Thoughts on World Citizenship

First of all, I want to start of by pointing something out. I am proud to be an American. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to patriotic music. I strongly believe in the principles upon which our nation was founded. I believe in freedom and peoples right to self govern. In the words of Lee Greenwood, "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free."

But this is not about America. It's not about being an "American". It's about world citizenship. It's about the world we live in today.

Today, we are living in an increasingly connected world. HPU recognizes this, and in fact one of its stated goals is to help shape its students into world citizens, prepared to participate in a global society. http://web1.hpu.edu/index.cfm?contentID=1639

And I believe that this goal is an important one. Technology is still advancing, and many new technologies are being developed that will make it easier and easier to communicate across borders. Even now, websites like facebook have become the backbone of movements across the middle east, allowing groups to communicate. This ability to communicate has been pivotal in allowing these countries' citizens to shape their own futures.



As communication continues to expand, I believe national borders will begin to mean less and less. And this is my point: I believe that this is how it should be. I believe that this is the direction we are headed. And I believe that we need to be ready. It is for that reason that I salute HPU, and other schools with similar missions.

Its not that I believe that nations, and national pride, are a bad thing. Far from it, I believe that national pride helps bind people together. But I believe that it's time for people to recognize that we are all one people, part of an increasingly global society. One of the things that leads to conflict between people and that allows those conflicts to grow are the fact that people are divided.  I believe that through communication, we can build a more united and stable world.

I believe that with the advances in technology, its possible, if not inevitable, that the entire world will be connected. And I believe that that act of connecting will be a huge step in advancement for our world as a whole. For that to happen, though, we have to be ready.

I look forward to a future in which people not only take pride in family, community, and nation, but in being a member of a global community. And I hope that day will come soon. And I believe that its our generation that has a good chance to make it happen.

I believe it's time to act. And I believe that we can make it happen. We have the tools. It's our turn to make a difference.

I know I'm an idealist. In the words of John Lennon :
"You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one "

But it's in the attempt to attain what may be unattainable that we may one day build a better world. After all, they say that if you shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you will land among the stars.

Upcoming Post

By the end of the week I should have a decent length story about HPU's new Multimedia Program. I'm writing the story for the Kalamalama, so I figured I might as well post it here as well. Look forward to it!

Book Review: Pathfinder

Hey everyone, I just finnished reading another book (possibly my last for a while, untill I get some new ones). The book I read was Pathfinder, by Orson Scott Card. I would like to warn you now, there will be some Spoilers, if any of you are interested in actually reading this book.

The book follows the story of a boy named Rigg, who goes on a journey. While the book is Scifi, for the most part it reads more like a fantasy novel. The Spoilers will begin here.




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The book takes place on the planet Garden, where a colony ship had been sent to establish a new human colony. During the ship's attempt to jump to the planet, an anomaly caused the ship to multiply itself 19 times, and jump over 11,000 years into the past. Fast forward almost 11,000 years, and we meet a boy named Rigg, who has the special ability to see the paths people leave behind as they go through thier lives. After the death of his father, he sets out on a journy to the capital to meet his sister. On the way he meets friends and enemys. Rigg learns about his herritage as one of the "non-royals", and eventually, in an attempt to escape from the people who want him and his sister dead, he and his friends maks thier way out of thier "wallfold", through an impenetrable barrier meant to keep the people from each of the 19 copied ships from interacting. the story ends with Rigg learning the truth about thier world.

The ending is slightly dissappointing, in that i think Card could have done much more with what happens after, with the merginh of the various wallfolds, and the arrival of subsequent ships from Earth. But then again, there might be a sequal in the works. Spoilers end here.
 
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Overall it is a good book, and it touches on issues such as government, truth, trust, family, and wealth.
Like all of Card's books, this one shows that he does his research, referencing real science and real history at several points through out the story. I recommend this book to people who like scifi and fantasy. It is a tad long, though.

You can watch the book's official trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4glGSLdnIRQ

Thoughts on Egypt

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past two weeks, you are probably aware of what is going on in Egypt. The short story is that the Egyptian people are calling for the resignation of their president-dictator Mohamad Hosni Mubarak, and have been protesting since January 25th. In the past couple of days, things have taken a turn for the worse, with bullets beginning to fly when pro-government groups started showing themselves.

At this point it appears that it is only a matter of time before Mubarak is forced to flee the country. He has already lost control, and it would appear that the overwhelming majority of the population wants him out. At this point we can only hope that the situation resolves itself soon, before too many more are killed, and that the new government, one that is actually supported by the Egyptian people, will be able to bring stability to their nation.

I for one hope that the events in Egypt sets an example for the people of repressive nations around the world and sends a message that a government cannot rule without the peoples consent. I believe that people have the right to choose who governs them. The Egyptian people have taken that into their own hands, and are fighting to build themselves a better future. While I do not believe that violence and revolt is always the best answer, neither do I believe that people should just sit back and suffer under a repressive regime.

Hopefully the situation will calm down soon, and the Egyptians can work on repairing the damage and building thier new government.  Until that time, we can only give them our support. Our support for them building a better nation for themselves. Hopefully, when this is all over, Egypt will finally be the republic that it has claimed itself to be. And hopefully other repressive governments will see what has happened in Egypt, and consider their positions carefully.

Empire

This morning I just finished reading a very interesting book. The title of the book is Empire, and it was written my Orson Scott Card, who is probably one of my favorite authors. The book takes place in the near future, in which the assassination of the US president becomes the catalyst for a full-blown civil war, with the division being between the liberal-progressives, and conservative ideologies.

Aside from being (in my humble opinion) a good story, the author raises some vary good points about the state of American politics. In the book's Afterward, Card explains the premise of the novel. The scary part is that he appears to be right.

One of the points he makes is that while conditions right now wouldn't necessarily start a civil war, he makes the point that the American political system has become so polarized that you essentially have to pic a "side" and stick to it completely, and that if you deviate even slightly or try to stay "moderate," you will be shunned by both sides. From what I have seen in the media, this much at least is true.

Another point is that civil wars begin when one side believe strongly enough that the other sie is arming them selves to destroy them that they shoot first. He even goes so far as to list examples like Yugoslavia where violent civil war broke out because both sides feared that the other side wanted to destroy them. Both sides claimed to be defending themselves and the truth was that they were.

The point Card made was that yes, it is possible. One of the messages Card tried to get across in the novel is that we are one nation, the United States, and yet we are so divided along ideological line that many of us wont even consider that fact that the other side might have a decent point to make. Card points out that that is one definition of Fanaticism. If that is the case, then I don't know about you, but I don't like that idea. I don't like it one bit.