Three Minds On Global Citizens Essay Research

Three Minds On Global Citizens Essay, Research Paper Three Minds on Global Citizenship The mission of Chapman University is to provide education that leads to interested, ethical, and productive lives as global citizens. Globalization has become a catch phrase for the increasing integration of the world economy. Some of the many problems we are faced with today are polluted air and toxic wastes, deforestation in the Amazon, global warming and the hole in the ozone layer will affect all of us. The awareness of the world around you is a gift only the unwise among you may neglect. Donald Will stresses the importance of global awareness to the modern student. Fred Smoller emphasizes participation as essential to democracy. Paul Apodaca critically states the tension around global

citizenship. Will, Smoller, and Apodaca have different styles and beliefs towards global citizenship and go into further detail with the subject. Donald S. Will begins his concept with the title of his piece, Get Global or Get Left Behind! A major reason for knowing more about the cultures, events, and people around the globe is that they are part of us. An interesting fact mentioned in Will s excerpt is that Southern California is one of the most diverse regions in the country and we live here. It is wrong not to take action when others around us are surrounded by famine, genocide or natural disasters. We as global citizens should not stand and see the humanity of others get crushed because our own human race will too be overtaken. Will clearly states in his opinions, A global

citizen is a person who develops an awareness of world affairs, who has acquired the critical thinking skills to analyze such events, and who can evaluate the ethical dimensions of complex issues-possibly leading to actions designed to make the world a better place. While going further into depth with Will s concept of global citizenship, he zeroes in on some of the initial causes in the past. The white population descending from European settlers sought to deny Africans citizenship. White people laid claim to vast mineral wealth and around eighty-seven percent of the land. Africans were forcibly relocated into reservations and also had mass starvation because of segregation. Eventually, United Nations condemned the apartheid system both for its violations of human rights and the

fact it posed a threat to world peace. Moving on now, Will takes a concerning look at the present. In Vietnam, Nike provides labor costs of just four dollars and ninety cents for producing a pair of one hundred and fifty dollar shoes. Workers there receive one dollar and sixty cents for an eight-hour working day. The estimate of a living wage for one individual there run about three dollars per day. Critics point out that Nike could double its wages for the 25,000 Vietnamese workers for just two percents of the five hundred and sixty million dollars it spends on advertising. Similar actions have been pointed out at Disney for paying thirty cents an hour to workers in Haiti. Will puts this insanity into a bold statement by saying, If our values do not extend beyond ourselves, we

are essentially selfish. Like it or not we are all part of a global community. Thee is hope if we work together with our fellow global citizens to form a just and peaceful world. In contrast with Will s title, Fred Smoller puts his concept of global citizenship as Citizenship in the 21st Century. Rather than looking back at the past, Smoller wants to focus on the present, the now . Smoller uses the form of an outline or even categorizes his key points of global citizenship. Some of the problems mentioned are voting, the government, and participation of the citizen. Going into further detail, the voter turnout: America has the lowest voter turnout of any industrialized nation. Only around fifty-five percent of the eligible voters actually vote. Another problem is that nobody