In Word and Deed

One observer offered the following 19 reasons why he felt that Pope Francis I deserves the accolade as Man of the Year.  I have left the 11 things he did in normal font, and put in red italics things he said to bring his influence to bear on Change.  (This sometimes called public engagement or advocacy.)

1. He spoke out against frivolous spending by the Church

2. He invited a boy with Downs Syndrome for a ride in the Popemobile

3. He embraced and kissed a man badly scarred by a genetic skin disease

4. He denounced the judgment of homosexuals

5. He held a major ceremony at the chapel of a youth prison, and washed their feet

6. He urged the protection of the Amazon Rainforest

7. He personally called and consoled a victim of rape

8. He snuck out of the Vatican to feed the homeless

9. He auctioned his motorcycle to benefit the homeless

10. He acknowledged that atheists can be good people

11. He condemned the global financial system

12. He fought child abuse

13. He condemned the violence of the Syrian civil war

14. He redirected employee bonuses to charity

15. He spoke out against the Church’s ‘obsession’ with abortion, gay marriage and contraception

16. He called for cooperation between Christians and Muslims

17. He took part in a selfie

18. He invited homeless men to his birthday meal

19. He refused to send away a child who had run on stage to hug him

Our deeds or actions validate our words.  The reverse is also true.  That is, when leaders actually steal from the public purse, or waste resources, or think of their own benefits first with little regard for the plight of those who elected them, then no one listens to them. Thousands of years ago, Lao Tzu put it this way:

“A leader is best when people barely know that he exists.  Not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him.  Fail to honour people, they fail to honour you; but of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will all say, ‘We did this ourselves’.”

It’s bad when a President says he likes it when women prostrate themselves before him.  Worse yet when people despise him for being too top-down and centralizing.

Burkina Faso

In the language of the old Upper Volta, these words mean: “Land of upright men”.  The country was re-named this by Africa’s Che Guevara, a young leader called Thomas Sankara.

This highlights his idealism.  He was also creative… an accomplished guitarist, he also wrote Burkina Faso’s new national anthem.  He said a week before he was assassinated: "While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas."  He was right.  His actions were stopped, but his ideas, idealism, creativity and innovation live on.

He was a military man, so when a military government was formed in Upper Volta in 1981, Sankara got his first taste of governance - as Secretary of State for Information.  He rode to his first cabinet meeting on a bicycle!  But he resigned the next year when he perceived the regime's anti-labour drift. 

These were turbulent times with various failed and successful coups, but two years later, Sankara became President at the age of 33.  The ideology of his Revolution was defined as anti-imperialist. He spoke in forums like the Oranization for African Unity against what he described as neo-colonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance.  He called for a united front of African nations to repudiate their foreign debt.

Here are some of the actions that validated his words and ideas for Change.  They merit recollection (from Wikipedia):

• He refused to use the air conditioning in his office on the grounds that such luxury was not available to anyone but a handful
• As President, he lowered his salary to $450 a month and limited his possessions to a car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer
• A motorcyclist himself, he formed an all-women motorcycle personal guard
• He was known for jogging unaccompanied through the capital in his track suit and posing in his tailored military fatigues
• When asked why he didn't want his portrait hung in public places, as was the norm for other African leaders, he replied "There are seven million Thomas Sankaras"
• He sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers
• He reduced the salaries of well-off public servants, including his own, and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and 1st class airline tickets
• He forced well-off civil servants to pay one month's salary to public projects
• He required public servants to wear a traditional tunic, woven from Burkinabe cotton and sewn by Burkinabe craftsmen
• In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army's provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country)
• He redistributed land from the feudal landlords to the peasants. Wheat production increased from 1700 kg per hectare to 3800 kg per hectare
• His government banned female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy; while appointing females to high governmental positions and encouraging them to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant

South Africa is experiencing some political earthquakes.  The tectonic plates are shifting, causing a future Labour Party to appear on the horizon.  Organized labour is restless, uncomfortable in the ruling alliance.  This is the second split – between Left and Neo-liberals.  Another split has already emerged – along age lines.  A new party called the Economic Freedom Fighters is the first one ever to be basically youth-led.

Sankara was consistent.  How can you expect the working class and largely unemployed youth both to support a government that has gone mad in terms of waste and graft? 

How can a government that ignores Corruption and spends billions that it can’t give account for (according to the Auditor General) to be a force for Economic Emancipation?