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Add page to: Add page to: I consider myself to be a Global Citizen, who is currently living in Australia.
What goes on elsewhere affects us all no matter where we live. The advice, 'think globally, act locally' has (in my life time) never been more relevant.
As a Global citizen I do not believe that I am represented by the current Australian Government, the current American Government and definitely not the kind of Government that has left North Korea with little or few human rights. I could, of course, go on to list other Governments that I do not believe represent me - but I'm sure you get the picture. If you don't there's a wealth of books and information out there for you to read.
If you are aware of what's going on in the world and choose to do nothing, that's ok... it's your right to make this choice but if you are unaware of what's going on in the world then your ignorance means you have no choice BUT to do nothing.
If you do something, do it with conviction, but peacefully. Sometimes a sprinkling of humour, satire or creativity (no matter how dire your situation) helps make the masses more aware of your plight. Protesting war, loss of human/civil rights, etc violently does nothing but strengthen the position of those you are fighting and weakens your own position. Terrorism is a prime example of this, those acts are - I'm sure - carried out to draw attention to perceivedissues and wrongs, however, by protesting in such a manner, terrorist alienate everyone - and possibly restrict other global citizens who may have spoken out for their cause had their approach had been argued with a peaceful passion. Terrorist acts have brought about a reduction of civil rights in any number of countries by allowing our Governments to 'justify' bringing in new laws and legislations under the name of anti-terrorism.
Australia is not just some island in the middle of nowhere - it is affected by and affects world politics and civil liberties/standards of living as do other countries affect ours. You only need to take a quick look at the global situation to see that often countries follow one anothers lead, and it's not always because it's what's good for the people.
Politicians are there to serve you, not vice-versa. You can [still] request that they address your concerns and answer your questions and not fob you off with airy fairy mumbo-jumbo.
The system plays a subtle trick on the people, telling them that 'whole' is more important than the individual parts. This of course is ridiculous, for the whole is *only* the individual parts. What consitutes a country? Is it the geographic boundaries or its institutions or the land owners or the national football team? No, it's the millions of wonderful, individual people that make up its citizenry. Nothing else.
Stuart Wilde
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Posted by grudknows : Tuesday, June 01, 2004
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