15 Comments Add your own

• 1. Eli  |  March 9th, 2007 at 1:23 am

  I’d first off like to commend our institution for creating such amazing international opportunities that all of us can take advantage of. Growing up overseas I have become a firm believer in the importance of an open mind, a mind you cannot truly attain without a clear understanding of our world. I was taught throughout my youth to assume racial tolerance, empathy, and be motivated to succeed. By seeing the world in all its wonder and despair, one becomes humbled. All of us here at the UW are extremely fortunate for the ability given to us to become educated and succeed. It is our duty, be it by creating affordable flu vaccines or volunteering our time, to help others experience success similar to ours. I plan to use my degrees (Computer Science and International Studies) to become part of the international community and do my part where it is needed. We would want them to do the same if our situations were reversed. I urge everyone to travel, read the news, or take an course related to globalization so as to come to become aware as I have in me few years on the planet. By becoming aware you will improve yourself, be it in mind, body, or soul. The common cliche that “there is no self-less good deed” remains true here. Use your opportunities to help others and you will be guaranteed to grow as a person.

• 2. Charles Smeltzer  |  March 9th, 2007 at 1:41 am

  I couldn’t agree more that global affairs are important and dictate, in many respects, what happens here locally. With my degree at the University of Washington in atmospheric chemistry I realize the threat of global warming but even more so global pollution. It is true; we all must get together on an international level if we are to increase our success at preserving our planet as our atmosphere does not reconcile well with political boundaries.

  In studying at University of Washington I have been given the chance to meet people who share this concern and for me, that concern has been realized in a new company called Airborne Research Consultants. It is our hope and our pleasure to take measurements of potential problems both in the atmosphere and on the ground and to help determine a better solution with your cooperation, for all of us who live within and breath the air!

• 3. John Nelson  |  March 9th, 2007 at 7:27 am

  How about the global war on terrorism? You know, opposing the folks who blow up children in order to kill coalition soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, killed three thousand of our citizens six years ago, strap bombs on their bodies to kill teenagers at Discos in Israel and who believe they are going to heaven because of it, who put a “fatwa” on Salman Rushdie, sentence people to death for “blasphemy”, burned embassies and killed people in riots over newspaper cartoons in Denmark, and rioted and killed people last year in Nigeria over a beauty pageant. Does the UW, as an institution, support oppostion to islamo-fascism? The same world-view that spawns Al Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad etc. also perpetuates the institution of slavery in Africa in places such as Sudan and Mauratania, as well as the practice of female genital mutilation. Iran detonating nuclear weapons in order to kill everyone in Isreal (Palestinians included) won’t be very environmentally friendly. Perhaps there is no such thing as being a “world citizen”, other than each free individual making a choice to oppose tyranny regardless of left-wing political correctness.

• 4. Bryce Smart  |  March 9th, 2007 at 8:40 am

  Dear Readers/Editors,

  We are continually told that we must be global citizens, participating in causes spanning nations, or even continents. I recognize that this message is being established with the intention of encouraging philanthropic activities to promote the betterment of society across the globe. However, I believe this view to be flawed on several levels.

  First, the world citizen view is far too broad a view for most people to conceptualize. Even when a person tries to understand what it means to be a “world citizen”, he or she is likely only to imagine a few images of people in four or five countries, at best. This problem is the same problem encountered by Athens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, where the city-state sent out a call for her fellow Grecians to rise and defend Greece from the Persian invaders. Athens could only muster a few thousand to aid her in defense against an invading army of 300,000. This pathetic response is attributed by historians to the lack of an accurate view of what it meant to be a “Greek Citizen”. This is the same problem we face today. Because people, generally, cannot fathom the scope of being a world citizen, they cannot and should not make decisions based on that premise.

  Second, should people everywhere begin to look to their own communities and focus their efforts “inward”, the necessity of humanitarian globalization would be dramatically reduced. Most communities would see sharp declines in crime, poverty, and many other social ills without necessitating the strain and conflict produced as “Western views” or a “global culture” begin to be tacitly imposed by outsiders attempting to influence a culture as they try to help it. This influence is not necessarily intentional or evil, but occurs naturally, producing an umbrella culture that attempts to create a global homogeneity, growing broader and broader until it means almost nothing. The term “Global Citizen” seems to fit at this point. People understand their own cultures and communities. They can understand what it means to help the beggar outside of the library, or to provide alternative activities for kids to keep the spray-paint off of their workplaces. People, individuals, can make a difference on a community level on a far greater scale than most people otherwise can.

