What if she was THEIR PRESIDENT?

PRAYING MANTIS

The whole wide world wants her to be their President. An American says “If we had a President like her in the United States, things would have been so different in the world“. Americans, Asians, Africans, Australians, Europeans, and hordes of people around the globe watched in admiration, as this lady led her country to be COVID-free in just seven weeks last year. She is reputed to be one of the very best politicians in the world.

She is Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern, a New Zealand politician, who has been serving as the 40^th Prime Minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party since 2017. First elected to the House of Representatives as a list MP in 2008, she has been the member of Parliament for Mount Albert since March 2017.

The real reason that the vast majority of the politicians are bad for their own countries is because of their ego; an ego with a capital letter of uppercase ‘E’. Let us look at a world leader without an ego. Enter Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, and the youngest of all world leaders at the present time. Even though her country is often even left out of the lower right corner of the world maps, this woman made it ever so popular. New Zealand has been voted as the greatest country on earth, seven years in a row, and is in first place when it comes to COVID-19 response. That iconic Prime Minister was once able to say “Today there are no active cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand“, a thing that no other leader of any country of this planet has ever been able to say. Her country also has the lowest unemployment rate and racism is not tolerated. She has gone on record to say “We do not let racism exist. Let New Zealand be a place where there is no tolerance for racism, ever, and that is something that we all can do“. In New Zealand, good mental health is a priority. The lady says “The true measure of leadership is the ability to confront the anxiety of the people of their time“. It is now very easy to see how a good charismatic leader can change the whole nation’s direction.

It is really amazing, but what truly sets her apart is her proven ability to be at her best in a time of crisis. Delivering a speech in the middle of an earthquake, what she called “quite a decent shake“, she was as calm as a cucumber and said “you might see things moving behind me“. Just imagine, New Zealand faced the hardest of times during her term of office as the Prime Minister. These included a terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption, a global pandemic., one after another. One tragedy after another. However, none of these were able to stop her from winning. She declared “When a terrorist tried to divide us, we came together and we said they are us. When a volcano erupted, we threw our arms around those affected, whether they were from near or far. When COVID arrived, we didn’t hesitate to act, knowing it was the only way to protect those around us“.

Earlier I said that ego was what made politicians bad. That is because in a vast area of the world, politicians feel that they are ‘it’ and are even above their own nations. They feel untouchable. They feel even too good to listen to the common people. That is exactly why Jacinda is so very different. She never puts herself first. She really listens to her own people. She once said “If I could distil it down to one concept that we are pursuing in New Zealand, it is simple and it is this; KINDNESS“. However, let us not make any mistake. Kindness should not be misinterpreted as weakness. She could be very firm when the occasion demands. To her everything in New Zealand was about collaboration and positive language, rather than a manifestation of the ego of politicians who think that they are always right and know better than everybody else. That is exactly how you go about establishing a united nation, which respects their leaders and not get into the abyss of a divided nation. New Zealanders did not fight amongst themselves. They did not fight against the government and when tragedy struck, they listened to the rules. They firmly believed that their government was protecting them. They believed in Jacinda because she is the President that every nation wants.

On 16^th May 2020, Jacinda Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford were turned away from the Olive Café in Wellington by the manager, because it had already reached its limit of customers under social distancing rules. These were the rules of her own government; the rules were for the entire nation. Not even the Prime Minister herself was exempt from the rules. Jacinda and Clarke quietly left., no ego, no throwing the weight around, after all, she was the Prime Minister of the country. That was just not her style. However, it had a happy ending. As the couple were walking down the street, a vacant spot opened in the café and the staff chased after them and took them in. The staff did not create that space, another couple finished their meal and had just left. The owner of the café later said that they do that regularly for other customers as well. He had added “She had a lovely brunch and left half an hour later. She was lovely with all the staff. She was treated like a normal customer“. Later Clarke Gayford tweeted “I have to take responsibility for this, I didn’t get organized and book anywhere. Was very nice of them to chase us down the street when a spot freed up. A+ service”.

Well, there you are. The reasons for her popularity and the reason why the New Zealanders trust her is obvious just from this incident. Just in case someone wishes to bring a ‘planned conspiracy’ type of theory into the incident, it was definitely not a staged one. It was genuine. It was flashed all over the world through all types of media. I am sure that Jacinda would have been quite embarrassed at the media frenzy that the incident evoked.

Jacinda Ardern is a beacon of inspiration and has portrayed herself as an example that all of us should follow. Only then would we be able to stop wishing for a leader like Jacinda Ardern to lead our own countries, because we will then have a government that could not be any better than the very people who voted it into power with such great expectations. The lady has said “We have made a choice that I am proud of. We will leave a legacy and that I hope the next generation will see that we in New Zealand, are on the right side of history“. With people like Jacinda Ardern at the helm, it would indeed be the surprise of the century if that did not take place.