Today, because of Donald Trump, I'm not proud of my country. I cannot be proud of my country “where the government, in my name, is doing” things like President Trump.
Simon Anholt, before the Trumpian era, asked the question in a Ted Talk in Berlin 2014 "Is that what a good country would do? And if the answer is no, be very suspicious. Ask yourself, is that the behavior of my country? Do I want to come from a country where the government, in my name, is doing things like that. Or do I, on the other hand, prefer walking around the world with my head held high thinking, 'Yeah, I'm proud to come from a good country?' And everybody will welcome you."
Anholt, an independent policy advisor to Heads of State and Government to help them engage more productively and imaginatively with the rest of the world, in his talk made several salient points that are worth considering:
1. Humanity is capable of achieving extraordinary progress if it really acts together and it really tries hard.
2. Globalization has taken us by surprise and we've been slow to respond to it. In a nutshell, that's the challenge that we all face today at this interesting point in history. We've somehow got to get our act together and we've got to figure out how to globalize the solutions better.
3. Countries depend enormously on their reputations in order to survive and prosper in the world.
4. The kinds of countries we prefer are good countries. We primarily admire countries that are good, countries that seem to contribute something to the world in which we live, countries that actually make the world safer or better or richer or fairer. This is a discovery of significant importance.
5. Governments need to do good in order to do well. If you want sell more products, if you want to get more investment, if you want to become more competitive, then you need to start behaving because that's why people will respect you and do business with you; and therefore, the more you collaborate, the more competitive you become.
6. No country on earth per capita, per dollar of GDP, contributes more to the world that we live in than Ireland.
7. In the depths of a very severe economic recession, there's a really important lesson there that if you could remember your international obligations once you are trying to re-build your own economy that's really something.
8. Kenya is in the top 30 and that demonstrates one very, very important thing: this is not about money, this is about attitude, this is about culture, this is about a government and a people that care about the rest of world and have the imagination and the courage to think outwards instead thinking selfishly.
Here is the full transcript of Anholt’s Ted Talk: Which country does the most good for the world?
Here is the full video:
