Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 04/Jan 03:43

Positive thinking for the New Year

As we enter this new year of 2026, it might be a good idea to start practising positive thinking. It is worth remembering that despite everything we feel and read, things are not as bad as they could be, and in many ways they are a whole lot better than ever before, considering the very low base at which humankind started. The data show we are still enjoying progress, despite the many apparent setbacks. It may not feel like it at many levels, but the graph is up, low points, wars and gross inequality notwithstanding. It is just a matter of scale. Century-on-century, we have been decreasing infant mortality and increasing life expectancy and our ability to treat diseases. Our understanding of the planet and even parts of the universe would have been unimaginable just some decades ago. Perhaps what confuses us is the very complexity of the modern world, which makes us second-guess ourselves. The certainties we came to rely upon during the last 75 years are being swept away. We can no longer predict the consequence of what might have been a routine event, because the unwritten rules are changing and we are caught in a slipstream. Instead, we have to try to understand hard-to-fathom facts. Maybe we should begin embracing the discomfort and see where it leads us. You might ask how on earth did a 34-year old Muslim, born in Uganda, from the far left of the US Democratic Party, just take over as mayor of the most dynamic city in the US and possibly the world, New York. And to do it while the most reactionary, ultra-conservative federal government is in power, under a New Yorker who thinks he owns the place, is almost unbelievable. Zohran Mamdani’s victory follows closely enough on the heels of Kamala Harris’s decisive loss in the 2024 presidential election, which returned a previous Republican president to the White House, to prompt us to question what might have made Mamdani and his politics so much more attractive to the voting public. There are many reasons, but one I would like to consider is that Mamdani is a maverick. In many ways Mamdani is like Trump, but of another ilk. That people voted for Donald Trump tells us that they desired radical change: ditto in Mamdani’s case. Mavericks are those who dare to break with the norm and stake a claim on what others do not. Sam Maverick was a Texan farmer who decided not to brand his cattle stock like all other farmers did; therefore all unbranded calves were thought to be his and he happily claimed them, getting richer faster. He was unorthodox, but he proved the point that by seeing things differently, thinking out of the box and going against the grain, you can win and bring about change. Every manager knows that a good team needs a maverick to be truly top notch. The difficulty comes in managing that element, which is by definition disruptive, challenging and often iconoclastic, while attempting to keep cohesiveness and constancy as key factors in team success. Why would you not want someone on your team who asks why we are doing things in a certain way, or why a rule exists? It is my experience that those in authority shrink away from individuals who challenge us to think more deeply instead of relaxing into groupthink. As people become more senior they become more risk-averse, in general, and business, creativity and even political parties suffer as a result. Senior Democrats were very slow and some even refused to endorse Mamdani, but his success should reveal to them something about why they lost the presidential election. They lost because they did not dare. In 2025, TT voted in a new government because we wanted a break from a form of national politics that we came to disapprove of. Around the world, voters are toying with different ideas of how to conduct politics and governance. Some say it is because capitalism is broken. I tend to lean in that direction. Democracy and capitalism are not twins, but, as the saying goes, every society is just three meals away from chaos. I wonder, therefore, how world leaders will address the massive problem of flawed capitalism and ailing democracy. In TT, our democracy is well enough, but we face serious economic and social challenges and we must innovate to succeed. We will not all agree with every new departure from the status quo, and vested interests will complain, but we voted for change, so we cannot now shy away from it. Since our PM is displaying maverick tendencies, in 2026 our big job is to manage the new situation by holding the PM and her government to account so that we all benefit from the newfound unorthodoxy. The post Positive thinking for the New Year appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.