Global Society and Global Citizenship
The formation of a global society is facing trouble and opposition especially when the humanitarian groups are fighting for global peace and the political groups of the world are competing in terms of political powers that make some of the nations to use the weapons of mass destruction in wars Also, what is worse is the lack of national security that defies the presence of world peace (Gerard, 15).
The formation of a global society is a hot debate in most of the international forums.
Globalization is feared for the effect of corporations that will result to environmental degradation global warming, lack of political accountability to the worlds responsibility toward the support of humanity and the environment as a whole. However, this does not bar globalization which is progressively taking route since the 1970s and has since then transcended some political and ethnic boundaries, breaking down cultures and creating global cultures. These kinds of associations are likely to result in the formation of global society whose culture in a hybrid of all cultures of the world. The development in communication skills, technological developments that have resulted in the internet connectivity, availability of electronic money transfer systems are hastening globalization (Anthony, 5). The development of the global society threatens the retention of ethnicity, religious affiliations, as well as resulting to insecurity and increased crime rate at global level due to lack of sovereignty by some nations.
On the other hand, focusing on global citizenship, people can say that they are global citizens while others stick to there national citizenry. The two global and national citizens are not the same although some people may qualify for either or both depending on their current state and nature of citizenship. In order to be able to define whether there is or not a global citizen, it is important to start from the known to the unknown. That is let me define a national citizen first.
National citizenship is a state in which one belongs to a certain country, in which heshe has full rights to life and that they can live any where in the nation. Additionally, they can vote and can also associate freely with different people of their nation. They have the freedom of expression as well as of worship among other stipulated rights as dictated by the nations constitution. Citizenship of one country is not similar to the citizenship of another because different States describe citizenship differently (Darren, 26). For example, if one has the citizenship of one country they can not claim their right of expression or life from another country. One has freedom of movement within and without hisher country that only applies to their own country but not another.
Citizenship for example in United States of America can be earned by birth, naturalization, derivative citizenship as well as the acquired citizenship. Citizenship by birth is achieved by the virtue of being born in a particular country. To become a citizen by naturalization, one has to apply for the citizenship but before they are approved for it they must meet the set requirements for naturalization. With effect from the offer of citizenship to the United States of America by naturalization, their children may automatically become citizens of the U.S by the derivative means and this depends on the date of naturalization approval. However, these children must be below 18 years of age to before the date of naturalization otherwise they should apply for citizenship by naturalization (Keane, 14).
One may also be a citizen through acquiring it if they were not born in the United States but only if either of their parents were U.S citizens at the time of birth. However, this may have to be followed up at the immigration offices to ensure that one has the right to live in the U.S. If one is living in the U.S, they must always have their passports or the green cards with them in order to be able to prove that they are the rightful citizens of the States. It is also possible for one to have dual citizenship, if they are allowed to retain citizenship of their original country or even they can still apply for dual citizenship depending on the nations described and the nature of duty that mandates them to (Frost, 31). A citizen of a certain State or nation is obliged to pay taxation, vote freely, obey to the laws of the country, they can serve in the court of law, they cane also serve in the armed forces of the nation as well as in the political participation among other Statutory obligations.
In some cases, their other inferred descriptions of citizenships from the humanitarian act like having the mandate to rescue people by giving them relief in an immigration camp where there are people of all walks of life who need assistance. Community participation activities like voluntary services could grant one a form of citizenship that is not associated directly to a certain nation or State. In this case, the citizenship is defined by the mandate or role that one holds in that community rather than is the case of national citizenship, in which one may be associated to the rights that the State should offers. Since the 1990s, it is easy for one to identify themselves as global citizens by the virtue of obligation rather than the rights they claim for (Gerard, 39). According to the UBC mission statement which recognizes students obligations as global citizens, it converts the meaning of citizenship in to subjective obligation rather than the fight for human rights from the State.
Global citizen could be that person who is well versed with international matters and has free interaction with press or media form all over the world. They could also attend international seminars and fellowships, interact with nongovernmental and governmental forums, work under various political systems of the world, be well traveled and widely read in numerous spheres of life in the world. They can fit well in vast varieties of cultures, environments and location and negotiation tables of the world. They holistically appreciate the diversification of the globe.
Take for instance some one working with the United Nations program where at certain durations they are in the United States and the following month they are offering assistance at Sudan in Africa. after a few days on, they are in Afghanistan offering relief at a battle field yet after a few weeks they travel to Haiti for the salvation of another group of souls. This person qualifies to be called a global citizen even though there is nothing like global governance to which they would claim their Statehood or rights (Keane, 67).
Another case of a global citizen would be a stateless person who loses citizenship of his country of origin upon the application of citizenship to another country yet after some time their rights of citizenship to destination are cancelled upon a realization that they had a wrong entry to the destination. In this case, they may be lacking citizenship of any of the nations and thus may be referred as global citizens. Unfortunately, the majority of stateless persons languish in poverty and starvation because they cannot claim for the rights of education, freedom of expression, or ownership of property among other rights, from any government and that there is also no global citizenry that has a distinguished governance.
Therefore, in reality, there is a literal or inferred meaning of a global citizen but not legislatively recognized global citizenship. Also, a global society is yet to get prominence as globalization takes root. There is also a need for more analysis on who comprises the global society.
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