World Citizens

As many of you know, we have made our trip to Slovakia into an integral class about international competition and environmental impact. At the opening ceremony the Minister of education, science, research and sport spoke to us about how the games is much larger than the games itself and how sportsmanship and education should be intertwined to make the world a better place. It was perfect how he describe our class and the goals of the games at the very same time and even his title resounded with us.

This class is difficult for me to decide whether it has enriched my experience or not. On one hand we gained a greater understanding of the alarming catastrophic events happening around the world but at the same time I feel like it has diminished our cultural experience here in Slovakia because some of us have to be concerned about school work and grades rather than exploring the towns and Slovakian country side. This class is a leader in its kind and a one of the principal reasons that enabled us to fund our trip through grants and rally the support from many departments. The article we read by Tarrant found that studying the environment while traveling abroad increases global citizenship but I have also found that it is a lot to bite off in such a short trip filled with racing and academics.

 I have found the book we are reading, Fevered by Marsa very alarming and also unreliably informative. What I mean is that the author makes large dramatic statements that are not entirely backed up nor does she take into account other information and could be very misleading to a reader who has not been taught to question what they are taught.  For instance, once she compares the similar life spans of people in North Korea and Louisiana and implies that it is due to hurricane Katrina. She completely neglects to take into account the decades of compounded civil rights dating back to slave history, dietary causes and the many other socioeconomic factors that are unrelated to climate change. The author is great about bringing in interviews from many sources and entwining them together in a way that bridges the gap between what science knows about climate change and what the general public believes. However, it leaves much to be desired by someone who wants hard facts and a complete picture rather than emotional sway. Her writing style, even though it attempts to humanize the stories she tells, ends up distancing the reader in a place just as hopeless and helpless as the people she writes about. She offers no empowerment and no solution. This got me thinking about my future vocation and how I want to do something to help stop the problem at the source rather than a field that puts a band-aid on the environmental disaster. That’s partially why I swayed away from health care system that Marsa expounds because I feel like there are so many more impactful ways to help people live more healthy happy lives. Im inspired to become a better world citizen even if I'm not quite yet sure what that looks like for me.