While we experience hope in the many efforts toward greater collaboration and peace-making in the human community, we see also that expanding globalization is widening the gap between rich and poor.
(Call of the 2002 SSND General Chapter) |
GLOBALIZATION VS GLOBAL COMMUNITY
by S. Theresa Nagle
Globalization is complex and controversial. The term “globalization” began with the multinational corporations and usually refers to the issues surrounding free trade and economics favouring wealthy nations and wealthy people within nations. The World Summits held by the G8 Nations are one way world leaders and corporations promote this kind of globalization.
“Global community,” on the other hand, refers to the linking of humanity around the world.
The “global community” is promoted by individuals and groups who work together for peace, justice and the ecological integrity and future of our earth. Among them are those who promote the values and principles of the Earth Charter, those working to cancel the unjust third-world debt, those who stand for peace and against the war, and the world-wide group that meets at the same time as the G8 world leaders promoting “fair trade” rather than “free trade”.
The School Sisters of Notre Dame, Canadian Province link with the global community for peace, justice and care for the environment through such groups as the Shalom Network, Development and Peace, and The Council of Canadians. The internet has enhanced the work of the global community.
A current example of the “global community” at work is the Global Call to Action Against Poverty launched at the World Social Forum. It is a worldwide alliance of hundreds of Non-Governmental Organizations committed to helping world leaders keep the promises of the United Nations Millennium Declaration and to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals. It represents a coming together of peoples of all faiths and political beliefs in an effort to end poverty.
If you go to www.whiteband.org, the central website for the movement, you can discover the different ways countries are working towards the same end. In both Canada and the United Kingdom the campaign is called Make Poverty History.
We once said: Think globally, act locally.
Today however we must “think globally and locally, act locally and globally.”
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