The leader I admire is, and always will be- my father. My father owned an Auto Repair Shop in our hometown. He had to deal with different people with different socio-economic standards. From the upper class with shimmering expensive cars to the lower class with only carts for their cows and carabaos. I learned a lot with interpersonal skills from watching him interact with people. Although he is a businessman, he always took the time to get to know people, and not see them as just a mere source of income. He is always the first to set the right example to his members by not having any vices for them to follow. Foods are always present in the table whenever works are in need to be done. He treated his members as family by providing them not only their financial needs but also the moral support their family needs. Being a hardworking and a man with principles, his friends and colleagues respects him that much. Every time there are works to be done, he see to it that he will do the frst move to diagnose the problems before his team members do the work. He is a Man in action and not in word.
Reflecting the footsteps of my father, I realize that being a leader, we have to set ourselves as a role model, a good example to our members. Because leadership is indeed a deed. It is how we live our lives with integrity, compassion and dedication to whatever responsibilities and task come in our way. My father's ability to relate to people, to be committed to his work and to translate intentions into reality are the types of attribute I wish to emulate.
Friday, November 26, 2010
The Leader I want to be (by Ma. Madonna A. Sas)
One of my favorite places is Singapore. The first time I traveled there I felt it was a nation to be admired and imitated. I didn’t know much about their history only that when I was in third year high school, in our Economics class, it was mentioned that Singapore was one of the “tiger cub” economies among some Asian countries including Philippines. This was in the early nineties. By the late nineties, my first experience, the nation has become into a full-grown “tiger”, a nation to beat amongst Asian countries even until now.
In my vacation there I had a glimpse of their history and the brief experience of living in a society reaping the fruits of a government who looks after the countrymen simply because these countrymen, themselves, respect and support their government. This mutual and cyclical honor between the government and its people has made its mark in making Singapore a very progressive Asian nation.
Like most success stories, the country and its people started in an unfortunate state. Much of its people were doing hard labor in its time of colonization by the British and at a time of its merger with Malaysia. A turning point for Singapore came in the name and face of Lee Kuan Yew.
Lee Kuan Yew was the first and longest serving Prime Minister of Singapore. Although his political career involved being pro-British he realized the British did not have the support of the Chinese and instead he established his connections among the Chinese instead. And despite his push for the merger with Malaysia but the Malaysian Prime Minister deciding that Singapore should be separated, Lee Kuan Yew never gave up his thrust for pushing Singapore from being a Third World country to a First World metropolitan city it is today.
It’s been told that behind Singapore’s success is Lee Kuan Yew. There had been flak during his governance, his style of leadership being autocratic and dictatorial, but no doubt that it had all been worth it and perhaps his style of leadership was what the nation needed to uplift itself and progressively move forward. This goes to show that democracy is not for all.
Lee Kuan Yew embodies the qualities I would like the leader of my country to be.
He definitely walked his talk. He is notably a no nonsense person and was open and frank on truths. Criticisms were aplenty but respect was slowly gaining. He was a brilliant planner too in his time of governance. He was just as concerned with the future as he was with the present. He was humble enough to know that he could not rule Singapore forever so with this, he planned out his succession so that the nation’s progress would continue even without him. Clearly, this is a strong indicative of the impact and influence of the leader’s values—when you have molded your followers so well that they can be independent and still function for the greater good.
Another admirable quality of Lee Kuan Yew was his persistence. It is believed that when Malaysia chose to separate itself from Singapore, it became the lowest point of his life. But there was no other way for Lee Kuan Yew but to pick himself up and move forward, taking Singapore’s pride with him. It was as if it was his way of vengeance when left in the dark by the neighboring country. It is definitely in trying times that distinguishes true leaders from puppets. Lee Kuan Yew was and remains to be a force to reckon. One can feel the honor that Singaporeans carry with them and this is mainly because they live in a society that functions together to maintain peace and order and they are governed by a disciplined system that definitely watches over their welfare. It is no doubt that Lee Kuan Yew has given this legacy to them.
