Jacinda Ardern: Leading with Empathy EXCERPT

About Jacinda Ardern: Leading with Empathy: 

Jacinda Ardern was swept to office in 2017 on a wave of popular enthusiasm dubbed ‘Jacindamania’. In less than three months, she rose from deputy leader of the opposition to New Zealand’s highest office. Her victory seemed heroic. Few in politics would have believed it possible; fewer still would have guessed at her resolve and compassionate leadership, which, in the wake of the horrific Christchurch mosque shootings of March 2019, brought her international acclaim. Since then, her decisive handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen her worldwide standing rise to the point where she is now celebrated as a model leader. In 2020 she won an historic, landslide victory and yet, characteristically, chose to govern in coalition with the Green Party.

Jacinda Ardern: Leading with Empathy carefully explores the influences – personal, social, political, and emotional – that have shaped Ardern. Peace activist and journalist Supriya Vani and writer Carl A. Harte build their narrative through Vani’s exclusive interviews with Ardern, as well as the prime minister’s public statements and speeches and the words of those who know her. We visit the places, meet the people, and understand the events that propelled the daughter of a small-town Mormon policeman to become a committed social democrat, a passionate Labour Party politician and a modern leader admired for her empathy and courage.

Introduction 

Light drizzle has cleansed the desert air. Under the plaza’s lights and the Burj Khalifa, sightseers enjoy a balmy winter evening, if winter can ever truly be said to visit Dubai. Little more than a silhouette against the darkness, the tower above flickers then dazzles with colour and patterns, blue and red reaching 829 metres into the night. Colours turn to blackness. The world’s tallest projector screen, the Burj Khalifa, lights with the image of a woman. It is a moving sight: her eyes are lightly closed, her expression gentle as she clasps her hand against the back of another woman in a warm embrace. Above, the words proclaim ‘salaam’, ‘peace’, in Arabic and English.

It is 22 March 2019. The picture was taken the previous Sunday, a hemisphere and cultural world away. Though the woman’s head is covered in a scarf and her hair parted in a manner familiar to the Muslim world, hers is a now famous, Western face. It is Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand, photographed by Hagen Hopkins at a wreath laying in Wellington, two days after the Christchurch mosque attack on 15 March 2019. 

It is a rare tribute in Dubai. The Burj Khalifa usually hosts daily commercial LED light shows, and sometimes national flags of friendly countries, or the odd celebrity or pop band. And, of course, Th e Lion King. In terms of international political figures, Jacinda Ardern joined the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, whose image and inspirational quotes, along with an Indian flag, illuminated the skyscraper on his birthday. 

The honour is noteworthy, if not astonishing, given Jacinda’s background. Just weeks earlier, she seemed to have no ideological connection to the Muslim world – quite the opposite, in fact. A modern, Western, agnostic feminist living with her partner and bearing a child out of wedlock, Jacinda has campaigned passionately for gay marriage, not to mention equal pay and parliamentary representation for women. To the religious masses in the Middle East, she might well have seemed a picture of Western decadence, rather than an icon of compassion. 

This was until 15 March 2019, when Jacinda’s response to the Christchurch mosque attack touched millions of Muslims throughout the world. Among them was Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. A stern ruler, the sheikh is as far removed from Ardern politically as their countries are from each other geographically. His heartfelt tweet, which thanked Ardern for her ‘sincere empathy and support’, shows, along with his gesture of projecting her image on the Burj Khalifa, that he was impressed as much by those qualities as by her actions themselves. 

This quality, rare in public life, has elevated Jacinda Ardern politically, just as it guides her choices as a woman. From youngest sitting member in Parliament to youngest prime minister of her nation since 1856. From leader of a small, sparsely populated southern country to the ranks of admired international figures. It is a leitmotif that plays throughout Ardern’s life, essential to understanding the remarkable woman who is New Zealand’s fortieth prime minister.

Ardern’s compassion stirred New Zealanders’ aspirations for a better, fairer country at the 2017 elections. In the face of a heartless terrorist attack, her compassion raised hopes worldwide for peaceful coexistence between religions. In a world led, at best, by hardened pragmatists, Jacinda Ardern stands out as one of few leaders whose empathy is genuine, not the product of public relations spin or political grooming. Compassion is without doubt her greatest personal and political asset. When a leader has the courage to express compassion, it can reach across political and cultural divides to unite people. Compassion, despite humankind’s failings, is cherished by humanity, praised by all the religions and philosophies that underpin our belief systems. 

Compassion is described as ‘the highest state of spiritual union’ in the Bhagavad Gita. Th e New Testament, Colossians 3:12, exhorts Christians to ‘clothe yourselves with compassion’. In the Qur’an, Allah is described as ‘Most Compassionate’ in the fifty-seventh verse and often throughout. In modern times, the American Humanist Association states that ‘humanism is a rational philosophy informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion’. 

It need hardly be said that compassion has been traditionally considered a feminine characteristic. A recent commentary comes from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who stated in a tweet – that modern medium of wisdom – that ‘women have been shown to be more sensitive to others’ suffering, whereas warriors celebrated for killing their opponents are almost always men. We need to see more women in leadership roles.’

 

About the Authors:

Supriya Vani i

SUPRIYA VANI is a peace activist, speaker and author. As a speaker on human rights, she actively participates in international peace organizations and forums, including the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, the Nobel Women’s initiative, and the United Nations. As a journalist, she has interviewed several world leaders including Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, Julia Gillard former Prime Minister of Australia, Katrin Jakobsdottir ,Prime Minister of Iceland,Former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She is a recipient of an honorary James Patterson Fellowship from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Her first book, Battling Injustice: 16 Women Nobel Peace Laureates, based on her interviews with all the women Nobel Peace Laureates, won praise from a number of prominent international figures, including Nobel Peace Laureates Malala Yousafzai, His Holiness Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Juan Manual Santos, former President of Colombia, Arianna Huffington and former Secretary General of United Nations Ban Ki-Moon. She lives in New York.

Carl A. Harte is an Australian writer and book editor. The recipient of an eLit Gold Award for his book, Building Your Own Home, he has worked with a number of authors including the late former President of India. He lives in India.

 

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing