Category: <span>Education of World Citizenships.</span>

Education Education of World Citizenships.

Education for Active World Citizenship

Featured Image: Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash.

The Education currently  there is growing attention both in scholarly;  and popular writing with the process of globalization. Globalization is an empirical process of world integration driven by a variety of economic, cultural, political, and ideological forces as seen in such areas as market expansion;  a global production pattern as well as cultural homogenisation.

However; In the fields of economics, politics, technology, environment and health;  we see greater collaboration and interdependence. Now international conferences;  common trade agreements and multinational projects are striving to find solutions to long-standing difficulties;  and to promote development in areas, where the problems have become too great to be resolved by a single State.

Nevertheless; we are learning, out of necessity, that competition has its limits. To give one example, many of the issues in trade negotiations;  which go on in Geneva are about labour standards, environmental policies and human rights (such as products fabricated by child labour).

These are all deeply domestic matters;  which have now become part of international affairs. Has education been changing as quickly as the world economy?. How are we preparing children to meet the demands of the world society?.

 

What role are schools playing in the formation of active world citizens able to make real contributions to the creation of a more peaceful society?

Education is uniquely placed to help deal with the major problems facing the world society: violent conflict, poverty, the destruction of the natural environment, and other fundamental issues touching human beings everywhere.

Education provides information;  skills and helps to shape values and attitudes. Yet many children fall outside formal education. Some 113 million school-age children are out of school;  and some 875 million adults are illiterate.

This is evidence of the fact that the size;  and complexity of education for all are too great for governments alone to address;  even with the best of intentions and effort.

Education is not limited to the formal school system.

It is true that education is not limited to the formal school system. There are many agents of education: family, media, peers, and associations of all sorts. Nevertheless, schools play a central role, and people expect schools to be leaders in the educational process.

Unfortunately;  there are times when schools are left alone as the only conscious instrument of education. Therefore;  teachers need to analyse;  how other agents of society contribute to the educational process or;  more negatively, may hinder the educational process or promote destructive attitudes and values.

Education

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash.

Education has two related aims.

One is to help the student to function in society, be it the local, the national, and the world society.

The other aim is to help in the fullest development of the individual’s physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual capacities. There are three related ways to help prepare students for a fast-changing world in which people, ideas, goods and services increasingly cross State frontiers. These ways are related to:

  1.  Skills.

  2. Content.

  3. Values and Attitudes.

There is a need to teach those skills needed to be able to function effectively in the world: skills of goal setting, analysis, problem solving, research, communication, and conflict-resolution skills. We need to place more emphasis on communication skills in our schools;  with an emphasis on personal expression through language and the arts.

Opportunities Needs.

Children need opportunities to acquire skills in writing, speech, drama, music, painting;  and other arts in order to find their own voices and expressions.

The second area of importance concerns the content of education;  with an emphasis on modern history and geography, ecology, economics, civics, and the history of science and technology.

There is also a need to organize a curriculum through the use of broad themes such as interdependence, change, complexity, culture and conflict.

A Global Society.

The third area concerns values and attitudes needed for living in a global society: self-confidence in one’s own capacity, concern and interest in others;  an openness to the cultural contributions of other societies.

There needs to be a willingness to live with complexity;  to refuse easy answers or to shift blame to others. In practice;  a good teacher makes a personalized combination of all these elements.

One must be realistic in evaluating the difficulties of restructuring educational systems;  to make them future oriented and open to the world.

A Global Society

Photo by Cameron Casey in Pexels.

Educational System.

We all know the heavy structures of educational systems;  and the pressures to conform to the status quo. We must not underestimate the narrow nationalistic pressures;  on the teaching of social issues nor the political influences on content and methods.

In order to understand the limits and the possibilities of change;  teachers must be prepared to carry out research on the local community. They must be able to analyse their specific communities.

It is always dangerous to make wide generalizations on the role of the family, the media, of religion as if it were always the same in all parts of the country;  or the same in all social classes and milieu.

Thus;  teachers should be able, with some sociological training;  to carry out studies on the formation of attitudes;  values and skills of their students by looking at the respective role of the family, the content of the media, and student participation in associations.

Such studies can be carried out in a cooperative way,  among several teachers so as to be able to go to greater depth.

Teachers could look for information to help answer such questions as: 

“Are any groups excluded from participating in the community?”

“How can possible marginalisation be counteracted?”

“How can one study environmental and ecological issues locally?”

“What is the significance of different role models such as peers, parents, and educators?”

“In what ways can non-formal and informal learning environments be furthered?”

In conclusion; there are more and more teachers;  who realise the direction of current world trends. Migration puts other cultures on one’s door step. We all need to be encouraged by the advances being made. We can help one another so that we may develop the culture of peace and active world citizenship together.

Here are other publications that may be of interest to you.

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world citizen action Education of World Citizenships.

The Three Waves of World Citizen Action

Featured Image Photo by fauxels on Pexels.

The idea of world citizenship has been put forward in periods when the existing structures of inter- State relations were fragile and endangering life and society: by Socrates when the classic Greek city states were under strain; by the Stoics when the Roman Republic was being transformed into the Empire; at the Renaissance as, again, the city-States were too narrow a framework for the expanding cultural renewal; by Anacharsis Cloots at the time of the French Revolution; by some of the Abolitionists during the US Civil War when equality between free and slave was at stake.

French Revolution, 1789 Painting; French Revolution, 1789 Art Print for sale. By Unknown authorUnknown author, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

In the same way, modern world citizen action has been a response to important challenges faced by the world community. Individuals who saw the dangers of traditional ways of thinking and inaction have acted together to promote loyalty to humanity as a whole. There have been three waves of modern world citizenship action.

Barbara Fritchie 1766-1862 in US Civil War. Caption reads: “Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, but spare your country’s flag, she said.” By Source: Woman’s Work in the Civil War: a Record of Heroism, Patriotism and Patience (1867) page 10., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The First Wave.

The First Wave, manifested in 1938 by the creation in England by Hugh Schonfield of the Commonwealth of World Citizens, was a response to the growing power in Europe and Japan of narrowly nationalistic dictatorships. Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany was the outstanding representative of this dangerous aggressive nationalism.

Likewise, the following year, 1939, the Association of World Citizens was created when the clouds of war had gathered, and an ideology in opposition to narrow nationalism was required. The Association began at the same time in England and the USA by persons who had been active in the League of Nations. Salvador De Madariaga who had represented Republican Spain at the League, Henri Bonnet who had headed the Intellectual Cooperation Section of the League, and James Avery Joyce, a young British lawyer active in youth efforts for the League of Nations.

The First Wave of world citizen action was unable to prevent the Second World War. The war ended the possibility of active cooperation among members. Thus the war ended the First Wave, although many of those active on the eve of the war helped to form the Second Wave of world citizen action.

French conclude agreement on lend-lease and reverse lend-lease. Jean Monnet, representative of the French Provisional Government signs agreements. Left to right: Henri Bonnet, French Ambassador, Joseph C. Grew, Undersecretary of State and Jean Monnet (1945). By Lakey, J. Sherrel, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Second Wave.

The Second Wave was a response to the massive destruction of the Second World War, of the use of atomic bombs, and the start of the Cold War. Under the leadership of Lord Boyd Orr, the first director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), world citizens were particularly active in efforts against hunger and for a world food policy. 1948 and the proclamation by the UN General Assembly meeting in Paris of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was the high point of the Second Wave. In 1950, the start of the Korean War and the structuring of the Cold War into military alliances – NATO and the Warsaw Pact – put an end to the Second Wave of world citizen action. However, many world citizens were active in the 1950-1990 period to lessen the dangers of Soviet-USA confrontation, to abolish nuclear weapons and to bring colonialism to an end.

Lord John Boyd Orr, Nobel Peace Prize 1949. By Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Third Wave.

The Third Wave of world citizen action can be dated from 1990 as a response again to narrow nationalism as seen with the break up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia and the failure of nationalistic responses to major ecological challenges. Again world citizens are organizing in collective efforts such as the Association of World Citizens to develop strategies for the benefit of all humanity and to promote efforts based on justice and cooperation.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989. The photo shows a part of a public photo documentation wall at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin. The photo documentation is permanently placed in the public. By Lear 21 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Rumi Education of World Citizenships.

Jalal al-Din Rumi (30 Sept 1207 – 17 Dec…

Featured Image: Jalal al-Din Rumi By Hossein Behzad, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

By Rene Wadlow.

I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem.
I am not of the East, nor the West, nor the land, nor the sea…
My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless.

 

Rumi, a poet and mystic of Persian culture, was born in what is today Afghanistan and died in what is now Turkey.  He used the image of a person as the flute of the Spirit.  Man is a flute for the breath of God — the instrument that the Spirit uses to express itself.  The Spirit can use the flute of any quality.  What is important is not the merit of the flute, but the strength of the wind of the Spirit.  Thus, Rumi develops the idea of “grace” — the Divine can come to fill the lowest of vessels. The coming of the Spirit, the blending of the individual soul with the Universal Spirit, does not depend on the good actions or piety of the individual.  Here Rumi echoes an earlier Sufi writer al Bistani who called upon the aspirant to :

“Be in the domain where neither good nor evil exists: both of them belong to the world of created things: in the presence of Unity, there is neither command nor prohibition.”

Yet there is a dual motion of the human soul.  The first is to wait in silence to be filled with the Spirit coming from without — the image of the flute and breath.  The opposite image is that of the soul rising through effort to a higher stage of being.  For this motion, Rumi uses the image of a ladder, the steps of the ladder being the stages of development and purification.  As he writes in Diwani Shams Tabriz “ A ladder stood whereby thou mightest aspire.”  On the ladder, someone else has climbed first and serves as a guide.  For Rumi, this guide was his teacher and friend to whom the verses are dedicated: Shams al-Din of Tabriz.  The Diwan contains profound verses on the function of a spiritual master and the relation between master and disciple.

The name Shams al Dion means the ‘sun of religion’, and Rumi uses the symbolism of the name which refers to the inner union of the master with God. (1) Three examples:

“From Tabriz shone the Sun of Truth, and I said to him: Thy light is at once joined with all things and apart from all.”

“The sun of the face of Shamsi Din, glory to the horizons, never shone upon aught perishable but he made it eternal.”

“From the sun, the pride of Tabriz, behold these miracles, for every tree gains beauty by the light of the sun.”

By following the example of the teacher, the pilgrim begins to undergo those experiences which comprise different states and stations.  As another Sufi writer Mahmud Shabistari states in The Mystic Rose Garden:

“As for the saints on this road before and behind, they each give news of their own stages…Since the language of each is according to his degree of progress, they are hard to be understood by the people.”

Jalal al-Din Rumi

Folio from Jâmi al-Siyar by Mohammad Tahir Suhravardî, illustrating the meeting of Mavlana and Molla Shams al-Din in Konya. By Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Little is known of Shams al-Din other than his having been the teacher of Rumi.  He seems to have been part of a mystical tradition of Central Asia where influences of Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Buddhism from China has been in contact with Islamic thought.  The Silk Road from China to the Middle East brought many cultures into contact, and thinkers, especially mystics, were led to see the unity of experience behind the forms of practice.  As Rumi wrote in his best known collection of verses Mathnawi:

“I have given everyone a peculiar form of expression.  The idiom of Hindustan is excellent for Hindus; the idiom of Sind is excellent for the people of Sind.  I look not at tongue and speech, I look at the spirit and the inward feeling.  I look into the heart to see whether it be lowly, though the words uttered be not lowly.  Enough of phrases and conceits and metaphors!  I want burning, burning: become familiar with that burning! Light up a fire of love in thy soul, burn all thought and expression away!”.

