Redefining the notion of citizenship.

Topic: Globalization

Bill George: If you look at the rapid growth of people in the Muslim faith; look at the rapid growth of the Asian and African populations and the difficulties many of those societies face; and what are we in the developed . . . the so called “developed” nations of the world doing about that?  We seem to be rather complacent, rather concerned with our own wealth, our own good, our own wealth.  That’s certainly true of the United States.  It’s equally true in Europe.  A great nation like Japan is not doing nearly as much as it could.  And I think there needs to become the idea of the global citizen, the global leader; the global citizen that’s comfortable operating in any environment, whether they’re in business, in government, in non-profit organizations; but they’re really concerned about the global problems of the world.  Because if there is . . .  If the Chinese are putting out dirty coal to produce electricity to run their planes, that coal comes in . . . that pollution comes into the United States.  If we run out of energy and no one’s replacing that, that’s a problem that affects all of us.  And so we need to address those.  There’s no way we can address problems of global warming unless people come together as one to address them.  There’s no way we can address problems of, say, AIDS in Africa unless we come together as one body to address those.

Recorded on: Jul 7 2007