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Have we had enough of “doom and gloom”? As the deadline looms for the USA, Canada and other Nato countries leaving Afghanistan to “What Next and Fear of the Unknown”; to a COVID surge; and ongoing political divisions…the list goes on, I wanted to hibernate and not get up until things changed. But then I started watching Tokyo’s 2020 Summer Paralympics, and saw some of the spectacular feats of the athletes! Amazing and so heartening.....

Waking up in Canada today and hearing our Federal election being called during a Pandemic; more Haitian lives were claimed in a major earthquake, and the Taliban takes over KABUL! We made many steps going forward but then, unfortunately, many steps have now gone backward. I had so many great memories of our company being one of the first UNDP projects working in Afghanistan, leading the Afghan Women’s Business Exhibition & Conference in June 2003 (the war had ended just 3 months earlier). The great women who came with me (Anu Agarwal, Faye Beck, Emma Quin, and Jennifer MacMillan) were filled with hope in bringing our global trade program to the Afghan women (and their families). But yes, we had anxiety too – were Afghan women ready for the changes in product & business development? At our finale, our anxiety was over when hundreds of women came from every province in the country, and then a beautiful Afghan woman came up to the stage, taking the microphone and said, “With this hand, I will rock the cradle, and with this hand, I will rock the world. Thank you for bringing our garden back to us.” Why am I sharing this now? Thanks to Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Seneca Women...