  Finally, the global citizen worldview allows for injustice to leave regional boundaries and threaten those who have worked hard to remove it from their own lands. One can see this as Al Qaeda has successfully turned the press in the United States into its chief weapon. They expertly use international communications channels to alter public opinion and spawn hatred within the United States. The globalization mentality has as much capacity for evil as for good. One may hope that globalization would be more likely to be used for good, but sad millennia of experience has shown that man has almost always drifted to chaos and conflict. By encouraging a global citizen view, one gives unconscious encouragement to those who would spread pain and chaos among mankind.

  The University should certainly continue to make scientific and medical breakthroughs, and sharing these with interested communities is certainly important. However, the “world citizen” attitude will dilute and weaken these efforts, causing even less good to be produced that if a bi-national or community view were adopted in producing these innovations.

• 5. Vicki Knapp  |  March 9th, 2007 at 9:41 am

  Being a good world citizen starts with being a good local citizen. If we all are caring and responsible regarding our own local community, then the world will improve as a natural result. Being responsible includes not polluting, focusing on sustainable resources, promoting healthy food (organic and non-GMO with no artificial preservative, fertilizers, anitbiotics, hormones, chemical additives or colorings-we have to eat the food and what we put in our bodies is what our bodies are made of so it’s crucial it be wholesome), finding new ways to clean and process water so the water supply is pure, discontinue thinking that we can dump chemicals and waste in the ocean, our sewers or our other waterways and not ruin them eventually with algae blooms and dead zones where our fish and sea food are wiped out, helping people in our communities who are having trouble learn life skills and get counseling to help them become fully functioning and self-sustaining, revamp our educational system following the examples of schools that really work rather than changing to ever worse systems that produce less & less competent students, teaching individual competence & personal responsibilty of each person in all aspects of life and in how each person realtes to others. These are the keys to being a good local citizen. When each person becomes a good local citizen with an eye on how what they are doing locally also fits with what is going on in the world as a whole, then the world will begin to be the kind of place we want to live in and pass on to our children and all the children of the world. In the sixth degree of separation principle, all the people of the earth are related. Since we are all cousins, the question is, how are we treating our extended family? How are we treating the earth (our home) and the plants and animals that also live on it with us and on whom our own survival depends? If we don’t get a bigger world view and make some major changes, we may just be a party to our own demise and the destruction of the earth. It’s time to wake up!

• 6. In Sook Heo  |  March 9th, 2007 at 9:51 am

  We live in a world where the stronger prey upon the weaker. I saw a “golbalism” as a commercial compertition under WTO. All global issue is relating to the world industry system which is leading by the global industries usually in the strong countury. Free Trade Agreement of WTO is trying to wrap up the world by a power of global industry. The global government, UN, has to focus more on the harmonization between high and low countury in the power of economic even though it is hard in the real.
  I came to UW to improve my negotiaion ability for harmonized globalism. The individual is important to play a role in each side of developing and developed country. There is no exception to be stakeholder for other country. The only way to deal the global unbalanced problems is to have balenced portion of leaders who advocate for each party. The game between palyers with different capacity is not fair. Therefore, the best way to prevent the global problems such as crime and pollution etc., is being balenced for the next generation. I want to contribute in that area for the world, and meet many collegues and advisors seeking the creative solutions during studying in UW.
  Adding just one thing, the harmonization is the understanding the diversity and being friends.
  Thank you for your attention.

• 7. Adrian Liston  |  March 12th, 2007 at 9:37 am

  Being a global citizen means setting aside biases of religion and nationality, and considering all people to be equal. It means not treating those who live outside your borders as second class, it means not ignoring the dramatic negative effects of your (and your government’s) actions on other countries in the world. It means educating yourself about the world you live in, and using the same criteria on yourself and your country that you are willing to use on others and other countries. It means feeling compassion for those in need, regardless of where they live.

• 8. Ryan J. Jense, MD  |  March 12th, 2007 at 1:40 pm

  First off, thank you for providing this forum for the UW community to interact and exchange ideas about some very important issues. With reference to global citizenship, I broached this subject in the “Discovery” posting a few months back, and I am happy to report that I continue to see what I believe are important strides being made on this front. Although I think there is a system wide infection of global interest, I am very excited to see it’s manifestation occurring within the residency departments of the hospital with support coming from the Department of Global Health under the direction of King Holmes, MD and Judy Wasserheit, MD. I cannot stress the importance that I see in creating a structured system for residents to participate in “hands-on” global health. Such a system will not only provide an incredible service to a global community in need, but will absolutely broaden a growing physician’s medical and social perspective.

  In my opinion, Robert Wright, the author of Nonzero: The logic of Human Destiny, articulates the importance of becoming a global steward better than any I’ve read. Breifly, his philosophy supports the creation of non-zero (everybody gains) relationships and communities on all levels, but that we as a species have now reached a point in which we must continue to expand this effort on the global level in order to survive. That is, If enough non-zero relationships are garnered globally, then it becomes a near social and economical impossibility to destroy the symbiotic complexities that create a highly functional global society. I believe that the University of Washington is in a very unique position to further this ideal in a big way!

