Yearning for leadership

The scarcity of conscious leadership has derailed the Northern Marianas community into the filthy swamp of hopelessness. It has openly trivialized the hardship and misery it has forced upon our people. We now look up each break of dawn to see if the sun has risen out west.

The recent announcement of impending investments would take about 10 years before it makes a difference in the improvement of wages and salaries or the economy as a whole.

With this we’re also at a cusp to making significant changes on the financial and economic implosions that have royally made life harder for villagers. Are we ready to shift gear? Or would we allow immaturity a lifetime residency?

We dig down deep into our conscience quizzing what to expect by way of quality and competence in the selection of leadership. What credentials would help the CNMI return to a healthy track it once enjoyed? Would academic and professional competence be sufficient?

Pope Francis, the iconic global heavenly morning star, has restored hope in humanity. He set up residence in Rome in modest quarters, not the Papal Palace. He also told bishops to get out of their palatial walls and meet the people they serve. It’s leadership in humility, a down-to-earth authenticity flowing from a deep compassion for the welfare of others.

The pope wanted to talk and connect emotionally to ordinary people, unscripted. Said Margie Warrell, best-selling author of Stop Playing Safe, “Given that emotion is a much more powerful driver of behavior than logic and reason alone, it explains why so many intellectually brilliant, highly credentialed leaders struggle to engage employees behind initiatives. Their words simply don’t inspire. They may hit the head but they miss the heart, and fail to engage the whole person.

In Why Leaders Must ‘Get Real,’ a leader’s power does not reside in being right but in being real. Indeed, issues have become so complicated in the whirlwind of global events. “The simple truth is that people long for leaders who put the interests of others ahead of their own, who are willing to do what is right above what is easy or politically expedient, and who are not afraid to lay their reputation on the line for a cause and a vision that is vastly bigger than themselves.”

Local health issues

The steady increase in serious long-term illnesses among our people has set off the alarm bell, signaling a very sick local population. It includes Type II diabetes, heart issues, renal failure, and various cancers.

It tickles my curiosity what causes adult onset diabetes, given the ballooning number of locals trapped in this condition after age 40. Is it our lifestyle? Why the increase in renal (kidney) failure?

The shift from fat and red meat in favor of grain and fruits merits critical review given faulty research work embraced by the feds as the golden rule of nutrition since 1959. It was a “mixture of personal ambition, bad science, politics and bias.”

Ms. Nina Teicholz, who has been researching dietary fat and disease for nearly a decade, refutes earlier research work. She explains it in her book, The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet, which will be published by Simon & Schuster this month.

I find the book a must-read and would get a copy to page through it. She refutes the research work done against saturated fat dating back to the 1950s by Dr. Ancel Benjamin Keys.

“A bias in its favor had grown so strong that the idea just started to seem like common sense. As Harvard nutrition professor Mark Hegsted said in 1977, after successfully persuading the U.S. Senate to recommend Dr. Keys’ diet for the entire nation, the question wasn’t whether Americans should change their diets, but why not? Important benefits could be expected, he argued. The risks? “None can be identified,” he said.

“In fact, even back then, other scientists were warning about the diet’s potential unintended consequences. Today, we are dealing with the reality that these have come to pass.

“One consequence is that in cutting back on fats, we are now eating a lot more carbohydrates—at least 25 percent more since the early 1970s. Consumption of saturated fat, meanwhile, has dropped by 11 percent, according to the best available government data.”

Is starchy food the culprit?

“Translation: Instead of meat, eggs and cheese, we’re eating more pasta, grains, fruit and starchy vegetables such as potatoes. Even seemingly healthy low-fat foods such as yogurt are stealth carb-delivery systems, since removing the fat often requires the addition of fillers to make up for lost texture—and these are usually carbohydrate-based.

“The problem is that carbohydrates break down into glucose, which causes the body to release insulin—a hormone that is fantastically efficient at storing fat. Meanwhile, fructose, the main sugar in fruit, causes the liver to generate triglycerides and other lipids in the blood that are altogether bad news. Excessive carbohydrates lead not only to obesity but also, over time, to Type II diabetes and, very likely, heart disease.

“The real surprise is that, according to the best science to date, people put themselves at higher risk for these conditions no matter what kind of carbohydrates they eat. Yes, even unrefined carbs. Too much whole-grain oatmeal for breakfast and whole-grain pasta for dinner, with fruit snacks in between add up to a less healthy diet than one of eggs and bacon, followed by fish.

“The reality is that fat doesn’t make you fat or diabetic. Scientific investigations going back to the 1950s suggest that actually, carbs do.”

Perhaps this is where serious work is needed in what dieticians here recommend for school lunch programs and food, given chronic diabetics at the hospital or the dialysis center. We love rice loaded with carbs, right? Is this the major culprit in Type II diabetes here? Is it hard water?