Hey Everyone, check out my new blog that I’ve been working on for the best few months! I’ll still post on my tumblr periodically, but this is my main blog now, enjoy :)

mesquaredmelodies.blogspot.com/

tonight, we are young, so let’s set the night on fire

Our Role as International Citizens

We’re all interconnected in this world, accept it, cherish it, feel empowered.

We had to write a critical response paper for my international studies class. I really enjoyed this assignment and wanted to share it because I feel like it’s an important issue to raise awareness about. 

The choices you make as a consumer, voter or global citizen, whether in your own country or in someone else’s, greatly impacts another’s life. This is a fact that many people, especially those living in “developed” countries, tend to take for granted. The ripple effect that occurs through each individual action has a lot more impact than many like to believe, but it is something I have grown to accept not only from this class but from my own travels all over the world.  

One example that we discussed in class of what we can do as a global citizen and consumer is related to what happened in Jamaica with the IMF. By convincing the Jamaican government to get rid of all trade barriers and therefore letting foreign investors come in and take over the local economy, it completely ruined the small but self-sustainable economy Jamaicans already had. Even though our own government may have been apart of this downfall, we can choose ourselves what we buy as a consumer when we’re a tourist on vacation in Jamaica. Even though the local Jamaican goods may be more expensive now because they do not have the financial stability to undercut prices like outside corporations, making the effort to actually buy only from local vendors and traders makes a huge difference in helping the Jamaican economy and the Jamaican people as a whole. Once again, a small act such as choosing where to buy food or who to buy your souvenirs from can have a ripple effect and leave a positive impact on the foreign place you visit. This is something everyone should strive for when visiting another place, making an effort to behave in a way that will leave wherever you visit a better place.  Unfortunately, sometimes even when we have good intentions, our actions still enforce the structures we have discussed in class that prevent countries from developing. As Dambisa Moyo argues in her book Dead Aid, developed countries giving financial aid to poorer countries such as Africa can do more harm than good. By only tackling surface issues such as financial need, it makes countries dependent on the people helping them and reduces the chance of them ever having their own independent economy. We discussed this in lecture in reference to the international relief aid we give to countries that have just gone through a natural disaster and are in extreme need, such as Haiti and post-tsunami Sri Lanka. As a global citizen, just giving monetary donations, although I am sure it has good intentions, once again ignores the deeper issues involving the politics immersed in the situation. Giving immediate aid to these countries who just went though the disaster makes their government lazy and unaccountable, and they feel that they don’t have a responsibility to help their people if all of these outsiders are doing it for them. I am not saying don’t help those in need at all, but try to help in other more substantial ways than just monetary donations, which could include putting pressure on a foreign government to be more accountable to helping it’s people. It is political, it is controversial, but it is something that sincerely helps a country more than a relatively shallow thing such as a monetary donation. 

As for my own experiences as a traveler, I have backpacked through Europe and Costa Rica. Being able to experience numerous different cultures has helped me better understand a lot about my responsibilities as a global citizen. Even something as simple as going to the local family run trattoria instead of the McDonald’s next door, can make a big difference in keeping the local culture alive. I am not saying globalization is particularly bad, in fact the definition of globalization talks about the importance of  “…social interdepdencies and exchanges while at the same time fostering in people a growing awareness of deepening connection between the local and the distant.” Therefore, it is not supposed to be the lesser developed countries depending on the West, it is supposed to be a mutual interaction based on a respect of different cultures. Globalization has acquired a bad name since it’s beginning because it has moved away from this definition, and instead turned into a term that is related to exploitation and destruction of local traditions and customs. We can alter this with something as simple and easy as the choices we make when visiting a foreign country. My next venture after I graduate this year will be a three month backpacking trip through Southeast Asia, during which I want to volunteer for either a local conservation program in Thailand or help teach English to less financially fortunate children. Even with the short amount of time I have traveled around this world, it has inspired me to give back to what traveling has done for me. Learning about another culture and it’s people firsthand makes me hyperconscious to what we should all want to preserve. We should not want McDonald’s on every corner of Paris, as there is today, nor should we support the foreign cheap imported goods in Jamaica. Globalization and lowered trade barriers has made it possible for certain Western products to be available worldwide, but that does not mean we should endorse or support them over the products that would help the local economy and preservation of local culture. I do not want to travel ten hours on a plane to arrive at a country that looks like the one I just came from, I instead enjoy celebrating the differences I see in culture when I travel, it is why I travel in the first place. 

Next time you travel have the motivation to breakdown this established structure we have made as the West being the best, try out the local transportation, sip fresh coconut water straight from the coconut instead of buying vitamin water,  go to the businesses where the locals go, don’t be a tourist, be a traveler. I have no doubt that you will have a fuller, more well-rounded trip in the process of holding up your responsibility as a global citizen by supporting the local economy and being nonjudgmental of the differences you may see between this foreign culture and your own.