October 11, 2024 • 14 mins
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Unprecedented political shifts are on the horizon as nearly half of the world's population prepares to vote in 2024. We'll unravel the implications of these elections in 64 nations, including unexpected leadership shifts in places like Bangladesh and the United Kingdom. As we journey through this global electoral landscape, there’s a call to uphold principles of truth, justice, and community integrity, prioritizing collective well-being over individual desires. This episode challenges conventional electoral wisdom and urges listeners to reflect deeply on their civic duties.
Are you ready for your vote?
#GlobalChange, #GlobalElections
#abovethenoise24
# faith
#reconciliation
#race
#racialreconciliation
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Stay in touch:
- Email us at: abovethenoise24@gmail.com
- Facebook: @abovethenoise24
- Instagram: abovethenoise24
Podcast art by Mario Christie.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Grantley (00:05):
I'm Grant Le Martelli and this is Above the Noise, a
podcast at the intersection offaith, race and reconciliation.
Welcome back to Above the Noise.
We've been off the air for alittle bit of time, since I
posted an episode, but we areback.
(00:26):
I just want you to know we'renot going anywhere.
Above the Noise is not dead.
We just took a pause to do somerevisiting, some replanning big
things that I've got that Iwant to do in the future and
trying to work on those things.
But thank you for those of youwho have been continuing to
listen and continue to downloadepisodes, continuing to let your
(00:48):
friends and family know aboutAbove the Noise, and I thank you
for your continued support.
So, as we come to this year,the last part of the year, you
know there are many things goingon in the world around us today
, and I want to talk a littlebit about a couple of things
that are on my mind, andelections obviously are on your
mind if you're living in theUnited States, but even around
(01:10):
the world, elections are on manypeople's mind.
In December of 2023, timeMagazine came out with an
article entitled the UltimateElection Year All Elections
Around the World in 2024.
And they came up with thisinvestigation that found that 64
countries were going to haveelections in 2024.
(01:31):
That is, 49% of the world'spopulation are having or have
had elections this year, and byJuly 1st of 2024, over 1 billion
people had already voted inelections.
And yet we still have the restof the year to go.
Countries like India, europeanUnion, United States of America,
(01:57):
Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia Federation, Mexico,
Iran, the United Kingdom,Algeria, Ukraine, Uzbekistan,
Venezuela, Ghana, North Korea,Taiwan, Mali, Sri Lanka, Romania
(02:17):
, Senegal, Rwanda, Cambodia,Jordan, the Dominican Republic,
South Sudan, and the list goeson and on and on.
So this year is like electionmegaforce around the world and,
as we have seen so far, many ofthe elections haven't turned out
the way that people or thepundits predicted.
(02:40):
Some countries have gone theopposite direction more
conservative, some have gonemore liberal, some have gone
more protectionist, some arestill trying to figure out where
they're going to go and wherethe elections are going to be
and basically what it tells me.
People are saying we wantchange, we want to see things
different, and they've had manymotivations for that.
(03:03):
I don't want to get into all ofthem because I don't know all
of them, but the data isbasically showing that many
elections are not turning outthe way that the pundits might
have predicted, and some leadersof some of these countries were
very surprised.
We saw what happened inBangladesh just recently, you
know, where the prime ministerwas overthrown by popular
(03:24):
resistance and had to leave thecountry, and that's just one
stern example.
We saw what happened in GreatBritain, where the Conservative
Party who was put out of power,who had been in power for a long
time.
So things are happening aroundthe world, you know, and it is
interesting.
I want to encourage you to notlose faith, not lose hope, but
(03:47):
to take time and to think and todo research and to see what's
going on around you and to makesure that, when it is your turn
to vote, that you're voting withintelligence, you're voting out
of principles of truth andjustice and integrity and how to
build stronger community.
You know, I hear many peoplearound us talking about you know
(04:08):
that they want lower taxes andthey want lower gas prices and
lower grocery prices, they wantinterest rates to come down, and
all of those things that I hearto me are selfish things.
It's all about me, right?
I want to have my life better,no matter what.
I want to have my life better,no matter what.
(04:28):
At the same time, I don't hearmany of those people complaining
about how great their stockportfolio is doing or how great
their retirement plans are doingin this time either.
I want to remind us that themeans has to justify the ends.
The means has to justify theends.
I've come to this conclusion.
For the person of faith, wejust can't do anything we want
(04:50):
to do and say whatever we wantto say and say, as long as we
get to where we want to go to.
That's the important thing.
Be what it may, for us, how wedo things matters.
How we get to the point wherewe want to go matters.
