I just recently attended one of the talks held in United Nations University. They have these regular sessions inviting heads of states and other prominent or influential individuals. I was lucky enough to go last February 2, a day after Tokyo snowed.
This time I got to hear the President of Mexico, Pres. Felipe Calderon. He addressed the guests, and I guess the world for that matter, how Mexico would prepare for the upcoming COP 16 that would address our global climate crisis.
There were 2 reasons why I actually went there. One was that I was hoping to learn something new about climate change and the countries` efforts to mitigate it. Second was that I just wanted to see and hear how a president of a country talks.
As for the first reason, my conclusion was that we actually get more from the books if we want to know about climate change. I guess speeches are there to address the general things rather than academic info.
However, for my second reason of going, President Calderon gave me my money`s worth. Here are my thought on how a president talks, bulleted for easy comprehension:
1)A president speaks for his people.
– President Calderon addressed his speech in Spanish. For the first 30 minutes there I thought he din`t know English… though later I realized that part of upholding culture is upholding your native tongue. Thinking about how this affected the weather; well it made me believe that this crisis was indeed real, as real as any country would speak about it.
2) A president upholds the positive in every challenging situation.
– Instead of dwelling heavily on the problem, the president tried to focus on the opportunities that arose amidst the current challenges. He talked about how a more efficient, a more sustainable and greener economy would emerge from this crisis. And if we did focus on that, indeed the way forward is even brighter than where we used to be.
3) A president does not pretend to have all the solutions.
– He talked about meeting other country president during COP15, and how they stayed up until morning to try and look for solutions, of which they found no absolute consensus. He said, there are no overnight solutions, we do need to prepare them step by step.
Well there were certainly more things I observed. I just wished to share these insights as perhaps someday some of us would be placed in a situation where we would need to speak as a president does. Although I would say… we need not be a president to speak for others; we need not be presidents to speak positively of things and honestly as well. We need not be presidents to influence so many people… We need not be one, but we could certainly influence and bring good as a president can. 🙂
Cheers!
William