Educating the Global Citizen
Essay by review • November 29, 2010 • Essay • 361 Words (2 Pages) • 1,304 Views
Educating the Global Citizen
Quote: "Washing one's hands in conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral."
Paulo Friere who was a Brazilian educator and a human right activist wrote this quote. He was born in 1922 and died in 1997.
The quote means that that if you don't to anything to change the issue of the powerless then the powerful people are the ones that succeed. All the powerful need is for no one to stand in the way. If you grant them this then you truly helping them. If you side with the powerless then you are trying to help them and you are not being neutral which means doing nothing at all.
An example is when the Europeans used African Americans as there slaves. The Europeans were the powerful and the African Americans were the powerless. Before the Underground Railroad people were being neutral about the situation. When they started this network of freeing slaves, the sided with the powerless, so that they could be free in Canada.
This quote is trying to make us make a difference in the world, instead of doing nothing at all. By helping someone in need you are making a big difference in our global village. To make a difference it not only takes the government but also us citizens. People all around the world are connected in someway or another. One issue can affect the whole world.
One way that we can apply this quote to the present is how the world has allowed Iraq and Afghanistan to be attacked. Many innocent people, including children have been harmed because no one protested. The world helped the powerful and defeated the powerless. An issue that we are helping is the tsunami that happened in parts of Indonesia, Thailand and India. The government and citizens have all helped in donating money to these countries for their losses.
This quote has motivated citizens to think about our world and its issues and how we can make a difference. This is just one human rights quote but there are other issues in need for help in our global village.
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