Month: October 2015

What is a Global Citizen?

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Hello readers!

I am going to back track to the beginning of the year when we just started classes in the CAP stream of global citizens. At first it seemed as if every teacher in CAP was asking us what a global citizen means to you. Personally the question “what is a global citizen?” still ponders through my mind even though we discussed it so intently at the start of the year. As a couple of months have gone by I feel like I have gained an enhanced understanding of what a global citizen means to me. Through my interpretation there is not a set definition for what a global citizen is. Nonetheless, I believe a global citizen allows an individual to learn from people from all over the world, to study issues, and to connect and interact with other individuals. By advocating, at the local and global level most people feel a connection to others around the world who are facing similar challenges. The initiative of being global citizens seeks to bring together people to discover a common issue that they want to try and resolve.

Craig-and-Marc-January-2007-Kenya-770x300

When I was in high school, co-founder, Marc Kielburger from the organization Free the Children came to our school as a guest speaker. Marc came to speak to my school about the organization he and his brother Craig created to “free” children in developmental countries. When Marc spoke so passionately about his organization I became more aware of this issue in the world and realized how he created a role for him and his brother to make a difference. They both have a vast understanding of how the world works and that the concern about children is “complex and [roots] in a number of correlated social and economic obstacles” that are created in today’s society (“Free the Children”). How Free the Children participates and contributes to the community at the range of stages from a local to global scale is incredible to me. The willing act to make the world a more sustainable place got me inspired to help the cause. The goal for these brothers is to “strive to free children from poverty, exploitation, disease and thirst” and by creating this organization they have already made a substantial change as they are getting this issue out to the world (“Free the Children”). Free the Children formed an event called WE day, and luckily I was able to attend last year. This event gives the youth the opportunity to make a “difference in their local and global communities” and in this yearlong program individuals “nurture compassion in young people and gives them the tools to create transformative social change” (“Free the Children”). This day was life changing for me and to all the people reading my blog I highly recommend that you try to go this year. Here’s a short video about this astounding event!

http://www.weday.com/we-day-events/vancouver/

 

 

 

http://www.freethechildren.com

 

Innocence

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This week in my ASTU class we read Marjane Satrapi, graphic memoir Persepolis. This graphic memoir displays the challenges Marjane has to face while living in Iran with her family during the Islamic Revolution. For today’s blog I want to concentrate on children’s innocence and how this can create different affects about the way they live and will grow up.

Residential School

When Marjane meets her uncle Anoosh, it is evident through the images of her face in the graphic memoir that she became very captured by his stories about Iran. The way she cares about her country and heritage is very optimistic. Marjane’s innocence is extensively revealed because she does not understand or know everything that is happening in her oppressive regime. With all the attacks, restrictions, and constraints Marjane recognizes that she needs to step up and act like an adult. Masking her vulnerability allows her to take on the responsibility of having to be an independent woman when her parents send her to Austria. In comparison, this is what made me think about my sociology class. In class this week we were assigned to write a reflection paper about the effects of residential schools. We all know that residential schools are a significant topic in Canadian society to this day. The “assimilation of aboriginal children” is very aggressive and strip children of their innocence but more importantly, their identity (“Where are the Children).

Both Marjane and the children in residential school are exposed to violence, terror, and aggression. The children’s hopefulness is destroyed when a dominant figure, or petrifying situation comes into affect. The innocence they once had is gone. The children feel unsafe and essentially feel like they do not belong anywhere. Furthermore, being unprotected in the place where they are forced to learn or are living makes them frighten, and defenseless. For instance, Marjane had to wear a veil against her will to her segregated classes other wise she would be punished. In another manner, when children are taken away from their family at a very young age to go to residential school they mandatorily lose all of the culture.

Persepolis

I cannot imagine myself going through the obstacles these children go through. I know that children are still losing their innocence everyday and feel as if they need to grow up because the government, culture, and city is changing so severely. Nonetheless, Marjane and the children from residential schools innocence are both conveyed in different ways but are still experiencing the same affects.

 

http://wherearethechildren.ca

Satrapi, Marjane, and Marjane Satrapi. Persepolis. New York:             Pantheon Books, 2003. Print.