Searching For The Visionary President

?an engineer, a lawyer, a pastor?

The premises of this piece is to challenge those who in the past few days have argued that Engineers are better suited as Presidents than Lawyers are. They have not only espoused myopic views, but dangerous and fallacious opinions as well.

I say neither Engineers nor Lawyers, and for that matter, Pastors or Medical Doctors are necessarily better suited by mere fact of their training and qualification to be presidents. It is institutions that produce many such professionals for specific functions in society and anyone of them without vision and special capabilities cannot carve a niche for themselves and their nations as president. The JFK?s, FDR?s, Churchill?s, Nkrumah?s, Mandela?s, Rawlings?, whether educated as farmers, successful entrepreneurs, skilled pilots, good Lawyers or brilliant engineers were primarily special people with great political acumen and vision. Such great presidents the world has known all have one common thread running through them: They were great VISIONARIES!

There is misinterpretation of Mr. Thomas L Friedman?s views in his Book ?The World Is Flat? on Ghanaweb SIL beginning September 2, 2005 which totally shocked me. It was loosely put forth that Engineers per se would be better Presidents for Ghana in the mold of the Chinese whose economy is in top shape because, that source has learnt from Tom Friedman?s Book aforementioned, that Engineers are ruling in China and that accounts for their development! Nothing can be farther from the truth! Friedman has been misread and sadly misquoted in a washy manner, an eloquent proof that one needs to read an Author?s work thoroughly before attempting to quote that Author!

On June 5 2005, I had the pleasure of being in the audience at the 2005 Commencement (Graduation) of Williams College, Massachusetts, where Friedman was the Featured Speaker who gave the Commencement Address. I was enthralled by his brilliant speech; therefore I delved into his works.

The thrust of Friedman?s argument is based on his infatuation with the ?Asian Tigers?. Simply stated, he opines that those Asian Tigers are ?big fans of technology? which has made the ?world flat? and connected. He says such countries have prioritized the study of Science and Mathematics, taking advantage of ?outsourcing? resulting from Technology. He argues that technology has leveled the playing field in such a way that the previous problems of distance and geography are no longer so insurmountable. In short, technology provides an equalization of opportunities, for those countries that have the foresight to take advantage of it. It has become profitable and an engine of growth for certain developing countries at the expense of US workers who have become increasing non-reliant on study of those science subjects. He is imploring the US to adapt in order not to be left behind, using himself as an example. How did Friedman arrive at his conclusion that THE WORLD IS FLAT and that those who don?t stay ?connected? are losing out?

Friedman studied at University of Minnesota, Brandeis and in 1975, was an Oxford University student with emphasis on Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies. He is a journalist writing for New York Times. In 1999, he wrote a book on ?The Lexus and the Olive Tree? in which he painted a picture of two types of countries in the world as he sees it. Countries that rely on Manufacture, he refers to as Symbol of Technology on the one hand, and the other type he talks about as fixated on the Olive Tree, focusing on Land, Historical Origin and Tradition. He said he was riding in one of those Fast Bullet Trains in Japan, reading a Newspaper from Switzerland about Palestinian Farmers defending their Olive Farms from being destroyed. Using that as a metaphor, he draws attention to the old mindset countries relying on ?Land as everything? in their quest to reach economic pinnacle. He talked about Napoleon and other famous world figures going to war over land in the past to become wealthy and to attain global superiority. In the 20th Century, however, Friedman intones that Technology is King. Technology has made certain countries strong. Their degree of Connectivity by use of Computers symbolizes their economic strength.

This is part of what Friedman told his audience including yours truly on June5, 2005 on the Great Lawn at Williams College, Massachusetts, USA:

????..jobs are going to change faster and faster in a flat world. Believe me, I know. You see, about 18 months ago I went to Bangalore, India to do a documentary about outsourcing. We shot about 60 hours of film in ten days, and across those ten days I got progressively sicker and sicker. Because somewhere between the Indian entrepreneur who wanted to do my taxes from Bangalore, and the one who wanted to write my new software from Bangalore and one who wanted to read my X-rays from Bangalore, and the one who wanted to trace my lost luggage on Delta Airlines from Bangalore, I realized that people were doing things I could not explain or understand. I realized that my own intellectual software needed updating. I came home and told my editors I need to go on leave immediately. That is why I wrote the World is Flat. I was retooling myself. None of us is immune from that.?

In that monumental book, Friedman identifies ten forces that have produced a ?new socioeconomic paradigm? succinctly summarized by others as:

1 ) Global capitalist unification: The fall of the Berlin Wall (9th November, 1989) and the advent of PCs and Windows software have produced a global unification under the auspices of capitalism.

(2) Internet-email-browser confluence: The confluence of the Internet, email, and web browsers, together with the "overinvestment" in optical fiber that occurred during the dot-com bubble, have produced a new template for economic activity.

(3) Common Web standards: The extension of common Web-based standards has become operational.

