A different kind of power in New Zealand
When you think “politician,” what picture pops into your mind? In today’s world, regardless of party, it is likely a bald or gray-haired old man, fixated on power and money, loyal only to his corporate sponsors.
Enter Jacinda Ardern. Prime Minister of New Zealand. Elected at age 37 to lead her country. What kind of young woman could handle such a task, survive the opposition and pull her country together?
In “A Different Kind of Power,” Ardern tells you of her mistakes and uncertainties as she bares her soul in this very candid memoir. Yet it is obvious in the way she meets crisis after crisis with wisdom and empathy that she has the internal strength to be a skilled leader.
When pressed by a reporter on her way to the swearing in ceremony, asking about her agenda, Ardern said simply, “I want this government to feel different. I want people to feel that it’s open, that it’s listening, and that it’s going to bring kindness back.” Kindness. That was the word.
There are the policy changes that come when one party takes over the helm from the party in power. The map of new laws and directions that demand attention from the prime minister and her cohorts. However, on top of the expected nonstop duties, there was much more.
Just months after her inauguration, Ardern became a first-time mom. Family stepped in to help with her new daughter, Neve, allowing her to balance her duties as PM with the demands of motherhood. When she could, Ardern would find a secluded spot to nurse or pump breast milk.
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The following year, though, was a path through hell. On March 15, 2019, a gunman opened fire on the New Zealand Muslim community during their worship, killing 50 and wounding dozens more. The stated intent of the perpetrator was to create chaos and plunge the country into racial turmoil and division. It didn’t work. Ardern was everywhere, embracing the Muslim community and pulling the country together with compassion.
Later that year, a volcano erupted on the island of Whakaari/White, creating an emergency evacuation situation. Though many were lost, others were saved, albeit with severe burns. Ardern and her emergency first responder teams were there.
Then, of course, came the big one — COVID. Ardern and her Parliament acted swiftly, restricting entry to the country and formulating a plan for managing COVID. Her words again: “In the Northern Hemisphere, COVID was raging. Hundreds of thousands of people in the United States had died from COVID that year. A number that would spike in the months ahead. In New Zealand, that number was 25, and I knew the stories and circumstances of almost all of them.”
Those numbers did not hold, of course, but there was general approval of the way in which Ardern was handling the pandemic. So much so, in fact, that she and the Labor Party won reelection by an overwhelming margin in 2020.
Arden describes interactions with other world leaders, including Justin Trudeau, Michelle Bachelet, Xi Jinping, Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin. “As leader, I was ambassador for my country, and I held our reputation and our legacy in my hands. We had opposed nuclear testing, apartheid and the Iraq War. We were the first country in the world in which women had the right to vote. We had spoken out on behalf of human rights, labor laws and the benefits of fair trade.”
A new public holiday was instituted in 2020; the Maori New Year, a first for New Zealand’s indigenous people. The brutal history of the oppression of the Maori is now being taught in New Zealand’s public schools.
After six years as prime minister, Jacinda Ardern stepped down so that someone else could take the reins. But what a legacy follows her. Fifty percent of Parliament is now female. Maoris hold leadership positions, including Speaker of the House. And “kindness” is definitely the defining word for her years as Prime Minister.
In the words of the ultimate New Zealand compliment, “Good on you, Jacinda!”
Can we do as well here in the United States?
(Doug Woodward lives in Macon County and honors all who walk this earth with kindness and compassion.)
Looking back
In 1988, my wife Trish and I bicycled for 11 weeks on New Zealand’s South Island, pulling our two children, camping gear, food and clothing behind us. On one particularly tiring day, we had biked 60 miles, been blown off the road by high winds and arrived at a crossroads, only to find the store we had counted on sold nothing that we could eat. Our hostess on a sheep farm that night said, “No matter, give me a list and I’ll ring the postman.” The next day, he arrived with not just the mail, but two grocery sacks he had shopped for and trusted us to reimburse him for. Jacinda Ardern would have been a young girl in that year, but kindness was already abounding in her home country.
— Doug Woodward
