If you saw the movie, The Queen, Tony Blair needs to clear up something about the scene of “kissing hands”. It’s tradition for a new British prime minister to call on and kiss the hand of the monarch. Thus in 1997 the Lord Chamberlain instructed Blair on the proper way to do it; that is, to not actually kiss the hand but only brush his lips on it, like so. When the historic moment came, Blair approached Elizabeth II, tripped on the carpet, tried to break his fall by grabbing her hand, and smooched it ever so ardently. Lesson learned on first day in office: expect the unexpected.
Blair thence served for ten years, winning three elections, tackling domestic problems of health care and education, and international ones like Iraq and Africa. He shares these “Lessons in Leadership”:
(1) To change the world, first understand it. To understand it, accept its immutable facets.
(2) The world is changing fast, so leaders must learn to change fast.
(3) To make change, a leader needs to make decisions. It is forgivable to fail, but unforgivable to not try at all.
Blair deems devolution his biggest reform. Not only are parliaments sitting in Scotland and Wales, but also in Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 ended decades-long strife in Northern Ireland. From it he shares “Lessons in Negotiating”:
(1) Each situation is different; focus on each one. Solve or at least manage the problem.
(2) Agree on the basics. Be ready for compromise.
(3) Draw up with a common plan, and the steps to achieve it.
(4) Beware: there will always be attempts to mar the best of plans.
(5) You can achieve the goal — peace — only if everybody wants it. So never give up; overcome all obstacles.
Blair was one of the greatest movers of the 21st century. But during his 1997-2007 term he was never allowed to use a mobile phone. He always longed to have one and bought himself a sleek model the day he left office. He quickly learned to “text”, and sent a “hello” to a friend in Parliament. He only realized he was not listed in the recipient’s directory when the latter “texted” back: “Sorry, but who are you?” Blair sighed to himself, “It’s been only 24 hours” — and people don’t know him anymore. Lesson learned on first day out of office: stay humble.
So Blair expounds: beyond material improvements, say, economic progress, the more important things are values. That is, the impact of change on families or on faith.
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A reader, while requesting anonymity, alerts authorities to this rape of the environment:
“Thank you for exposing land grabbing at La Mesa watershed. Your columns show the vulnerability of nature parks, reserves and supposedly protected areas to crime syndicates. They strike with impunity and insatiable greed all over the country. Even Palawan, the Last Frontier, has been attacked.
“I refer to the once famous Elsa Park in Santa Cruz town, named after the late governor Salvador Socrates’ wife. Elsa Park watershed used to be a haven for travelers between Puerto Princesa City and northern towns (El Nido , Roxas, Taytay, San Vicente). Shady trees roadside and spring waters refreshed sightseers. Motorists would stop to rest or refill radiators. The area was alluring — until professional land grabbers took over most of the park a few years back.
“The syndicate drove away the few residents at the park’s fringes, and then erected shanties for its squatter-foot soldiers. It had the temerity to produce spurious titles covering 5,000 hectares of Elsa Park and vicinity.
“The gang employed the same modus operandi in other government lands, including parts of Iwahig Penal Reservation. It has misappropriated mangrove forests and bird sanctuaries at Puerto Princesa Bay. Government agencies tasked to safeguard precious reserves and protected areas seem helpless against the land grabbers. Ironically, it’s foreign groups like World Wildlife Fund and Audubon Foundation, along with the local Palawan Nature Conservation Core and Haribon that are more concerned about the degradation. The criminals are threatening to harm the NGO workers, and have attempted to take lives.
“I remember the flashpoints of land grabbing in Mindanao where I grew up. The incidents exploded into civil war in the ’70s. I hope it does not happen in Palawan.”
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My contacts in the Last Frontier confirmed the narrative. Offie Pablo, formerly with the Palawan NGO Network, had personally confronted the professional squatters. Expounding on the exposé, she says: “Elsa Park once had a beautiful river. Not anymore, due to illegal logging in surrounding hillsides. The Puerto Princesa city hall has been dismantling land grabbers’ structures at Iwahig, but they keep coming back.”
The Environmental Legal Action Committee, composed of Palawan lawyers, has been suing the syndicates. Field volunteers lament that the one at Elsa Park has begun fencing it off. One volunteer was driven out by the intruders — uniformed men in the employ of a certain Mr. Mallari from Manila. They have cut down trees for charcoal — so close to a reforestation nursery of the provincial environment and natural resources office.
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E-mail: jariusbondoc@workmail.com