Human Rights and Silent Conflicts

Our world is not homogenous. Travelllng to Rwanda or France you can see that the differences in culture and traditions are extremely deep despite the globalization nowadays. Those differences, however, should not affect our concept of human rights wherever we are right?. So, a question I would like to propose is: Does a life in Kigali, Rwanda have the same value that a life in Paris, France? 

Everyone reading that question would promptly answer: Of course, no doubts! But the truth is that most of us get absolutely nonconformist with conflicts and deaths in Developed parts of the world and accept as normal those problems in its poorest part.

According to World Food Programme (WFP) 3.1 million children die every year due poor nutrition causes. It means  about 8500 deaths every single day. Those deaths happen priority in developing countries and people in the 'developed world' barely know that. Now I propose another reflection: Imagine that something really bad happen in Paris and in one single day of the year (only one) 8500 children die. How would the media behave? How would you behave? The problem is that this specific day that I propose to you imagine in Paris happens every day in developing countries.

So, what can we (global citizens) do about that? There are a lot of organizations that try to help and fight against starvation in the world. Engage yourself in one of them! The change in our world has to start with us, global citizens.

What is the importance of the media for global citizenship?

"Communication itself takes place at a number of levels, including intrapersonal (within the self), interpersonal (between individuals), group (between three or more individuals), and mass (between a single sender and a large audience). Mass communication is a communication process that covers an entire society, in which an individual or institution uses technology to send messages to a large, mixed audience, most of whose members are not known to the sender. Mass communication can be examined in terms of the process of transmission; the rituals surrounding its consumption; the attention messages draw to persons, groups, or concepts; or how audience members create meaning out of media content.

The rapid growth of the mass media has led the public and media critics to raise questions about the effects various media might have on society and individuals. Scholars have suggested that the best way to control the impact of the media in our lives is to develop high levels of media literacy—an understanding of what the media are, how they operate, what messages they are delivering, what roles they play in society, and how audience members respond to these messages. Media literacy includes cognitive, emotional, aesthetic, and moral dimensions.

Understanding the effects of media on individuals and society requires that we examine the messages being sent, the medium transmitting them, the owners of the media, and the audience members themselves. The effects can be cognitive, attitudinal, behavioral, and psychological."

Theoretically, all media members must respect some media ethic principles that include: truthfulness, fairness, and standards of decency, however news can be transmitted in many different ways and those interpretations may be directly related with political or economic positions. So, how can we found out if what a newspaper is saying correspond what really happen?

There is no prompt answer for this question, however what I try to do is always search for at least two different and conflicting sources of information, so that I can understand which position media takes and create an overview about the real situation, developing a critical thinking less susceptible to media manipulation.Those behavior is even more important nowadays for global citizens once information are being spread all over the world and can influence opinions in a large scale.

Reference

http://college.cqpress.com/sites/masscomm/Home/chapter1.aspx

Organizations as Global Citizens

It is very important for the modern world that global citizens come up all over the world. However, when those citizens come together they get much stronger and can spread the effects of their actions further. In this topic I want to talk about organizations of global citizen that has changed the world gradually.

The first organization I would like to demonstrate is African Solutions to African Problems - ASAP. This organization founded in 2003 has tried to change the life of people in the poorest continent on Earth. Its actions include different fronts as:

• Education
  ASAP provides access to pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary education in order to yield healthy, self-reliant young adults who contribute back to the community. Our trained child care workers monitor the children’s attendance and progress and advocate for child rights in school, conducting strategic planning meetings with the Department of Education.
  There are several challenges in educating today’s youth in South Africa. The drop out rate is exceptionally high, particularly for girls who are forced to care for parents with AIDS and manage the household. How a child performs in school can be an indicator of their overall well-being and children not enrolled in school are more vulnerable to neglect and abuse. Senior schools charge fees and all schools require uniforms, which orphans cannot afford.
  
