Page 8
ARTS «& LIFE
The Clarion — April 14,2006
Question: what is global citizenship?
The Winter 2006 Salzburg Seminar group
by Adam Beeson
Managing Editor
"What is Global Citizenship?"
is the final article of a four-
part series on the themes and
ideas presented at the
Salzburg Seminar s Interna
tional Study Program, held
Jan. 1-8 at the Schloss
Leopoldskron in Salzburg,
Austria.
Michael Daxner is a cosmo
politan. This, in his own words,
means that he feels at home ev
erywhere: in Germany where he
served as president emeritus of
the University of Oldenburg, in
Austria where he received his
Ph.D. from the University of
Vienna, and even in Afghanistan
where he’s worked with the Min
ister of Higher Education since
2003.
From 2000 to 2002, Daxner
was the principle international
officer for the Ministry of Edu
cation, Science and Technology
in Belgrade, the capital of the
war-torn country Serbia and
Montenegro. He has been to
nearly every country in Europe.
He has family in New Jersey.
And, needless to say, he does
not believe in a policy of iden
tity.
“In New Joysey," he’ll say
in his best Deutsch-slaughtered
Yankee accent, “you
belong to your fam
ily, your institution,
your city, your state,
your nation.” The
towering Jewish
man swings his
arms back and forth
to match the waver
ing tones of his
rumbling voice, and
the audience
laughs. “Citizen
ship is a concept as
well as a political
tool. When you
move, you either
change citizenship
or you are forced to
change it.”
Because label
ing means someone
“has power over you,” Michael
Daxner believes in what the
Salzburg Seminar has come to
call “global citizenship,” a con
cept founded on terms that have
been around for years: global
ization, universalism, global so
ciety, interconnectedness, and
multi-levelness.
“Global citizenship depends
on universal values,” Daxner
says. Human rights, tolerance,
and respect are all virtues that
fall under the universal norms
presented in global citizenship.
Membership into any commu
nity, even if it is global, requires
a shared set of distinct values
or convictions, according to
Daxner.
“Yale is beautiful,” Daxner
says, “but New Haven is a slum.”
The audience again tries to
control their laughter as they jot
down that last remark into their
crammed notebooks full of the
week’s observations. This is be
cause “higher education stan
dards are truly global,” accord
ing to Daxner, and towns thrive
off of these institutions.
Higher education, human
rights, respect, and tolerance.
These are all beliefs that Daxner
says global citizens share, but
the overarching question still
remains: why do we need to be
global citizens? This is the ques
tion that the Seminar has been
working towards all week, and
this was the question that was
about to be answered.
“Sometimes universal val
ues are undercut by national in
terest,” he says, a statement that
links the previous session’s dis
cussion of the United Nation’s
Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. In Article V, the declara
tion reads that “no one shall be
subjected to torture or to cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment,” raising
thoughts of Abu Ghraib and re
lated accusations of torture by
the United States.
Issues like world debt, glo
bal warming, natural disasters,
extensive diseases, pandemics,
and illnesses, war, poverty, and
human rights violations cannot
be dealt with by local organiza
tions alone. According to
Daxner, it takes a global society
to find a cure for these emerging
problems. And a global society
requires global citizenship.
With global citizenship, the
old phrase, “Think globally, act
locally,” is thrown out the win
dow. According to Daxner and
the rest of the Seminar staff, glo
bal citizens can not only think
globally, but they can act glo
bally as well. By simply paying
attention to world affairs, seek
ing news sources outside of the
United States, discussing global
issues with friends and family,
and learning new languages,
new cultures, and new tradi
tions, anyone can act globally,
the Seminar staff says.
So how do you become a
global citizen?
According to Michael
Daxner, it is quite easy: “You de
cide to which type of world you
want to belong.” From there, he
says, the possibilities are end
less.
Michael Daxner present -Global Citizenship