How we treat people matters.
What we say, what we do, whatwe post, who we follow matters,
(05:17):
because even if we gaineverything we want for ourselves
and, at the same time, createchaos around us, we don't have
peaceful communities, we don'thave good neighborhoods, we're
not loving our neighbors asourselves, our schools are in
chaos, our economies are inchaos, our people are afraid to
live, we're treating others asthough they don't matter.
Then what's the sense of havingall of these economic
(05:40):
prosperities at the sacrifice ofour community?
Because what happens in thoseplaces where people are only
concerned about building upthemselves then they get to the
point of a fortress mentality isnow I've got all the things I
want and those people around medon't have them, so I've got to
protect it from them because Idon't want them to get what I
(06:01):
have.
They get to the zero sum gameand pretty soon people who were
their friends, who were theirfamilies, who were their
community, now become enemiesbecause they have to protect all
of these things that they'retrying to get for themselves.
I'm reminded of a passage in theBible in 1 Kings, chapter 22,
when King Ahab got together withKing Jehoshaphat and there was
(06:25):
peace in the land, and somehowKing Ahab decided he wanted to
go to war to take back a pieceof land.
He wanted to disrupt the peacein order to go after something
that he really didn't need.
So he brought together hisadvisors, and there were 400
different advisors they callthem prophets or advisors and
(06:46):
these advisors were telling himeverything he wanted to hear in
unison.
They were just stroking his ego, making him feel good yes, you
should do this, yes, you shoulddo that.
So, like so many leaders todaywho just want to surround
themselves with people whostroke their egos, who tell them
what they want to hear, ratherthan tell them the truth,
(07:07):
because sometimes the truth canbe inconvenient and it doesn't
always get us what we want.
So after a while of this, kingJehoshaphat, the other king,
said to King Ahab isn't thereanother prophet?
Isn't there another advisor?
Isn't there somebody else whocan give us a different opinion,
who can tell us in his wordswhat the Lord wants us to do, in
other words, what's the rightthing to do?
(07:28):
See, sometimes we have to seekother opinions, we have to get
other people in the room so thatwe get the true perspective.
And King Ahab said yes, there'sjust one prophet, but I don't
like him because he doesn'talways tell me what I want to
hear.
He doesn't always give me thenews I want.
So King Jehoshaphat said let'sget him anyhow and hear what he
(07:49):
has to say.
So they brought in the prophetand as soon as the prophet comes
in, the king looks at him andsaid are you going to tell me
the truth or are you going tomake something happen?
The prophet said I will tellyou the truth.
And as soon as he began to tellthe truth, the king got upset
at him and said to Jehoshaphatyou see, I told you he will
never tell me what I wanted tohear, because the prophet said
(08:12):
you can listen to those 400people who are telling you what
you want to hear, or you canhear the truth, which is, if you
do this, you will lose.
In fact, you will not only lose, you will lose your life.
And he got so mad at theadvisor for not telling him what
he wanted to hear that he hadhim put in prison and said you
will stay there until I get back.
(08:34):
The challenge is he never gotback there until I get back.
The challenge is he never gotback because, like the prophet
said, you're being misled bythese 400 advisors and the truth
is that your plan was a badplan and if you follow it,
you're not going to make it.
So sometimes the truth can beinconvenient.
It may not be what we want tohear, it may not be appropriate
(08:58):
at the time.
Sometimes we want to surroundourselves with people who are
just like us, who say the samethings we want to say, do the
same things we want to do allthe time, and it makes us feel
as though we're on the rightpath, we're doing the right
thing.
The truth of the matter is youcould be going down the road
with 400 people in the wrongdirection, for the wrong reason,
for the wrong result, all ofthem telling you that you're
(09:20):
going to be right until it isfinally not so.
Or we can accept theinconvenience of hearing the
truth, finding out the truth andchanging our direction and
doing the right thing from thevery beginning.
And I'm not saying that everytime in elections everything is
always right, that sometimes wegot to choose between people who
(09:42):
are not not always the moststellar people around, but
you've got some, some.
Like some people say, you gotto choose between the lesser of
two evils.
But we look at thing to me ofprinciples of truth and justice
and equity and belonging andloving one another, building
strong communities.
(10:03):
If we have leaders who are notcalling us towards being
stronger, better together, thenwe have to look at are we
following the crowd or whatdecisions are we going to make?
So I want to encourage you inthe United States and in the
other countries around the worldwho have not had your elections
yet, as time is coming up, gothrough and see, listen, find
(10:31):
out the new things.