“The lamps are different, but the Light is the same: it comes from Beyond.  If thou keep looking at the lamp, thou art lost: for thence arises the appearance of number and plurality.  Fix thy gaze upon the Light, and thou art delivered from the dualism inherent in the finite body…The Faithful are many, but their Faith is one; their bodies are numerous, but their soul is one.”

Rumi developed a form of combined mobile meditation, symbolism, and teaching which became the basis of the Mevlevi dervishes, popularly called the whirling dervishes and called the Mawlawi dervishes in the Arab countries. The participants enact the turning of the planets around the sun, a symbol of man linked to the center which is God, source of life, but it is also an internalized turning of the body toward the soul, likewise source of life.  Rumi tried to map out a system in which sound, motion and one-pointed concentration of thought would lead to an end to the personal self and union with the Higher Self.

There is a danger that the remaining Mevlevi dervishes become folklore in Turkey with attention paid primarily to the external music and motion, but we may help highlight the deeper meanings.

Jalal al-Din Rumi

Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana – A Shoemaker and the Unfaithful Wife of a Sufi Surprised by her Husband’s Unexpected Return Home. By Rumi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Notes:

1. See R.A. Nicholson Selected Poems from the Divani Shamsi Tabriz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952 re-edition)
2. See R.A. Nicholson’s translations of Mathnawi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1926)
R.A. Nicholson (1868-1945) was a professor of Persian at Cambridge and a leading translator and scholar of Rumi.  The translations have been republished at different dates.

 

Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens.

 

 

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Education of World Citizenships.

A Day of Deeper Peace.

Featured Image: Photo by Artem Podrez in Pexels.

21 September is the U.N. sponsored International Day of Peace chosen to mark the annual start of the U.N. General Assembly.  The General Assembly touches upon all the armed conflicts and tension areas. It can highlight the peace missions of the U.N. peacekeeper troops at work in different parts of the world.  Often, there are informal talks behind the scenes among the representatives of States in conflict. 

However, there is little or no avenue for talks with non-State armed groups such as ISIS.  Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have no direct standing with the General Assembly.  Consultative status is granted by the Economic and Social Council.  However, NGO representatives are active in the hallways and coffee bars during the General Assembly, and government representatives become aware of their suggestions.

Louise Diamond.

However, a deeper approach to peace building is necessary, and the Day of Peace is a moment when these deeper approaches can be expressed. Thus, the Association of World Citizens has stressed the peacebuilding approach of Louise Diamond.

Louise Diamond, a co-founder of the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy in Washington, DC, works in areas of inter-ethnic conflict to empower peacebuilders.

“Our power to empower is perhaps the most important role we can play in the 21st century. The more individuals who feel empowered to work in their own systems for peace and conflict transformation, the closer the world comes to that critical mass that will allow for a massive leap of consciousness, allowing new processes for peace that were previously unimaginable to become normative and easy.” She stresses that the Spirit of Peace is a living process, encoded in our hearts, embodied in our words, expressed through our thoughts and empowered through our choices. Peace “is the everyday practical matter of how we can live together harmoniously, dealing creatively and effectively with the inevitable differences, hurts and fears that arise in human relationships… On a larger scale, peace is a political goal of nations and peoples; on a smaller scale, inner peace is a personal goal for those of us who are trying to live more consciously within this frenzied world.” (1)

The world can seem   frenzied  as:

“a new cycle is beginning, one that stems from the recognition of the fact that we are one. Favoring a relational, intuitional, opportunity-oriented way of thinking and a community, inter-connective, partnership approach to social relations, this new way of being is built on our emerging understanding of universal truths: matter is energy with meaning and motion. Life is not static; it is flow. We are not broken, we are whole. If we oppress others, we oppress ourselves…Even as the old systems disintegrate and fade away; pioneers among us are creating new ways of living and working together that honor the truth of our oneness. I happen to believe that peacebuilding is at the forefront of this wave, and that its pioneers are and will be among the greatest champions of a new era.”

 

Louise Diamond’s views will be familiar to those who deal with individual therapy .As she writes:

“I found that whether I was working with individuals, couples, families or organizations, the work was inevitably about the issues of power and healing. In short, people were struggling to find peace and balance within themselves and to live and work harmoniously with each other.”

