У нас один путь к окончательной победе / A Shared Path to the Ultimate Victory

7 In order for a goal to be accomplished there needs to be leadership and it would appear that only a select few are capable of driving the goal without becoming consumed by the power. One man who was not consumed by the power and advocated for the subsequent peace agreement in Ireland, known as, ‘The Good Friday Agreement,’ was the nationalist politician, the Late John Hume. Hume believed in a united Ireland, one achieved through peaceful means. As a young man Hume first entered the seminary with the intention of becoming a priest but subsequently left and became a teacher. Credited for being the thinker behind political developments he was steadfast in his belief that peace could be established, and put forward the idea that diversity could be accommodated. But it was his devotion to helping the people that I believe was his greatest quality, as he himself said, “I never thought in terms of being a leader. I thought very simply in terms of helping people.” And it is this very mentality that we desperately need to get back to. Unfortunately, the leaders today don’t have the same tenacity as Hume and offer us the sun, moon, and stars in order to get elected, making empty promises that they don’t have a snow balls chance of achieving under the weight of bureaucracy and endless complications. Such leaders aren’t willing to put their heads above the parapet and seem to be in love with the sound of their own voice rather than the voice of the nation. While I’m sure there are those who go onto the field with genuine intentions to bring about positive changes, sooner or later these individuals are worn down, again by the system. Even now in Ireland with the possibility of a united Ireland on the cards, the movement lacks momentum. Have we lost heart in the original idea? Has the idea lost its meaning? If we’ve forgotten our roots we can rest assured that our homeland remembers, for it is the archive of past struggles, of all wars won and lost on the battle fields. It is the archive of the hopes and dreams of generations. Now that we have a better standard of living it’s understandable that we don’t want to rock the boat. In the past we may have asked, ‘what can I do? now we ask, ‘what’s in it for me?’ Perhaps we can’t imagine the overall picture because no one has stepped forward with a plan of action. The culture of sharing skills, talents and common decency has been replaced with a new fashionable form of sharing done by way of influencing on social media platforms. Now we see everyone from teenagers to housewives recommending products from face creams to lip-gloss, trying to make a buck and grow their army of followers lured by the appeal of materialism. There is no end to the products we need to consume in order to fit in and feel happier. But if that is the case why are we so miserable? Could it be that the way we are living doesn’t correspond to our core values? If we returned to sharing our time, skills, and talents, I wonder if this could lead to the sharing and championing of F. Shkrudnev’s IDEA. I’m reminded of such an example found in County Fermanagh in the North of Ireland where a project called, ‘Shared Education,’ was piloted, funded by the Late Chuck Feeney, whose grandmother came from the area. Feeney was an Irish American businessman and philanthropist who channelled a large portion