Global Citizenship

Global Citizenship
by Scott Hughes

My favorite philosopher, Diogenes The Cynic, first said, “I am a citizen of the world.” He wanted people to recognize him as a human being and not by his geographic origins or some other trivial grouping.

I like to take that philosophy and apply it to the concerns and problems of our contemporary world. I want to feed the hungry children all over this world. I want to provide clothing, shelter, education, and socioeconomic opportunity to all the children – and adults for that matter – of this world.

I want to see the end of the world hunger that kills 16,000 children every day. Similarly, I want to see food, education, and opportunity offered to those who have it not, namely the 3 billion people living on less than $2.00 a day. I want to proved food, clothing, shelter, education, and socioeconomic opportunity to everyone in the world, not just the people geographically close to me or ethnically similar to me.

I do not want to rob people of another nation so that the people of “my” nation can benefit. For example, I do NOT want to wear fancy sneakers if it leads to the abuse of foreign children in a foreign sweatshop. I do not want innocent Iraqi citizens to die in an ignorant attempt by the U.S. and the U.K. to help and protect themselves. In the same respect, I do not want innocent U.S. citizens to die from collapsing twin-towers in an ignorant attempt by Arabs to help and protect themselves.

I value innocent lives equally – whether they’re the 40,000 slaughtered Iraqi citizens in the Iraq War, or the 3,000 American citizens slaughtered in the 9/11 Terrorist Attack, or the 16,000 innocent children who die every day from hunger, or the 2.2 million Americans rotting in American jails and prisons – most of whom have not been convicted and over 25% of whom are charged with victimless “crimes” – and the uncharged unconvicted children suffering in Guantanamo and other U.S. international prisons, many of which are secret.

I try to be a citizen of the world.

However, I do not think the recent adoptions by celebrities of third-world children exemplifies the aforementioned philosophy. That’s not to say I don’t commend these adoptions, such as that by Madonna. I find the adoptions very commendable; Madonna has not only saved this child’s life, but also brought the child into a whole new environment where the child won’t be deprived of many necessities such as would have happened otherwise.

Despite the incredible commendability of the adoptions, I think the adoptions exemplify a common misconception. They exemplify and symbolize the illusion of a separation between the hunger and poverty epidemic in the third-world and the global problems facing all of us, including working-class America.

It seems we find it easier to treat the terrible hunger and poverty epidemic in these third-world countries as some completely separate issue of unluckiness, rather than admit that that epidemic is just one terrible symptom in a global line of many symptoms of an even worse underlying problem.

So, while what Madonna and these other caring celebrities individually did is commendable, we as a collective cannot solve these problems of hunger, poverty and such if we look at these particular epidemics as separate issues.

For example, we must not just go to Africa like Madonna and see the problem as something only faced there. That’s not to trivialize the terrible epidemics in these third-world countries; they’re serious problems and they need to be addressed ASAP. Nonetheless, we cannot solve those problems unless we recognize and admit that they share the root cause with most of the social problems in our world. I’m not just talking about the 14 million children in the U.S. that live in food insecure households; that’s just another terrible symptom.

Henry David Thoreau said, “there are a thousand striking at the branches of evil to the one striking at the root.”

I commend Madonna and anyone who strikes or even takes out a branch of “evil.” However, no matter how many of us – and we’ll never get everybody – hack away at the branches, we’ll never knock down the tree unless we strike the root. To truly solve these problems, we need to strike the root – social inequality and corrupt politics.

To put this in perspective, look at the following facts: The U.N. says that a $40 billion increase in funding could feed, clothe, and educate the entire world. The U.S. governments alone spend over $50 billion every year on the war on drugs. (Interestingly, the war on drugs not only wastes money that could help, but the war hurts the poor and minorities. It’s poor and black people who end up rotting in jail-cells. For example, in the U.S. more white people take illicit drugs, while more black people go to jail for illicit drugs. Classism is even more of the issue, with rich people using expensive lawyers, bribes, and such to get off.)

Some would say, make the government solve this problem. That’s an arguable solution, but I would argue that the government will never solve these problems. Obviously, the politicians care about their own well-being and their own interests, not ours. The politicians only pretend to care about our interests to gain votes. We need to understand that the government – and the mostly-corporate special-interests that control it – use OUR money, which they steal through taxation and inflation. The government – and the mostly-corporate special-interests that control it – will never spend that money the way we want it spent, and they will never spend it to solve our problems. Indeed, it is these very problems that give the government an excuse to steal the money and freedom from the people. If we want to decide how to spend the money, I believe we can only do that by taking our money and freedom back, and then using it to solve the problems that face us, namely hunger, poverty, and lack of socioeconomic opportunity.

Thomas Jefferson said, “when the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”

We want to solve the preventable problems plaguing the citizens of this world, right?

To do that, we need to tell the powers that be that we no longer will allow them to steal our wealth, freedom, or rightful power. We need to tell and show them that we plan to use OUR wealth, freedom, and meritocratically rightful power to solve the problems facing us, the citizens of the world. We can tell them that they can do whatever they want, but from now on they will have to do it without stealing our wealth or freedom, and without the government.

The key of course, we actually need to use our wealth and power to invest in education and development, namely with student loans and business loans, respectively. If we include food, clothes, and shelter with tuition costs, then we can solve these epidemics essentially for free.

