Change is inevitable, change is verity and change is the spice of modern life leading. Everyday the world is on the move and the stagnation is the utter obstacle of any developmental effort. Keeping touch with the advanced world is the zest of globalization and so, innovative thinking, creative idea and global attitude is a must here. Therefore, the newly emerging concept of “Global Citizenship” is a 21st-century approach having some certain principles of global responsibility and accountability which are applied to everyday in our every local action. Borders are weakening, multiple citizenships are more commonplace, migration has reached record levels, and we, the people of the world have made the world so closer to our eye contact. With the growing technological advances governance is increasingly conducted beyond the parameters of the nation-state, the concept of global citizenship remains mysteriously absent.Global citizenship: Can a Bangladeshi be a global citizen?
Global citizenship nurtures personal respect and respect for others. It encourages individuals to think deeply and critically about what is equitable and just
Rana Dutta
Change is inevitable, change is verity and change is the spice of modern life leading. Everyday the world is on the move and the stagnation is the utter obstacle of any developmental effort. Keeping touch with the advanced world is the zest of globalization and so, innovative thinking, creative idea and global attitude is a must here. Therefore, the newly emerging concept of Global Citizenship is a 21st-century approach having some certain principles of global responsibility and accountability which are applied to everyday in our every local action. Borders are weakening, multiple citizenships are more commonplace, migration has reached record levels, and we, the people of the world have made the world so closer to our eye contact. With the growing technological advances governance is increasingly conducted beyond the parameters of the nation-state, the concept of global citizenship remains mysteriously absent.
Embrace the idea or ignore it we are all global citizens. Global citizenship means seeing oneself as part of a collective. It means one needs to taking responsibility for global issues. The concept of global citizenship can mean different things to different people. A global citizen nurtures the ideas that their actions have an impact here and around the world. In broad usage, the term global citizenship or world citizenship typically defines a person who places their identity with a global community above their identity as a citizen of a particular nation or place and obviously a global citizen is someone who possesses extraordinary knowledge about the rest part of the world.
Here, the idea of an active global citizenship must have to considered; it means taking action to build a more just and sustainable world. It can include a variety of actions, from public awareness campaigns to working on the ground in conflict zones to personal lifestyle and consumer choices. Moreover, global citizenship nurtures personal respect and respect for others. It encourages individuals to think deeply and critically about what is equitable and just, and what will minimize harm to our planet. Exploring global citizenship themes help learners grow more confident in standing up for their beliefs, and more skilled in evaluating the ethics and impact of their decisions.
According to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, A global citizen is someone who understands interconnectedness, respects and values diversity, has the ability to challenge injustice, and takes action personally in a meaningful ways. Todays education for global citizenship empowers students to understand and exercise their human rights in ways that demonstrate solidarity with human beings everywhere and make a positive impact on the world. Therefore, to do so they require an education that cultivates in them the knowledge, skills, values, and actions to be responsible global citizens. In addition, educators are highly encouraged to extend the knowledge, skills, and values cultivated in this unit to the rest of their teaching. Traditional civic education is ineffective if it exists in a bubble. So, global citizenship educations have to introduce into the entirety of a schools atmosphere of learning if we want to get real impact of it.
From the dawn of human civilization human beings always have organized themselves into groups and communities based on shared identity. Such identity gets forged in response to a variety of human needs - economic, political, religious, and social. As group identities grow stronger, those who hold them organize into communities, articulate shared values, and build governance structures that reflect their beliefs. The more the world grows, the more interconnected with the economic progress that creates serious collateral damage in the form of damaged natural ecosystems, cultural losses, eroded human rights, and ever-expanding disparities between rich and poor. In this prospect global citizenship is merely a way of actively addressing these problems on an individual basis.
In this daunting situation we need to practise the concept of global citizenship that teaches us leadership, ethics, service, global awareness, and personal responsibility. Global citizens think, act, and speak with virtue and integrity. They have a healthy respect and responsibility for themselves, for others, and for properties both physical and intellectual. But global citizen is not an ordinary one but a citizen who possesses warm heart to encourage, share and help each other by stretching his or her helping hands. It is very significant with unlucky destiny that is disabled, poor, sick and homeless as they need other peoples earnest co-operation to break down the so-called wall of complexity.
In order to motivate global citizens, the Clinton Global Citizen Awards was established in 2007. President Bill Clinton was awarded this prestigious award to giving recognition to the outstanding individuals who exemplify global citizenship through their vision and leadership. These citizens have proven that diverse sectors of society can work together successfully to devise solutions that effect positive, lasting social change. Nominated by CGI members and other global leaders, honorees were chosen based on their innovative thinking and approaches, and on the demonstrated results and sustainability of their work. The awards are given to individuals who have shown innovative leadership in four sectors: civil society, the corporate sector, philanthropy, and public service. Having proven their exceptional abilities to strengthen civil society, these visionaries inspire not only the people of Bangladesh but also rest of the world to take action and to become true global citizens.
In Bangladesh point of view, we have to try doing anything we think to know exactly our real ability is better than afraid to pull it out of our mind and never reach a goal in life. It is very important to the people of Bangladesh to stand firmly with altogether. When we firmly stand, we can connect others to give others what we have such as hoping, patience or only a warm smile. Especially the young talented youth should be dynamic more and more to become open, active and make connection with people around us and even in the world. We all want to introduce our country, our culture, and our country people with the foreigner to make them know Bangladesh is our country. In this prospect, we all need to be dynamic to improve ourselves.
It is also very important elementary fact to know that global citizen is a content and campaigning platform for the movement to end the chapter of extreme poverty by 2030. Since globalcitizen.org launched in August 2012, global citizens have taken more than 2.75 million actions, and have contributed to more than 35 campaign victories and announcements. Global citizens know it well that a world that deprives 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty of their basic rights and opportunities is unjust and unacceptable to the all considered people of the world. Therefore, it is a must to take action to end the injustice of extreme poverty, by changing the rules that keep people trapped in the cycle of poverty which seems to be never-ending. Global citizens act to ensure that everybody, regardless of where they are born, has the basic rights, education, services and infrastructure that will allow them to move beyond poverty. In this connection, Global Citizen Movement has played a unique role as speaker for social causes of extreme poverty and is working to end the chapter. This movement provides a global platform, calls attention to extreme poverty, builds citizen action on issues related to extreme poverty and allows us to make a strong and unified call for policy change. A global citizen understands that their actions have an impact here and around the world. It is inspiring news to all of us that Bangladesh has recently arranged world citizenship competition 2015(started from Wed, 11 Mar 2015 00:00 - Wed, 15 Apr 2015 17:59). The motto of this competition is to change the world. Since Imagine Cup started in 2003, students all over the world have teamed up to make the world a better place. By creating impressive new technology projects in fields such as health, education, and the environment these students have shown the world new ways to think and to change. Can we predict that you cannot be next?
Whenever we find a problem in the world, even in our own life or community, which definitely affects many people, and then we work together to solve it and this is core philosophy of global citizenship. We can build a project that could change lives and change our own in the process, because the team we assemble to bring this vision to life will learn more and challenge themselves more than anyone can yet imagine.
Now it is time to demonstrate ourselves as a worthy global citizen by acquiring certain principles. Here, the young talented, old energetic and self-dedicated Bangladeshi citizens can take the challenge to keep Bangladesh ahead with the competitive world.
The writer is Senior Assistant Secretary, BKMEA
E-mail: [email protected]
