Not a politician's skill

As events keep on unraveling in Egypt, I was wondering why politicians only intervene on a “too little, too late basis.” What's clear, is unlike the visionaries, the true leaders they ought to be and the agents of change who transform the world, our political figureheads seem to be only good at reacting. When they do, the damage is already done and instead of being pro-active, they have to come up with decent strategies for mopping up the spillage.

Anticipation, preventive action and risk-taking are not among their panoply of skills. None of them is like Wayne Gretzky, the great hockey player, that so famously said: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”