Assumtions, Leading and Walls

This weekend I was in Toronto and had the opportunity to watch US television and some of the delegates in the United States speaking in their attempt to gain the nomination to run for President later this year.




I was quite surprised by some of the comments made. Edwards spoke about making America an example to the world and a country the world wants to be like! It shows a great lack of understanding when a candidate thinks that the rest of the world wants to be like America. In fact some of the countries in the world actually resent America’s assumption that they should be like them.

I remember going to eastern Europe to speak at a conference and being asked before I spoke by the President, “You aren’t coming with any of that American rubbish are you?”. When I challenged him to explain he said, we have had American consultants over here telling us how to run our business and so far it has always failed. I was not prepared to accept that and so challenged further. He then explained that “their ideas are fine but they make no allowances for our culture or desires. So they fail when we implement them. America sees the world as a series of boxes that things fit into”.

In my travels around the world, I hear the world wanting is a stable America that is an example of excellence and not a dictator. I think John MaCain said that America needs to lead the world, and that is also not true (and not possible with the low credibility it has at the moment). It needs to partner the world and be an example of good governance. In the last six years America has done more to undermine the credibility of democracy that it has done to advance it.

I can’t remember any times in modern history when building walls achieved anything other than expert climbers and resentment. The Berlin Wall is a typical example. The problems in Pakistan today are as a result of the British drawing lines, erecting fences and then leaving.



Why is America building a 700 mile wall between them and Mexico? Do people think this will actually work? I listen to statements about sending all the illegal immigrants back. Do people not realize the impact that will have on the economy of America? Would it not be so much more beneficial to help Mexico develop a strong economy so that people don’t want to cross the boarder and seek work in America? It will take time but it will also save money, improve the area and reduce the effectiveness of terrorism.








I was pleased to hear John MaCain acknowledge that Bush may have got things wrong, but he did change the strategy on Iraq and it seems to be having some effect. I was also pleased to hear that negotiation is starting to take place with people in Iraq that they have refused to talk to before and rather held them up as the axis of evil.

More has been achieved through discussion than has ever been achieved through war or building walls for that matter!

January 2007