Text|Womany Jiaqi
New Zealand's Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, who has successfully dealt with mass shootings and proclaimed to the world a political philosophy centered on kindness, has shown a new form of leadership.
Jacinda Ardern: New Zealand's value is kindness
"If I were to define New Zealand's new value, it would be kindness."
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What comes to mind when you think of New Zealand in the past? Is it the filming location of the movie "The Lord of the Rings" or the scenery of animal husbandry and the countryside? But now New Zealand has a new pronoun. It is the 38-year-old female prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and her soft leadership.
On March 15, a shooting incident occurred in Christchurch, New Zealand, by white supremacists. The criminal used Facebook to live stream the crime with the aim of "making a name for himself". In this incident, 50 people were killed and 29 were injured. As the country's prime minister, Prime Minister Ardern defined the incident as a "terrorist incident" and stated that he would not release the name of the perpetrator.
According to a report by Time magazine, Prime Minister Ardern said, "We should publish the names of the victims rather than the names of those who took their lives. If the purpose of the perpetrators is to make them notorious, we in New Zealand will not let them do what they want. I don't even mention the name of the culprit."
According to a BBC report, Prime Minister Ardern pointed out that within six days of the incident, New Zealand should tighten regulations on semi-automatic handguns and assault rifles. Then, a new bill was submitted to the Diet for that purpose, and an amended bill was passed and enacted in April.
"We can forgive the lack of semi-automatic handguns, but we cannot allow a shooting to take our lives," Ardern said.
Prime Minister Ardern's appeal caused a great response. According to an article in the Guardian on the 20th, citizens voluntarily handed over 37 handguns to the New Zealand Police. This has shown that there are other ways to lead than "hard". In addition, Prime Minister Ardern, who went to Christchurch to offer his condolences, wore a hijab and greeted him with the Muslim language "As-Salaam Alaikum", showing that there is a way other than hatred for being hurt, and that those who are hurt can choose mercy and unity.
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Feminine leadership like never before
On September 27 last year, the Guardian compiled a video interview comparing the leadership of two famous politicians, one of whom was Prime Minister Ardern and the other was U.S. President Donald Trump. From the comparison of the two people's statements at the United Nations, we can see two completely different leaderships and two different futures for the world.
"The United States is a country ruled by Americans. It rejects the ideology of 'globalism' and adopts patriotism. The United States is the world's largest giver that helps many countries, but it is hardly rewarded by other countries," was Mr. Trump's statement. On the other hand, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, a small country in the southern hemisphere, Mr. Ardern said:
"If I were to define New Zealand's new value, it would be kindness. Now that we've seen all kindness, protectionism, and racism, if we want to look further, we need kindness and collectivism."
When the Christchurch shooting occurred, we realized that Prime Minister Ardern was not wrong.
Previously, Ardern served as an adviser to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In August 2017, she returned to New Zealand and became the leader of the New Zealand Labor Party. In October of the same year, she became the youngest prime minister in New Zealand's 161-year history.
"New Zealand is passionate about its responsibility to build and protect world peace and security, to promote and defend universal values such as openness, inclusion and law-based governance, and to achieve pragmatism, compassion, strength and kindness."
It is said that women must always appeal to their "masculinity" in order not to lose to men in the workplace. Have a strong attitude, be tough in your ways, and keep your personal life low-key. For example, former British Chancellor Thatcher, who was called the "Iron Woman", and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose private life is not very visible. Is it possible that female politicians will show a different appearance from these? Ardern showed that women have the potential to make an impact through soft leadership.
It is possible to remain gentle and at the same time practical, caring and strong.
Even a female prime minister can build a close relationship with her family and take her to the United Nations
Ardern's specialness is also evident in the way he builds close relationships.
Photo|The Independent
"I'm not the first woman to multitask, work and raise a child, there are many women around the world who have done that."
In 2018, she became the second national leader in history to become pregnant during her tenure. This number may come as a surprise, but in fact, no other national leader has the same experience other than Prime Minister Ardern and Pakistan's female prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who gave birth to a child during her term in office in 1990.
She did it. Of course, it didn't come this far by one person. She is supported by her partner, Clarke Gayford, who works with her.
Prime Minister Ardern often flirts with his partner Gay Ford on social media. The two are not married (they got engaged in May of this year). Mr. Gayford is responsible for most of the child's care and often attends international conferences with Prime Minister Ardern. Gayford calls himself "A plus one" (the person who follows her). Photos of him taking care of his baby at the United Nations went viral on social media.
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Erdaun told me that there is not only one image of a female leader
Prime Minister Ardern is of course not perfect, but it doesn't have to be perfect either. She taught me that as a leader, you can be a good leader, whether you are gentle or forgiving. As a woman, you don't mind getting pregnant when you're busiest, one option is to consult and leave childcare to your partner. As she says, "Family is a team in the first place."
From Prime Minister Ardern's experience, we can see that society does not need stereotypical female role models, but feminist leaders who can live freely like her. In the future, we expect to see more and more different leaders for both men and women, regardless of their sexuality and gender characteristics.
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