What is a Global Identity and Global Citizen? (SumBlog #3)

           While trying to decide how I wanted to explore Global Identity and Global citizenship, I decided to research what has already been talked about, even outside of our classroom. So, as I was looking, I found that I’m a more visual and audio person, so I went straight to Youtube.com and then progressed to ted.com, which I have to say, really was the basis for the majority of the information that really got me thinking, even outside of the class.

            While in class, we would talk about definitions, and while I think that’s all well and good, because exploring globalization outside of a strict economic view is so new, having those concrete definitions is a struggle. We found that in my group, and while even in group discussions, the basics of this word “Globalization” was so difficult to pin an exact definition to. So, as you can imagine, trying to say well here is a concrete definition for “Global Identity” or “Global citizen” was nearly impossible. Especially when trying to think of terms and phrases outside of our western way of speaking to really encompass the entire globe. I personally found it difficult to really give an exact definition for those terms, especially when I think of how much I don’t consider myself a true global citizen. While yes, I do like to learn about other cultures, and I try to put an emphasis on not judging them based off what I was raised with, it is incredibly hard to really do that. I am not a traveler, although I’d love to be. I do not have a lot of friends from around the world, maybe a handful. And I really have no idea how each country views its own citizens, or how they define citizenship within their countries. Because of that, I truly can’t say that I consider myself a global citizen.

            Now, attached to this blog, I’ve put a few of the videos that I really connected with, and they each take their own aspect of global identities, and global citizens. I found this super helpful, because I was trying to define it and kept feeling like I was leaving things out. From watching these videos, I learned that there isn’t one specific definition. And while we can try to define globalization, global identity, and global citizen, we will never have an exact definition; each person will interpret those words how they feel they suit their needs, or the needs of their community. 

 Turning urban youth into global citizens: Angela Jackson

^ the above link is about a woman who does a study and research on Urban Youths and trying to turn them into Global Citizens. The way she goes about it, and how she sampled different grades and views, is very interesting. "Angela Jackson is the founder and executive director of the Global Language Project, an educational movement that seeks to equip disadvantaged public-school students with the skills to compete in a globalized world and work force by helping them to develop functional proficiency in a language other than English"

How does one become a global citizen?: Tanja Schulze

^ this video is about a woman who has traveled, and is just trying to figure out how one becomes a global citizen. It's very interesting because she talks about how when she was a child her view of the world was reading children's books from different countries. "An exploration of the concept of Global Citizenship, a search for a definition and a quest to find the conditions needed to form Global Citizens -- interwoven with personal stories by the presenter."

  Now while this video takes a very interesting view of globalization. In Globalizing the local, and localizing the global, "Sheikha Al Mayassa, a patron of artists, storytellers and filmmakers in Qatar, talks about how art and culture create a country's identity -- and allow every country to share its unique identity with the wider world. As she says: "We don't want to be all the same, but we do want to understand each other"

And in the last video that I really found interesting, Gordon Brown answers some of the questions that we have been asking in class, and adds his perspective on the Globalization. "Can the interests of an individual nation be reconciled with humanity's greater good? Can a patriotic, nationally elected politician really give people in other countries equal consideration? Following his TEDTalk calling for a global ethic, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown fields questions from TED Curator Chris Anderson"

China, and the Journey of my Shoe (SumBlog 1)

For my story of a shoe, I decided to use my tennis shoes which are made by the Fila Company. I learned a lot of interesting things about them! Firstly, I learned that when Fila originated, it was created as a textile company in Italy. Then once it grew into a shoe manufacturing company it moved to china. I find this interesting for a different reason than most people. My mother is a quality analyst for the Kohler Company, and it has really shown me a different side to the manufacturing world of China.

                My mom works specifically with China manufacturers and helps them to pass all of the regulations for the quality of their products. I looked into this assignment a little differently than some of my peers, I looked into the history of China from about 50 years ago to now, and I found out that they have made progress for their employees. While it is in no way, shape, or form the same as how we treat our workers, it has gotten a whole lot better. I found one source that writes about how greatly the safety, lifespan and other characteristics of their employees work life have greatly improved over the last 50 years.

                I found that interesting, I always think that china is so horrible to its workers, that all it cares about is its profit margins and not its employees… now while I don’t think that’s entirely untrue, it actually has greatly improved. One thing however that I would be curious to learn about, is at the rate that the economy is supposedly growing in China, when will its heavy depression hit? And also once it has hit, how horrible will the lives of most people become? In the two images you can see two different types of development. One, I got from www.chinalovematch.net, in this picture you can see how much light has been brought to China, and how much it has changed from 1980-2009 when this photo was taken. In the second picture that I got from GLOBOsapiens.net, you can see that between the 1970's and 2013, there has been great change to even this "underdeveloped" part of China. I find this interesting because of how fast the country is developing it only intensifies my belief of what the future brings to China.

                I watched a movie about full cities in china that were created with the hope that people would live in them. Now, those cities are completely empty, and the cost of up keeping them is far greater than the country can actually afford. With this expense, paired with the speed of the countries development, I feel it is going to hit rock bottom fairly soon. And when China hits rock bottom... America will become exceedingly worse.