When a Journey ends, another begins.

I've had an amazing experience for the last 10 weeks of having the privilege to learn about global citizenship as apart of the Diploma of Professional Practice. I have been able to learn about the history of globalisation, challenges/ethics of the global citizenship notion, world issues of concern related to global citizenship and action as a global citizen in the work place. Through the three assignments, I have been able to gain a deeper understand about myself as an individual and how my views and behaviours are shaped by human interaction and surroundings. I have also had the opportunity to research three major companies: Google, McDonald's and Hewlett-Packard and created 5 indicators to show that a company is aware of the global issues and is working hard as global citizens to address these issues. Most importantly, I have been able to track my progress since day one and reflect upon my current thoughts and observe the change in thoughts over the ten week period.

After ten weeks, I am still unable to provide a solid definition of what it means to be a global citizen and that's because I don't think it can be defined through words. I want to acknowledge Academics such as Cogan whom I gained some inspiration from for some of my posts and agree with some of the things he has said in an attempt to define global citizenship however, I don't think it should a set criteria. Even though this world is globalising at an exponential rate, there are still many differences in culture, education and wealth, therefore,  all cannot agree upon the definition of global citizenship    . Instead I believe an individual is a global citizen if they not only adhere by the beliefs outline by some academics on global citizenships but also seek to actively contribute to the world and work with  those who are similarly minded to address global issues. I truly believe that because we are all humans apart of Earth that we are all global citizens and have to share the responsibility of maintaining our home.

I still think that education is the biggest driving force behind global citizenship. Education teaches more than information, it is able to teach skills and qualities to enhance the global citizens. Even though they're many challenges that exist, education is vital for the development of future global citizens.

I want to thank Annabelle and Talitha for co-ordinating this course, we may have appeared uninterested in the seminar but I can reassure you that we were not and in fact many of us appreciate the effort and time you take in encouraging our learning. I have managed to gain a lot from it and I find it goes really well with the knowledge I have gained in the introduction to leadership course that I am also concurrently studying and I look forward to applying this knowledge in my future career.

We are global citizens with tribal souls, so what does this mean for global ethics?

There is a universal understanding that when an individual claims to be a "global citizen" that they accept obligations in principle towards people in any part of the world, this is one the key elements of the idea. An example of such obligation would be to support organisations that try to stop the violation of human rights. A Danish poet by the name of Piet Hein addressed an international conference with what I believe is a good simplification about our status of global citizenship " we are global citizens with tribal souls"(Barnaby,1988). I like it because it is simple and it highlights that as human beings living on earth, we all have a shared responsibility to look after it and there are some who do not have the ability to where it may be due to lack of education, lack of resources and other things.

Considering all these differences (Fletcher,2014):

• Access to information
• Personal beliefs
• Psychological makeup 
• Personal background

Surely there must be a variation in ethical views that people hold, where some values are more important than others. This is one of the main issues of global citizenship where we can not create a list of global ethics that will appeal to every global citizen. However, we can provide reasons as to why we think certain values are important. There are three proposed by Academic Dower and others that I quite like as I believe they should or least be common between global citizens.

Common Values (Dower et al, 2002)

1. Global scope of responsibility

I truly believe as a global citizen that it is not enough to merely respect and act in accordance to what we value but, we must also support those who promote the value as well. For example, I am against human trafficking and as an individual, I would not do it myself. However, as a global citizen,  I would support organisations such as Anti Slavery Australia that works to abolish slavery, trafficking and extreme labour at local and international levels (Anti-Slavery Australia, 2014).

2. Attitude towards one's society/nation state

As a global citizen, there is loyalty to a global moral and ethic. However as Dower suggests, this does not mean rejecting one's own values and moral of local or national communities but it simply becomes a balance between the two. If the two were in conflict, in my opinion, it simply becomes a matter of preference as there are those who argue that supporting the local community is contributing to the 'global good'. For example, If I was living in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I would much rather contribute to my own community financially than say a recent crisis that occurred in another developed country leading them to require financial aid.

