Global Citizenship?

This blog assignment, which was to form an opinion on "global citizenship", made me think of the quote from the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall when Russell Brand’s character gets told about his tattoos, “that is Buddhist, that is Nordic, that is Hindu, that’s just gibberish. They are completely conflicting ideologies, and that does not make you a citizen of the world, it makes you full of shit!”. I’m not sure how much I agree with the statement, but when I saw that this blog was supposed to be about our opinion on global citizenship it is what popped into my head first.

This is a hard one…my opinion on global citizenship. Its quite tricky, to form a black and white opinion on something like this, but I guess I have to pick a “side” – at least sort of? For me, I don’t necessarily think it is a redeeming quality, as Larissa put it in her blog assignment, but not a load of hooey meant to make us (privileged North Americans) feel better either – well, maybe a little.

I think that the term "global citizenship", as it exists now, is probably a term used for those who are privileged enough to travel and experience different cultures. That being said, I think that as someone with that privilege (this sounds a bit like Spiderman) it is also our responsibility to not just think within our cultural boundaries.

Being away made me appreciate other cultures, and inspired me to learn more about them, but definitely didn’t make me feel like I was a part of another culture. I still felt like I had a lot more to learn, and no matter how long you stay somewhere, as long as you have plans of returning “home”, I don’t think you can ever fully understand the other culture. I do think that travelling and experiencing different cultures gives you different perspectives and makes you think about your own world differently, which is important. It can open your eyes to issues you never even thought about, and make you appreciate what you have even more. In that sense I think “global citizenship” is a valid notion, however I would not use the term “global citizen”. The connotation that it carries (that you are just a part of the globe like everyone else) makes sense, but the other connotation that you are just as much a part of the other cultures you visit, I think is a miss.