business and the super-rich are fueling the inequality crisis in order to maximize returns to their wealthy shareholders. Big corporations are dodging taxes, driving down wages for their workers and the prices paid to producers, and investing less in their businesses.
We grew up hearing victorious stories of some countries in WWII. Remember how it ended though? Was that the best way to resolve the problems of that time? I think there could have been other options rather than bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leaving much loss of lives and continued horrible consequences. And why haven’t we ended the Israeli-Palestine conflict? Why is the Sudanese civil war raging on? Why couldn’t we stop the genocide in Rwanda? In each case, our “leaders” were not up to the task — instead, they fueled these challenges by failing to act or worse, taking advantage of the chaos. Who gave them the authority to play with others’ lives?
Too many leaders want to satisfy their egos by becoming popular and famous. Few of them are willing to make the sacrifice needed to positively impact other people’s lives.
As a society, we need to stop idolizing people based on their material possessions or their titles. We need to start looking up to people with strong moral characters, people who live with integrity and practice kindness and compassion towards others. These are leaders who deserve to be respected.
The concept of greatness and power that is taught to people, especially youth, must be shifted if we want to make a real change in our world. We need to stop teaching young people to look up to famous people with powerful personalities as their role models. As a society, we need to stop idolizing people based on their material possessions or their titles. We need to start looking up to people with strong moral characters, people who live with integrity and practice kindness and compassion towards others even when no one is looking. These are leaders who deserve to be respected.
In 1997, three years after the Rwandan genocide, there was a raid in which some members of the Interahamwe and ex-FAR (Forces Armées Rwandaise) entered Rwanda from the Democratic Republic of the Conogo and attacked Nyange High School. Rebels indiscriminately hurled live grenades at students after they refused to identify and separate themselves on ethnic lines. Seven students were killed that night — may their souls rest in peace — and a monument at their school commemorates their courage and patriotism. Despite hatred politics taught by so-called “leaders” in Rwanda, youths full of love and humanity stood up to hate.
These are people that the world needs to become a place worth living for everyone, a place where everyone values others’ lives and respects others’ rights. A life worth living includes access to happiness, health, love, work, and play. Hearing more stories such as that of the students at Nyange High School will encourage young people to decide to pursue a life free from discrimination and rooted in a respect for the rights of all people and a desire to positively impact others’ lives.
Nyange High School’s motto was “Faire le bien, éviter le mal” meaning “Do well and avoid evil.” Students had been taught and guided by this. If you and I take people like these students as our role models, we would make this world a better place and do what so called great leaders have failed to do. Please, let’s do it!
Egide Muhire was a 2016–2017 Global Health Corps fellow at Health Development Initiative in Rwanda.
