The term global citizenship isn’t new to us. AIESEC promotes global citizenship. But global citizenship is such an all encompassing term; do we really know what it involves?
Global citizenship is a multifaceted idea that we need to comprehend. The crux of global citizenship is that the whole is greater than the part; the whole in this context is humankind in general, irrespective of national identity. This is not to say that national identity is not important, but the needs of humankind transcend those of one particular country. To quote Spock, in a true geeky fashion, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” When you say ‘the needs of the many’, we talk about the issues faced by humankind in general irrespective of territorial loyalties. As members of humankind, each of us has a moral and social responsible to other humans. This does not necessarily mean that everyone becomes proactive in the attempt to end world hunger (although that would be wonderful), but at least be aware of the on-goings of issues at a global level. One could argue that charity – or in this case awareness and responsibility – begins at home, so we should focus on the countries we live in, the country whose name is on our passport. But then isn’t a whole the sum of its parts? Global citizenship emphasises world mindedness which is working for nations with the needs of the planet in mind instead of just individual countries.
There are many obvious advantages to world mindedness. If every human acts as a global citizen then the obvious issue of war can be addressed and eradicated. All war will stop and as a further step, efforts can be made to eradicate war-related adversities. Civil strife and ethnic riots would also stop. Global citizenship inches closer and closer to more people every day, especially the youth. As the architects of tomorrow, the youth are the ones that need global citizenship more than anyone. The almighty Internet is the harbinger of this new and growing global mind, and it facilitates other ventures that attempt to make the youth more global, such as Model United Nations, or any school or college debate that deals with global issues.
AIESEC is responsible for spreading global awareness through experiences at a global level. They believe in the simple credo: there is no way to go but up
Volume 3 Issue 4
