Leadership or Thirst for Power?

 

For those who have been following this blog space for a while, you would know that I seldom watch the News or read the papers because my sanity is dear to me. News trickles down anyway but watching it firsthand or reading it for myself affects me in a big way especially since I am an empath and more so, since I am not adept at shaking off or cleansing other energies. And yet, I broke the rule and watched it yesterday- on YouTube by accident and then those eyes led me to watch TV…

As I write this, the Taliban have taken over Afghanistan and are trying to ensure a smooth transfer of power. The President and Vice President are believed to be leaving the country. I guess the choice was life! Those eyes, that I mentioned are of an unknown girl, maybe ten or eleven, who among heavily veiled women were rushing off the streets perhaps, and she stopped to see when the camera caught her, her beautiful weather-beaten face devoid of expression but for those eyes! I don’t remember which channel covered this snippet. Channels are famous for taking old pictures as well and adding them as new, especially seen on YouTube but the news was shocking and those grey eyes penetrated right to my soul.

The end of the previous month after suffering a full week of severe insomnia and not following it up with sleep during the day, I joined a Yoga class (more about that in another blog, God-willing) and after nearly ten days, my sleep had finally fallen into place and those eyes shattered it for a long while. I spent a large part of the night gone by praying for her and all the women back there, who had begun to live their lives normally. I woke up this morning with a prayer for them and those eyes haunted me again. They have led me to write a blog after nearly two months of quiet.

When the Taliban came into being in 1994, I think, and when they took over governance in 1996, their aim was to rid Afghanistan of corrupt leadership and make up for the years of wars the country had suffered. A beautiful and noble cause indeed. Yet, five years later, the country and particularly its women were seemingly pushed back hundreds of years, to complete regression. Why would you do that to your country if you had its best interest in mind? This time around, they want to do things differently they say and want a progressive society to be erected. I hope and pray that they stick to their word and their idea of a progressive society matches to that of the world at large.

Running a country or any organisation for that matter, big or small, is all about effective leadership. Things begin to crumble when leadership is all about the thirst for personal power and supremacy. One doesn’t have to fear staying in power, if one actually benefits the masses and brings change and progress for the better. Why will anyone choose another leader if you met their needs? When kindness, goodwill, sincerity, hard work is seen then the economy flourishes. Most important tenet here is that of EQUALITY! Changes are not and cannot be seen overnight but the effort is visible even to the poor uneducated man or woman! A leader is human; he can make mistakes and some cost lives and severe damage but if he recognizes that, takes responsibility and vows to begin afresh and then sticks to his word, people see, they understand and they forgive! However, if he does not have the mettle to work and bring about a fair and prosperous society based on equality, fraternity, freedom of speech and everything else democracies stand for, he might stay for a while, but there will always be someone more powerful that comes along and replaces him. Good will of your people and/or of God/Universe/Source/Higher Power are all important and victory without it is short-lived and not worthwhile.

Afghanistan is going to have the Taliban regime for a long time to come by the looks of it, but if things can actually be different this time around and their Deobandi philosophy can follow its original progressive spirit, then their progress will be seen and appreciated by the world and those beautiful eyes will tell a different story.