**Another post from my online Leadership course. During a session on Strategic Thinking and Values Based Leadership we were asked to create an organization that would use both of these.**
By now,
you have all heard my ranting about development. I actually revisited the idea
for my organization today while I was meeting with workers from an NGO that
focuses on indigenous people’s rights. After I asked them all my questions and
about their respective jobs, they wanted to know more about what I was studying
and why I was in Indonesia. I told them I was focusing on conflict resolution
and international law, and someone asked me if I was going to focus my career
on the conflict in Poso. I answered that I didn’t know –that was part of why I
was here this summer –to see if there was a need for my skills. I asked them
openly what did they think: was there a place for an American lawyer in their
community? They answered very frankly: no. I kind of expected that was the
answer. Each day, I find out more that I am here to learn for my own benefit
but that, not being fluent in Indonesian, not really understanding their
multiplicity of cultures, or the complexity of their legal system –there is
very little I can offer. And even if I spent the years it would require to
learn all of that –I don’t think I would be adding much value for the work it
would cost. Indonesians are well on their way to solving their own social
problems.
I don’t think I am adding nothing while I am here. But what I have continued to
realize in my experience is the biggest value that I bring is just that –my
experience. When it comes down to it, being an American doesn’t mean I know
anything more about the world or how to live life than others. But it does mean
that I may have had access to a lot of experiences, or at least different ones.
The biggest “teaching moment” I have perhaps had so far here came quite
unexpectedly. As you may know, Indonesia has one of the world’s largest
deforestation problems. Natural resource rights are a HUGE issue here –not only
because the government is tromping all over the rights of indigenous peoples,
but because Indonesia is so rich in natural resources, if it manages them right
it can really prosper but if it manages them wrong it will have huge national
consequences as well as consequences for the global climate. As I may have
mentioned, one of the projects of Institute Mosintuwu (besides the women’s
school) is Project Malinuwu –an environmental education program. I accompanied
them to speak at a church and at a couple of schools, and was impromptu asked
to speak about my experience with climate change. I realized on the spot that I
had quite a stark example: the village I served in in Senegal had experienced
almost complete deforestation in the lifetime of my host father (he was 89 when
I was there). Since I told that story at the school, Lian and Lita have asked
me to repeat it over and over. Today, as I explained what I had learned about
climate change while I was in Senegal, I could see the wheels turning in the
minds of everyone I was speaking to. The person in charge of the REDD
Monitoring Coalition (Indonesia is the first country to implement a REDD
–carbon reduction/exchange –program) expressed the most interest and said he
wanted to research why climate change had occurred in Senegal.
It has long been an idea of mine that this is exactly the type of exchange that
needs to happen in the “developing world” not only from Americans or Westerners
to people in developing countries –but horizontally as well. I first thought of
this idea when I traveled to Mali during my service in Senegal. I had been
working for over a year trying to encourage the women in my village to start a
community garden, and trying to start a garden at the elementary school. I
later learned that the real problem was village politics –but for that whole
time I dealt with varying reasons why the garden wasn’t taking off –the biggest
being there wasn’t enough water. But when I traveled to Mali –a mostly natural
desert –I was blown away by the oases of green gardens shimmering everywhere
against the red sand. Mali had a lot less “water development” (i.e. proper
wells, and even water spigots) than Senegal did. I was amazed to find that more
than once a day, women would travel several miles back and fourth with gourds
of water on their heads (Senegalese had already converted to plastic basins).
Mali is a lot less developed than Senegal. It is further inland and so perhaps
less developed because it doesn’t benefit from Senegal’s access to a large
coastline. But I think this brings some benefits to Malian people as well. I
felt that Malians were still proud to be Malian and to be African. Senegalese
however, suffer from a national discouragement about their status in the world.
In my experience, Senegalese were constantly putting themselves down –either
personally, culturally, naturally, or as Africans. They have truly accepted
what the world thinks of their global ranking. “Development” makes them feel
like just that –people that need to develop. Western culture is swallowing them
whole –through TV, interaction with tourists who come to enjoy their coasts,
and the influx of aid workers and other expats come to “help” them. As such,
people are entirely discouraged from trying anything on their own to do small
things to improve their condition –like gardening. Why would they want to spend
their energy on a garden –even if it would bring them improved nutrition and
health –and perhaps a small income –when people in developed countries were
dealing in fancy cars and beautiful lavish houses? Fresh vegetables seemed like
a laughable pittance.
Malian’s have not yet been affected to the same degree as Senegalese. They are
still willing to spend all day walking back and forth with gourds of water so
they can have nutritious food to eat. I left Mali wanting to do everything in
my power to raise money to bring a few Senegalese from my village to Mali to
see what was possible for them to achieve in their own environment –to give
them an attainable aspiration and infuse them with hope and pride in being
Africans.
