Oct 11 2018

In a week where the United Nations released its dire report on climate change, and the world celebrated the International Day of the Girl, it’s a good time to wonder if more female voices at decision-making tables will shift the way we solve humanity’s most pressing problems. Madeleine Albright blazed her own trail as Secretary of State, and continues to speak up on issues of foreign policy, and of America’s place in the world. What might our policymaking look like if we had more female (and, incidentally, immigrant) perspectives like hers?

As The World Turns

Why we educate girls

Former First Lady of the United States, Mrs Michelle Obama, stayed true to continuing the #letgirlslearn initiative she began while in the White House. Today, on the International Day of the Girl, she launched the Global Girls Alliance through the Obama Foundation. More than 98 million adolescent girls around the world are not in school, and the Alliance will support some 1,500 girls-education groups around the globe.

As Mrs Obama herself put it, “When you educate a girl, you educate a family, a community, a country. If we care about climate change, if we care about poverty, then we have to care about education.”

Why “2 degree” and “natural disaster” messages might be flopping

Maybe it’s just me, but when I hear that we need to contain the rise in global temperatures to no more than 2 degrees (as compared to the 1800s), without diving into the nuances of the science behind it…2 degrees doesn’t sound like a big deal. If our morning coffee was 2 degrees hotter, we’d likely still be able to drink it.

But when you consider the 2 degree difference between 98C and 101C, water turns into steam. The molecular structure transforms, and leads to a freer (and therefore more chaotic) state of affairs.

And so it is with the destructive effects if our Earth warms by more than 2 degrees. As this brief NPR report states, we’ll suffer from fewer crops, water stress, heat waves, and the deaths that will result.

Just yesterday, Hurricane Michael made landfall in US Florida panhandle. It had whipped itself up from a Category 2 to a Category 4 strength storm in a matter of hours (on a strength scale of 1 to 5), blindsiding thousands of residents. While these residents now begin to restitch their tattered lives and properties, we need to think more deeply about our role in these extreme weather events.

In this article, where the journalist spoke with several climate experts, the general consensus was that we ought to stop calling them “natural disasters,” as that absolves our human role in exacerbating them. The piece ends with, “The important thing, experts said, is that we humans accept some blame. And then use that knowledge to prevent suffering associated with storms yet to come.”

Om Is Where The Heart Is

Hard is not an excuse

The back-to-back moments of the Justice Kavanaugh confirmation hearings (particularly Dr Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony), and of the International Day of the Girl, is to me a study in contrast and hope.

Yes, changing the status quo is hard. Finding new ways to mete out justice for decades-long allegations is hard. Women stepping forward to use their voice, in the face of generations of being silenced or ridiculed, is hard. And for every smile Michelle Obama flashes as the face of her Global Girls Alliance, there is a hard moment for the 1,500 girls-education groups as they inch toward a more level playing field for girls to get an education and fulfill their potential.

But hard is not an excuse.

It’s not an excuse to sit idly by and let more girls fall by the wayside. It’s not an excuse to stay silent when your heart knows that speaking up is the right thing to do. It’s not an excuse to turn away with cynicism and resignation.

Like Madeleine Albright, Michelle Obama and other admired women in the public eye, hard just makes them work more, speak up more, and BE more.

Because hard is not an excuse not to try.

News and Views

Instagram coming to life

I’m becoming more social. 🙂

This is what my magazine’s Instagram account will look like in about 2 weeks. It’s been a long time coming, and I’m excited to share these images and posts with you.

Hope to see you on my Instagram account – be sure to follow me there, and comment on the stories and ideas I share with you there!

(Are you active on Instagram? Do you use it for business, pleasure or both? Tell me more here.)

In the next issue:

We’re a few weeks away from a consequential election here in the US. I’ll probably share some thoughts about it next week.

Till then…

Live well and lead large – Maya