Her road map for action is based on four principles based on faith and common sense but that are also the lessons learned from experiences – her own and that of other peacebuilders whose views she shares.

“These lessons have to do with our basic unity and wholeness, our interdependence, the power of love for reconciliation, and our ability through conscious thought and action, to shape the world we live in.”

Hers is n inquiry into the practical implications of these spiritual lessons.

Day of Peace

 

How do we heal ancient wounds and restore justice?. How do we ensure healthy communities?

Peace can be envisaged as having three basic aspects – the water, ice, steam analogy. The most fundamental aspect – the water stage – we could call “metaphysical” and has to do with peace as order, harmony, and unity. Then there is the “serenity” aspect, often an inner peace, which is expressed as calm, tranquillity, equanimity. This calm, however, is also a source of energy, a will to action. “For me, peace is literally a powerhouse of strength. I experience peace as a specific vibration of a dynamic state of being, which, like a song, radiates from my heart and soul.” The third aspect is that of “relationship – agreement, accord, rapport. The Spirit of Peace reminds us that these three aspects are really one.

Peace as harmony, order, tranquillity is very close to the Taoist image of the Tao. As in Taoism, there are many avenues to tap into this flow of peace: music, poetry, dance, communing with nature, making love, deep relaxation, prayer and meditation.

“When we tap into that energy, we have access to vision, intuition, creativity, synergy, and the power of miracles – resources of mind, body, and spirit far beyond our day-to-day awareness. When we rest there, we are at home; we have found peace. The Spirit of Peace arises from this place. Our work, when confronted with our small-minded sense of separation, our lack of harmony, our experience of conflict, is to center home. (By ‘centering home’, I mean touching the Source within myself.)” 

By touching the Source, we awaken to what we need to carry us to new levels of thought and action.

Louise Diamond deals with the shifts in vision and attitudes necessary for the Spirit of Peace to fill our lives. There are, of course, other aspects of building a peaceful society. There are often needs to build new political and economic institutions and to formulate new policies. Yet attitude change, at a deep level, is essential. Many, I believe, will find Louise Diamond’s book both very clear and profound.

Note:

(1) Louise Diamond. The Courage for Peace (Berkley, CA: Conart Press, 2000).

 

Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens.

Here are other publications that may be of interest to you.

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Ecosystem Restoration Education of World Citizenships.

UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration: An Alliance for Action.

Featured Picture: Photo by Max Böttinger on Unsplash.

On World Environment Day, 5 June 2021, begins the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030..  An ecosystem is the interaction between people, plants, animals, and their surroundings. The UN Environment Programme and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization are the lead UN agencies for this Decade.  However, the Decade aims to become a broad-based global movement in which many can play a rôle.

Today, many ecosystems are under stress and facing degradation.  There is forest loss, and trees are not replanted.  Wetlands are filled by soil carried by water.  In some farmlands, there can be excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides.  There can be over-grazing by pastoralists.  Urban growth can take up ever-larger space.  Each ecosystem must be studied at the local level.  The stress studied and the remedial actions analysed both at the local level and at the level of the broader region.

The former ecosystem are no longer appropriate or possible in the new setting.

In this great effort for ecologically-wise use of land, there is a rôle for many persons as a vast range of actions are needed. Individual actions can have a wider impact by bringing people together in new alliances for action – in planting trees, in creating community gardens, in clearing and disposing of trash.

Working on ecosystem restoration must take into account the movement of people due to changes in the climate, to violence and to different economic factors.  When people move, they change their relationship to their setting.  Ways of living that were established in the former ecosystem are no longer appropriate or possible in the new setting.  It is very likely that the number of people on the move to new  areas will increase both within a country and across national frontiers.

As Citizens of the World, we need to develop awareness of the changes under way which announce the creation of a world society.  We all face important choices as we move forward with structures of cooperation and integration. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration provides a vital focus for common action.

