What is the meaning of global citizenship?
Is it an individual who has a certificate stating that they are a citizen of a country, a nation or a community?
Is it a valid ticket or passport to other countries where one dwells into cultures and cities that are significantly different from others?
Week 1 lecture starts off with the Introduction of Global Citizenship. A forum where students gather to express their ideas and interpretations of the course. My position as a student of this course was to explore the related readings posted on Moodle and on other sources such as the internet to gather ideas on my perspective as a global citizen. I personally thought about the definitions of Global Citizenship. How can I be a Global Citizen? Does it mean that I could hold two different national Citizenship certificates and state that I am a global citizen? Questions running through my head led me to search answers and other interpretations of global citizenship.
As I was reading Nationalism and Global Citizenship by April Carter, what fascinates me in her perspectives in global citizenship extends towards global economic integration (which I think she meant was globalisation) based on environmental interdependence and creating or modernising the global communications through our technology and transportation. From the reading, I see that there is a difference in between nationalism and being a global citizenship. Nationalism from my own ideas and knowledge would be an individual who is proud to be a country's citizen. More or less, someone who is proud to be that nationality - whether it being Greek, Ethiopian, Chinese, Lebanese, British and so on. A person who will defend its country through joining alliances such as defense or merely civil activists. In that sense, this is what April Carter is trying to persuade us thinking that nationalism is constituted by common remembrance of glorious past by common will to live together with shared language, culture and adapting to the common descent. I agree with the author's words and try to imagine as a patriotic character whom loved his/her country like world leaders.
On the other hand, global citizenship in my understanding is someone who would have traveled the world or hold a certificate of citizenship in two or more countries. Thus being said, I feel that I am too as I hold a Hong Kong residency and an Australian residency. Not only that piece of paper who stamps the validity of two different citizenship portrays the meaning of 'global citizenship' but in more general sense, I believe that to be one is to engage with other cultures and beliefs. Further reading into the Nationalism and Global Citizenship article, the key word 'cosmopolitan' pops up in every paragraph. At first, I thought of the alcoholic drink in a martini glass with a green olive sitting on the bottom. I was confused what the word meant because I have not heard of the word cosmopolitan in terms of global citizenship. As April Carter describes the cosmopolitan values of citizens. Cosmopolis (from the word cosmopolitan) is defined as a city of world, and of the individual who is a citizen of world or Google dictionary describes a city inhabitant of different nationalities. Furthermore, the author writes that a global citizenship is a promotion of trade in resources, economy and support of green movements as well as peace campaigns. This definition made me think about globalisation.
Globalisation is a strong movement of people, technology, economy and resources. I can see that there is a huge impact of globalisation affecting my daily life- whether it be carbon tax schemes or hanging out at a local Chinese suburban area. With rapid growth of technology, the world's knowledge is being more and more integrated with more advanced technology - especially in health, multinational corporations and communications. I pondered on the meaning of globalisation and how this can be related to the meaning of global citizen. I thought does global citizen mean someone who uses information and knowledge to grasp resources from another continent like receiving live updates on news, finance or even social life with Facebook. An interaction between yourself and the world beyond at this time, at this very minute is what we connect to the world via superior technology - which is the internet.
Overall, the concept of 'global citizenship' is somewhat interesting but has no specific meaning. How can one person be a global citizen with two or more certificates of citizenship be the same as a person who has a wide range of connections from all over the world just by logging onto the internet?
A movement of culture, politics, technologies, resources through trade and foreign agreements establishes that concept of interaction between the world and oneself also known as globalisaiton. I believe that my everyday interaction with people around the world or cultural upbringing that starts from my home makes me a global citizen.
