I grew up mesmerized by Jacques Cousteau. I knew nothing about Cousteau, who graduated from a French naval college, led commando raids during WWII, and helped invent the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) often called the Aqua-Lung.

What fascinated me about Cousteau were his two TV series between the 60s and the 80s. Those two series were similar to Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series. One dealt with the vastness of the universe and the other with the vastness of the oceans. Cousteau said, “The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: We are all in the same boat.”

Sagan followed up on the motif of the same boat with his pale blue dot comment. “To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

I have often mentioned that I never took an astrophysics class in high school, college, graduate, or post-graduate school. The same may be said about any classes in oceanography. However, when I went to French Polynesia, I went on many deep sea dives around various islands.

This is me wrestling with a shark. I think that it was a shark, or it could have been a dolphin.

I wasn’t the only person mesmerized by Cousteau. Millions followed him on his adventures aboard Calypso.

This is Cousteau and his research ship, Calypso.

Back in the mid-70s, John Denver wrote and sang Calypso. It was Denver’s tribute to Cousteau.

That is the backstory for this article. I read Ti Ti’s recent essay about her first SCUBA class. Ti Ti had a video of her using her SCUBA device to introduce her essay. Cousteau would have been proud of Ti Ti using what he co-invented decades ago.

Aside from my grandfatherly love for Ti Ti, her drive impresses me. Whatever she attempts, success drives her. I saw that whenever we were together on my three visits to Myanmar. The first time when we met, she wanted to play Scrabble with me. While she was driven to play Scrabble, it paled compared to beating some old American, which she did. Ti Ti took an online class from me a year ago and aced it. She is attending Gusto University in Yangon and is doing well academically.

Additionally, Ti Ti grasps that women in her country or anywhere else aren’t viewed by many men as equals. She wrote about being the first female to be asked to join Gusto’s Robotic Club.

Ti Ti’s most recent essay, Furthering My Education...Under Water, was about her learning SCUBA diving. It was a nicely written article about various important information for a safe dive.

This was a part of Ti Ti’s posting. “As we wrapped up the training, there were four of us left – three boys and myself. It was a diverse group, and we all shared a common enthusiasm for the underwater world...The training was not only educational but also incredibly fun. I made new friends and created lasting memories. Being the only girl among the participants, I felt a strong sense of empowerment and camaraderie.”

Once again, Ti Ti understands that breaking down barriers to equality of the sexes is essential. She is an excellent role model. I emailed Ti Ti that she is an excellent role model for women. Women in Myanmar, the States, or any other place in the world aren’t treated as equals. Women are second class from the POV of a vast majority of the men in this world, which is sexism. They maintain that women can’t do things, but men are better, more intelligent, more gifted, etc.

Then how do sexists explain that there are more women in medical schools in America? When I was growing up, I couldn’t name a female doctor. Today, I have three female doctors. Women have broken down many barriers over my lifetime.

Interestingly, Ti Ti’s mentor is the Lady, Aung San Suu Kyi. Ti Ti wants to make Myanmar a better place in which to live as she follows in the footsteps of the Lady.

Trump is the mentor for many of his followers, even though he is facing 91 felony charges, four trials, and a litany of personal cases filed by individuals. Additionally, Trump is the paradigm for sexists and white supremacists.

Nonetheless, Trump is facing a half-dozen female judges or district attorneys: D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Michelle Childs, Judge Karen Henderson, and Judge Florence Pan, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Will, and New York State Attorney General Letitia James. Additionally, half of them are black. If I were a betting person, those women alone will be Trump’s Waterloo.

This video is Jacques Cousteau’s ten favorite diving sites.