 

Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens.

Here are other publications that may be of interest to you.

The Goddess of Democracy Education of World Citizenships.

The Goddess of Democracy: 4 June 1989.

Featured Picture: Wroclaw, Poland: the memorial of 10th anniversary (1999) of Tian’anmen Sq. (Beijing, China) massacre, June 4th, 1989 The first version of this memorial was “erected” by Polish students a day after the massacre, June 5th 1989 – as a destroyed bicycle and a fragment of tank-track lying nearby. The version in the photograph was erected ten years later, in 1999, and the symbolism is identical: bicycles against tanks… Photo by Julo, Public domain.

The uprising of Chinese students, soon joined by workers, peasants, and those who called themselves shimin (citizens) started a new era of « reform from below » with the symbol of the Goddess of Democracy. Students from colleges and universities in China’s capital initiated protests after the death on 15 April 1989 of the former General Secretary of the Communist Party, the reformist Hu Yaobang. The movement then spread over a number of weeks to other major cities such as Chengdu, Xian and Changsha.

The students made numerous demands for reforms : among them were calls for an end to corruption in government, increased funding for education, greater freedom of expression, and increased democratic participation in decision-making which was already being put into practice within student organizations. On 4 May 1989, these student-led demands were structured into a written text and read out in Tiananmen Square. Intellectuals approved of the text and made the demands of reform their own.

We have made this statue as a memorial to democracy.

The protests took place against the background of a meeting between the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping putting an end to a 33-year freeze in Sino-Soviet relations. However, the visit of Gorbachev recalled to Chinese leaders the deep changes underway in the USSR as well as in Eastern Europe, formerly under Soviet influence.

There were fears within the Chinese ruling circle that such changes might be possible in China due to uncontolled demands from below. There were strong debates between hard-liners and reformers within the leadership as to how to handle the student protests. There were many foreign journalists in Beijing to cover the arrival of Mikhail Gorbachev and so the student protests were becoming front-page news in many parts of the world.

On 20 May 1989, martial law was declared giving the government greater legal right to act against protesters. Arrests started being made. The students responded with greater determination, and protesters from other parts of China joined those on Tiananmen Square.

On 29 May, during the night, students from the Central Academy of Fine Arts assembled a 37 foot-high Goddess of Democracy built in two days of plaster and styrfoam. As the statue was unvailed, a student announcement was made « We have made this statue as a memorial to democracy. »

The Goddess of Democracy

Replica of the statue “Goddess of Democracy” from the Tiananmen square protests in 1989. Photo taken in Victoria Park, Hong Kong, during the commemoration event for the 21st anniversary of the massacre.
Photo by MarsmanRom & Isa Ng, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Goddess of Democracy has not been rebuilt.

A Goddess of Democracy whose face was at the same level as the portrait of Mao Zedong was too much for the hard-liners. On the afternoon of 3 June, soldiers started moving into the Square, smashing student barricades. An unknown number of Beijing protesters were killed, succumbing to gunshots or crushed by tanks and armored personnel carriers. More are wounded. « Counter-revolutionary rebellion is now taking place. They aim to overthrow the People’s Republic of China » announced a government broadcast.

At 2 A.M. On 4 June, military transport trucks entered the Square. At 4 A.M. the Goddess of Democracy is toppled by a tank. By mid-morning, the Square is emptied of protesters. Hope for student-led democratic reforms is set aside. On 5 June, a lone man stopped a tank convoy heading for an empty Tiananmen Square along an empty Chang’an Avenue, a vivid image of the power of nonviolence in the face of military threats.

Since 1989, political and economic policy has been set by the political leadership. There have been shifts in policy, many of which have increased economic conditions. These reforms, however, were not articulated by groups of citizens. The Goddess of Democracy has not been rebuilt.

 

Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens.

Here are other publications that may be of interest to you.

 Peace Planners: Awake!.

 Peace Planners: Awake!.

Featured Image: Photo by  Eddie Kopp,  Unsplash. The recent NATO Summit in Vilnius is an indication that the war planning community is busy at work in the spirit of Von…

World Refugee Day.

