Staying Small

I was listening to Tshering Tobgay the former prime minister of Bhutan speaking about his homeland. Like you do on a Saturday evening. He was talking about some of the ways in which his country, despite it’s small size and limited resources, had managed to become the only nation in the world with a carbon neutral footprint. In fact Bhutan is in credit.

That man sounded like the sort of person I’d want to be in charge of my nation. But I disagreed with him on one thing. He suggested that if a country like Bhutan could achieve these kind of changes, then how much easier should it be for bigger countries with more technical resources and wealth.

Yet the evidence shows that size and power can actually get in the way of real change.

Time and again the positive changes that happen in our world happen from unexpected places. From small nations and from humble, often poor, but highly motivated individuals and groups. Especially when they work together. And if we’re very lucky they manage to slowly get the big guys onboard, especially when those fellas realise that there is something in it for them.

Maybe size and power isn’t something to be sort after and envied. Perhaps that is just going to weigh us down and make us cumbersome at best, dangerous to others at worst.

And maybe we shouldn’t dismiss our own lack of strength or resources so quickly. Travelling light and staying small seems like a good idea in so many aspects of our lives. Not just for us, but for the world we live in.