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**Seraph** · 07-10-2020, 08:04 PM

The Southern Journal
The Official News Outlet of the South Pacific

Opinion: Breaking Down Barriers

By Seraph/Erinor.

In my four years in the South Pacific, it has been my privilege to witness old hands developing new skills and for highly talented players to join us from other regions, sharing their expertise and their labours of love. I have seen the quality of our presentation increase dramatically, the complexity of and range of activities in our festivals and events has grown almost exponentially and our integration efforts, whilst still a long way off from where we might like them and far from comprehensive, have still come along in leaps and bounds in terms of the technology and skill put into them. There is, however, another side to all this and it’s one I felt I needed to express as it relates, in no small part, to why I have tried to take a different approach to running the ministry than my immediate predecessors.

The problem with ever-increasing skill and professionalism in our government and independent output is that newer players, especially those in younger age brackets (although, as a thirty-something I’m often shown to be miles less talented than some of our teenagers) have ever-greater hurdles to leap over to be able to compete with what has gone before, or even to meet the mark of the region’s expectations. Whether or not the region really expects such is actually besides the point. For every player inspired by the complexity of our creativity, there’ll be others who look at it and think they will never be able to contribute to something which looks and feels so professional. Our aspirational approach to media, events, government announcements - whatever - can become, rather than a beacon to draw players in, an artificial barrier to entry: as much a demotivator as motivator.

So, what can we do to prevent this? Well, firstly, I think it would be wrong to simply tone down our efforts. That we’ve achieved some amazing things with the time and talent of our players is not something to be ashamed of, but rather celebrated! At the same time, however, we need to be more understanding of less experienced and renowned players and give them a little breathing space to grow and develop.

I’ve tried to take this approach in my leadership of the Ministry of Regional Affairs so far, giving greater free reign to our writers, artists and event planners so that they can show what they can do, whilst also encouraging an understanding, proportional response from the region in how it gives feedback and criticism, as, indeed, I am doing now. We should not expect every article to be perfect, nor every festival to be Pacific Con. We should encourage newer players for their efforts and gently guide them towards ever-more-perfect works in the future by sharing our own talents and skills with them. We can maintain a culture of continuous regional improvement by allowing the less professional and artistically excellent to sit alongside our Mona Lisas and, in some ways, through a culture of shared development, allow them to reflect some of the glory themselves.

And if we can achieve this with our cultural efforts, then perhaps we can be more generous in our response to those seeking elected or appointed offices, balancing roles out more so that there are smaller, less vital roles which newer players can inhabit and make their own; where mistakes can matter less and be learned from more easily. There is no denying that some of our roles and structures are incredibly daunting and we shy away from handing them to newer players with good reason. Perhaps there are better ways we can apportion our government responsibilities so that newer players don’t already have to be brilliant to be considered? Let’s break down the barriers to entry, bit by bit, until our region can live up to its democratic promise more fully; allowing players of all kinds the chance to grow and develop into the South Pacifican leaders of the future.