Men, boys, let us be bold. Let us speak the truth and stand up for the rights of girls and women to equality, dignity, and the rights we all share.  –Desmond Tutu, Chair of The Elders

Today we celebrate the first ever International Day of the Girl.  If you have read my past blog posts, you know how I feel about how essential girls are for the prosperity of the world’s nations.  International studies have declared the biggest untapped resource lies in girls and their potential to contribute to society.  Yet, girls and women all over the world are being held back.

Held back by child marriage and sex trafficking.

Held back by injuries and death in childbirth—80% of cases that are preventable.

Held back by domestic abuse, violence, and rape.

Discussion about climate change is often thought to take place on the battlegrounds between the economist and the environmentalist. Whose fault is global warming? Whose responsibility is it to change the way things are? Who should bear the burden of living with the effects of climate change? Who has an obligation to act now?

The simple answer is all of us are responsible and all of us need to act. Interestingly enough, this answer is also the easy way out. The problem of collective action (moreover, the lack of cohesive collective action) has polluted the debate over climate change issues since the international community declared its importance as a major issue for the world's future.

In an article about the perspectives of understanding and analyzing climate change, Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Reporter on the right to food, made a point about the shortcomings of governments and their political processes in dealing with the issue of climate change. In addition to being "congested and gridlocked," he describes the climate change debate as one that lacks an "honest starting point." He sees the potential to find a solution stemming from viewpoint of climate change as a human rights issue.

Kimberly Rivera is a 30-year-old wife and a mother of four. She was a private in the US Army and served in Iraq in 2006. And this Thursday, after spending the past five years in Canada, she crossed the border into the United States separately from her family so that her children would not see their mother being arrested.

Some people call her a deserter. Some call her a war resister. And some call her a hero for standing up for what she believes is right according to her own conscience.

When she was 24 years old, Kimberly Rivera completed a tour of duty in Iraq. While she was there, she said she became "disillusioned with the mission," she began to seriously doubt the justification of the war, and she could no longer reconcile her participation in it, nor even continuing to be part of the US army.

While she was on leave in 2007, she was ordered to return to Iraq for a second tour. Upon hearing the news, she left for Canada with her family and applied for refugee status there. She later applied for permanent residency based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Canadian officials refused her case and she was ordered to leave the country by September 20th of this year. She is currently facing charges and could be sentenced for up to 2-5 years in prison.

The violent protests against a U.S.-based film that started in Egypt last Tuesday continue to spread throughout the Arab world.  The most notable of these occurred outside the U.S. embassy in Libya, where four American diplomats lost their lives.   Anti-American demonstrations have also been reported in Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, and Gaza City.  

Among the four Americans lost, was the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.  Ambassador Stevens was a career diplomat who was committed to working with the Libyan people.  He was the American envoy to the revolutionaries during the uprising in Libya, and helped bring down Moammar Gadhafi.  Ambassador Stevens embodied what it truly means to be a diplomat.  He was passionate about building a relationship between the United States and Libya, and cared about the people, not just the politics. He helped free the Libyan people, and his death is a tragedy for American diplomacy. 

Among those killed, was also U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith.  Smith was assigned to Libya on a temporary mission.  Our diplomats overseas are more than just our representatives or negotiators; they are our peacemakers, our community builders, our innovators, and our trailblazers.  They commit their lives to serving the greater good.