It is time for your citizenship test. Ready?
1. Have you ever travelled to another country?
2. Do you speak or make an attempt to speak another language?
3. Are any of your Facebook friends from another country?
4. Do you watch videos on Youtube uploaded by people from other countries?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then congratulations, you are ready to become a citizen of the world. It is no surprise that the overload of technology available to us today connects more people than ever thought imaginable.
The issue of globalization through technology was one of the focuses of Former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s speech to students and business professionals during the Tulsa Business Forums series hosted by the Oklahoma State University Spear’s School of Business on November 1 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Mr. Blair’s remarks ranged on topics from securing peace in the Middle East to the Occupy Wall Street movements around the globe and also to the economic unrest in America and the Eurozone. Unlike many politicians, Mr. Blair’s look to the future was quite uplifting, partially due to the return to this idea of global citizenship.
It seems, and Mr. Blair certainly seems to think, that the world has begun another shift and one this time in quite a positive direction. The results of events like the Arab Spring or the falling of regimes, such as Kaddafi and Hussein, prove that the minds of younger generations are being formed which adhere to a common set of standards where the basic principles of freedom and democracy are seen as worth standing up for.
With the world being as connected as it is, the future is ours for the taking. The group of “modernizing Google-type people”, as Mr. Blair called them, is a rising number of students and like-minded young adults who see the importance of securing a future for all people.
It is organizations like Mr. Blair’s Face to Faith that contribute to create young minds that see cultures as exciting opportunities to learn about another people group and better understand the world we live in. Face to Faith is an organization headed by Mr. Blair that allows students, ages 12-17, to work together with other students abroad in order to “break through cultural and religious stereotypes”. The importance of these organizations cannot be stressed enough. By creating a building block foundation of understanding, the world becomes a stronger, safer place.
Some would argue that religion is the cause of social unrest and that it should not be brought into the process of peace. Mr. Blair argues, however, that religion has already been brought to the table and therefore can be used to gain a better understanding of the people involved. It is true that ideology is infused in what Mr. Blair calls the “warfare challenge”; he sees it as “an ideology based on a perversion of faith.”
Additionally, when speaking of the spread of democracy, Mr. Blair boldly asserted that there is no such thing as a Jewish Democracy, Islamic Democracy or a Christian Democracy. It is, as he put, not simply a system of voting but a set of ideas. These ideas, therefore, must include basic fundamental freedom rights equal to all members of society.
While many listen to these dogmatic ideas on a daily basis through news, radio and the internet, it is one thing to hear them and one thing to practice them. Before the world can ever learn to get along with one another, we must make the effort to understand each other. Never have I learned more about my own country and people than when I am traveling abroad. It is so easy in this day and age to reach across the globe and find out what the world is really like. The personal experiences of the collective will create a secure future for everyone.
Blair ended his talk with a look at the qualities of leadership. Rather than pursuing a one of us, one of them approach, become that leader you wish to see. Mr. Blair remarked that a common quality of a leader is that they see the mantle floating by and there is a “willingness to step out while others step back.”
Most of us are ready and willing to complain about the leadership in the world today, however, we are not ready and willing to step out and take that mantle for ourselves when it comes floating by. One of the most important things, Mr. Blair suggested, is to never stop learning: “Our duty is to go out and explore [the world] and enjoy it.” The framework of the future is ours to build and if we are willing to step out while others step back, we can only hope to create a world that everyone can live together in peacefully and equally.
So get your passports ready, brush up on your language skills and go. You are now free to move about the world.
Quality! Keep the identity, embrace the alterity!