Get second opinion, get a thirdopinion and learn before you go
and vote and ask God to giveyou the right direction.
Ask him to give you wisdom inmaking the right choice, because
, yes, we have a responsibilityto vote and, yes, we have a
responsibility to be goodleaders in our community.
(10:51):
But I would want you to stayaway from those people who are
just spreading rubbish andgarbage online and posting
negative things and callingpeople's names and making all of
these caricatures that are justnot doing anything to advance
the global discourse, thepolitical discourse of how we
(11:15):
become better people, how webecome better countries, how we
become better believers, how weshow light to each other, how we
live in community with eachother.
And I'm sure that if you takethe time to do those things,
that you will make the rightchoice when it comes your time
to vote.
And don't say that you're notgoing to vote because it's too
(11:36):
hard.
Do the homework.
Life is not supposed to be easy.
Do the homework, do the hardthing and gather information and
make sure that you exerciseyour right and your
responsibility to vote.
Vote for peace, vote for truth,vote for justice, vote for
equity, vote for good community,not only the things that
(12:00):
selfishly benefit us.
So where are we going with Abovethe Noise?
Above the Noise is changing.
I'm trying to build it upstronger.
I'm trying to build a podcaststronger.
I'm trying to build a podcastcommunity where we can have
better conversations, where wecan have more guests, expand our
reach.
We're going to be going toYouTube as well.
We're going to be adding videoto our podcast and using that
(12:25):
medium.
That's what I've been workingon Going to have a new logo and
a new setup, and I thank you foryour support.
So be patient with us andcontinue listening, but in the
meantime, we will continue topost our audio episodes.
And our next episode is a reallyinteresting episode.
I want to prime it.
I'm going to be talking withChief Padilla from the Kent
(12:48):
Washington Police Department.
Chief was with us four yearsago in the middle of COVID, in
the middle of the George Floydand the racial awakening, in the
middle of the defund, thepolice and the protests and all
of these things that happened,that were going on.
And now we're here, four yearslater, and we're going to talk
about how things have changed,how they've come to that.
(13:10):
What are some of the challengesfacing us?
Facing the city facing thecountry right now.
It's just going to be a reallygreat episode and I want to
encourage you to look for thathere in the next week or two and
after that we will continue topost.
If you know anyone, if you haveany friends who you think would
be a good guest on our show,send me an email at
(13:32):
abovethenoise24, abovethenoise24at gmailcom and let me know and
introduce me and we can have aconversation and see if I agree
to make a good guest.
If you would like to be a guest, also send me an information
and we can do that.
But remember to like us onFacebook, like us on Instagram,
(13:53):
tell your friends and family,share the episodes, and I'm
excited about our new season andour new time.
Thank you for your support.
I'm Grant Le Martelli and this is Above the Noise, a
podcast at the intersection offaith, race and reconciliation.
Welcome back to Above the Noise.
We've been off the air for alittle bit of time, since I
posted an episode, but we areback.
(00:26):
I just want you to know we'renot going anywhere.
Above the Noise is not dead.
We just took a pause to do somerevisiting, some replanning big
things that I've got that Iwant to do in the future and
trying to work on those things.
But thank you for those of youwho have been continuing to
listen and continue to downloadepisodes, continuing to let your
(00:48):
friends and family know aboutAbove the Noise, and I thank you
for your continued support.
So, as we come to this year,the last part of the year, you
know there are many things goingon in the world around us today
, and I want to talk a littlebit about a couple of things
that are on my mind, andelections obviously are on your
mind if you're living in theUnited States, but even around
(01:10):
the world, elections are on manypeople's mind.
In December of 2023, timeMagazine came out with an
article entitled the UltimateElection Year All Elections
Around the World in 2024.
And they came up with thisinvestigation that found that 64
countries were going to haveelections in 2024.
(01:31):
That is, 49% of the world'spopulation are having or have
had elections this year, and byJuly 1st of 2024, over 1 billion
people had already voted inelections.
And yet we still have the restof the year to go.
Countries like India, europeanUnion, United States of America,
(01:57):
Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia Federation, Mexico,
Iran, the United Kingdom,Algeria, Ukraine, Uzbekistan,
Venezuela, Ghana, North Korea,Taiwan, Mali, Sri Lanka, Romania
(02:17):
, Senegal, Rwanda, Cambodia,Jordan, the Dominican Republic,
South Sudan, and the list goeson and on and on.
So this year is like electionmegaforce around the world and,
as we have seen so far, many ofthe elections haven't turned out
the way that people or thepundits predicted.