3. All human beings have an equal moral status

I think this would be the most common value as human beings should understand and recognise that all humans should be entitled to the fundamental necessities such as food, water, shelter and good health. However, in my opinion is the hardest value to uphold as it is in no way possible to be able to recognise and promote these values equally around the world as putting effort locally would cause an individual to be morally partial due to ignoring the global community.

Despite the complications involved in each of these three values, I think it's very important for a global citizen to be able to understand and share these values.

Barnaby, F.B, 1988. Gaia Peace Atlas. 1st ed. London: Pan Books.

Annabelle Fletcher. 2014. Challenges to Global Citizenship. [ONLINE] Available at: http://moodle.telt.unsw.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=503302. [Accessed 26 January 15]

Dower et al, N.D & J.W, 2002. Global Citizenship A Critical Reader. 1st ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Anti-Slavery Australia. 2014. Anti-Slavery. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.antislavery.org.au/what-we-do/about-us.html. [Accessed 26 January 15].

Organisation's role as a Global Citizens

As a part of this course, I completed an assignment that required me to research companies and their contribution to the world as global citizens. This was a tough question, it took me a while to figure out how a company can possibly be global citizens but I managed to come up with 5 indicators to show that a company is genuinely a "global" company.

1. Delivering international services globally.
2. Continual positive community engagement.
3. Environmental initiatives.
4. Employee satisfaction.
5. Existing Supplier Code of Conduct.

I want to briefly explain why I chose the above characteristics as indicators of a company is globally aware.

There has been a huge emphasis on the equal rights for human beings and that's why I feel that it is important for a company to make their products easily accessible to the entire world. Companies that are able to deliver globally are making their presence and are able to have more influence than companies that deliver locally.

In my opinion, continual positive community engagement is the most basic thing a company can initiate in order to earn a good reputation and show the world that they, as a company are global citizens. This is also supported by Ron Israel who is the co founder of "The Global Citizens Initiative" summarising the importance of community engagement as someone who identifies with being part of an emerging world community and whose actions contribute to building this community (Israel,2013).  Giving back to the community positively can benefit the company by attracting more supporters and help combat global issues such as lack of education and homelessness.

Environmental initiatives is also a very important aspect as a globally concerned company will be focused on global issues such as global warming and melting of the polar ice caps. There should be initiatives in place in order to address these issues or at the very least, adopt sustainable methods in their production process. A good example of an environmental initiative is recycling, Apple's buyback program takes consumer's old products and recycle them to make new ones while giving the consumer a discount on their next Apple purchase (Apple,2014). Another good example is the use of wind power to generate electricity to power Google's servers in some countries (Verge,2014).

Employee satisfaction is one of the simplest indicators as it a measure of the willingness of an individual to work for a particular company, highlighting their influence and power around the world.

Lastly, in a world where companies such as Nike rely on outsourcing(Dusen, 1998), there must be a legal binding document such as a Supplier's Code of Conduct to ensure that the companies behave ethically and that individuals receive fair treatment. Not only such a document should highlight the conditions a human can be subjected to but also highlight the safety and environmental requirements as a result of production.

Apple. 2014. Apple Recycling Program. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.apple.com/au/recycling/. [Accessed 25 January 15].
Jason Verge. 2013. Google Powering Finnish Server Farm with Swedish Wind Farm. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/06/04/googles-powering-finnish-data-center-with-swedish-wind-farm/. [Accessed 25 January 15].
Ron Israel. 2013. What does it mean to be a global citizen?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/ron-israel/what-does-it-mean-to-be-global-citizen. [Accessed 25 January 15].
Steven Van Dusen. 1998. The Manufacturing Practices of the Footwear Industry: Nike vs. the competition. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.unc.edu/~andrewsr/ints092/vandu.html. [Accessed 25 January 15].

True or Ignorant?

