The prime minister who is making the world his own with empathy and the fact that it does not make people moral
2020-04-20 21:47:10
TiranaPost
Coronavirus pandemic may be the most difficult test for the political leadership the world has ever witnessed. Leaders without exception are facing the same threat. But everyone is reacting differently, judgment? It will come from post-pandemic results.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel embraces science. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro opposes it. The daily statements of US President Donald Trump are a spectacle in themselves, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not appear so often even though he leads 1.3 billion people.
Jacinda Ardern, the 39-year-old Prime Minister of New Zealand, has followed a different path. Her leadership style is based on empathy that 'tempts' people to take serious care of themselves and their families in the midst of a crisis. Her messages are clear, consistent, and at the same time clear and soothing. And her approach is not only making people feel better emotionally, but it is actually working very well.
'People think Ardern is not moral, but rather joins them!' That's what Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand, told me from 1999 to 2008. (Ardern worked for her during her time in power).
‘They may even think: We don’t understand why the government is doing it, but we know it supports us. I want to say that there is a high level of trust in her because of empathy. She knows how to communicate, has a degree in communication sciences. This is a kind of crisis that either makes you a real leader or not. And that will definitely make Jacinda '!
One of the prime minister's innovations has been frequent live Facebook communications, even informal but informative communications. On the day she would announce the closure, she appeared with a sweater from her home. He said he had put the girl to bed and instructed her to ask everyone to prepare.
She knew how to anticipate an emergency alarm by calmly explaining to people how their lives would change, how much they needed to stay out, and parents entertaining children in playgrounds, but informing that the virus lives on the surface for 72 hours.
It showed that house arrest could last for weeks but also informed that: We will not see the benefits of home isolation and our efforts for at least 10 days, so don’t be discouraged!
In the latest live appearance on Facebook, one of the employees appears in her office, and the Prime Minister was just beginning to explain what life looks like after the mitigation measures, said: Oh look it's Leory!
He kept children's toys on his desk. The scene seems appropriate for an era in which work and private and family life are increasingly colliding.
As she holds daily conferences with senior officials and journalists, she also dwells on personal aspects:
Clarke says: Trump does his updates, but that of Ardern is another kind of show! In no case has Jacinda come out attacking journalists who ask her questions.
Trump has often done so, while Ardern, when a journalist forgot the question he was going to ask, jokingly replied: I am worried that I am getting enough sleep! She does not try to misinform, does not blame, tries to manage situations and all at once. Her method is: Be polite to the other. This is more important than people realizing that local attitudes are being maintained.
Ardern's style would be interesting: A world leader in nice clothes talking in a simple communication with millions of people. And nothing more, if it were not for the fact that its approach is one with the policies that have produced real results, of a world leadership.
Since March, New Zealand has been unique in creating a national goal not only to reduce the coronavirus case curve, as most other countries have aimed, but also to completely eliminate the virus. And it must be said that it is on the right track to do so. In New Zealand a lot of testing is done, the health system was not overloaded, New cases peaked only in early April. 12 people have died from a population of 5 million.
With many isolated islands in the South Pacific New Zealand had a favorable position to extinguish the pandemic. And that, as Clark states, is an advantage.
But Ardern's government also made an immediate decision. It imposed a national blockade earlier than other countries. He banned travel from China in early February, before the country confirmed a single case. But it also closed the borders to all non-residents in mid-March.
Michael Baker and Nick Wilson, two of New Zealand's best public health experts, said that while the country's ambitious strategy could fail, early intervention gave experts time to take measures, such as rigorous quarantine. at country borders, expanding COVID-19 testing and tracking contacts.
Jackson, a researcher in international relations, says Ardern's four-level system since the beginning of the crisis was an excellent model for preparing people psychologically but also for understanding the seriousness of this crisis. So very different from Trump’s approach of the type: What am I going to do today?
However, not everything Ardern did was successful. Success was also the product of an impressive collective effort by public health institutions, opposition politicians and New Zealand as a whole, who have largely complied with social distancing guidelines.
There have also been tensions. Although the government has introduced many stimulating economic measures, some opposition politicians and public health experts are now calling for the blockade to continue. They accuse the government of overreacting and argue that Australia has managed to reduce new cases of coronavirus without strong blocking as in New Zealand.
A survey by Colmar Brunton in early April found that 88 percent of residents trusted the government's decisions, considering them appropriate. Eighty-four percent approved the government's response to the pandemic, a far greater support than the people of the seven largest economies in the world, including the United States. So the citizens of New Zealand support government policies, even though many of them have been hit economically by pandemics in the short term.
However, expert Jackson has a concern: While Ardern and many new European leaders have navigated to address the coronavirus crisis, how will this new generation of leaders address the aftermath of the pandemic?
'Strategic decisions and decision making in times of crisis are very different. The world will change, mainly because of the crisis, they are very different, "he said." The world will change in the coming years, mostly for the worse. A major depression inevitably. China's strategic opportunism knows no bounds. Dictators are using pandemics to strengthen their control over societies. Institutions are not cooperating as promised. To overcome this crisis without being touched is just one step in a longer process towards a bold new world. '
URI FRIEDMAN / The Atlantic.
