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| Photograph used courtesy of Helen Gordon, WWF SA |
In Conversations with Myself, Nelson
Mandela ponders the question of when to speak and when to be quiet. And if
there is something to say, when to say it? And how to say it? Volunteering
information “gratuitously”, for example, leads to the person speaking becoming “ineffective”
(page 219).
The same
wisdom can be found in sources like Proverbs and the Tao te Ching.
“A word
aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver” (Proverbs 25:11).
“The
excellence … of (the initiation of) any movement is in its timeliness” (Tao te
Ching 8:2, Legge translation).
WWF South Africa is an organisation involved in the work of encouraging environmental
responsibility. Now being in charge of people in your own organisation already
involves skill and wisdom; how much more when many of the objectives involve
the buy-in from people not on your payroll. You can imagine it is possible to
step on people’s toes.
Sometimes
people need their toes stepped on – we are not denying this. The problem arises
that when offence is taken, lack of enthusiasm morphs into obvious and
deliberate lack of co-operation. Was it time to speak? Was your knowledge
offered “gratuitously”? Your motivation might have been noble, but by
alienating those whose co-operation you sought you now sabotage your task.
My eyebrows
did a raise when I heard, some time back, that WWF SA was getting involved in
agriculture. Environmental activists are referred to as “greenies” in some
agricultural circles. The implicit (and explicit) criticism is that you get
agriculture and you get environmentalism and never the twain shall meet. The ous from environmental circles do not
have to wring their living from the soil and are out-of-touch with lofty but
impractical ideas.
Members of
the agricultural media were invited to see the work being done by the WWF SA in
the Western Cape.
We accompanied the trip and this is the first of six articles on our
impressions and findings.
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