Always learning…

Worth a listen. A powerful speech from Mark Carney, Canadian Prime Minister, at the World Economic Forum in Davos 🇨🇦

“The power of the less powerful begins with honesty.”

“Every day we are reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry. That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.”

“The system persists not through violence alone, but through the participation of ordinary people in rituals they privately know to be false.”

“You cannot ‘live within the lie’ of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”

This isn’t just a geopolitical argument.

It cuts straight into how we show up domestically.

When politicians and leaders rebrand, return, and repeat cycles of division and greed after wreaking havoc across our communities, that too becomes a ritual — one we are quietly expected to accept.

It reaches into the everyday.

The school run, when your children ask whether World War 3 is about to break out.
The upside-down flags on lampposts.
The slow normalisation of fear, anger, and fragility.

This is not normal.
And it’s not okay.

Our communities are fragile — and they need protecting every day.

Every act of kindness is power.

Every principled “no” from the brave few becomes solidarity for those who feel unable to speak.

Community power is not nothing.
Our neighbourhoods are what we build together — and what we choose to stand up for.

They are the frontline of everything:
from checking in on an elderly neighbour
to the foundations of national resilience and defence.

So this is the work.
Pay attention. Name what isn’t working. Refuse the easy lie.
Stand with others when it would be simpler to stay quiet.

Because the future won’t be shaped only in conference halls or capitals — it will be shaped in our streets, schools, workplaces, and communities, by what we choose to accept, and what we choose to resist.