The other day I was browsing the comical site 9gag and I saw something that caught my attention. What would normally be something I quickly read, laugh and scroll over, caught my attention because I am undertaking a Global Citizenship course and it got me thinking. First, I am going to share this picture with you.

At first, I thought that this was a very clever summary of the conflicts associated with Global Citizenship. After thinking and applying the knowledge gained from the course, I started to see this poster as very ignorant.

Firstly "we were all humans" implies that we are no longer human. This is an abhorrent statement to make as it can be said with certainty that race, religion, politics and wealth is not the definition of human beings. In fact it can be argued that these aspects can enhance human life by shaping an individual's own identity, beliefs and provide meaning for their existence.

Although I can understand the implications of "race disconnected us", an article I recently read titled 'Does Race exist?' highlights that despite the physical appearances and behaviours, there is actually not much genetic variation in human beings across continents. The writer claims that many studies have demonstrated that roughly 90% of human genetic variation occurs within a population on a continent, whereas about 10% of the variation distinguishes continental populations₁. This highlights that human beings are still actually connected through the similarities of our genetic make up despite being separated by land.

One of many roles of religion in education is to offer elements for personal development and to increase ethical responsibility of fellow citizens₂. I believe that ethical responsibility is one of the prime foundations to becoming a global citizen. Despite not personally practicing any religion and having to learn to act ethically though education, I do not feel separated to another individual who has learned to act ethically through religion.

Academic Mann states that political communities rarely exist in isolation as bounded geographical totalities; they are better thought of as multiple overlapping networks of interactions₃. In a sense politics may divide individuals on a micro scale, however on a macro scale, these humans are not separated completely by their beliefs. I believe that globalisation should be able to shift this spatial form of human organisation and activity to transcontinental in order to combat the global issue of political division. 

Personally I think it's apart of human nature to advance and a lot of humans value wealth and use wealth as a measure of their success. This 'classification' of wealth acts as a mechanism for human beings in order to work hard in order to break or maintain their wealth level. In other words, it provides a purpose for human beings to exist.

1. Bamshad, M.J.B, 2003. Does Race Exist?. Scientific American, [Online]. 1, 78-85. Available at: http://www.nature.com.wwwproxy0.library.unsw.edu.au/scientificamerican/journal/v289/n6/full/scientificamerican1203-78.html [Accessed 19 January 2015].

2. Hanasaari. 2011. Religion as a key competence of a global citizen. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.oph.fi/download/135891_saila_poulter.pdf. [Accessed 19 January 15].

3. Dower, N.D, 2002. Global Citizenship. 1st ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Another Perspective

In my last post, I proposed a global definition of ‘global citizen’ be taught around the world and referenced the set of characteristics created by the academic Cogan, that is accepted by many around the world. After doing some research and reading articles about global citizenship, the article written by Julie Andrzejewski & John Alessio titled 'Education for Global Citizenship and Social Respsonsibility" really challenged my beliefs that global citizenship could easily be included in educational curricula. The article highlighted the lack of social responsibility, the lack of knowledge and the deferral of controversial topics related to global citizenship₁. This led me to re-evaluate my initial proposal of coming up with a global definition to define global citizenship. 

Bringing up the list of characteristics that Cogan has created to define a global citizen from last week, I would like to discuss some of the implications and offer a differing perspective.

Academic Cogan defines a global citizen as₂: 

1         The ability to look at and approach problems as a member of a global    society;

2         The ability to work with others in a cooperative way and take responsibility for one's roles and duties;

3         The ability to understand, accept and tolerate culture differences;

4         The capacity to thinking a critical and systematic way;

5         The willingness to resolve conflict in a nonviolent manner;

6         The willingness to change one's style and consumption habits to protect the environment;

7         The ability to be sensitive toward and defend human rights;

8         The Willingness and ability to participate in politics at local, national and international levels.

This list implies that we cannot all be global citizens, as the very notion itself exists due to the global conflicts and describes the people who come together and try to overcome them. Other reasons include people, particularly from the poorer communities, where concern for their own independent welfare greatly exceeds the need to address global issues. I think that it’s fair enough, how can an individual look after the world when they are struggling to look after themselves? For example, some communities in Africa who have limited access to clean water would not be concerned about the polar ice caps in the Antarctic melting compared to more privileged individuals. This list also implies that an individual can not be a global citizen without meeting the criterion and limits the capabilities of individuals who seek to become global citizens. For example, I think that travelling and the exchange of culture and not just tolerating it is an important characteristic of a global citizen. However, that is not listed and an individual may miss an important opportunity to experience other culture if they sought to be a global citizen and were limited to this list. 

