This week in our class we have been discussing the role of a term we refer to as “global citizenship.” I am curious as to what it really means to be a global citizen, and how this term is often misconstrued and can actually do more harm than good. First we must look at how this term is defined in the dictionary: “A global citizen is someone who identifies with being part of an emerging world community and whose actions contribute to building this community’s values and practices.” The intent here is excellent and something that we should all strive to base our actions off of, but it’s also easy to misread. In our society it becomes easy for powerful developed nations to belittle nations that they don’t regard as equally important. In an attempt to be “global citizens” we end up often just intruding on other countries cultures socially, economically, and even politically.
We read a chapter out of a novel written by Judith Butler where she at one point mentions this same dilemma. She describes part of this problem as a failed attempt to “install democracy.” Because these developed nations have established such a strong sense of superiority their goal is not to communicate with local leaders on the ground in these developing countries to see how they can best help but rather it is to assert their power and dominance. How are we being responsible global citizens if we are consistently imposing our culture and beliefs on nations that don’t have the option to resist this change? We are selfishly protecting our nations sovereignty and therefore failing at being democratic. By being an active and engaged global citizen we are entitled to share our opinions and ideas about how we believe we may better assist developing countries in having greater success. However, we must recognize the limits of our intervention in these countries and rather than resist communicating with local leaders of developing countries become open to working together in order to create a fair democratic process.