About The Author: Scott Hughes runs a Self-Defense, Safety, and Security Blog as well as this Hunger and Poverty Blog. He also owns The Online Book Club, and SpokenWordArt.com. Discuss these serious issues with him at The Hunger And Poverty Forums.

© Copyright 2006, Scott Hughes. All Rights Reserved.

2.9 Million Filipino Families Experience Hunger

At least 2.9 million Filipino families or 16.9 percent of a projected base of 17.4 million households experienced hunger in the past three months, results of the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed.

Malacañang vowed to work harder to reduce hunger and poverty incidence in the country though officials said economic gains may have only been slow in reaching the people.

Read philstar.com article.

Canada: Trick or Treat for Hunger

Canada came up with a great way to help fight world hunger this Halloween. Read the press release published on newswire.ca:

From coast to coast, youth will be trick-or-treating for non-perishable foods instead of candy through Free The Children’s Halloween for Hunger campaign. This annual campaign challenges young people to think locally and act globally in the fight against poverty. Food collected by all the ghouls, ghosts and goblins will be generously donated to local food banks.

This evening youth will be haunting the streets to help those living in need. In the first year of Halloween for Hunger, Free The Children Youth in Action groups went door-to-door and collected 10,500 lbs of food. Now in its sixth consecutive year, participants from all over North America are preparing to help others in the collection of non-perishable foods.

Sandra DaSilva, a teacher from Cariboo Hill Secondary School, British Columbia, has supported her students to participate in the campaign for the past two years and will be doing so again this year. “I believe it’s important to support our communities – both locally and globally. Halloween for Hunger allows youth to reach out and affect the lives of others” says DaSilva.

Halloween for Hunger also brings friends together. Jordana Weiss, 17, Toronto, enjoys spending her Halloween a little differently than some of her peers, but feels that it is more satisfying to help others. “Halloween for Hunger allows me to have a good time with my friends while gathering food for the people in our community. This is a great example of how we can make a difference and have fun at the same time!”

Groups and individuals get involved with Halloween for Hunger to help alleviate hunger and raise awareness of global poverty. Nearly 38 per cent of Canadians who use food banks every month are children. To make a difference this Halloween and to learn more, visit www.freethechildren.com.

Free The Children is the world’s largest network of children helping children through education, with more than one million young people involved in its innovative programs in 45 countries. Founded in 1995 by international child rights activist Craig Kielburger, the organization has an established track record of success with three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize and partnerships with the United Nations and Oprah’s Angel Network. With the energy and passion of young people and the help of adult supporters, Free The Children has, to date, built 450 schools that provide a daily education to 40,000 children.

For further information: or to schedule a conversation with a group participating in Halloween for Hunger, please contact Amy Schlein, Free The Children’s director of communications at (416) 925-5894 ext. 152 or at communications@freethechildren.com

What do you think?

Hunger & Poverty Forums

The following discussion are currently taking place in The Hunger and Poverty Forums:

Who do you want to see run in ’08 and WHY?

You earned it. It’s yours.

Bush’s impeachable offenses.

Feeding the hungry is not the solution.

Effects of Forcing Western Thought on Others

Cost to End Hunger

What I can I do as a kid?

When is this country going to get serious about energy?

Registration is free, so register and discuss these topics and more!

Humanitarianism In A Post 9/11 World

Imagine sitting down to talk with eight mullahs in a village in central Afghanistan, meeting with people in the war-torn Gulu district in Uganda, or attending a town meeting of displaced persons in Colombia. How do people such as these, on the receiving end of international assistance, perceive humanitarian action in their respective countries? Is it fulfilling its intended purposes?

To identify the challenges that will affect humanitarian action over the next decade, researchers from the Feinstein International Center (FIC) at Tufts University traveled to Afghanistan, Colombia, Sudan, Burundi, Liberia, and northern Uganda.

The FIC published a report about their findings, entitled The Humanitarian Agenda 2015: Principles, Power, and Perceptions. Read more about the report by the FIC.

Radical Change

In a recent article that I wrote I point out the serious and major problems facing our society and that we need radical change, both politically and socially. I then briefly run through the method to make that change. The called the article, Radical Change. Here’s a few relevant excerpts:

In the United States alone, 14 million children live in food insecure households. Globally, estimates say that 12 to 27 million people are in forced labor or slavery in the world today; most are female sex workers. Globally, 16,000 children die every day from hunger. Serious – and avoidable – social problems overrun the world.

[…]

We need to use our organized power to non-governmentally solve the problems that face us, which includes not only those inflicted directly by the oppressive status quo, but also any other problems ignored by the oppressive status quo and ignored by our negligent self-interested leaders. Thus we can use our power to solve the problems facing our particular communities, including such problems as poverty, hunger, rape, murder, assault, and illiteracy. Mainly, we need to create non-governmental alternatives to the pseudo-solutions and destructive services offered by the government and mega-corporations. For example, we have the power to create our own small, private, and non-governmental schools. We have the power to setup our own neighborhood watches to protect innocent people from victimization, including police brutality and misconduct. We can setup our own trade networks to actually provide the services that our communities actually need, including defense, education, babysitting, legal services, healthcare, and financial services. By organizing directly and avoiding paper money, we eliminate many opportunities for tyrants to steal our wealth.

We have the wealth and power. We just need to recognize that, and act accordingly. We need to work in a way to retain the wealth and power in our own communities, and we need to use that wealth and power to solve the problems of our own communities.