Global Community

I was at this sort of lecture thing recently where this guy (who i shall not name for his sake!) was delivering a speech. The theme of the "program" (if it can be called that) was 'Welcoming the new generation' and the opening lines of the guy's speech were "The youth of today has been brought up wrong. They have no perception, all they have is someone else's perception". And this was basically what he said throughout his 25 minute long speech. I was surrounded by a group of like-minded friends (as in, like-minded to me!)... and we were fuming by the end of it. How could he condemn our generation... how could he generalize like that? He even said that we weren't patriotic and had no culture or tradition that our ancestors have had for generations. According to him, we see the world only through pre-prepared images, that is, the media ofcourse! So if we were shown another angle of some famous monument, say the Taj Mahal, we wouldn't be able to recognize it! and imagine all of this from a man who is part of the 'media world' himself!!!!!!!!

I went home, sat down, rationally thought about what he said, and still I didnt agree with a word. Okay, so maybe we're getting 'pre-prepared' pictures of the world. But frankly who cares, atleast we're getting SOME picture! I mean, i bet you he didnt know what the atmosphere, or the grand canyon looked like, excpet from pictures. Has he been to outer space and 'experienced' it himself. We look at the images we're given and form our own opinions, we're not dumb or anything! I bet you, he didnt have half the knowledge that we have of the world when he was our age? This is an age of technology where we find out what life would be like to live in China or Antarctica, sitting right here comfy in our homes... doesnt that increase, and not diminish, our perception...

And to my indignation, my mum agreed with this man. She said, yes! today's childrem are brought up wrong. "You do have no patriotism. Patriotism and everything, even charity, should start from the home. Do you guys show your love?". Oh! now that got me really fired up. Okay, so maybe we dont feel patriotic towards our nation, but we feel it towards the world. We feel a sense of belonging to this world, to the global community (yes! i've finally gotten to the point!). We dont worry about one particular country, we worry about the world. Does the older generation want us to care about only our home, our state and our nation?? Wont that create feelings of disunity. What about caring about OUR world? I know I do. And I know that makes me want to clean up the whole world, make the whole world a better place to live in and not just my house or my state or my nation! I care about MY world. Yes! maybe I'm selfish, maybe i care only for my benefit... but if caring selfishly about the whole world for MY benefit, benefits others, then why not?

We live in a world today where global untiy is of utmost importance. It is absolutely necessary that we feel united, not as Nations or Unions... but as one WORLD. If we have to solve problems like GLOBAL warming and GLOBAL climate change, then shouldnt we work as a GLOBAL community and not as national communities. Does it even make sense that we're trying to tackle such a massive problem without being united with the rest of the world, the only world we know. This isn't the 'Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy' where we can travel from here to some far away land where that land wont be destroyed, (because of aliens, or global warming, that's not the point!!)

Is it not necessary for this new generation, the youth, to pull up their socks and make up for their parents and ancestors' mistakes?? Is it not time that we accepted that we have a major responsibilty and that just concerts and campaigns are not going to help, that WE as one WORLD have to take up active action to save our earth.

If this is so, is not talk of patriotism for our nation and talk of 'I will die for my country' obsolete? Should it not be 'I will not die because of other's mistakes'?? (okay yea! that does sound wierd, but u get my point right??!?)...
Is it not time for us to refurbish our views on where we stand as people on this earth. Individual effort does count. But if as individuals we can do so much, imagine what we can do as one WORLD, one GLOBAL COMMUNITY??


(Well at the end of it, this sounded like one big debate... so i'm waiting for counter arguements... or arguements on my side!!)
member of the new generation advanced global community,
Kavya

(originally posted on September 11th)