• Capacity Building
  ASAP builds the capacity of grassroots groups of women with no administrative systems by providing tools so that they can acquire and manage funding to build sustainable organizations. The aim is to attain 100% accountability, develop and practice good governance and attain their own development goals.
  They help them establish their own offices and create systems in order to manage growing programmes. Their staff work on-site with the communities, consulting on programme development, resource allocation, training coordination and project management. Their field staff provide hands-on technical assistance, trouble shooting, conflict resolution, and operational support.
  Historically, community-based organizations were predominately informal structures driven by volunteers and usually lacking professional organization, financial management and unable to access funding due to lack of communications and no experience with grant’s criteria.
  The purpose is to make women self-reliant and independent through the supply of appropriate skills. Capacity Building covers a large part of the work being done on-site by ASAP and encompasses the following:
  
• Nutrition and Agriculture
  More than 5 million school children do not have ready access to nutritious food according to the Department of Education. A child cannot concentrate and learn on an empty stomach and good nutrition plays a vital part in a good education. Though some schools offer nutrition programmes of bread and juice, they are inadequate and cannot be relied upon to meet basic dietary needs. The lack of sustainable agriculture and shortages of water have resulted in chronic malnutrition and persistent food insecurity for children.
  In an effort to establish sustainable nutritional sources for children, as well as to encourage the self sufficiency of the child care workers, ASAP supports vegetable gardens at Drop-in centres and schools.

The second organization I would like to mention is Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), a brazilian institute responsable for protect and conservate the Biodiversity and directly related with the government in Brazil.

The name is a tribute to Francisco Alves Mendes Filho, better known as Chico Mendes (December 15, 1944 – December 22, 1988), a brazilian rubeer tapper, trade union leader and environmentalist. He fought to preserve the Amazon Rainforest, and advocated for the human rights of Brazilian peasants and indigenous peoples. He was assassinated by a rancher on December 22, 1988. After his death The Chico Mendes Institute for Conservation of Biodiversity (Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade), a body under the jurisdiction of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, is named in his honor.

Chico Mendes has not travelled to a lot of countries however he understood the importance of the environment for the planet a long time ago, when the term 'global citizen' was barely known. Even living in an isolate comunity a long time ago in Amazonia, I have no doubt that Chico Mendes was one of the most important global citizens in Brazil and his fight against devastation go on now with his institute.

At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realise I am fighting for humanity.

—Chico Mendes

Those organizations have effectively modified the environment around them and these examples show us that It would be probably too difficult for only one individual make all these acts, but together they can be much stronger and definitely change the world...

An Inconvenient Truth

As we know, globalization does not affect all the parts of the world at the same way. Has globalization been a good process for Africa?

In his article "The Impact of Globalization on Africa", Alhaji Ahmadu Ibrahim studies negative and positive impacts of globalization on Africa. The main points described by him are described below

"The negative impacts of globalization on Africa

1. Tendon (1998) states that the cold war which was born out of the process for globalization has had significant consequences for Africa. During its height in the 1960’s and 1970’s, the cold war itnessed the emergence of authoritarian regimes in the form of one-party or military regimes. This was largely a result of the support of the two blocks to keep African countries in their respective camps. This has in turn, substantially reduced Africa’s international negotiating power and its ability to maneuver in the international system. In sum then, the cold war and its demise has worked against democracy and economic development in Africa.

2. Specific impact of globalization on Africa were identified according to Oyejide (1998) in the  political sphere, the most important consequence is the erosion of sovereignty, especially on economic and financial matters, as a result of the imposition of models, strategies and policies of development on African countries by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization.

3. More important is the fact that globalization for most part does not facilitate the establishment of the economic conditions necessary for genuine democracy and good governance to take solid roots and thrives.

4. Economically, globalization has, on the whole, reinforced the economic marginalization of African economies and their dependence on a few primary goods for which demand and prices are externally determined. This has, in turn accentuated poverty and economic inequality as well as the ability of the vast number of Africans to participate meaningfully in the social and political life of their countries.

5. As a result of the cultural domination from outside that goes with globalization, African countries are rapidly losing their cultural identity and therefore their ability to interact with other cultures on an equal and autonomous basis, borrowing from other cultures only those aspects that meet its requirements and needs.

