Globalization

What is Globalization?

According to the Business Dictionary:

 ''Globalization means the worldwide movement toward economic, financial, trade and communications integration. Globalization implies the opening of local and nationalistic perspectives to a broader outlook of an interconnected and interdependent world with free transfer of capital, goods, and services across national frontiers. However, it does not include unhindered movement of labor and, as suggested by some economists, it may hurt smaller or fragile economies if applied indiscriminately.''

Source: http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/globalization-wordcloud-9500390.jpg

I reckon that everybody knows what is the meaning of globalization, because it has been treated as a global term since the past few decades. In my opinion, the word globalization means the connection between countries through the goods, services and common interests in order to improve their interests. The globalization it is a result of the growth of the international trade.

What is the connection between Globalization and Global Citizenship?

Both terms are strictly connected because they are interdependent terms. As I have explained before, to be a global citizen you must think that you have a world nationality, it means that you think about the world as a big nation and you know that you are part of that and can make the difference throughout your acts. The globalization make the global citizenship a possible thing to be part of, because we could not be able to think about and do things for other countries if we did not have a connection that makes possible the communication between the countries even though they are located far.

Source: http://accelerateit.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/globalization-globe.jpg 

With the advanced technology and increased communication between the countries we now are able to do some actions even though we are really far from a place. For instance, in nowadays is possible to be part of non-government organizations (NGOs) and make donations without travelling. It makes the actions easier than before. Another important factor is the internet. The internet has been the number one in terms of connecting people. For example, we can think about the social websites that are making the difference in the world as shown in the picture below.

Source: http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/files/2014/01/social-media-networks.png

Is there any problem related to the globalization in the world?

Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjud8zuYmilPJxlRTd6HDwgPSS6Br_OSnPqhBJgzP5OxUfr1c0CrI8de5T2wz3RFOW5gev0NGd_PFRJjx7Tdhnesiy2jfvUX-6blIWDQ5kY2fMiVsJ67XfUVI3UU0tnhbsRX6HfW3BtH4Fk/s1600/globalizacion___globalization_by_sguidobono-d34zcsz.jpg

The answer is YES. Although the globalization have many positive impacts in the world and make the communication and trade easily between the countries, it also come with some issues that must be point out. First of all, the globalization may provide the weakness to the local commerce. For instance, some products that were produced in their countries few decades ago stopped because it was cheaper to buy it of outside the country, it has led to increased levels of poverty and making the money going overseas instead of stayed in the country. Secondly, with the increased globalization our resources are going down faster than before. For example, in order to produce more products to sell it overseas some countries, such as China, have increased their emissions of greenhouse gases, which has led to more pollution in the atmosphere and huge environmental problems. Moreover, the globalization have been made the countries think that they do not need to produce their goods because it is cheaper to buy from elsewhere in the world than produce it. It creates dependence between countries in order to have the goods and services. Furthermore, can you think about how many countries are REALLY dependent of China? I cannot even think about it, but if one day China collapses, it is going to be a huge problem in the world.

From my point of view, the globalization is a good think but it has to be controlled in order to do not cause the dependence between the nations as far we are going to. To be a global citizenship it is necessary to have certain dependence of others but it has to be controlled in the mode that you can provide good things to the world but you also can survive without the good things that they provided to you. I also thought about the social difference that it has made in the world. For example, to make the production and communication possible to be executed, many people, mostly poor, are working as 'slaves' and it is a huge problem related to the human rights.

Have you ever thought about it?

What is Global Citizenship?

Source: http://www.iearn.org/sites/default/files/filefield_uploads/global-survey2.jpg

That is an important question that came up in the beginning of our summer course. When I firstly thought about it, I felt a little bit confused about what it should be. After watch some videos explaining about it I realize that the definition of a global citizenship, in my opinion, could be as follow below.

''Global citizen is a person that belong to the world and not just a special community. It means that they want to make the difference in a global scale and not just local. The global citizens are looking at seeing the world from a different way in order to make it healthier, sustainable. Compassionate and peaceful. The youth has an incredible power to make this difference in the world. ''

How can I become a Global citizen?

That is an interesting question that everybody probably had in their minds in the begging of the course. From my point of view, to become a global citizen you must be able to see the world as a big community where everybody should work together to make it a better place to live our lives without destroying our natural resources and being also able to make connections that overcome the borders of our countries in order to make it possible.