In my vacation there I had a glimpse of their history and the brief experience of living in a society reaping the fruits of a government who looks after the countrymen simply because these countrymen, themselves, respect and support their government. This mutual and cyclical honor between the government and its people has made its mark in making Singapore a very progressive Asian nation.
Like most success stories, the country and its people started in an unfortunate state. Much of its people were doing hard labor in its time of colonization by the British and at a time of its merger with Malaysia. A turning point for Singapore came in the name and face of Lee Kuan Yew.
Lee Kuan Yew was the first and longest serving Prime Minister of Singapore. Although his political career involved being pro-British he realized the British did not have the support of the Chinese and instead he established his connections among the Chinese instead. And despite his push for the merger with Malaysia but the Malaysian Prime Minister deciding that Singapore should be separated, Lee Kuan Yew never gave up his thrust for pushing Singapore from being a Third World country to a First World metropolitan city it is today.
It’s been told that behind Singapore’s success is Lee Kuan Yew. There had been flak during his governance, his style of leadership being autocratic and dictatorial, but no doubt that it had all been worth it and perhaps his style of leadership was what the nation needed to uplift itself and progressively move forward. This goes to show that democracy is not for all.
Lee Kuan Yew embodies the qualities I would like the leader of my country to be.
He definitely walked his talk. He is notably a no nonsense person and was open and frank on truths. Criticisms were aplenty but respect was slowly gaining. He was a brilliant planner too in his time of governance. He was just as concerned with the future as he was with the present. He was humble enough to know that he could not rule Singapore forever so with this, he planned out his succession so that the nation’s progress would continue even without him. Clearly, this is a strong indicative of the impact and influence of the leader’s values—when you have molded your followers so well that they can be independent and still function for the greater good.
Another admirable quality of Lee Kuan Yew was his persistence. It is believed that when Malaysia chose to separate itself from Singapore, it became the lowest point of his life. But there was no other way for Lee Kuan Yew but to pick himself up and move forward, taking Singapore’s pride with him. It was as if it was his way of vengeance when left in the dark by the neighboring country. It is definitely in trying times that distinguishes true leaders from puppets. Lee Kuan Yew was and remains to be a force to reckon. One can feel the honor that Singaporeans carry with them and this is mainly because they live in a society that functions together to maintain peace and order and they are governed by a disciplined system that definitely watches over their welfare. It is no doubt that Lee Kuan Yew has given this legacy to them.
Leaders I have Admired
"DANILO OTED"
One of the great leaders that I have admired is Nelson Mandela. Mandela led the struggle against apartheid or segregation in South Africa, spending 26 years in prison to eventually become the country’s first black president in 1994. Mandela has remained active in the political stage. In 2005, the former South African president urged for action in the fight against AIDS in Africa, saying, “History and generations to come will judge our leaders by the decisions they make in the coming weeks. We urge them to save the lives of our children—let every child be a healthy child.”
Another leader that I admire is Mother Teresa. She was born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Üsküb, Kosovo, Ottoman Empire (today's Skopje, Republic of Macedonia). She was a Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India in 1950. For over 45 years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
By the 1970s, she was internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a documentary and book Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity continued to expand, and at the time of her death it was operating 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counselling programs, orphanages, and schools.
She has been praised by many individuals, governments and organizations; however, she has also faced a diverse range of criticism. These include objections by various individuals and groups, including Christopher Hitchens, Michael Parenti, Aroup Chatterjee, Vishva Hindu Parishad, against the proselytizing focus of her work including a strong stance against contraception and abortion, a belief in the spiritual goodness of poverty and alleged baptisms of the dying. Medical journals also criticized the standard of medical care in her hospices and concerns were raised about the opaque nature in which donated money was spent. In 2010 on the 100th anniversary of her birth, she was honored around the world, and her work praised by Indian President Pratibha Patil.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. King is often presented as a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism.
A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he expanded American values to include the vision of a color blind society, and established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.
In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and stopping the Vietnam War. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986.
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy, often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. After military service as commander of the Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 and Motor Torpedo Boat PT-59 during World War II in the South Pacific, Kennedy represented Massachusetts's 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat.
Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated then Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election, one of the closest in American history. He was the second-youngest President (after Theodore Roosevelt), the first President born in the 20th century, and the youngest elected to the office, at the age of 43. Kennedy is the only Catholic, and the first Irish American, president, and is the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African American Civil Rights Movement and early stages of the Vietnam War.
Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the crime but was shot and killed two days later by Jack Ruby before any trial. The FBI, the Warren Commission, and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that Oswald was the assassin, with the HSCA allowing for the probability of conspiracy based on disputed acoustic evidence. Today, Kennedy continues to rank highly in public opinion ratings of former U.S. presidents.
Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist, philosopher and author who is widely regarded as one of the most influential and best known scientists and intellectuals of all time. A German-Swiss Nobel laureate, he is often regarded as the father of modern physics. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".
Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. This led to the development of his special theory of relativity. He realized, however, that the principle of relativity could also be extended to gravitational fields, and with his subsequent theory of gravitation in 1916, he published a paper on the general theory of relativity. He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In 1917, Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to model the structure of the universe as a whole.
On the eve of World War II in 1939, he personally alerted President Franklin D. Roosevelt that Germany might be developing an atomic weapon, and recommended that the U.S. begin uranium procurement and nuclear research. As a result, Roosevelt advocated such research, leading to the creation of the top secret Manhattan Project, and the U.S. becoming the first and only country to possess nuclear weapons during the war.
Einstein published more than 300 scientific along with over 150 non-scientific works, and received honorary doctorate degrees in science, medicine and philosophy from many European and American universities; he also wrote about various philosophical and political subjects such as socialism, international relations and the existence of God. His great intelligence and originality has made the word "Einstein" synonymous with genius.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He pioneered satyagraha. This is defined as resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, a philosophy firmly founded upon ahimsa, or total nonviolence. This concept helped India to gain independence, and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is sometimes referred to as Mahatma Gandhi ([məɦaːt̪maː]; Sanskrit: mahātmā or "Great Soul", an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore),.[1] In India he is also called Bapu (Gujarati: bāpu or "Father"). He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.
Gandhi first employed civil disobedience while an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, during the resident Indian community's struggle there for civil rights. During this time, he wrote articles for Indian newspapers about black people that some modern readers consider racist. After his return to India in 1915, he organised protests by peasants, farmers, and urban labourers concerning excessive land-tax and discrimination. After assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, build religious and ethnic amity, end untouchability, and increase economic self-reliance. Above all, he aimed to achieve Swaraj or the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led his followers in the Non-cooperation movement that protested the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (240 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930. Later, in 1942, he launched the Quit India civil disobedience movement demanding immediate independence for India. Gandhi spent a number of years in jail in both South Africa and India.
As a practitioner of ahimsa, Gandhi swore to speak the truth and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven from yarn that he had spun by hand himself. He ate simple vegetarian food, experimented for a time with a fruitarian diet, and undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest.
Aside from masculine leaders, I admire also a leader who is a woman. She is Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. Thatcher is the only woman to have held either post.
Born in Grantham in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, Thatcher went to school at Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School in Grantham, where she was head girl in 1942–43. She read chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford and later trained as a barrister. She won a seat in the 1959 general election, becoming the MP for Finchley as a Conservative. When Edward Heath formed a government in 1970, he appointed Thatcher Secretary of State for Education and Science. Four years later, she backed Keith Joseph in his bid to become Conservative Party leader but he was forced to drop out of the election. In 1975 Thatcher entered the contest herself and became leader of the Conservative Party. At the 1979 general election she became Britain's first female Prime Minister.
In her foreword to the 1979 Conservative manifesto, Thatcher wrote of "a feeling of helplessness that a once great nation has somehow fallen behind." She entered 10 Downing Street determined to reverse what she perceived as a precipitate national decline. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasized deregulation, particularly of the financial sector, flexible labor markets, and the selling off and closing down of state owned companies and withdrawing subsidy to others. Amid a recession and high unemployment, Thatcher's popularity declined, though economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support and she was re-elected in 1983. She took a hard line against trade unions, survived the Brighton hotel bombing assassination attempt and opposed the Soviet Union (her tough-talking rhetoric gained her the nickname the "Iron Lady"); she was re-elected for an unprecedented third term in 1987. The following years would prove difficult, as her Poll tax plan was largely unpopular, and her views regarding the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister in November 1990 after Michael Heseltine's challenge to her leadership of the Conservative Party.
Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister was the longest since that of Lord Salisbury and the longest continuous period in office since Lord Liverpool in the early 19th century. She was the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom, and the first of only four women to hold any of the four great offices of state. She holds a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire, which entitles her to sit in the House of Lords.
Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. was a Philippine Senator, Governor of Tarlac, and an opposition leader against President Ferdinand Marcos. He was assassinated at the Manila International Airport (later renamed in his honor) upon returning home from exile in the United States. His death catapulted his widow, Corazon Aquino, to the limelight and subsequently to the presidency, replacing the 20-year Marcos regime. In 2004, the anniversary of his death was proclaimed as a national holiday now known as Ninoy Aquino Day.
Another woman leader that I admire is our very own Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino was the 11th President of the Philippines and the first woman to hold that office. Aquino was also the first popularly and democratically-elected female president and head of state in Asia. She is best remembered for leading the 1986 People Power Revolution, which toppled the authoritarian regime of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy in the Philippines. "Tita (Auntie) Cory", as she was affectionately known, is revered by many Filipinos as an icon of democracy and was hailed by TIME Magazine in 1986 as its 'Woman of the Year.
A self-proclaimed "plain housewife", Aquino was married to Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., the popular opposition leader and staunchest critic of then President Ferdinand Marcos. Senator Aquino was assassinated on August 21, 1983 upon returning to the Philippines after three years in exile in the United States.
After her husband's assassination, the widowed Aquino became the reluctant leader of the opposition against the authoritarian rule of the Marcos regime. She united the fragmented opposition and strengthened its moral crusade against the abuses and excesses of President Marcos' martial rule. In late 1985, when President Marcos called for a snap election, Cory Aquino challenged his regime. Aquino thrust herself into the political arena after one million signatures urging her to run for president were presented to her.
Despite having no prior political experience, Aquino proved to be an effective leader, inspiring orator and skilled campaigner. She ran for president with former senator Salvador Laurel as her vice-presidential running mate. After the elections were held on February 7, 1986, the Marcos-controlled Batasang Pambansa proclaimed him the winner in the elections, Aquino called for massive civil disobedience protests against him, declaring herself as having been cheated and as the real winner in the elections. Filipinos enthusiastically heeded her call and rallied behind her. These series of events eventually led to the ouster of Marcos and the installation of Aquino as President of the Philippines on February 25, 1986 through the People Power Revolution.
As President, Aquino oversaw the restoration of democracy in the Philippines and the promulgation of a new constitution, which limited the powers of the presidency and established a bicameral legislature. Her administration gave strong emphasis and concern for civil liberties and human rights, peace talks and dialogues with communist insurgents and Muslim secessionists. Aquino's economic policies, meanwhile, centered on bringing back economic health and confidence and focused on creating a market-oriented and socially-responsible economy. Despite these achievements, Aquino's presidency was not smooth-sailing as she had to face series of coup attempts against her administration and destructive natural calamities and disasters until the end of her term in 1992.
Succeeded by Fidel V. Ramos as President in 1992, Aquino returned to private life although she remained active in the public eye, constantly voicing her views and opinions on the pressing political issues in the country. In 2008, Aquino was diagnosed with colon cancer and after a one-year battle with the disease, died on August 1, 2009.
The last but not the least leader that I admire has a campaign slogan “Kung Walang Corrupt, Walang Mahirap”. Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III also known as Noynoy Aquino or PNoy, is the fifteenth and current President of the Philippines. Aquino is a fourth-generation politician: his great-grandfather, Servillano "Mianong" Aquino, served as a delegate to the Malolos Congress; his grandfather, Benigno Aquino, Sr., held several legislative positions from 1919–44; and his parents were former President Corazon Aquino and former Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. Aquino is a member of the Liberal Party. In the Liberal Party, Aquino held various positions such as Secretary General and Vice President for Luzon. Aquino is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Liberal Party.