From these first three "forces" results what Friedman calls "the Genesis moment for the flattening of the world"

(4) Collaborative communities: Self-organizing collaborative communities are evolving.

(5) Outsourcing: Outsourcing has become common (this was given a spur by the opportunity given to India by Y2K demands for programming, and far from impeding globalization's development, the dot-com bubble?s implosion in fact "turbocharged" it.

(6) Offshoring: i.e. moving factories (China joins WTO in 2001; "China is . . . simply racing everyone to the bottom? , China?s advantages are ?overwhelming?; curiously, Friedman never mentions the word maquiladora in this discussion . ( maquiladora are a string of factories in Mexico along the US-Mexico border that import parts for assembly and labeled Made in Mexico)

(7) Supply-chaining: collaborating horizontally ? among suppliers, retailers, and customers ? to create value", of which Wal-Mart serves as an example.

(8) Insourcing: (i.e. servicing supply chains, "third-party-managed logistics") (UPS) .

(9) In-forming: By in-forming Friedman means "the ability to build and deploy your own personal supply chain ? a supply chain of information, knowledge, and entertainment" , and Google is taken as an exemplification of these possibilities ("Google is like God," says Alan Cohen, VP of Airespace.

(10) Amplifying technologies, or "steroids": By "steroids" Friedman means amplifying technologies like increased computing speed, file sharing, additional devices, and especially wireless .

From these 10 forces outlined above, Friedman plugs in his concept of America and the Flat World and the gravamen of his argument and exhortation boil down to a call on every able bodied individual to be ?An untouchable? in this new socioeconomic paradigm. In Friedman's parlance, an untouchable is a person whose job cannot be outsourced, just like Michael Jordan (or LeBron James), Barbara Streisand (or Alicia Keys). Adaptability through education is the key to economic security. Friedman reviews the advantages that the United States possesses: U.S. research universities & labs, capital markets, intellectual property laws, flexible labor laws, large domestic market, political stability, and a tradition as a meeting place for cultures.

However, Friedman argues that the United States also has so many significant weaknesses that "we are in a crisis now". The U.S. is neglecting science and engineering. American youth show signs of a lack of ambition and work ethic. And foreigners are increasingly better educated.

Friedman issues a call to Americans to respond to the challenge. There is an as yet unmet need for political leadership. On social issues, Friedman briefly argues that benefits and education should be "as flexible as possible"; he calls for "portable health insurance" and proclaims that he wants to see "every American man or woman on a campus". Pro-globalization advocates must recognize the need for compassionate measures, if only out of self-interest. There remains a need to sort out "the relationship between global corporations and their own moral consciences"; Friedman argues there is a little-acknowledged and hard-to-see "progressive tilt" observable in the behavior of big business. Another crying need, he adds, is for "improved parenting". How therefore could anyone conclude from Thomas Friedman?s writings that he proffers the argument that engineers make better presidents than lawyers?

Is X making this argument because he is looking forward to Ghana?s 2008 Presidential elections? Does the fact that X himself is an engineer make him declare, so confidently, that engineers make better presidents? X claims to be such a confidante of present and past governments? members that he talks to them daily. There is Osafo Marfo, an engineer and Minister for Education and Sports as well as Nana Akufo Addo, a Lawyer and Minister for Foreign Affairs amongst the recently revealed ?Ambitious Six? pretenders to NPP leadership 2008. For the remaining four pretenders, we have Papa Owusu Ankomah, a lawyer and Minister for Interior; Dr. Addo Kufuor, medical doctor and Minister for Defense; Alan Kyeremanteng, a former Chairman of NPP Youth Executive Forum and Minister for Trade and Industry; Dr. Apraku, Minister for Regional Cooperation and NEPAD. On the NDC side so far, there is Prof. Mills, a distinguished lawyer; and perhaps John Mahama, a communications expert.

X is right. If I know how to diagnose disease or discuss quantum mechanics, surely, that makes me better qualified to be President than one who files briefs before the Supreme Court! (If it is not evidently clear that I am being sarcastic in the preceding statement, then drink a tumbler of water!)

In a progressive society, Friedman?s argument is that it takes all kinds of skilled people to fulfill communal dreams of economic and social prosperity. A society needs its lawyers, doctors, engineers, and so on. But it also needs a person of vision to make sure that all these different parts of society work well together. It needs someone to make sure that every member of society is able to contribute his or her part in a harmonious manner.

It is thus not obviously clear, on the face of it, that an engineer is able to provide vision and leadership any better than a lawyer, a doctor, an educated farmer, or even a skilled pilot.

Ghana?s hope and aspiration is to be endowed with a Visionary; one who goes far beyond his education and training, to provide far-reaching goals for the country and the means to obtain them???..(psssst....and the NDC has that man in my humble opinion)

By Ebby Koney, Esq
A Practicing Attorney for 28 years. His Law Office is based in New York City. Outgoing Chairman (since 1998) of the North American Branch of NDC.

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.