World Refugee Day.

June 20 is the United Nations (UN)-designated World Refugee Day;  marking the signing in 1951 of the Convention on Refugees. The condition of refugees and migrants has become a “hot”…

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Mothers Day Education of World Citizenships.

Our mothers. The Fundamental Pillar of Society.

Photo by Giftpundits.com in Pexels

Perhaps many expect the typical article that should be titled:  

“Congratulations to all the mothers on their day”

or   “Mothers celebrate their day.”

Something like this to cite some examples.

But it is not the goal. An image of “congratulations on mothers day”; everyone can download it anywhere and then post it on social media. Even today; the true value of the mother figure has not been given to the strengthening of society.

We focus on seeing only the materialized goals. But no one stops to think about the training process. Everything has a beginning. As a society; we must focus on this. Especially in Latin American cultures; mothers are the forgers of those men and women who are going to shape society; and the degree of civility will depend exclusively on the values ​​formed from the person’s childhood.

Children with values ​​are destined to become productive citizens; contributing knowledge and knowledge for society. They will be noble people and will adapt perfectly to work teams; and thus achieve collective objectives.

Mothers are Active Part in the Education of Their Children.

It does not happen in all cases. But a person; who has not received such maternal training is likely to lack values; ​​that prevent him from inserting himself adequately in society; and therefore achieve to live happily. These may be the most common causes; that produce in a person; the predisposition necessary to commit various crimes.

Mothers are active part in the education of their children; together with the educational system of the countries. Without the support of the Mothers; it is difficult for a child to perform well in the education he receives at school.

The work of these noble women is admirable. And they perform it with all the love in the world without receiving any type of salary. Not satisfied with this, they have also had to fight with so many anti-values ​​that have spread today. From the media to social networks. If not for these women, society would be worse than it is today.

In conclusion; we must emphasize that mothers carry out exceptional work. Because by looking at the statistics; we can determine that good citizens represent the majority; compared to a small group that commit crimes and criminality.

We will always lack words and gestures to thank for such a noble sacrifice; and excellent work; that they carry out all mothers around the world.

It is for this reason that there is nothing left to say

“Thank you very much to all the mothers; who educated us with love and tenderness. For you we are an innovative, good and hard-working society.”

“Happy International Mothers Day”.

By Elio Pinto.

Worker's Day Education of World Citizenships.

International Worker’s Day. A Path of Sacrifices.

Photo by Free-Photos in Pixabay, Photo by Free-Photos in Pixabay, Photo by Michal Jarmoluk in Pixabay

May 1st commemorates the date that definitely marked the fight for labor demands.

Being one of the most important achievements; the reduction of the working day to a maximum of 8 hours a day. Organizing the day in 3 important blocks: 8 hours for rest, 8 hours for leisure and 8 hours of work.

This date is a well-deserved tribute to the men; who sacrificed their lives for this noble cause. Many rights have been won since that historic moment. Society is now clear on the important role that workers play; and how it influences a country’s economy.

Various studies have emerged on human resource motivation, occupational health and safety, and ongoing training programs. All this in order to forge workers with greater motivation to achieve and of course more productive. Today there are unions, unions and an infinity of organizations that watch over the rights of workers. We must emphasize that there are advances in this matter. But we must ask ourselves as a society.

Have efforts to defend worker rights been sufficient?

That answer is left to the discretion of each citizen. But something must be paid due attention and it is with respect to the salary that each worker receives. In most countries, a minimum wage is stipulated that in theory allows the worker to cover his basic needs. But in practice, is this true?.

Let’s say it depends on the economy of each Country. Perhaps it is one of the economic indicators par excellence. Because if the worker has his needs covered, therefore he must be more productive. And the higher the Productivity the higher the Profitability.

But the current reality is very distant from what should be ideal.

It is no secret to anyone that labor exploitation exists today. And this is more accentuated in countries with economic crises and high inflation rates. Wages are so lower that many formal jobs do not meet even the most basic needs of workers.

