The young who’re making a difference
In December 2019, at 34, Sanna Marin from Finland became the youngest prime minister in the world. Isn’t it marvellous that so many young leaders, many of them women, are taking up global leadership positions? Jacinda Ardern, 41, who became New Zealand’s PM at 37, is my role model. A progressive leader, who is combating social inequity, her response to the Christchurch mosque shootings, reaching out to the Muslim community, and rapidly introducing strict gun laws, was exemplary. Her handling of the Covid pandemic got her international acclamation. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, only 49, has also shown both leadership and humane qualities.
But not only young politicians deserve our respect and adulation. We know and talk about them because of their high-profile positions. But let’s take a look at a March issue of Time magazine that features the next 100 most influential people in the world. Oh yes, Sanna Marin has been profiled there by Erna Solberg, Norway’s prime minister, who tells us how within weeks of Finland reporting the first corona infection, its PM quickly implemented a lockdown and banned travel in parts of the country. The result — Corona infections were kept at one-fifth of the European Union average. “She has proved that good leadership does not depend on age.”
The list features artists, pop stars, sportspersons, innovators, techies and actors. Sydney McLaughlin, 21, who has the potential to become the most outstanding 400m hurdler of all time is featured. She has the courage and passion to speak up against negative issues such as bullying. Says the writer, “the potential to impact lives is her greatest strength, and opportunity… and I know the mark she will leave on this world will be so much bigger than records and medals.”
In Matamoros, Mexico, thousands of asylum seekers to the US are crowded in a squalid encampment. Even before the Covid pandemic, living conditions in the overcrowded tent city, where cartels operate with impunity, were dangerous. “The lack of sanitation and exposure to the elements spread illness. Families have grown desperate and drowned trying to swim to Texas.” But in this sea of despair, a Cuban doctor, Dairon Elisondo Rojas, 29, himself an asylum seeker, is a ray of hope. He provides lifesaving care, and as an American judge decides his own fate, “he now helps mothers hear their baby’s heartbeat for the first time and treats up to 50 patients every day, mostly children.” Says the Democratic congressman Joaquin Castro, who has profiled him: “Rojas aspires to practise medicine in the US and to contribute his skills to our nation like generations of immigrants before him — but he can only help if we let him.”
Salman Toor, 37, a painter, born in Lahore and now living in New York, openly features queer men of South Asian descent in his paintings in defiance of societal norms. Then there are innovators like Telfar Clemens, 36, who has redefined fashion by creating “a new language of truth, through design”; or Rohan Pavuluri, 25, founder of Upsolve, a nonprofit that offers a free online tool to help users to file for bankruptcy without paying huge fees, and there are thousands in this pandemic. Davido, 28, one of the biggest voices in Afrobeats, has created an album which had the youth rallying to demand that the Nigerian government take action against police brutality.
During gloomy times like these, such people fill our hearts with hope and optimism.
Rasheeda Bhagat
