One of my grandchildren, Róan age 11, recently told me;

“I have a joke for you Granda - there were 4 people travelling together in a plane, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, the Pope and a ten year old girl. Suddenly the planed lurched and they saw that the pilot had pressed his ejector button and left the plane travelling by itself to certain death for its passengers. They discovered that there were only 3 parachutes - immediately Trump said ‘I’m taking the first one as I am the most intelligent and important person in the world so I am needed most’ and out he went. Then Putin said ‘Russia needs me, millions of lives depend upon my leadership’ and out he went. The Pope then said to the little girl - ‘I have lived a long life, you have most of your life ahead of you, your life is more valuable than mine - you may have the last parachute!’ to which the little girl replied ‘It’s ok, father, the smartest man in the world just put on my schoolbag before he jumped out - so there's one for each of us!’”.

Donald Trump since he announced his candidacy for the position of President of the United States has lied outrageously, has abused anybody and everybody who has not supported him in his lying ways, has shown himself to be a racist, a misogynist, as a complete narcissistic inarticulate nasty piece of work. Yet in the recent election after four disastrous years in charge, when he divided the people of the United States more than any President in living memory, he received over 70 million votes!! So can it be said that he has demonstrated leadership qualities and are these the type of qualities that we hope to foster in our work in community development processes? The answers are of course, obvious. 

It is significant that when Barack Obama was elected as the first ever black President of the United States that his election was achieved by the support of grass root organisations, generally referred to in the US as the third sector. This was one of the targets of the Trump administration as he denied funding to sanctuary cities and to organisations based on the promotion of principles of equality, participation in decision making and common decency. 

Effective leadership on this island, leadership which will radically change our prospects for a shared future in which we can celebrate diversity together, depend upon the continual development of community organisations and imaginative projects which owe no allegiance to any political party nor to any one sectarian grouping.