‘If you don’t believe in yourself, no one will do it for you’

Gwern Gwynfil

Cymru has a deep seated problem.

It underlies many of the more obvious symptoms we see around us today.

It explains the extent of political support for a party which clearly doesn’t have the best interests of our nation and its people at heart.

It explains the endurance of previous support for a party which clearly led and governed from a place where other parts of the UK were given greater weight and importance.

It explains our collective failure to understand our own capabilities and capacity.

Self esteem

We lack self esteem. This manifests itself constantly. Consider the way in which we appoint senior roles in Cymru. Recently, an Australian (with an apparently chequered history) has been appointed to lead Dŵr Cymru.

Prior to this the Chair of Natural Resources Wales (NRW) was awarded to someone who doesn’t even live here and who has, at best, tenuous links to Cymru (his son was a student in Cardiff and his wife’s grandparents were born in Gower).

There is always a place for sourcing a smattering of talent from the global pool, it brings fresh insight, new vision, and, when done well, adds value, but let’s consider the nature of these roles.
Both NRW and Dŵr Cymru need leaders with a deep understanding of the importance and significance of these institutions to Cymru, culturally and economically.

This must be a core specification for both of these roles.

Travesty

Water in Cymru has history, shit in our rivers and seas is a travesty, do we really believe an Australian cares about this as much as we do? Meanwhile, NRW holds the keys to our natural treasures, our very land is in the palm of its hand.

Is someone who lives in Bristol really going to care about the forests, rivers, mountains, and hills of Cymru? Are either of these men going to be able to speak to the magic of our land in language that we understand?

Even where there may be a strong justification for seeking external talent we might ask ourselves why aren’t we looking at home first? Where organisations are so clearly and deeply enmeshed in the lives of the people of Cymru, why are we not asking for, why are we not actively seeking out, a Cymro or Cymraes to take the reins?

Are they better than us?

We glorify the quest for external talent, are we subconsciously accepting that we’re not good enough to step up to this level?

Are we so collectively downtrodden that we give ourselves a glass ceiling through which we cannot pass by virtue of our Cymreictod, our innate Welshness disqualifying us from our own top jobs?

We kowtow, we doff the cap, we tug our forelocks, because, let’s face it, they’re better than us.

After all, how could someone from Cymru have possibly acquired the skills, education, talent and experience necessary for a top role? What folly to think we have it within us!

With some honourable exceptions, we barely attempt to recognise, nurture, or develop domestic talent with purpose and intent.

Those who do have talent, insight, and an innovative edge, are often marginalised, and excluded – it is curiously detrimental to a career in Cymru to speak up and demand that we do better, that we be more than the vision we hold of ourselves, that we consciously change that vision to one of excellence.

A great deal of talent leaves, finding success across the globe. Their gain is Cymru’s loss but with that ceiling imposed at home surely this is the logical choice for the bright, bold, and beautiful?

Motivational speakers, mentors, and an endless array of social media influencers, all tell us the importance of self-esteem to personal happiness, success, and general well being.

So too of Cymru.

The path to the top

Apparently the four key stages of self-esteem are confidence, competence, identity, and belonging.

This is heartening for Cymru as we have the last two nailed. The second surely blossoms from the first so it is that confidence in ourselves, in each other, in our people, in our nation, that we so lack.

We are often reluctant to celebrate domestic talent, all too keen to pull those in our nation down – we are indeed Welsh Lobsters.

We shy away from innovation, boldness, ambition, and confidence. We let failures defeat us. Not for Cymru a relentless culture of striving until we succeed.

We settle for anything we can get rather than insist on more and better. Politically we are pathetically grateful for crumbs from a Westminster table when we should be shouting for our dues and insisting on the changes that will let us govern more effectively.

But we can’t just complain and whinge about a world stacked against us, wringing our hands and wailing that we want more – we are not children.

We forget we have the power within ourselves to change our world.

We can do better, we can be better, and we are bright enough and good enough to achieve anything we set out to achieve.

Too small?

But we are too small, too poor, too twp – of course we are.

This is what we’re told relentlessly and incessantly, in a hundred ways, by our own leaders, by our mothers and fathers, our grandparents, our history.

Messages passed down across generations, reinforced by an alien media which cares little, if at all, for Wales and its people. Reinforced by UK political parties whom it suits to have a biddable, subservient, pathetically grateful people and nation in Cymru.

Apparently, we’re not even competent enough for our leaders to have a say in the leadership of our own Welsh-language national broadcaster — but then, we barely protest, so they may as well tell us what to do.

Enough.

Self esteem starts with the individual. It starts with us saying that Cymru can do anything to which it sets its mind.

Be more Iceland

An Icelandic friend once told me that Iceland could put a person on the moon if they wanted to, they just didn’t see a reason to do so. This is the confidence Cymru needs. This is the confidence Cymru must have.

Each and every one of us, each and every day, can make Cymru better – it starts with self belief.

I believe in you.
I believe in Cymru.
Do you?