What kind of global citizen are you

Are you aware of ways in which the world as a whole is trying to live by them? Step 4. Such policies range in scope from international treaties that ban the spread of nuclear weapons to administrative rules and regulations governing the internet. Step 5. Try to learn about and engage with these organizations and make sure that they are operating in accordance with the values we perceive to be important.

Step 6. As global citizens we need to join together to express the fact that people across the planet share common views when it comes to basic values such as human rights, environmental protection, and the banning of weapons of mass destruction.

Step 7. As such we have the ability to influence the positions that our countries take on global issues. So let your government know how you feel by supporting leaders who want their countries to become engaged with the world, not isolated from it.

Step 8. They work on a range of issues related to the values of our world community—ranging from human rights to world arts and culture.

Pick one, any one that relates to an issue in which you are interested, and get involved. Step 9. The types of transportation we use, how we heat or cool our homes, the types of clothes we wear and the food we eat all affect our quality of life. As global citizens we need to adopt environmentally responsible behaviors in the ways we live. Step Take time to learn the ways in which different cultures give expression to the human spirit.

To test the validity of this definition we examine its basic assumptions: a that there is such a thing as an emerging world community with which people can identify; and b that such a community has a nascent set of values and practices. Historically, human beings have always formed communities based on shared identity. Such identity gets forged in response to a variety of human needs— economic, political, religious and social. As group identities grow stronger, those who hold them organize into communities, articulate their shared values, and build governance structures to support their beliefs.

Today, the forces of global engagement are helping some people identify as global citizens who have a sense of belonging to a world community. This growing global identity in large part is made possible by the forces of modern information, communications and transportation technologies. In increasing ways these technologies are strengthening our ability to connect to the rest of the world—through the Internet; through participation in the global economy; through the ways in which world-wide environmental factors play havoc with our lives; through the empathy we feel when we see pictures of humanitarian disasters in other countries; or through the ease with which we can travel and visit other parts of the world.

Those of us who see ourselves as global citizens are not abandoning other identities, such as allegiances to our countries, ethnicities and political beliefs. These traditional identities give meaning to our lives and will continue to help shape who we are.

However, as a result of living in a globalized world, we understand that we have an added layer of responsibility; we also are responsible for being members of a world-wide community of people who share the same global identity that we have.

We may not yet be fully awakened to this new layer of responsibility, but it is there waiting to be grasped. The major challengethat we face in the new millennium is to embrace our global way of being and build a sustainable values-based world community.

They are the values that world leaders have been advocating for the past 70 years and include human rights, environmental protection, religious pluralism, gender equity, sustainable worldwide economic growth, poverty alleviation, prevention of conflicts between countries, elimination of weapons of mass destruction, humanitarian assistance and preservation of cultural diversity.

Since World War II, efforts have been undertaken to develop global policies and institutional structures that can support these enduring values. These efforts have been made by international organizations, sovereign states, transnational corporations, international professional associations and others. They have resulted in a growing body of international agreements, treaties, legal statutes and technical standards.

Yet despite these efforts we have a long way to go before there is a global policy and institutional infrastructure that can support the emerging world community and the values it stands for. There are significant gaps of policy in many domains, large questions about how to get countries and organizations to comply with existing policy frameworks, issues of accountability and transparency and, most important of all from a global citizenship perspective, an absence of mechanisms that enable greater citizen participation in the institutions of global governance.

Most of us on the path to global citizenship are still somewhere at the beginning of our journey. Our eyes have been opened and our consciousness raised. Instinctively, we feel a connection with others around the world yet we lack the adequate tools, resources, and support to act on our vision. Our ways of thinking and being are still colored by the trapping of old allegiances and ways of seeing things that no longer are as valid as they used to be.

There is a longing to pull back the veil that keeps us from more clearly seeing the world as a whole and finding more sustainable ways of connecting with those who share our common humanity. At the collective, conceptual, world-view, systemic, structural, institutional levels, I believe that our individual beliefs, values, efforts and actions are synergistic, summating, can are making a real difference. We can and are affecting change. Bourne describes how at the paradigm, world-view level, we are changing things now.