It didn’t happen while I was in Senegal but I still entertain the dream –and it
is fed by experiences like the one I had today. There is so much power in the
“developing” world –and I feel it would be better unleashed if people from
those countries could interact with each other and learn from each others
experiences than if their only exposure to the rest of the world is with Western
countries. So the organization I would set up, with a lot of grant writing, of
course, would be a sort of study-abroad program for people in developing
countries to visit other developing countries. Senegalese villagers could visit
Malian community gardens. Indonesians could go to Senegal to witness what
deforestation and climate change could do to a country. Conflict survivors and
peace activists from here could go to other countries recovering from conflict
and exchange ideas. Women fighting for equality could visit other women’s
groups around the world and do the same. Same goes for small scale local
economic projects. Last week, when I was talking to the women at the women’s
school about women’s rights, one of the topics was equal pay. I told them we still
don’t have equal pay in America and told them about my experience at my last
job (I was seriously underpaid) –where all of my guy friends encouraged me to
ask for a raise but most of my girl friends just offered empathy at my
situation. I said I think part of the problem is guys are more aggressive about
their value and in asking for a raise but girls are uncomfortable with that.
They were very interested. Next week I hope to share with them an article I
just read in the Economist about how one of the problems with American politics
right now is women’s reluctance to get involved and run for positions. It
referenced how Hilary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Nancy Pelosi were brutalized by
the media, oftentimes for their looks, and how this perhaps was very damaging
in discouraging women from taking the risk of getting involved in politics if
that was how they were going to be judged.
I think that the sharing of like experiences and ideas helps instigate creative
involvement better than telling people what to do does. I was lecturing them
about women’s rights but the true “teaching moment” was when I just talked
honestly about my own experience and the problems women were facing in America.
This really got their wheels turning. Later, when we were practicing making
sentences with our new vocabulary, half of their sentences were about women
getting equal pay. Something about relating to them in a common struggle had
reached them more than lecturing them from on high about some abstract values.
I could only hope that they might attempt to negotiate a better salary for
themselves in an attempt to solve the problem I faced in their own lives.
“Development” creates a hierarchy in itself that propagates low self-esteem and
stifles creativity and hope. So my future organization would provide the
resources for people in developing countries to travel to other developing
countries facing a similar situation, get to know people there. The agenda
would stop there. It would then be up to the people to come up with their own
ideas to bring back to their communities. Perhaps my organization would also
help them to find funding for implementing their ideas. But perhaps I would
keep our mission “clear and concise” and stop there.
The vision of this organization is a peaceful world where people have options
other than violence to get their voices heard and their problems addressed.
Even if a world without war and violence is impossible, we can do a much better
job than we are doing. In my early life, I thought the inclination towards
violence was directly related to poverty. But as I continue to learn, I think
it is more precisely related to lack of options. Rule of law plays a major part
as well: if the justice system and law enforcement are not serving people’s
needs –they need to resort to violence and get their own justice. If people
lack educational or economic opportunities, or ways to get their energy out,
and especially if they want to act out against the people they think are
keeping them from these opportunities: violence. Of course there will always be
despotic leaders who just have power, wealth, or other selfish motivations in
mind and will continue to propagate violence even if they have all the
opportunities in the world. But as we know, leaders need followers. I believe
that the average person would not sign up to follow these types of leaders if
they had other options in their lives. So the mission of this organization
would be to enable people around the world to collaborate to create these types
of opportunities by sharing their experiences and ideas and inspiring each
other.
*
Professor V's response:
Your
vision reminds me of William Loris from our readings who helped found the
International Development Law Organization. While working with Africans,
he realized they should be making decisions themselves; African lawyers needed
to be involved; or lawyers in whatever country they were working. This is
so important to finding common ground and creating a shared vision.
*
My response:
Yes that was definitely implicated in my idea. I
was so happy to read about Loris -I love when non-traditional legal work gets a
shout out in our materials! I am definitely going to come back to vision based
leadership. I am beginning to think I actually do have a lot of skills and
ideas about leadership -I have just never thought about them in that way
before. I am entirely convinced in this methodology of empowering people to
create on their own -it is the only sustainable way. Fostering the creative
spirit is what drives progress, development. Look at what all the articles are
about in America these days: how to foster the creative spirit and get
America's economy running at full speed again -coming up with something new to
hold our place on the cutting edge of innovation. But that spirit is really elusive,
and hard to encourage broadly -i.e. -in "followers." Followers so
easily fall into line behind their leader -but I think one of the main tenants
behind values based leadership is being kind of a silent/invisible leader and
instilling your followers with the ability to fill out their own potential.
Then instead of having 1 creator and 20 people implementing, you have 21
creators implementing. This is what needs to happen in Africa in my opinion.
Its always behind because Africans too easily line up behind Westerners because
they think -and in a sense we have convinced them -that we know more. But if we
step out of the spotlight, and help them get themselves into it, it would
activate the creative spirit of a whole continent, and great things would happen.
I believe, at least.
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