Challenges to Global Citizenship

As we have seen during the course, there are some challenges to Global Citizenship. In this post I will briefly explain what challenges and how could we overcome it.

First of all, I have point out below the issues that challenge the global citizenship according to the lecture of the block 5 and 6.

Issues that challenge the Global Citizenship

1. Universal moral order
2. Economic forces
3. Multiculturalism
4. Nationalism
5. The media 

Source: http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/77/103077-004-C101C7F2.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/424174404692492290/CypANnaY_400x400.png

The universal moral order is certainly an important issue that challenge the global citizenship because we always try to see the world with our eyes based on our own culture, however as we have studied in the lectures before we firstly need understand our culture for then try to understand another. Therefore, the problem is that how can we have a universal moral order in a world with so many different cultures? According to Hutchings (1999) the world has a moral law commonality that means that we all share a common need or desire. I would say that I partly agree, because we have a common desire and need however we also are composed to so many different cultures that is hard to point out something that would fit all the universal needs. Therefore, that why it can be consider as an issue.

Source: http://globalsolutions.org/files/public/images/6490813449_f0c51a7cc0_0.jpg

The economic forces are another important issue that challenge the global citizenship. First of all, it is widely known that the money is no fairly distributed around the world. It means that we have some really rich countries and a lot of poor countries that are suffering with so many problems that the money could solve. Moreover, those rich countries can use their economic force in order to explore the poor countries. For instance, we know that some countries inside Africa are being widely explored by Europeans and Americans in order to extract minerals and oil. Secondly, the capitalism even though it has led to the development of certain areas such as technology, it also have a bad side that is the exploration of the human right among the poor people.

The inequality among the world it is a problem that is going to be hardly solved because there is no way to distribute the money fairly around the world. However, we as global citizens can try to change it by avoiding certain brands that are well known for sweatshops, child labor and other scandals. 

Source: http://www.livingindiversity.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/multiculturalism-cartoon.jpeg

The multiculturalism, in Australia, is basically to make sure that all the different cultures are going to have the same rights in order to live and work here as a citizen. The lecturer also point out that there are three dimensions of the multiculturalism, which are cultural identity, social identity and productive diversity. From my point of view, Australia can be consider as a Global Country Citizenship, because they have a lot of policies that protect and encourage the difference of cultures. I would say that the multiculturalism is how the Australians are living. However, the multiculturalism also bring some issues to the Global Citizenship such as the clashing of cultures, the poor socio-economic positions of migrants, the racism and different social treatment for some cultures.

source: http://www.tenbiggestmyths.net/ideology/nationalism/nationalism.gif

The nationalism is used to push up the racism in certain countries where they use it in order to isolate and reject people that are not from that country. I reckon that United States of America is one of the most nationalist’s countries in the world, and I have heard so many cases of racism against non-Americans that I realize that it is also a huge gap between the global citizenship and the world.

source: https://otrazhenie.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/mass-media.png

The mass media is the responsible of communicate the world about the global issues and topics related. However, sometimes it works against the view of a global citizenship because it is possible to control what is going to appear to the world and also control what it is going to be, a good thing or a bad thing. We also can point out that the access of the news is an important factor. Are the news being spread for everyone? What about the people who has disabilities? 

From my point of view, even though the mass media works as the biggest way to improve the communication of the news, it also works as the biggest manipulation tool for the government and powerful people where they are trying to control ourselves by spreading what they want to say or sell. It also gives even more power to the western culture upon other cultures.

The global citizenship issues in Brazil

Source: http://clearingthefogradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Brazil-Corruption.jpg

As a Brazilian I can say that we are fighting, unsuccessfully, against a lot of problems that affect the global citizenship. First of all, we have an inequality in the education provided by the government and private institutions. There are a disparity between the poor and the rich. The government has been founded in so many cases of corruption that it can be consider as a shame to a country of that size. The inequality in Brazil make the things harder for everyone. For example, the education is poor, so if you want to learn another language, it is necessary to pay for that. The nationalism is not a problem is Brazil, because we are one of the kindest countries in relation to foreign people. The mass media in Brazil it is controlled by the richest people and they always avoid some facts in order to keep their image of good politicians. 

In order to solve all those challenges, we need to work together as a group and global citizens. The phrase below was said by the USA President, Barack Obama and in my opinion it is a good way to fight against some of the issues treated in this text.

Partnership and cooperation among nations is no a choice, it's the only way to protect our common security and advance our common humanity. - Barack Obama

Source: http://www.infoincog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/challenges.jpg