• 9. Geraldine Dawson  |  March 19th, 2007 at 7:09 pm

  As time goes on, our world seems to get smaller and smaller. With email, website, webinars, and other internet-based methods for communication, interacting with professionals and families around the world becomes a daily occurence at the UW Autism Center. Families fly to Seattle to the UW Autism Center from Asia, the middle east, Europe, and India to be evaluated. Recently, the UW Autism Center was asked by the President of India to help their country develop a vision and strategy for provision of services to children with disabilities, especially autism. India is a vast and complex country. The challenges of responding to this request include the diversity of languages in India and cultural attitudes about individuals with disabilities that prevent such individuals from participating in everyday society. Despite these challenges, we are excited to have begun this journey with our partners in India. We will soon begin an exchange program which will allow professionals from the UW Autism Center to travel to India to train professionals there and to sponsor professionals from India for a traineeship here in India. Our first Indian guests will be here in a few weeks. In collaboration with the NIH and other foundations, epidemiological studies of autism will be initiated. This is just one of the many ways in which the UW is a world citizen.

• 10. Joel Ozretich  |  March 26th, 2007 at 1:08 pm

  In addition to the great international research and study abroad opportunities the University of Washington offers, I think we as a campus community should be more aware of the cultural, scientific, and cross-cultural knowledge brought to us all by the hundreds of international students that study at UW each year. International students make up a significant portion of our graduate students (about 15%) and a growing number of undergraduates (about 3-4%) as well. These students bring first-hand knowledge of their home countries and life experiences, and these different perspectives may offer new ideas or insights that other students and faculty members may not have considered before. Although international teaching assistants and undergraduates may be the most visible international students on campus, there are also hundreds of international students who come to UW each year to study English through UW English Language Programs (part of UW Educational Outreach). These students also have diverse and interesting backgrounds - from careers in law and medicine, to advertising, journalism, and art - but their potential contributions to the campus community are often overlooked, since they have limited opportunities to interact with UW students and faculty. To me, being a “global citizen” means becoming aware of different cultures and perspectives, and seeking to address global issues. However, UW students and faculty don’t always need to travel abroad to get those experiences. They can interact with their international classmates and colleagues right here on campus!

• 11. Dave Stansfield  |  March 31st, 2007 at 4:50 pm

  World citizen is a term with a variety of meanings, often referring to a person who disapproves of traditional geopolitical divisions.

• 12. Karen Capuder  |  May 3rd, 2007 at 5:26 am

  It is reprehensible that this University continues to ignore, silence, and dishonor the First Peoples of this region. If we, as a community, are going to celebrate place, we must remember whose land it is that we occupy and pay honor to the original ’stewards’ of this place.

• 13. Edwin Loftus  |  May 3rd, 2007 at 7:47 am

  “Global community,” and, “global citizenship,” ought to be the most obscene words in our language. The stakes involved in dominating a nation or a region are already so great that there have always been human beings who would do almost anything and commit almost any atrocity to be that one that at dominates, or to be among those who do. If any of you think that the Second World War was a little out of hand, remember that more than half of the people of the world were barely even effected by the war, let alone involved in that conflict. Imagine what it’s going to take to determine what beliefs will dominate the entire globe.

  There is no global citizenship and there will not be such a thing in the foreseeable future. It is meaningless to seek it. At best it is a pablum that substitutes for social awareness without providing the hope of nourishment. Much worse, it is a sweet thought used to seduce the gullible into accepting the most monsterous concept in governance ever conceived. Today you can flee a nation that becomes oppressive. Where will you flee to escape a corrupted global community?

  The “Global Community” may come someday, but it’s not here yet and shows no sign of coming soon. We are still very much in a period of nations and we should all be grateful for that fact

• 14. Concerned UWMC employee  |  May 3rd, 2007 at 9:37 am

  Being a “World Citizen” should include having compassion towards those who are helpless, which includes animals. Humans are not the only species on the planet; we need to stop acting like we are. The UW needs to stop experimenting needlessly on animals and start using medically advanced research techniques such as donated stem cells, in vitro and computer imaging, etc. The UW has the capability of progressing so much farther in the world medical community but needs to stop relying on outdated and inaccurate science. They, and Provost Wise, owe it to us as an example of a “world citizen.”

• 15. Guntis Smidchens  |  February 8th, 2008 at 7:08 pm

  The UW also excels in the study of foreign languages and cultures– This is a critical component of our attempts to make the world a better place.

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