Marian Afari

GST 101
Philosophy of Global Citizenship
A passport is needed to be able to move from one country to another. It shows ones dedication
and allegiance to a specific country. But a persons ability to travel around the world does not
make him a global citizen; global citizenship needs more than that. An individual can attain
global citizenship without even leaving the community he/she lives in by making a difference.
Small things can be done across the world to make an impact as well as big things can be done in
small communities and also contribute to globalization. So who is a global citizen? A global
citizen is a person who recognizes the world around him/her, and takes precautions on how
his/her actions may affect the world. Therefore global citizenship means having the ability to
understand and share different cultural values and also relate to issues around the world.
I have always had a love for different cultural practices, and I have always wanted to participate
in festival celebrations. Even in a specific country there is not just one culture or language. Every
country has their own story of migration which contributes to the spread of cultures. Take my
country Ghana for instance; there are over 89 languages and dialects. I had the opportunity to
celebrate different festivals from different tribes, but its rather unfortunate that I was able to
speak just one language even though I can understand and interpret different dialects from my
tribe. One of our main problems as a country was that we were not united. There was always
some sort of argument between the government and the people from the Northern region. They
wanted to follow the monarch system instead of the democratic government and it tore the
country apart. But as time went on I discovered that the only thing missing was interpretation.
The democratic government failed to understand that all the people in the North wanted was to

keep their cultural values and be able to practice and celebrate their festivals freely without any
judgments. They lived by their own rules and social norms, and they were afraid that being under
the government will mean giving up their culture and conforming to the western ideas the
government has adopted. With this conflict in mind I wondered how global issues could be
solved without encountering this kind of conflict.
As a proud Ashanti woman I was raised to see myself as superior to others, but it was impossible
to ignore other cultures because they were dispersed throughout the country. The food we eat
was not only from the Ashanti culture but also from other cultures especially from the North and
the East, and surprisingly those were my favorite foods. With my love for food I began to
acknowledge other cultures and make friends from different parts of the country. Not only did I
learn how to make the food but I also learned how proud they also were of their own culture and
I began to feel bad for looking down on them. From that moment on I decided that in order for
me to learn and appreciate other cultures I would put mine aside as enjoy it through the eyes of
the people.
One similarity that all global citizens have is the fact that they all have an impact on the world.
Being a global citizen does not make everybody the same because they are not all after the same
problem and they do not all have the same solutions. I discovered this after two of our class
discussions. These were the debate about Kennedys message and Ilichs reading, and Emmas
Dilemma. Most of the time in class we all end up agreeing to the same solution or we all end up
recognizing that there is a problem, but find different solutions for the problem. In this debate
things changed. We were giving two different ideas about how a global citizen should act, and
that became a huge debate in the class. Even though both sides agreed that the intentions of
helping people is good, one side argued that it is best to start locally than to travel abroad. This

made me realize that global citizens think differently. I was on Ilichs side for this debate, but I
did not support his theory that good intentions lead to bad outcomes. He stated that a few months
after the student volunteers live the developing countries the people begin to fall apart. He then
goes on to criticize the process of selection and training of the volunteers, but what he says is just
a worse-case scenario and it surprised me that no one from the opposing team bring it up. They
kept on defending Kennedys message which we all know was a bit from a selfish point of view.
Kennedy had in mind that it was their duty to help struggling countries because the world is
inter-connected and one day they will be in need of the help from the people they helped which
was not bad at all. But the idea behind it was to claim America as a super hero to come in and
save the day and as a result gain natural resources. The argument from the opposing team was all
about the selfish motive behind Kennedys speech, not once did they mention the cultural shock.
The next defense that we all had to provide getting to the end of the semester which made me
understand our arguments from the debate better was Emmas dilemma. For this defense we did
not have the chance to pick which side to defend we were just assigned a character to defend.
This changed the light of how we all think. Even though half of us did not agree with the people
we had, we realize that we cant judge peoples situations and solutions before we have been in
the exact problem. We all make our choices based on personal experience just like the family
planning representatives. The representatives failed to recognize the cultural shock their solution
would have on the community. At the same time the community failed to recognize that their
regular solution is not helping them and its about time they changed it. The fact that it was a
Western solution clouded their judgment that they failed to recognize family planning as a
solution, but heres is the reality, sometimes Western ideas work in developing countries. Its all
about how the problem is approached. A global citizen should not always ignore Western

solutions, but should know when it is appropriate to use it and how to approach the country in
need in order to not insult their culture.
One of the many readings in class that I realized raises a cultural conflict is the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights article. When the United Nations was drawing this article they had
in mind that they were helping the individual gain freedom, but they failed to recognize cultural
and religious conflict especially in third world countries. Article 16 section 2 talks about the right
to marry whomever one pleases. After writing these articles did they establish rules about these
some of these articles if they were broken by people? And how are they going to deal with the
issues about marriage? In some cultures, arranged marriage is a big deal there. Even multiple
marriages are allowed in some culture, now how is the UN going to tackle this issue without
raising eyebrows about trying to change peoples culture whether right or wrong? The way a
global citizen deal with situations is very important because some issues are very delicate and
without the right amount of research for solutions and the right approach issues like this can
erupt.
A group of young people that I have met this year has definitely helped me figured out the
solution to ending these types of conflicts, and they have showed me the true meaning of global
citizenship. These amazing young boys and girls are the students from Providence Academy of
International Studies. They showed me that anyone can be a global citizen if they only commit to
it. The students at PAIS are mainly Hispanics but through their neighborhood and classroom
education they were able to obtain knowledge about other cultures and world crisis. They did not
just keep their education to themselves, but they shared it instead. These students, in my mind are
global citizens because they know more about the world than most of their peers in the state of
Rhode Island, and moreover they have taken an action to help control some of the crisis in

developing countries without leaving the state. The monthly allowance one student receives
cannot help save an entire village, but these students did not think about that at all. They joined
hands with their local community to help raise awareness to crisis in developing countries. Some
people like Paul Farmer, use their global citizenship to travel across the world to help people, but
these students do not have that kind of privilege but still managed to make it work. Just like
Farmers remedy is helping the people in Haiti but not stopping the cause of illness so is the
students funds and awareness helping a cause but not solving it. We can all try but that does not
mean that our solution will work. All that matters is that at the end of the day we recognize the
problem and we care to help. It all goes back to the question in class about whether some
solutions are just Band-Aids or actually solutions, but at the end of the day neither one is bad as
long as the type of solution is defined. When Band-Aid type solutions are used, they should
make sure that they keep in mind to find a real solution to the problem rather than waste money
if not then they must leave the problem as it is.
One man cannot solve the all the problems in the world. For an individual to call himself a
global citizen does not mean that he has the ability to stop a world crisis on his own. At this
moment it is still too early for me to say what role Im going to play in shaping the worlds
economy and addressing global issues. But I can say that I would like to have some sort of part
in reshaping the world and creating a connection between countries to become one. Some issues
are hard to fight globally because of cultural norms, but there is always a way around them. But
if they are tackled the right way a peaceful solution will be gained. As of now, all I know is that I
would like to start by bringing different communities together locally and start building trust
from there. Maybe it will grow in the future into building trusts between countries and making
sure that one country is not taking advantage of the other for their own personal gain. I would

want to find a way to protect local cultures through these communities and produce solutions to
crisis that are not all westernized solutions. As long as every voice is heard the world will be a
global community.