An Inconvenient Truth

Whether we want to or not, independent of the size of an organization, from the smallest of associations to the greatest most complex one of leading a nation, the leader always transforms himself into the model of his subject community.

From Bill Clinton to George Bush; from Tony Blair to Osama Bin Laden; from Hugo Chavez to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; from Fernando Henrique Cardoso to Inacio Lula da Silva, all of them have exercised a strong influence on the outlines of our modern world history today. In the Roman Empire, Nero was a very bad model as a leader as he surrendered himself to base vices and subjected himself to the caprices of depraved women.

The leaders' responsibility is to contribute towards the refinement of his country’s population and, consequently for its society as a whole, exercising power for the good of all.

By withdrawing from our spiritual essence man has created an artificial life style, and as a consequence of that everything has followed suite in the wrong direction. Today we are living the consequences of this reality. The majority of people do not live as they ought to, they just survive.

In Brazil, ever since the “Law Áurea” was passed by Princess Isabel promulgating the end of slavery, its elite have never undertaken a strong position to adequately instill a program to educate the lower classes, and have kept them pinned down to the floor until today. All the succeeding governments since the birth of the Republic have done little towards improving health, education and teaching professional skills to the population, plus the absence of family planning policies have caused a demographic explosion, primarily in the poorer strata of the population.

Prior governments had the support of the middle class, but this had not been very well conducted, the lower classes less still. With the reduction of available jobs the middle class has shrunk. Shantytowns have grown even bigger and the larger cities are being surrounded by them. People today fight for their survival and any amount of spare change is welcome. Even when one is able to shout out: Brazil, the blessed country.

As members of human society we all crave to participate in the great scheme of things in one way or the other and this participation can be shared together with others and not restricted to just a minority. But unfortunately once again humans become polarized: the wealthier castes join together on one side and the poor ones mill around together on the other. And at the heart of this lies the leader, whose role should be one of integration and not separation with all of its dangerous effects of prejudice. As time passes the sensation of the common good that once existed in the community ends up by being swept aside as the ethical stature and morale of many a leader breaks down slowly as they put aside the sense of solidarity of the common good and aim primarily at personal goals. It will be of no surprise if these leaders are unable to achieve and materialize long lasting solutions for social conditions, as they drift towards permitting the administration of global conflict occupy their agendas. Nevertheless turbulent events are knocking down many of the paradigms that were up to now considered as untouchable.

Many leaders are also adopting inflexible measures and their decisions are made mechanically without sincerely listening to their own intuition and the real interests of the population. They are not concerned with the appearance of distrust and enmity between superiors and subordinates. They are not concerned in seeking out a balance between all the social strata of the populace and consequently they allow insubordination and collapse to occur in many areas. All of this leads to chaos and absolute disorganization.

Power has transformed into a game where cunning and dissimulation prevail, the employment of a smoke screen to conceal dubious action and lurking in the shadows waiting for the right moment to attack is a permanent measure. Neither out spoken attacks take-place nor are ideas for goals implemented. Showing the opponents' blemishes is considered a more appropriate action. But this will all take a back seat now as the environmental conditions of the planet are in disharmony: the destruction of the forests and global heating are provoking climatic changes that threaten the survival of many species, including that of the human race. When we go shopping in the market places, we realize that the problem for many is still money. This is now being taken care of with the use of the credit cards and the establishment of installment payments for buying food, but when the shelves are empty without the fruits of nature what use will money have?

When the leaders begin to concentrate just on their own personal goals, putting aside their responsibility of leading, shortly after a climate of
indifference and lack of interest sets in, making it clearly obvious to those who can see there is the absence of a more noble purpose.

Many of the present-day leaders are making impulsive decisions, causing much suffering and pain that could have been avoided. Admittedly, in exercising the power game not much energy and enthusiasm remains to take care of the overall improvement, conflicts tend to get worse, and when the general population perceive this, perhaps it shall be too late.

We hope that this shall not be Brazil's case and that its current President can, by using much care and sincerity, lead the country and its population to the promising destiny that has always been held in reserved for them..

Benedicto Ismael Camargo Dutra