Born in Manila, Aquino graduated from Ateneo de Manila University in 1981 and joined his family in their exile in the United States shortly thereafter. He returned to the Philippines in 1983 shortly after the assassination of his father and held several positions working in the private sector. In 1998, he was elected to the House of Representatives as Representative of the 2nd district of Tarlac province. He was subsequently re-elected to the House in 2001 and 2004. In 2007, having been barred from running for re-election to the House due to term limits, he was elected to the Senate in the 14th Congress of the Philippines.
Following the death of his mother on August 1, 2009, many people began calling on Aquino to run for president. On September 9, 2009, Aquino officially announced he would be a candidate in the 2010 presidential election, held on May 10, 2010. On June 9, 2010, the Congress of the Philippines proclaimed Aquino the winner of the 2010 presidential election. On June 30, 2010, at the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park, Manila, Aquino was sworn into office as the fifteenth President of the Philippines, succeeding Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines Conchita Carpio-Morales.
Despite the official residence of the President being Malacañang Palace, his actual residence is the Bahay Pangarap (House of Dreams), located within the Palace grounds.
One of the great leaders that I have admired is Nelson Mandela. Mandela led the struggle against apartheid or segregation in South Africa, spending 26 years in prison to eventually become the country’s first black president in 1994. Mandela has remained active in the political stage. In 2005, the former South African president urged for action in the fight against AIDS in Africa, saying, “History and generations to come will judge our leaders by the decisions they make in the coming weeks. We urge them to save the lives of our children—let every child be a healthy child.”
Another leader that I admire is Mother Teresa. She was born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Üsküb, Kosovo, Ottoman Empire (today's Skopje, Republic of Macedonia). She was a Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India in 1950. For over 45 years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
By the 1970s, she was internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a documentary and book Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity continued to expand, and at the time of her death it was operating 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counselling programs, orphanages, and schools.
She has been praised by many individuals, governments and organizations; however, she has also faced a diverse range of criticism. These include objections by various individuals and groups, including Christopher Hitchens, Michael Parenti, Aroup Chatterjee, Vishva Hindu Parishad, against the proselytizing focus of her work including a strong stance against contraception and abortion, a belief in the spiritual goodness of poverty and alleged baptisms of the dying. Medical journals also criticized the standard of medical care in her hospices and concerns were raised about the opaque nature in which donated money was spent. In 2010 on the 100th anniversary of her birth, she was honored around the world, and her work praised by Indian President Pratibha Patil.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. King is often presented as a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism.
A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he expanded American values to include the vision of a color blind society, and established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.
In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and stopping the Vietnam War. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986.
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy, often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. After military service as commander of the Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 and Motor Torpedo Boat PT-59 during World War II in the South Pacific, Kennedy represented Massachusetts's 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat.
Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated then Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election, one of the closest in American history. He was the second-youngest President (after Theodore Roosevelt), the first President born in the 20th century, and the youngest elected to the office, at the age of 43. Kennedy is the only Catholic, and the first Irish American, president, and is the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African American Civil Rights Movement and early stages of the Vietnam War.
Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the crime but was shot and killed two days later by Jack Ruby before any trial. The FBI, the Warren Commission, and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that Oswald was the assassin, with the HSCA allowing for the probability of conspiracy based on disputed acoustic evidence. Today, Kennedy continues to rank highly in public opinion ratings of former U.S. presidents.
Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist, philosopher and author who is widely regarded as one of the most influential and best known scientists and intellectuals of all time. A German-Swiss Nobel laureate, he is often regarded as the father of modern physics. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".
Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. This led to the development of his special theory of relativity. He realized, however, that the principle of relativity could also be extended to gravitational fields, and with his subsequent theory of gravitation in 1916, he published a paper on the general theory of relativity. He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In 1917, Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to model the structure of the universe as a whole.
On the eve of World War II in 1939, he personally alerted President Franklin D. Roosevelt that Germany might be developing an atomic weapon, and recommended that the U.S. begin uranium procurement and nuclear research. As a result, Roosevelt advocated such research, leading to the creation of the top secret Manhattan Project, and the U.S. becoming the first and only country to possess nuclear weapons during the war.
