Angelo Kairos Dela Cruz (ELP 2021) | Associate for Climate Policy/ Unithead, Climate Policy Team, Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, Philippines
When we were asked during our first session, what makes a leader? I simply responded that a leader is someone who eats last. My response was from a book written by Simon Sinek, an American motivational speaker, and behaviorist. Simon’s idea of what makes a good leader is straightforward—a leader would always put themselves in the most inconvenient position if that would mean that everyone else would be better off. He made his arguments by citing actual people and their “deeds” and what can be learned from them. I will try to do the same in the next paragraphs because I feel like we have been riding a roller coaster for a week now because of the speed of how things are unfolding, both good and bad, both affecting my introspection in answering the same question - What makes a leader?
The good part is, the Philippines just got its first gold medal in the Olympics. Our athletes were able to return the highest medal conversion rate in Southeast Asia. Our first gold medalist is a weightlifter and a woman, Hidilyn Diaz, who is a genuine storybook character of perseverance after her several trips to the Olympic games. Another medalist is a female boxer, Nesthy Petecio, who was able to secure silver after several upset wins with favored contenders. I can proudly say that the rest of the Philippines' team brought back pride and glory to the whole country as the country was being battered by one of the harshest monsoon rains that I can remember.
After celebrating our wins we must now face what appears to be an imminent defeat against climate change. The flooding, landslides, and massive damages to our food baskets almost felt like a build-up to the daunting content of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.
The new IPCC report is explicit in saying that we will overshoot our 1.5°C target by mid-century, and it will require the best global efforts to make sure that we can bring the global warming to 1.4°C and lower by 2100.
What does this have to do with the Olympics? Well, nothing directly, but the superstitious part of me says that things happen the way they do for a reason.
What does this have to do with the Olympics? Well, nothing directly but the superstitious bit in me says that things do happen, the way they happen, for a reason.
Most of our athletes, including our medalists, often came from poor provinces or places where opportunities are scarce. Sports was their ticket to a better life. Against all the odds they persevered.
Nesthy trains in Bago City, Negros Occidental, a province in the Western Visayas region. She is trained by a boxing veteran, Roel Velasco who also hails from the same city, he is also the brother of our 1992 Olympic boxing medalist. They are the reason behind why Bago City is named as the boxing capital of the country, literally, the home of champions.
Another woman from Bago City is also a champion but in a different way. Dr. Romana de Los Reyes has been leading the anti-coal campaign in the province for the past few decades. Her championship run started in 1997 when she and other female community leaders campaigned for the halting of building coal-fired power plants in the province. Her years of work resulted in the issuance of an executive order in March 2019 declaring the whole province as coal-free.
I know that boxing and Negros being coal-free are very small when compared to the global challenges that were listed in the IPCC report; however, lessons from these two separate yet connected stories are important as we continue to look for leaders who can ensure that the worst is avoided. We will need leaders who will take on the challenge no matter the odds. The climate change problem will be insurmountable if we do not find the Nesthy and Dr. Romana inside each and all of us.
Nesthy shows what is possible from hard work.
Dr. Romana showed how hard work can start a revolution.
The leaders that we will need to give humanity a better chance at survival should be both champions and revolutionaries. We’ll need those who embrace responsibility and the possibility of eating last.
We need more leaders of the likes of Nesthy and Dr. Romana.
