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Politics and Justice without borders Global Dialogue 2007  theme Building global communities for all life
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The Global Community has developed a program that takes into account personal, social and environmental aspects when helping people, in particular children and youth, to adapt to changing ecological, social, economical, political and other conditions. Environmental education provides a person with knowledge on and responsibility for the state of the environment, provides guidelines how to behave appropriately. Environmental education and raising of environmental awareness are the main columns of a sustainable society. Environmental films stimulate the emotional perception of ecological problems and motivate people’s action according to their moral principles and hence inspire them to preserve the environment for future generations. And this is very important. If mankind wants to survive, it must take immediate action. Video film demonstrations promote keen emotional perception and understanding of the present ecological problems, encourage interesting discussions and, most important, the wish to solve problems. The Glass Bubble concept
of "a Global Community"
The Glass Bubble is designed to illustrate the
concept of "a global community" to elementary school children as opposed
to the idea a community is "the street where I live".
It is an imaginary space enclosed in a glass bubble. Inside
this is everything the child can see: above to the clouds, below into the waters
of a lake or in the earth, to the horizons in front, in back, and on the sides.
Every creature, every plant, every person, every structure that is visible to
him(her) is part of this "global community."
By focusing on familiar ground in this manner it can be taught
that every living thing within the glass bubble is there because his/her food is
there, his/her home is there, all he/she needs to survive is there. And every creature
will stay as long as what his/her needs remains to be available within that
"global community."
Look up, look down, to the right, to the left, in front and
behind you.
Imagine all this space is inside a giant clear glass bubble. Wherever you go, you are inside a "global"
community. Every thing, every living creature there, interacts one upon the
other. Influences inter-weave and are responsible for causes and effects. Worlds
within worlds orbiting in and out of one another's space, having their being. Learn to be aware of that and act accordingly, to create good
or destroy, to help or to hurt. Your choice.
Now let us explore this Global Community that we have
visited and discover why each member is important ~ each bird, each tree, each
little animal, each insect, plant and human being ~ and how all work together to
create a good place to live.
You walk like a giant in this Global Community. To all
the tiny members you are so big, so powerful, even scary…
You can make or break their world. But by knowing their needs,
and taking care, you can help your whole Global Community be a good one.
* Why are you important to this "Global
Community"? Let each child be aware he either grows up to be a person who
helps or a person who destroys. This may or may not inspire some sort of creative project of what "could be" to aid this Global Community to remain healthy. To interact knowledgeably within one's global community has to be taught ~ especially to urban children. It has to be brought to them very clearly all life forms interact and depend upon other life forms for survival. They need to know "reasons why" ignorance of nature's law causes such damage, and why working in harmony with nature produces such good results. The concept of the Glass Bubble can be extended to include the planet Earth and all the "global communities" contained therein. The following definition of the Global Community is
appropriate: "The Global Community is defined as being all that exits or occurs at any location at any time between the Ozone layer above and the core of the planet below."
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