Einstein published more than 300 scientific along with over 150 non-scientific works, and received honorary doctorate degrees in science, medicine and philosophy from many European and American universities; he also wrote about various philosophical and political subjects such as socialism, international relations and the existence of God. His great intelligence and originality has made the word "Einstein" synonymous with genius.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He pioneered satyagraha. This is defined as resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, a philosophy firmly founded upon ahimsa, or total nonviolence. This concept helped India to gain independence, and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is sometimes referred to as Mahatma Gandhi ([məɦaːt̪maː]; Sanskrit: mahātmā or "Great Soul", an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore),.[1] In India he is also called Bapu (Gujarati: bāpu or "Father"). He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.
Gandhi first employed civil disobedience while an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, during the resident Indian community's struggle there for civil rights. During this time, he wrote articles for Indian newspapers about black people that some modern readers consider racist. After his return to India in 1915, he organised protests by peasants, farmers, and urban labourers concerning excessive land-tax and discrimination. After assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, build religious and ethnic amity, end untouchability, and increase economic self-reliance. Above all, he aimed to achieve Swaraj or the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led his followers in the Non-cooperation movement that protested the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (240 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930. Later, in 1942, he launched the Quit India civil disobedience movement demanding immediate independence for India. Gandhi spent a number of years in jail in both South Africa and India.
As a practitioner of ahimsa, Gandhi swore to speak the truth and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven from yarn that he had spun by hand himself. He ate simple vegetarian food, experimented for a time with a fruitarian diet, and undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest.
Aside from masculine leaders, I admire also a leader who is a woman. She is Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. Thatcher is the only woman to have held either post.
Born in Grantham in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, Thatcher went to school at Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School in Grantham, where she was head girl in 1942–43. She read chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford and later trained as a barrister. She won a seat in the 1959 general election, becoming the MP for Finchley as a Conservative. When Edward Heath formed a government in 1970, he appointed Thatcher Secretary of State for Education and Science. Four years later, she backed Keith Joseph in his bid to become Conservative Party leader but he was forced to drop out of the election. In 1975 Thatcher entered the contest herself and became leader of the Conservative Party. At the 1979 general election she became Britain's first female Prime Minister.
In her foreword to the 1979 Conservative manifesto, Thatcher wrote of "a feeling of helplessness that a once great nation has somehow fallen behind." She entered 10 Downing Street determined to reverse what she perceived as a precipitate national decline. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasized deregulation, particularly of the financial sector, flexible labor markets, and the selling off and closing down of state owned companies and withdrawing subsidy to others. Amid a recession and high unemployment, Thatcher's popularity declined, though economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support and she was re-elected in 1983. She took a hard line against trade unions, survived the Brighton hotel bombing assassination attempt and opposed the Soviet Union (her tough-talking rhetoric gained her the nickname the "Iron Lady"); she was re-elected for an unprecedented third term in 1987. The following years would prove difficult, as her Poll tax plan was largely unpopular, and her views regarding the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister in November 1990 after Michael Heseltine's challenge to her leadership of the Conservative Party.
Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister was the longest since that of Lord Salisbury and the longest continuous period in office since Lord Liverpool in the early 19th century. She was the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom, and the first of only four women to hold any of the four great offices of state. She holds a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire, which entitles her to sit in the House of Lords.
Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. was a Philippine Senator, Governor of Tarlac, and an opposition leader against President Ferdinand Marcos. He was assassinated at the Manila International Airport (later renamed in his honor) upon returning home from exile in the United States. His death catapulted his widow, Corazon Aquino, to the limelight and subsequently to the presidency, replacing the 20-year Marcos regime. In 2004, the anniversary of his death was proclaimed as a national holiday now known as Ninoy Aquino Day.
