5 women destined to change world

By Michael L. McManus

March 8 is International Women’s Day. We celebrate our sisters, mothers, wives, daughters, family, colleagues and friends. We celebrate that you are our beloved and can change the world. You have historically and continue to hold us and you hold the world together. Your outstretched arms touch us always and provide much needed truth, warmth and creativity. Ultimately, you provide the world family with strength beyond what meets the eye. Strength, yes: maybe it is maternal strength.

Today, we celebrate the “global woman.”

Who is this global woman? She comes from everywhere. Education? Yes, she wants it, and to earn every bit of it, side by side, in every classroom with her male counterparts. In most cases, she excels, though she never brags about it. She sees and unites with other women, mothers, sisters, daughters from around the world. She sees our men, fathers, husbands, brothers and friends and understands they are on their own paths. She never fails to show respect, however respectful or not anyone may be toward her.

A global woman is a major contributor. An entrepreneur, an artist, a major facilitator of causes, a politician, representative, spokeswoman, a builder of companies, schools, institutes, credible and incredible institutions with humility, and with humanity and civilization as causes, not chaos. She produces something for and on Earth. She puts a family together, yes, if she is so fortunate, and she plants trees, she plants companies, she plants leadership where she goes. There are many famous ones, but there are literally billions, who are women alone, mothers and daughters raising our daughters and sons, who inherit our planet. I cannot even begin to bring a portion of what would be a respectable tribute in scale, but to say that more than half the people of every land are women. This day, this one day of celebration we celebrate you, we give you our torch of hope and appreciation.

At the risk of omitting someone who should be in the top five women potentially to have what it takes to bring world-changing results in the future, I nominate these women as global role models and true leaders. They hold in their hands and hearts the creativity and strength to change our world for the better. They are in our collective admiration and in the golden circle. They hold the golden torch of hope, justice and love.

Angela Merkel, Germany. The Materna Europa’s motherly style is helping a very troubled Europe. The first woman president of her country, she is a true central leader in holding the hope, faith and trust of her millions of fellow Europeans and the world up from otherwise chaos. She holds the golden torch.Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma. She has brought democratic processes to her country and the glow of democracy’s light to much of the world. She holds the golden torch.Hillary Clinton, U.S. This woman stands for future hope for young girls and is a proven human rights champion. She has the potential to be one of America’s most important historical figures. She holds the golden torch.Malala Yousafzai, Pakistan. The voice of young girls and hope everywhere. Still living with a death threat, she never wavers in her bravery. With her youth and passion, she has won hearts everywhere. She holds the golden torch.Park Geun-hye, South Korea. The first woman president of her country, she has the historic potential to bring pathways of peace and unity to her people on the Korean Peninsula and the world as a shining example. She holds the golden torch.

History and deep history, in particular, is our teacher. Those who know the real story, for example, will tell you that Nancy Reagan gave her husband very deep insights about his destiny to shape a new world in partnership with a friend, Mikhail Gorbachev. Without Nancy Reagan, and Raisa Gorbachev, we might still be looking at the Berlin Wall. Women have a distinct talent: to bring the world together.

Now consider this, if we could host a meeting for some days in a beautiful environment and if these five women of destiny could be together to sit at the same table and action-plan toward a more peaceful world, what a sight that would be. It stirs not only the imagination but opens us to the power of hope in our world. That conference would dwarf all the Davos meetings that have ever been held.

It is the kind of vision that is actually possible, and what better place than Seoul in 2013. The more such historic meetings Seoul could host as a world capital city and a potential future Asian capital, the better the chances for permanent paths to peace. These women hold the golden torch. They will always meet each other and talk, usually one on one in a national setting, somewhere. That is good. Better still, if they could spend several days together and emerge with a global statement, a proclamation, an action plan for all time. Such meetings have occurred over time. They are called “historic,” yet it is real people who make such history.

Time will tell, but today, these are five women with great and powerful potential to change the world. The torch burns brightly! Next year, who will make this list? In 10 years? Twenty? There will always be several women who carry the torch for all of us.

Michael L. McManus is a bi-monthly columnist for The Korea Times and is currently serving as a guest professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS). He can be reached at mcmismism@aol.com.