Tag Archives: bloganuary

Black Politics

Analysis of The Servant as Leader by Robert K. Greenleaf

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What makes a good leader?

I read this book a while ago and have been waiting for the right time to review its contents and 5 a.m. for bloguary seems like the perfect time.

I spend a lot of time wondering about what makes a good leader at work, within a family and especially a political leader. I came across this book in a used book store and I was immediately drawn to the title because I thought it was talking about servants as leader but it was actually talking about the need for leader to be servants in order to be successful leaders. That was a little surprising to me but I read on and the following quotes summarize the elements of a good political leader.

The servant-leader is servant first — as Leo was portrayed. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then the conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. He is sharply different from the person who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. For such it will be a later choice to serve – after leadership is established.”

Page 7

My mind immediately runs to African politics where the goal of the politician is to make as much money as possible and helping people becomes secondary. I think this mindset became more prevalent for African leaders post independence because they now had access to resources and figured why not fill our pockets. Maybe one day we’ll help our people maybe we will just keep helping ourselves and keep criticizing western systems. I don’t believe this was the case pre-independence. Most leader were concerned with the well being of their people but I guess something changes in you when you control the purse strings.

The next quote that stood out to me felt more inward facing. Before the leader can rob the servant they need to be accepted as a leader. This is accomplished

By clearly stating and restating the goal the leader gives certainty and purpose to others who may have difficulty in achieving it for themselves”

Page 9

Political leaders in particular are required to inspire the masses into voting, paying more taxes, agreeing to start or end wars and this all requires a leader that gives them purpose as a nation. They need the ability to sell a dream which is why propaganda can be so effective. It easily sways the often vulnerable citizens by evoking strong emotions.

The next quality that makes a good leader is knowing and being able to read the room. I think about Donald Trump and how so many people were surprised at him winning in 2016 US presidential election, but I wasn’t surprised because I could see that the mood in the US had shifted. I read one of his books and while it wasn’t Pulitzer Prize literature he was accurately reading the room and the public sentiment. Not only was he correct about the US sentiment but we saw many leader like him get elected across the globe following his win. Many people looked at Trump as being beneath them an error I hope won’t be made in 2024 because

“The requirements of leadership impose some intellectual demands that are not measured by academic intelligence ratings. The leader needs two intellectual abilities that are usually not formally assessed in an academic way: he needs to have a sense for the unknowable and be able to foresee the unforeseeable………Others will depend on him to go out ahead and show the way because his judgement will be better than most”

Page 14-15

I want to emphasize the point that it is better than most not necessarily the best. This brings us to what I think is the most important quality of a leader the ability to persuade their followers. I think some people erroneously believe that force is enough to be a good leader but

“The trouble with coercive power is that it only strengthens resistance. And, if successful, its controlling effects only last as long as the force is strong. It is not organic. Only persuasion and the consequent voluntary acceptance are organic.”

Page 32

No one feels like they have to persuade anyone anymore. Engaging in discourse often lands people being categorized as spreading hate and our leaders have become fearful to persuade those that are not already on their side. I think the best leaders should be able to persuade not only those that have already accepted their leadership but the ones still in doubt.

All quotes taken from The Servant as Leader by Robert K. Greenleaf

Black Politics, Life, Policy Watch

The Social Construct of Race

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If you could un-invent something, what would it be?

If I could un-invent something it would be the false social construct of race. A couple of years ago I was attending a seminar organized by Patricia O’Campo I was surprised to learn that

“Race correction” has no scientific basis because “race” is not biological. It is a social construct that is applied differently in different times and in different places. In fact, scientists have shown us that people have more in common genetically across “racial” groups than within them”.

For some context the seminars were organized to educate clinicians and other interested parties about ending something called “race correction” in clinical care. The definition given of race correction is

“when health care providers use a patient’s ‘race’ to calculate laboratory results or use ‘race-based’ diagnostic charts, calculators or cut-off range to decide whether or not a Black person should receive care or decide whether or not the symptoms a Black person is reporting require treatment.”

We can discuss the inadequate care black people often recieve in the healthcare system at a different time but the adjustments made in treatments have no scientific basis. I don’t consider my self ignorant and I’ve always know that everyone is equal but even I was surprised to learn that there is no significant biological difference between people that would require medical adjustments because of race.

I’m still batting with this idea because even knowing that there is no truth to the lie of race it is hard to think we are all the same. If I as a black person can have some reservations about our sameness imagine how easy it is for a racist mind to convince themselves of the inferiority of others. We may wonder why does this really matter but

“For example, health care providers calculate kidney function tests differently for Black patients than they do for everyone else. This “race correction” makes Black patients seem healthier than they are. That means that a Black patient can have serious kidney problems, but, after the race correction is applied, their test will come back as “normal.” Overall, race correction means that Black people are diagnosed late, or never diagnosed at all, for serious conditions such as heart, kidney or lung diseases. It also means that Black people can be excluded from timely access to life-saving treatments like organ transplants and other surgeries.”

I also started wondering about conditions that primarily affect black people such as sickle cell anemia but that could be attributed to environmental conditions and not race. Then I thought about the advice I got to start taking more vitamin D and wondered is that also race correcting? I’m not sure but what I do know is biologically we are all the same and if I could un-invent something it would be race and when that was gone I would swiftly move to class but that’s for a different post.

Life, T Style

For the love of clothes

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Where can you reduce clutter in your life?

I think I can remove clutter in my wardrobe. I love clothes and have always felt having as many as possible is the way forward. I now feel as though my clothes just take up too much space. I may just need a bigger and better closet but I have actively begun getting rid of something when I get a new item of clothing that is similar to it.

The problem is whenever I get rid of something an event comes up that it would have been perfect for or it comes back into style and I have to pay triple what I used to for it (cough cough long denim skirts). I also try to give some clothes away but that also creates clutter because I have to collect them till I have enough to give them away and every so often I bashfully dip into the pile waiting to be taken to the thrift store or to some cousin back home.

Yes I need to declutter my wardrobe but for the love of clothes what would I wear?

Life

Evolution of Online Communication

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In what ways do you communicate online?

As an immigrant a part of our lives is figuring out the best way to communicate with family members back home and across the globe. I remember the transition from landlines to cell phones and the numerous phone cards that were used to maintain family ties. I also recall each person being convinced that one phone card gave more minutes that the other or it no longer gave as many minutes as it used to.

Eventually everyone got smartish phones and we moved from Skype to Viber and firmly settled on Whatsup as a community. It has become almost synonymous with phone to most of the immigrants I know. So that is my primary and favourite method of online communication.

I love and have always FaceTime but the problem was that everyone didn’t have an iPhone so it didn’t have the impact that Whatsup had so it has failed to be my primary method of communication.

I also adore email. You never know what you are going to get. It varies from scams, legitimate money transfers, updates from your bank, hospital or the government. Back in the day we didn’t have cloud storage so we sent emails of photos to be shared amongst family members through email. I also use email not just to communicate with others but with myself. During my undergrad I often sent myself drafts of my work, reminders of things to do, copies of PDF books and resumes. I was brought up when letter writing was still a thing and I think email still gives me that little jolt of receiving or posting a letter.

Finally I shouldn’t forget these little blog posts that I also use to communicate online with all of you.