Our daily communications and actions are summating, making a difference, and moving the planet community toward a tipping point of potentially massive, positive, transformative change.

In the midst of crises and insecurity, we can cultivate the reality awareness that everything is interconnected, that synchronicities in our creative, conscious universe operate symbolically not only causally , and that in a larger Kosmos-logical context, each of us participates in moving it all toward an integral global tipping point shift in paradigmatic perceptions, core values and aligned actions.

Such vision and future is up to us — our being and doing. We are relational beings living together in the same global, planetary household. Everything is cocreated. We can nurture conditions for positive transformation. May each of us, individually and together, continue to mold our world into the shape of love, peace, compassion, inclusiveness, sharing, cooperation, equity and justice — a place wherein the essential needs of all are met and the essential rights of all are defended.

Thank you so much, Ron, for this comment. I will look into this right away. Hope you are taking the Survey which is the beginning of a Kosmos effort to start to connect our various projects for greater impact. I just looked it up online and ordered it. For those of us working towards positive, transformational change, this book looks like a keeper. Thanks for the comment. These include learning communication, co-operation and socialisation skills, as well as developing strategy skills and perseverance.

It is not just playing, but creating games online will all help to develope these skills. If a student had learnt these skills through traditional teaching methods would they not be considered valuable? They are just as valuable when taught through gaming, and will be better received and remembered , as this is a form of education that appeals to students. What Does it Mean to be a Global Citizen? Kosmos Journal. What does it mean to be a global citizen?

The call to global citizenship is one that should be met with resounding response from individuals, corporate bodies, religious as well as cultural organisations. Infact government of countries should incorporate it in their educational curriculum. I think it is a great idea but also a dangerous idea for bad people to join and not be able to stop the bad people that are hurting the good citizens. We are fully dedicated to the task of establishing Borderless Global Democracy on this ailing planet.

I do not like this and I do not identify with this we. Ashoka alone has 3,, then there are EcoTippingPoints. Most of all the teens, , from 10, united at WeDays, and many more powerful teenage changemakers united on the Youth-LeadeR. Eric, you are so right. Kosmos has been publishing the work of social entrepreneurs since — at the margins and now coming closer to the mainstream.

We were so happy to catch up with you recently and to see the broad expansion of your work with youth entrepreneurs. We published an article about it with some of your brightest youth social entrepreneurs which got a lot of attention from our readers. One thing all global citizens recognize is that it is more important to understand one another than to agree on everything.

Making an effort to better understand where others are coming from is key to thriving in situations of diversity and belonging to the world community. Although you may have never visited Nepal, when news spread of the devastating earthquakes that killed thousands of people and left many more displaced or injured, you were emotionally affected and felt compelled to help.

You believe the saying: the best things in life are free. Global citizens are always eager to broaden their minds with new experiences, which at the end of the day are likely to last longer than something purchased at the mall. You can chat with someone in real-time from opposite sides of the globe, or deposit a paycheck to your bank account in seconds from your mobile phone.

But over-indulging in these modern conveniences has come at a price: people are becoming increasingly impatient. Like global citizens, you are willing to put the time and energy into something — even if you won't see the results immediately. Not a Global Citizen yet? Sign up. Thanks for signing up as a global citizen. In order to create your account we need you to provide your email address. You can check out our Privacy Policy to see how we safeguard and use the information you provide us with.

If your Facebook account does not have an attached e-mail address, you'll need to add that before you can sign up. Please contact us at contact globalcitizen. Here are six people who have dedicated their lives to improving the world around them. Irmela has scratched off more than 75, far-right stickers and painted or sprayed over hundreds of graffiti.

Because none should be confronted with anything like this. Not anymore. The reason: vandalism. Irmela sprayed over hateful graffiti but covered the wall behind it as well.