International Global Citizen's Award

encouraging young people to become better global citizens

Covid thoughts – the global comes to us.

Covid thoughts – the global comes to us.

March 2021

 

The Covid pandemic is a true manifestation of a global issue – global infectious diseases. Global issues are those issues that affect all parts of the globe, irrespective of geographical and country borders. Examples are climate change, air pollution, terrorism – and global infectious diseases. A single country cannot stop these issues affecting it, and what happens in one country has effects on other parts of the world.

 

When I worked for the International Baccalaureate, leading its global issues community theme project, if I met a head of a school, in discussing their response to global issues, they often talked about projects involving travel overseas. It was quite common at the time for people to think that global matters were concerned with matters abroad. And to address global issues, you had to travel. This was often in connection with overseas service work.

 

I used to give a talk to teachers “Going Global without Going Anywhere”, which emphasised that global issues affect everyone in all parts of the world. In considering and addressing global issues there is no need to travel – to experience the effects of global issues, or to help address them.

http://www.cnht.org/pdf/Going_Global_IB.pdf

 

The phrase Think global, Act local recognises that wherever we are, by taking local action we can have an impact upon global issues.

 

The global pandemic gives us a harsh demonstration that wherever we are, we are affected by the global issue of global infectious diseases. The Covid pandemic shows us, if it was necessary, that global issues are not something abroad or something we must travel abroad to engage with. Global issues come to us – and have their impact.

 

Harriet Marshall, a leading global education specialist in the UK, talks of having a “global gaze.” A global gaze is a way of looking at issues that gives a global perspective, even if initially we are only considering an event or issue locally. When we have a global gaze, we look for the connections between what is happening locally, and wider, global events and issues.

 

This idea of a global gaze underpins the IGCA, particularly the Personal Global Footprint section. What we eat, buy, wear, how we travel are local activities. But they have global connections and are affected by and affect global issues.

 

Many of us have been locked down in our homes, unable to travel outside except for specific purposes. We cannot travel long distances in our own country, and travel abroad is forbidden or impossible. The pandemic has demonstrated very clearly, and conclusively, that to affect and be affected by global issues, we do not have to go anywhere.

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