Another viewpoint I would like to offer is that we are all global citizens. I think that deep down in us as human beings, we recognise and understand that each individual have moral rights that is governed by their own institution.  I think that this acknowledgement is an important initial step especially with the rise of globalisation and the break down of barriers between nations, the issues that once affected a community, can potentially affect the globe. In this sense, individuals have a responsibility to avoid, treat and combat global issues as citizens of the world. In order to not limit the potential of an individual in the process of becoming a global citizen and be characterised by a list, perhaps we should think that we are all global citizens that it is our shared responsibility to over come any global issues.

1. Cogan,J. & Kubow P.(1997). Multidimensional citizenship: Educational policy for the 21^st century. Tokyo: Sasakawa Peace Foundation.

2.Andrzejewski , Julie Andrzejewski et al, 1999. Education for Global Citizenship and Social Responsibility . Progressive Perspectives, [Online]. 1/2, 1-4. Available at: http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/monographs/glomono.html#1.%20From%20the [Accessed 11 January 2015].

The vital role of education in creating Global Citizens

On this journey to discovering global citizenship, I have come to realise that education is the biggest driving factor behind this notion and is necessary to overcome any problems individuals may have while trying to become global citizens.  Problems include inequality, mass media manipulation and cross cultural differences that arise from a rapidly expanding world where travelling between borders is becoming easier.

From my perspective, one of the biggest issues of becoming global citizens can be summarised by Stromquist “it is clear that there is an immense disjuncture between the recognition of ideas and their actual practices regarding global citizenship”₁.  I think this is a result of a diverse education system that is affected by what society deems a global citizen and so the definition of a global citizen will vary across the globe.  The environment that consists of mass media, culture and beliefs heavily influences the perspectives of individual’s definition of global citizen.

While watching a question and answer show on ABC, it further highlighted the importance of education in the development of global citizens. It emphasises the initial perspective of ‘Angry’ Anderson being against asylum seekers and through his journey of staying in a developing country, attributes the change in perspective to experiences and starts developing more empathy and understanding towards these people, which is apart of the learning process. The link to the video will be provided below₂.

Acknowledging the challenges, my proposal is to come up with a global definition of what makes a global citizen, a definition that is accepted and taught globally such as the one offered by the academic Cogan who lists a set of characteristics₃. This ensures that each individual will have the same understanding and can work towards being a global citizen.

Global Citizens Characteristics3

1. The ability to look at and approach problems as a member of a global society;
2. The ability to work with others in a cooperative way and take responsibility for one's roles and duties;
3. The ability to understand, accept and tolerate culture differences;
4. The capacity to thinking a critical and systematic way;
5. The willingness to resolve conflict in a nonviolent manner;
6. The willingness to change one's style and consumption habits to protect the environment;
7. The ability to be sensitive toward and defend human rights;
8. The Willingness and ability to participate in politics at local, national and international levels.

1. Stromquist, NS, 2009. Theorising Global Citizenship: Discourses, Challenges, and Implications for Education. Interamerican Journal of Education for Democracy, [Online]. 2/1, 6-29. Available at: http://www.flacsoandes.edu.ec/web/imagesFTP/1266600645.global_citizenship.pdf [Accessed 23 December 2014].

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5JGyAxJ0AU

3.Cogan,J. & Kubow P.(1997). Multidimensional citizenship: Educational policy for the 21^st century. Tokyo: Sasakawa Peace Foundation