It is for this reason that another phenomenon occurs that is Emigration. This process in the worst cases occurs en masse, what many call Exodus. These migratory flows often collapse economies because they literally leave the country without labor, but paradoxically they benefit the economy of the country that receives these migratory masses.

When a country prepares to receive a significant migratory flow; it tends to take advantage of skilled labor at the service of national production, generating wealth and improvements in the quality of life.

Many economic powers today have achieved success through the help of the immigrant workforce. Motivated and grateful to the country that welcomes them, it becomes a labor force with a high rate of productivity and training. Willing to exchange knowledge and experiences.

Of course, not Everything is Rosy.

all the time; there are never a few unscrupulous companies looking to hire cheap labor. Violating the law by NOT canceling the benefits of the law, and in many cases they do not even pay the minimum wage to their immigrant workers.

But these companies sooner or later see their productivity harmed and they lag behind in the competitive market, which is increasingly affected by more motivated workers who are trained to meet the offer demanded by today’s societies.

Competent organizations should focus their greatest efforts on enforcing the law and legislating reforms that protect the worker, both in economically stable countries and in those that are not as prosperous. Because the success or failure of the national economy depends on motivated labor.

Workers must be aware that we are the protagonists of the story and we must demand our rights whenever the occasion requires it.

We must value the sacrifice of those men who gave their all so that today we can enjoy a better quality of life. Continue working to finance an excellent education for our children because one day they will become the entrepreneurs of the future.

With the humanistic quality that they offer new opportunities to the working class and thus be able to continue forging happy and productive human beings because only with work is it possible to generate the technological advances that make the evolution of humanity possible.

Mother Earth Education of World Citizenships.

The Day of Mother Earth: Living in Harmony with…

Photo by Ben Tarver on Unsplash
Basaseachi Waterfall, Cuauhtémoc City, Mexico.

International Mother Earth Day on 22 April each year was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2009.  Its aim is to promote living in harmony with Nature and to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations.  The concept of living in harmony with Nature was seen by the U.N. delegates as a way “to improve the ethical basis of the relationship between humankind and our planet.” It is the biosphere we all belong to which is becoming the common heritage of mankind which we must defend.

Mother Earth

The term “Mother Earth” is an expression used in different cultures to symbolize the inseparable bonds between humans and Nature. Pachamama is the term used in the Andean cultures of South America. The Earth and the ecosystem is our home. We need to care for it as a mother is supposed to care for her children and the children to show love and gratitude in return. However, we know from all the folk tales of the evil stepmother as well as the records of psychoanalytic sessions that mother-children relations are not always relations of love, care and gratitude. Thus to really live in harmony with Nature requires deep shifts in values and attitudes, not just “sustainable development” projects.

The United Nations.

The United Nations began its focus on ecological issues with the preparations for the 1972 Conference in Stockholm and has continued with the 1992 Rio Declaration followed by the Rio plus 20 conference 20 years later.  However the concept of living in harmony with Nature is relatively new as a U.N. political concept. Yet it is likely to be increasingly a theme for both governmental policy making and individual action.

As Rodney Collin wrote in a letter “It is
extraordinary how the key-word of harmony occurs everywhere now, comes
intuitively to everyone’s lips when they wish to express  what they hope for.  But I feel that we have hardly yet begun to
study its real meaning. Harmony is not an emotion, an effect.  It is a whole elaborate science, which for
some reason has only been fully developed in the realm of sound.  Science, psychology and even religion are
barely touching it as yet.”  (1)

Resolutions in the U.N. General Assembly can give a sense of direction. They indicate that certain ideas and concepts are ready to be discussed at the level of governments. However, a resolution is not yet a program of action or even a detailed framework for discussion. “Living in harmony with Nature” is at that stage on the world agenda. As Citizens of the World, we strive to develop an integrated program of action.

   Notes

1) His letters have been assembled after his death by
his wife into a book:

     Rodney
Collin. The Theory of Conscious Harmony 
(Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 1958)

Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens