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Liu spends 70 per cent of her time in the field, often in countries we’d be challenged to find on a map. Or else she can be found trying to convince the United Nations General Assembly or the World Health Organization that they need to put petty machinations aside and work for the suffering, not their sometimes insufferable desires. And, no stranger to Canadian affairs, she remains a pediatric emergency physician at Montreal’s CHU Sainte-Justine Hôpital for Children.

Liu embodies intelligence and vast experience, wrapped in compassion. Her call for leaders without borders should be heeded.

“Indifference is paralyzing us. It’s important to care and not be indifferent to what is going on. We need more citizens of the world,” she told me.

Somewhat ironic is that during the many hours she spends in airports, Liu has noticed a surplus of books about leadership in the shops. They’re kind of like diet books — there’s an abundance — but lasting results remain elusive.

With her ready appetite to fight the status quo, Liu decided to take a stab as MSF’s international leader because of a schism in the organization. She was worried about the growing number of people associated with MSF who considered the humanitarian organization a social club. To her, MSF’s raison d’être is to actively serve populations in danger and in need, not to dress up a resume, say, for a leadership bid.

Now, thanks to our online world, citizens almost everywhere can follow, from a distance, what leaders of organizations like MSF or political parties do. We are detached but superficially informed, signing online petitions in the comfort of our homes, but heaven forbid we’d leave our house to attend a protest march. As Liu said, “So many like to talk and don’t do the work.”