{"id":35742,"date":"2022-09-30T15:56:13","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T11:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=35742"},"modified":"2022-09-30T15:56:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T11:56:13","slug":"leadership-on-the-planet-of-the-idiots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/leadership-on-the-planet-of-the-idiots\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership on The Planet of The Idiots?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><em>H<\/em><em>ow and why do leaders choose war and destruction when they have the capacity for humanitarian gestures and cooperation? Why is it that more leaders don\u2019t step forward and try to solve problems and make peace?<\/em><\/span><!--more--><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>By<\/strong> <strong>Anil Madan<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres in his address to the General Assembly declared: \u201cThe United Nations Charter and the ideals it represents are in jeopardy.\u201d Declarations to this effect by Guterres and his predecessors have had a timbre of their own conveying the idea of the ills menacing the world. Guterres\u2019 elaboration was no less lacking than his predecessors\u2019 exhortations in conveying the notion of a hopeless, dystopian world gnawing at itself:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We have a duty to act.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">And yet we are gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The international community is not ready or willing to tackle the big dramatic challenges of our age.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">These crises threaten the very future of humanity and the fate of our planet.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Our world is in peril \u2013 and paralyzed.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">None of these words moved any of the world\u2019s leaders to action. Instead, Russia\u2019s President Putin announced a partial mobilization of citizens, seeking to recruit 300,000 soldiers to participate in his war of choice against Ukraine. At the United Nations, US President Biden condemned Putin\u2019s actions: his initial attack on Ukraine, his ongoing effort to extinguish Ukraine as a nation, his imperial ambition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"35743\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/leadership-on-the-planet-of-the-idiots\/war-and-destruction\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/War-and-destruction.jpg?fit=1200%2C787&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1200,787\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"War-and-destruction\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/War-and-destruction.jpg?fit=640%2C420&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-35743\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/War-and-destruction.jpg?resize=640%2C420&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/War-and-destruction.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/War-and-destruction.jpg?resize=300%2C197&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/War-and-destruction.jpg?resize=1024%2C672&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/War-and-destruction.jpg?resize=768%2C504&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>How and why do leaders choose war and destruction when they have the capacity for humanitarian gestures and cooperation? Pic &#8211; Quora<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">For his part, Putin cast himself in the role of victim, suggesting that his \u201cspecial military operation\u201d is part of a larger existential struggle of the Russian nation against the nations of the West that seeks to \u201cweaken, divide and ultimately destroy our country.\u201d That his ambitions are imperial is not in doubt as the Kremlin\u2019s planned referenda in the regions of Ukraine that Russia occupies are a prelude to their annexation into the Russian Federation. These sham referenda will be used to justify further attacks on Ukraine if it seeks to liberate these annexed areas because they will then support the manufactured claim that Ukraine is attacking Russian territory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ukrainian President Zelensky\u2019s vow to liberate all Ukrainian territory seized by Russia and his call for the UN to expel Russia and deem it a terrorist state suggest that no negotiated end to the Ukraine war is in the offing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In a welcome note, but one that is at utter discord with the tenor of these pronouncements from Putin, Zelensky, and Biden, during the same week just after Putin announced his partial mobilization, we learned of a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia in which Ukraine released Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian opposition politician, and 55 Russian fighters, and Russia released 215 Ukrainians and ten other foreign nationals (including two Americans).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The big surprise here was that this prisoner exchange was brokered by the combined efforts of Turkish President Erdogan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The aunt of one of the released Americans said: \u201cI never dreamed it was a possibility that the Saudi government would be able to do something like this,\u201d and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also thanked \u201cour Saudi partners for helping to spearhead this humanitarian initiative.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">These developments should make us reflect and wonder how and why leaders choose war and destruction when they have the capacity for humanitarian gestures and cooperation. Why is it that more leaders don\u2019t step forward and try to solve problems and make peace?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As I thought about all of this, my mind turned back to the first meeting that Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had with Chinese foreign affairs chief Yang Jiechi and State Councilor Wang Yi, in Anchorage, Alaska, at the outset of the Biden Administration. One can see that the meeting was doomed to fail, not only from the pre-meeting spin put forth by Blinken and other American officials, but also from the public dressing down that Blinken attempted to deliver to Yang Jiechi for which he was rebuked in a lengthy rebuttal by Yang.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It is not that Blinken was wrong in stating: \u201cOur administration is committed to leading with diplomacy to advance the interests of the United States and to strengthen the rules-based international order. That system is not an abstraction. It helps countries resolve differences peacefully, coordinate multilateral efforts effectively and participate in global commerce with the assurance that everyone is following the same rules. The alternative to a rules-based order is a world in which might makes right and winners take all. And that would be a far more violent and unstable world for all of us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">But note the absence of any mutuality in that statement. There was no recognition of China\u2019s interests, nor an attempt to align China\u2019s interest in having a rules-based order with that of every other nation. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/forms.gle\/zJjGeEgr9k1UgepD8\">Read More&#8230; Become a Subscriber<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333399;\">Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 30 September 2022<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How and why do leaders choose war and destruction when they have the capacity for humanitarian gestures and cooperation? Why is it that more leaders don\u2019t step forward and try to solve problems and make peace?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":376,"featured_media":35743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28],"tags":[35030,27148,27149,20451,35029,35025,35031,35028,35016,35033,28199,35034,35032,7491,35027,35017,25971,35019,32234,758,33010,35026,35021,35023,35020,21859,18264,35018,35024,35022],"class_list":["post-35742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-affairs","tag-american-foreign-policy","tag-anil-madan","tag-breakfast-with-bwana","tag-carl-sagan","tag-china-interests","tag-chinese-foreign-affairs-chief-yang-jiechi","tag-dog-eat-dog-world","tag-global-commerce","tag-global-dysfunction","tag-leaders-with-vision","tag-national-security-advisor-jake-sullivan","tag-pale-blue-dot","tag-president-erdogan","tag-president-putin","tag-rules-based-international-order","tag-russias-president-putin","tag-russian-federation","tag-russian-nation","tag-saudi-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman","tag-soviet-union","tag-special-military-operation","tag-state-councilor-wang-yi","tag-terrorist-state","tag-turkish-president-erdogan","tag-ukrainian-president-zelensky","tag-un-secretary-general-antonio-guterres","tag-united-nations-charter","tag-us-president-biden","tag-us-secretary-of-state-antony-blinken","tag-viktor-medvedchuk"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/War-and-destruction.jpg?fit=1200%2C787&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-9iu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}