Running Your Mouth

Sometimes I get frustrated with how measured American politicians are when they step in front of a podium to drop their rhetoric. 'Where is the authenticity? Say what you mean!' My discontent with the systemic oratory restraint of our representatives has recently been quelled by the flip side of the spectrum—politicians who run their mouths without measure and without recognizing the prominence and power of their words.

Recently, Senegal’s President, Abdoulaye Wade, has made several unrestrained announcements that have boggled my mind. First, it was his nonchalant statement to the BBC that, yes, he did spend $27 million on a statue built by a Korean labor force in a country beleaguered by unemployment and that, yes, he did intend on taking 35% of the profits for his personal wealth, claiming intellectual property rights for coming up with the idea. Granted, President Wade constructed the statue with the intention of attracting tourism and bolstering the economy, but from what I hear while discussing the statue with my Senegalese friends, nobody is buying his legitimate stake on the profits. The fact that the statue is taller than the Statue of Liberty and sits atop a substantial hill in the otherwise flat country, does not lend itself to helping people forget what was said.

The President’s most recent off-the-cuff statement that has me wide-eyed and questioning is his recent move for a “Great Green Wall” in Senegal’s northeastern Sahel region. President Wade recently outlined an ambitious proposal to plant a trans-African strip of trees 15 km wide and 7,000 km long in order to stave off the encroaching desert and help combat climate change. This idea is brilliant except for the fact that it is unrealistic in the current political and economic circumstances. President Wade has several ambitious proposals for food security and agricultural self-sufficiency already on the table that have yet to see significant progress. Before giving such hope to his citizens and the entire world of earth-lovers, the President should be sure that what he proliferates is feasible.

President Wade is doing a lot of things right. He is democratically ruling a peaceful country in Africa. He is full of ideas to stimulate the economy and is creating a political climate that is attractive to foreign investment. What he, and others like him, need to remember is that as a political figure, someone that the entire populace looks up to, he needs to speak with integrity and responsibility. Giving false hope to a population, or being unapologetic for his self-interest, is not the way a leader should present himself. While I may not like the constant ‘tact’ of our American politicians, I do think that some of their posturing is to protect us from disappointment and unmet expectations. Perhaps measure is as much of a virtue as truth when it comes to political speech.