The skills you need to fight the colonial power and the skills you need to gain independence are not necessarily the same you need to run a country.
Interpretation
Different skills are required to resist colonialism than to govern a nation post-independence.
Kofi Annan's quote underscores the complexity of skills required in different stages of a nation's journey. It emphasizes that fighting against oppression and garnering independence demands a unique set of capabilities that may not translate directly to the competencies needed for effective governance and development of a country once it has achieved autonomy. This highlights the need for different forms of leadership and expertise throughout a nationβs evolution.
In practice
In a discussion about post-colonial governance strategies during a leadership conference.
If you have a problem and you can't find a solution, you meet again tomorrow and you keep talking until you find a solution. You can disagree with behavior or a particular position, but you do not resort to calling an opponent worthless.
Let us remember the large numbers of citizens who, day in and day out, through acts of volunteerism large and small, bring hope to so many of the world's disadvantaged. Let us ensure that this wonderful resource, available in abundance to every nation, is recognized and supported as it works towards a more prosperous and peaceful world.
We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race.
The global HIV/AIDS epidemic is an unprecedented crisis that requires an unprecedented response. In particular it requires solidarity - between the healthy and the sick, between rich and poor, and above all, between richer and poorer nations. We have 30 million orphans already. How many more do we have to get, to wake up?
People of different religions and cultures live side by side in almost every part of the world, and most of us have overlapping identities which unite us with very different groups. We can love what we are, without hating what β and who β we are not. We can thrive in our own tradition, even as we learn from others, and come to respect their teachings.
Democracy is, in essence, a form of non-violent conflict management. If war is the worst enemy of development, healthy and balanced development is the best form of conflict prevention.
I don't want to be a race-transcending leader. I want to be deeply understood as a man, as African- American, as a Christian, all that I am.
My way of getting the best from people on a set is to notice their work, to make every prop master, every seamstress, part of 'The Newsroom' or 'The West Wing' or 'Steve Jobs.'
Leadership is not achieved by an individual. Leadership is bestowed by the group.
In politics a capable ruler must be guided by circumstances, conjectures and conjunctions.
Every one of us has the capacity to lead.
The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.