(02:40):
Some countries have gone theopposite direction more
conservative, some have gonemore liberal, some have gone
more protectionist, some arestill trying to figure out where
they're going to go and wherethe elections are going to be
and basically what it tells me.
People are saying we wantchange, we want to see things
different, and they've had manymotivations for that.
(03:03):
I don't want to get into all ofthem because I don't know all
of them, but the data isbasically showing that many
elections are not turning outthe way that the pundits might
have predicted, and some leadersof some of these countries were
very surprised.
We saw what happened inBangladesh just recently, you
know, where the prime ministerwas overthrown by popular
(03:24):
resistance and had to leave thecountry, and that's just one
stern example.
We saw what happened in GreatBritain, where the Conservative
Party who was put out of power,who had been in power for a long
time.
So things are happening aroundthe world, you know, and it is
interesting.
I want to encourage you to notlose faith, not lose hope, but
(03:47):
to take time and to think and todo research and to see what's
going on around you and to makesure that, when it is your turn
to vote, that you're voting withintelligence, you're voting out
of principles of truth andjustice and integrity and how to
build stronger community.
You know, I hear many peoplearound us talking about you know
(04:08):
that they want lower taxes andthey want lower gas prices and
lower grocery prices, they wantinterest rates to come down, and
all of those things that I hearto me are selfish things.
It's all about me, right?
I want to have my life better,no matter what.
I want to have my life better,no matter what.
(04:28):
At the same time, I don't hearmany of those people complaining
about how great their stockportfolio is doing or how great
their retirement plans are doingin this time either.
I want to remind us that themeans has to justify the ends.
The means has to justify theends.
I've come to this conclusion.
For the person of faith, wejust can't do anything we want
(04:50):
to do and say whatever we wantto say and say, as long as we
get to where we want to go to.
That's the important thing.
Be what it may, for us, how wedo things matters.
How we get to the point wherewe want to go matters.
How we treat people matters.
What we say, what we do, whatwe post, who we follow matters,
(05:17):
because even if we gaineverything we want for ourselves
and, at the same time, createchaos around us, we don't have
peaceful communities, we don'thave good neighborhoods, we're
not loving our neighbors asourselves, our schools are in
chaos, our economies are inchaos, our people are afraid to
live, we're treating others asthough they don't matter.
Then what's the sense of havingall of these economic
(05:40):
prosperities at the sacrifice ofour community?
Because what happens in thoseplaces where people are only
concerned about building upthemselves then they get to the
point of a fortress mentality isnow I've got all the things I
want and those people around medon't have them, so I've got to
protect it from them because Idon't want them to get what I
(06:01):
have.
They get to the zero sum gameand pretty soon people who were
their friends, who were theirfamilies, who were their
community, now become enemiesbecause they have to protect all
of these things that they'retrying to get for themselves.
I'm reminded of a passage in theBible in 1 Kings, chapter 22,
when King Ahab got together withKing Jehoshaphat and there was
(06:25):
peace in the land, and somehowKing Ahab decided he wanted to
go to war to take back a pieceof land.
He wanted to disrupt the peacein order to go after something
that he really didn't need.
So he brought together hisadvisors, and there were 400
different advisors they callthem prophets or advisors and
(06:46):
these advisors were telling himeverything he wanted to hear in
unison.
They were just stroking his ego, making him feel good yes, you
should do this, yes, you shoulddo that.
So, like so many leaders todaywho just want to surround
themselves with people whostroke their egos, who tell them
what they want to hear, ratherthan tell them the truth,
(07:07):
because sometimes the truth canbe inconvenient and it doesn't
always get us what we want.
So after a while of this, kingJehoshaphat, the other king,
said to King Ahab isn't thereanother prophet?
Isn't there another advisor?
Isn't there somebody else whocan give us a different opinion,
who can tell us in his wordswhat the Lord wants us to do, in
other words, what's the rightthing to do?
(07:28):
See, sometimes we have to seekother opinions, we have to get
other people in the room so thatwe get the true perspective.
And King Ahab said yes, there'sjust one prophet, but I don't
like him because he doesn'talways tell me what I want to
hear.
He doesn't always give me thenews I want.
So King Jehoshaphat said let'sget him anyhow and hear what he
(07:49):
has to say.
So they brought in the prophetand as soon as the prophet comes
in, the king looks at him andsaid are you going to tell me
the truth or are you going tomake something happen?
The prophet said I will tellyou the truth.