The pictures below shown what I am trying to explain.

Source: http://www.lawfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/global-citizen.jpg

Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRwxtGLfPAXXlCzTki9QpSnnwwnJd2G_aXRxNF7zyoLIYt3H9pxGsGyRH6xqAeXT9Ddwu4rpcw7bBtOcGg2nwZ97WDheC7NvG_k8p9ott_ihTSMvAuKHZsYhnaLFMFnW0zsuxq-vluRA/s200/gcp-logo.gif

Those pictures above are good to show a lit bit what the Global Citizenship is composed of. It shows that does not matter what is your color of skin or your nationality, who has a global citizenship are above those terms and their identity transcends the borders of political and geography areas in order to make the world a big community.

Source: http://sitesmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/gc/files/2010/09/yogc 

The phrase above was found in the internet when I did a research about the definition of global citizenship. I agreed with that phrase however there are some points that we need to think about. First of all, is not strictly necessary to be in our country to do good things for it, I reckon that the most powerful energy of the humanity come up through our ideas that transform the world when they started to be not just in our mind but in the real time by our actions. Secondly, I think that our eyes surveying the world keep our mind working as a global citizen, because it means that we are not just thinking about our nation, but the whole nation that the term Global citizen is composed.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this publication, feel free to comment about and discuss. 

My world view plus Mind Map by Prezi

I have created one mind map of my world view.
It was a good exercise to think about what really matter for us in our life and how it has been changing our thoughts and beliefs.

http://prezi.com/mm7h_abq1tnv/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

My world view

My history started in Brazil at the city of São Paulo in 1992. I was the second child of my mother, the first one was my sister, she is 2 years older than me. The history of my family it is full of adventure that has led to mixed cultures in the house. My parents are both from Brazil, however they have background from Europe, that is why I do not look like a Brazilian guy (following the pattern: black hair & tan skin).

The fact of have a background from another country can be useful for you or not, it is going to be up to your family. Fortunately my family always tried to bring it as a useful thing. First of all, my grandmother and my grandfather they came from Portugal and made their lives in Brazil. It would be just a normal thing in that time, cause Portugal was passing throughout financial problems in their government. However, my family tried to teach me what is the important thing about it.

Moreover, I grew up listening and discussing about the differences between the cultures of my background and it was so important to me because I started to develop an interest about the opportunities that the global citizenship can have. Furthermore, all the difficult times that my family passed throughout led me to build my thoughts as a man earlier than the usual.

Since I was a kid I always had interest in how to build the things, it led me to get in a course of Engineering in Brazil. Being a student it is always good for learn new things and build your knowledge. Since I got in the university I have passed through a lot of experiences that changed my thoughts and my behavior. One of the best experiences that I have got was the scholarship from my government. I am a part of the program called by Science Without Borders. I came to Australia as an exchange student for 17 months. I have been here for 10 months and since the first day I have met a lot of people from everywhere in the world. It is being so useful for me, every person that I have met I learned something new about their cultures. Now, I am living in a huge house with 32 people from different countries. I can easily say that I am changing every day, it is shaping my mind.

My housemates

This experience in Australia is showing to me that our thoughts, behavior and knowledge, they are related to the culture that we have experienced. My view of the world now is different than when I was in Brazil. I understand that the culture have influence in our view of the world, our values and beliefs. Another important thing to point out it is about the differences of each culture. For example, the Chinese have a different calendar. In the first moment that you see something really different than your reality the feeling it is weird but after few words explaining about that you start to accept it as something that can bring to you knowledge and maybe change your thoughts and beliefs. For example, when I saw my friend from china drinking warm water I was feeling so weird, but then they explained to me that it is common in China and it is consider as a healthy practice of them. The friendship make the world better, sharing experiences and cultures even though whether differences are strong or not.

I would like to say that the fact of being living with so many people it is the best experience that someone can have about learning cultures. The cultural connections that it has bring to me it is building who I am now. The respect, the interest of learning and the adventure, are words that come together in a peaceful experience living with so many different cultures.

My first post

Hello everyone, my name is Airton. I'm from brazil and currently I'm living in Sydney.

I have created this blog for show my thoughts and ideas about the Global Citizenship.

I hope  you enjoy, feel free to contact me for any question or suggestion.

Thank you,