- Think of no one as “them”
- Don’t confuse your comfort with your safety
- Talk to strangers
- Imagine other cultures through their poetry and novels
- Listen to music you don’t understand - and dance to it
- Act locally
- Notice the workings of power and privilege in your culture
- Question consumption
- Know how your lettuce and coffee are grown: wake up and smell the exploitation
- Look for fair trade and union labels
- Help build economies from the bottom up
- Acquire few needs
- Learn a second (or third) language
- Visit people, places, and cultures – not tourist attractions
- Learn people’s history
- Re-define progress
- Know physical and political geography
- Play games from other cultures
- Watch films with subtitles
- Know your heritage
- Honor everyone’s holidays
- Look at the moon and imagine someone else, somewhere else, looking at it, too
- Read the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Understand the global economy in terms of people, land and water
- Know where your bank banks
- Never believe you have a right to anyone else’s resources
- Refuse to wear corporate logos: defy corporate domination
- Question military/corporate connections
- Don’t confuse money with wealth, or time with money
- Have a pen/email pal
- Honor indigenous cultures
- Judge governance by how well it meets all people’s needs
- Be skeptical about what you read
- Eat adventurously
- Enjoy vegetables, beans and grains in your diet
- Choose curiosity over certainty
- Know where your water comes from and where your wastes go
- Pledge allegiance to the earth: question nationalism
- Think South, Central and North – there are many Americans
- Assume that many others share your dreams
- Know that no one is silent though many are not heard. Work to change this.
Monday, 26 November 2007
How to Build a Global Community
We found this poster in a church in County Galway, Republic of Ireland, during a holiday in 2005. I had taken photos of the poster, intending to type it up for sharing with friends, and have just come across it in a clear-out. Not surprisingly, I've found many people who have been impressed in the same way - and hence saved me the job of typing it! It's an important document. Enjoy.