And as soon as he began to tellthe truth, the king got upset
at him and said to Jehoshaphatyou see, I told you he will
never tell me what I wanted tohear, because the prophet said
(08:12):
you can listen to those 400people who are telling you what
you want to hear, or you canhear the truth, which is, if you
do this, you will lose.
In fact, you will not only lose, you will lose your life.
And he got so mad at theadvisor for not telling him what
he wanted to hear that he hadhim put in prison and said you
will stay there until I get back.
(08:34):
The challenge is he never gotback there until I get back.
The challenge is he never gotback because, like the prophet
said, you're being misled bythese 400 advisors and the truth
is that your plan was a badplan and if you follow it,
you're not going to make it.
So sometimes the truth can beinconvenient.
It may not be what we want tohear, it may not be appropriate
(08:58):
at the time.
Sometimes we want to surroundourselves with people who are
just like us, who say the samethings we want to say, do the
same things we want to do allthe time, and it makes us feel
as though we're on the rightpath, we're doing the right
thing.
The truth of the matter is youcould be going down the road
with 400 people in the wrongdirection, for the wrong reason,
for the wrong result, all ofthem telling you that you're
(09:20):
going to be right until it isfinally not so.
Or we can accept theinconvenience of hearing the
truth, finding out the truth andchanging our direction and
doing the right thing from thevery beginning.
And I'm not saying that everytime in elections everything is
always right, that sometimes wegot to choose between people who
(09:42):
are not not always the moststellar people around, but
you've got some, some.
Like some people say, you gotto choose between the lesser of
two evils.
But we look at thing to me ofprinciples of truth and justice
and equity and belonging andloving one another, building
strong communities.
(10:03):
If we have leaders who are notcalling us towards being
stronger, better together, thenwe have to look at are we
following the crowd or whatdecisions are we going to make?
So I want to encourage you inthe United States and in the
other countries around the worldwho have not had your elections
yet, as time is coming up, gothrough and see, listen, find
(10:31):
out the new things.
Get second opinion, get a thirdopinion and learn before you go
and vote and ask God to giveyou the right direction.
Ask him to give you wisdom inmaking the right choice, because
, yes, we have a responsibilityto vote and, yes, we have a
responsibility to be goodleaders in our community.
(10:51):
But I would want you to stayaway from those people who are
just spreading rubbish andgarbage online and posting
negative things and callingpeople's names and making all of
these caricatures that are justnot doing anything to advance
the global discourse, thepolitical discourse of how we
(11:15):
become better people, how webecome better countries, how we
become better believers, how weshow light to each other, how we
live in community with eachother.
And I'm sure that if you takethe time to do those things,
that you will make the rightchoice when it comes your time
to vote.
And don't say that you're notgoing to vote because it's too
(11:36):
hard.
Do the homework.
Life is not supposed to be easy.
Do the homework, do the hardthing and gather information and
make sure that you exerciseyour right and your
responsibility to vote.
Vote for peace, vote for truth,vote for justice, vote for
equity, vote for good community,not only the things that
(12:00):
selfishly benefit us.
So where are we going with Abovethe Noise?
Above the Noise is changing.
I'm trying to build it upstronger.
I'm trying to build a podcaststronger.
I'm trying to build a podcastcommunity where we can have
better conversations, where wecan have more guests, expand our
reach.
We're going to be going toYouTube as well.
We're going to be adding videoto our podcast and using that
(12:25):
medium.
That's what I've been workingon Going to have a new logo and
a new setup, and I thank you foryour support.
So be patient with us andcontinue listening, but in the
meantime, we will continue topost our audio episodes.
And our next episode is a reallyinteresting episode.
I want to prime it.
I'm going to be talking withChief Padilla from the Kent
(12:48):
Washington Police Department.
Chief was with us four yearsago in the middle of COVID, in
the middle of the George Floydand the racial awakening, in the
middle of the defund, thepolice and the protests and all
of these things that happened,that were going on.
And now we're here, four yearslater, and we're going to talk
about how things have changed,how they've come to that.
(13:10):
What are some of the challengesfacing us?
Facing the city facing thecountry right now.
It's just going to be a reallygreat episode and I want to
encourage you to look for thathere in the next week or two and
after that we will continue topost.
If you know anyone, if you haveany friends who you think would
be a good guest on our show,send me an email at
(13:32):
abovethenoise24, abovethenoise24at gmailcom and let me know and
introduce me and we can have aconversation and see if I agree
to make a good guest.
If you would like to be a guest, also send me an information
and we can do that.
But remember to like us onFacebook, like us on Instagram,
(13:53):
tell your friends and family,share the episodes, and I'm
excited about our new season andour new time.
Thank you for your support.
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