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.