Global Citizenship: Embracing a Connected World

Circumstances that Foster Global Citizenship

Several factors contribute to the rise of global citizenship. These include:

• Shortening distances between people across the globe.
• Disappearing borders.
• Development of advanced communication technologies.

These changes raise hope for humanity to work together to build a better world and achieve shared happiness.

Key Changes in the 20th Century

• Disappearance of physical borders.
• Automatic, direct, and immediate communication with anyone worldwide.
• Access to any information.
• Ability to engage in dialogue and make friends without leaving one's chair.
• Access to images and real-time processing of events on television.

Advantages of New Technologies

• Improvement in personal development.
• Enhanced staff training and quality of life.
• Increased knowledge of other cultures and peoples.
• Development of individual and collective human capacity.
• Establishment of solidarity and friendship with people worldwide.

The Earth Charter (Preamble)

The Earth Charter is a declaration of fundamental principles about how we should understand globalization and the interdependence in which we live.

Preamble

We must recognize that we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must create a sustainable global society while respecting nature, human rights, justice, and peace.

Three Fundamental Responsibilities

1. Recognize that we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny.
2. Unite to create a sustainable global society.
3. Live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying with our local community and the Earth.

Adverse Consequences of Economic Globalization

Jose Luis Sampedro views globalization as potentially positive. However, he notes that solidarity is not a prevailing attitude. Only a minority benefits from globalization, while millions depend on them and do not receive their support.

Complaints and Protests Against Poverty

Augustine wrote a poem highlighting that thousands are not worth as much as lost love or that there are people outside the system. There are protests against the millions of people who suffer from poverty and the lack of action to address it.

Solidarity is an attitude or behavior, individual or collective, that leads to caring for others.

Perspectives of Casaldaliga, Peter, and Angela Figuera

Peter believes that things were much better before, with less poverty and marginalization.

Angela states she has experienced all the bad things in this world that we cannot change. We should never stop believing in hope, for the world is still being made, and history is not over. We must act, as we have sufficient resources. We must never stop dreaming.

Summaries

Summary 1: Economic Globalization and its Laws

Economic globalization focuses on increasing power to impose its own standards and laws.

• Law of Profit: Obtaining maximum benefits or results.
• Law of Consumerism: The need to purchase and consume.

Summary 2: Solidarity

Solidarity is an attitude or behavior that leads to caring for others. It involves three key aspects:

1. Approaching people with an open heart.
2. Empathizing with those affected by human suffering, identifying with and sharing their pain.
3. Practicing generosity, extending a hand to those in need.

Preamble and Technology

• Preamble: What is said before beginning the main subject.
• Technology: A body of knowledge, tools, and technical methods employed in a professional sector.

Angela Figuera: A Brief Biography

Angela Figuera was a Spanish poet born in Bilbao in 1902. She studied philosophy and literature at the University of Madrid and worked as a professor until after the Civil War. She later worked at the National Library in Madrid. Her first and most famous book was "Mujer de Barro" (Woman of Clay). She died in 1984.