Another woman leader that I admire is our very own Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino was the 11th President of the Philippines and the first woman to hold that office. Aquino was also the first popularly and democratically-elected female president and head of state in Asia. She is best remembered for leading the 1986 People Power Revolution, which toppled the authoritarian regime of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy in the Philippines. "Tita (Auntie) Cory", as she was affectionately known, is revered by many Filipinos as an icon of democracy and was hailed by TIME Magazine in 1986 as its 'Woman of the Year.
A self-proclaimed "plain housewife", Aquino was married to Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., the popular opposition leader and staunchest critic of then President Ferdinand Marcos. Senator Aquino was assassinated on August 21, 1983 upon returning to the Philippines after three years in exile in the United States.
After her husband's assassination, the widowed Aquino became the reluctant leader of the opposition against the authoritarian rule of the Marcos regime. She united the fragmented opposition and strengthened its moral crusade against the abuses and excesses of President Marcos' martial rule. In late 1985, when President Marcos called for a snap election, Cory Aquino challenged his regime. Aquino thrust herself into the political arena after one million signatures urging her to run for president were presented to her.
Despite having no prior political experience, Aquino proved to be an effective leader, inspiring orator and skilled campaigner. She ran for president with former senator Salvador Laurel as her vice-presidential running mate. After the elections were held on February 7, 1986, the Marcos-controlled Batasang Pambansa proclaimed him the winner in the elections, Aquino called for massive civil disobedience protests against him, declaring herself as having been cheated and as the real winner in the elections. Filipinos enthusiastically heeded her call and rallied behind her. These series of events eventually led to the ouster of Marcos and the installation of Aquino as President of the Philippines on February 25, 1986 through the People Power Revolution.
As President, Aquino oversaw the restoration of democracy in the Philippines and the promulgation of a new constitution, which limited the powers of the presidency and established a bicameral legislature. Her administration gave strong emphasis and concern for civil liberties and human rights, peace talks and dialogues with communist insurgents and Muslim secessionists. Aquino's economic policies, meanwhile, centered on bringing back economic health and confidence and focused on creating a market-oriented and socially-responsible economy. Despite these achievements, Aquino's presidency was not smooth-sailing as she had to face series of coup attempts against her administration and destructive natural calamities and disasters until the end of her term in 1992.
Succeeded by Fidel V. Ramos as President in 1992, Aquino returned to private life although she remained active in the public eye, constantly voicing her views and opinions on the pressing political issues in the country. In 2008, Aquino was diagnosed with colon cancer and after a one-year battle with the disease, died on August 1, 2009.
The last but not the least leader that I admire has a campaign slogan “Kung Walang Corrupt, Walang Mahirap”. Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III also known as Noynoy Aquino or PNoy, is the fifteenth and current President of the Philippines. Aquino is a fourth-generation politician: his great-grandfather, Servillano "Mianong" Aquino, served as a delegate to the Malolos Congress; his grandfather, Benigno Aquino, Sr., held several legislative positions from 1919–44; and his parents were former President Corazon Aquino and former Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. Aquino is a member of the Liberal Party. In the Liberal Party, Aquino held various positions such as Secretary General and Vice President for Luzon. Aquino is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Liberal Party.
Born in Manila, Aquino graduated from Ateneo de Manila University in 1981 and joined his family in their exile in the United States shortly thereafter. He returned to the Philippines in 1983 shortly after the assassination of his father and held several positions working in the private sector. In 1998, he was elected to the House of Representatives as Representative of the 2nd district of Tarlac province. He was subsequently re-elected to the House in 2001 and 2004. In 2007, having been barred from running for re-election to the House due to term limits, he was elected to the Senate in the 14th Congress of the Philippines.
Following the death of his mother on August 1, 2009, many people began calling on Aquino to run for president. On September 9, 2009, Aquino officially announced he would be a candidate in the 2010 presidential election, held on May 10, 2010. On June 9, 2010, the Congress of the Philippines proclaimed Aquino the winner of the 2010 presidential election. On June 30, 2010, at the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park, Manila, Aquino was sworn into office as the fifteenth President of the Philippines, succeeding Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines Conchita Carpio-Morales.
Despite the official residence of the President being Malacañang Palace, his actual residence is the Bahay Pangarap (House of Dreams), located within the Palace grounds.
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