6. The scientific and technological forces unleashed by globalization have facilitated the extinction of the indigenous development of technology and distorting patterns of production in Africa.

7. Globalization on the whole impacts negatively on the development and consolidation of democratic governance. One form of this is the reduction of the capacity of governments to determine and control events in their countries, and thus their accountability and responsiveness to their people, given the fact that the context, institutions and processes by which these decisions are taken are far from democratic.

8. Globalization introduces anti-developmentalism by declaring the state irrelevant or marginal to the developmental effort. Development strategies and policies that focus on stabilization and privatization, rather than growth, development and poverty eradication, are pushed by external donors, leading to greater poverty and inequality and undermining the ability of the people to participate effectively in the political and social processes in their countries. Welfare and other programs intended to meet the basic needs of the majority of the population are transferred from governments to non-governmental organizations that begin to replace governments making them to lose the little authority and legitimacy they have.

9. By imposing economic specialization based on the needs and interests of external forces and  ransforming the economies of African countries into series of enslaved economies linked to the outside but with very little linkages among them, Democracy, with its emphasis on tolerance and compromise, can hardly thrive in such an environment (Rodrik 1994).

10. Further, Mule (2000) views that the economic specialization imposed on African countries makes rapid and sustainable growth and development impossible, conflicts over the distribution of the limited gains realized from globalization becomes more acute and politicized. Vulnerable groups, such as women, the youth, and rural inhabitants, fare very badly in this contest and are discriminated against. This further erodes the national ethos of solidarity and reciprocity that are essential to successful democracies.

11. Globalization, by insisting on African countries opening their economies to foreign goods and entrepreneurs, limits the ability of African governments to take proactive and conscious measures to facilitate the emergence of an indigenous entrepreneurial class. (Mowlena 1998).

12. Globalization has encouraged illicit trade in drugs, prostitution, pornography, human smuggling, dumping of dangerous waste and depletion of the environment by unscrupulous entrepreneurs.

13. Globalization has freed labour across boundaries and facilitated brain drain. It facilitated “brain drain” in developing countries, thus reducing further their human capacity.

Positive impact of globalization on Africa

1. Globalization has eased international trade and commerce, facilitated foreign investment and the flow of capital while calling for greater accountability and responsiveness of leaders to their people, globalization has often pressed African leaders to adopt policies and measures that are diametrically opposed to the feelings and sentiments of vast majority of their people.

2. By defining basic and generally accepted principles of democratic governance, such as good governance, transparency and accountability, in narrow terms, conditioned by particular historical, political, social, and cultural factors, while leaving little or no room for adapting them to different societies and cultures.

3. There are international lobby and pressure groups in various fields. There are universities and institutions of higher learning with all their power to impact knowledge, skills and attitudes that shift behaviours of societies and state leadership as well as followership. All these combine to reinforce the phenomenon of globalization and force the state to shift its behaviour and the way it relates with both its “subjects” and its internal and external partners.International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 3 No. 15; August 2013 

4. Globalization opens people’s lives to other cultures and all their creativity and to the flow of ideas and values.

5. Information and communication technologies have eased interaction among countries and peoples.

6. It is creating a global village out of a wide and diverse world.

7. One major positive impact of globalization on Africa is that it has made available information on how other countries are governed and the freedoms and rights their people enjoy.

8. It has also opened African countries to intense external scrutiny and exercised pressure for greater transparency, openness and accountability in Africa."

After reading about those controversial topics related with globalization, we can see how deep the effects of international decisions can be.and how it can affect millions of lives. My definition of global citizenship may has changed a little after reading about that
A global citizen may be someone who understands that the world as it is today has a lot of problems. Someone who assumes his role as a global citizen through the development of critical thinking and is able to start changes that can spread throughout the world

Food Globalization

How does globalization affect food production?

"The world agrifood system is becoming increasingly globalized. As the majority of the world moves into cities, and as people who remain in rural areas adopt more urbanized lifestyles when they are better connected to infrastructure, consumption of food is changing to a more varied composition yet also to greater similarity around the world. The time-saving instant noodle soup in a plastic cup in Asia, as well as the hamburger and the prepared sandwich worldwide, are indicative of this tendency. Consumption of processed foods, soft drinks, and bottled water is expanding, and foods and beverages are increasingly transported long distances, catering to changing demands. The food processing and retail industries have become global players. Farmers increasingly specialize their production as a consequence of these changing markets, which requires change upstream in the food chain—that is, in such production inputs as water, seeds, feeds, and technical equipment, which has in turn created new organizational arrangements in the food system." (Joachim von Braun and Eugenio Díaz-Bonilla)

The paragraph above is the standard explanation about globalization and food production and can be easily found in a lot of textbooks. However it does not even mention the problems behind this process. Food production has changed a lot recently and we have not even noticed that. Animals and plants have become merely goods on market shelves. Enthusiastic farmers and happy animals are constantly exhibited in advertising however that image does not reflect the real conditions in the globalization process behind food production.

The documentary FOOD, Inc tries to demonstrate what happens in the hidden world of food production and how multinationals has controlled this process. The documentary demonstrates the unbelievable condition that workers, animals and environment are being exposed to. Besides, we can see the effects in people's health with the fast increase of 'fast food culture' lately and how dangerous that has been to humans.

FOOD, Inc shows how unhealthy modern meals has become and makes us reflect about our daily acts. Simple things that can change the world begining with our opition. After all...

"You can change the world with every bite".

   

What is the role of Universities in Global Citizenship?

What can Universities do in Global Citizenship?

When we think about Global Citizenship we do not restrict the concept only to the University community, however, do universities have a special role in developing Global Citizenship? How could they spread their ideas outside University boundary?

First of all, we need to think about the concept of public education itself. In concept, education is fundamentally about developing citizenship equipping people with the skills to recognize their differences and work them in peacefull ways. So, one of the main ideas of public education is provide skills to citizens solve their problems in pacific ways. The importance of education is so evident that basic education became a basic human right nowadays.
Besides, understanding how educational system interacts with social context is important to provide guidance in public education aligned with human beings goals.
Beyond the basic public education we have advanced cultural centres. However, once not every one can engage in a university,what can universities do in global citizenship?
In my opinion, universities can be extremely important in this scenario, fundamentally they are useful to guid three main pillars:
First, they are responsable for develop knowledge through research. It means people with deep knowledge in their areas able to understand causes and consequences. Researches who can study the process of globalization itself, for example, and develop studies about it.
Second, universities should promote critical thinking, it is the ability of people thinking by themselves and create their own conclusions about facts, concepts and theories;
and third, spread ideas. University must be able to spread its ideas beyond its boundary. Why?Because the process can be considered completely successfull only if we could apply their results in those who are not members of the university community. It is...the real world!

In the video below The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future attempted to answer these questions during a recent seminar with Jay Halfond, Dean of Metropolitan College and an associate professor of administrative sciences at Boston University, Robert Hollister, Dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University, and Fernando Reimers, a Ford Foundation professor of international education and director of global education and international education policy at Harvard University talk about what role universities play in the meaning of global citizenship, and how universities can help to foster it.

Global Citizenship: What is it?

The term 'global citizenship' can assume a lot of definitions and can be associated with a lot of factors. In my point of view, a global citizen can be defined not as someone who travels a lot, knows many idioms or has lived in many other countries. A global citizen is someone who can respect the differences among different cultures, admire their costumes and traditions and is able to take the best of each place. It means to think the whole world together instead of small parts. Global citizens are aware of the most important problems of the world and understand that the solution need to start with them. 

In the video below, Carlo Strenger discusses the importance of leaving a religious community as a child and discovering a broader "tribe" of world citizens to join. Stressing open world views over closed world views, Carlo discusses the important work of the World Citizenship Project and the mission of the New Cosmopolitans. Illustrating from Galileo Galilei and Freud to nowadays he tries to demonstrate the importance of tolerance and respect for human beings.