Recognition or Perception of the Oneness of Humanity is the Principle underlying World Citizenship

1. Recognition or Perception of the Oneness of Humanity is the Principle underlying World Citizenship “…the concept of world citizenship [should] be taught in every school and that the oneness of humanity – the principle underlying world citizenship – be constantly asserted in every nation” (Taken from publication on “World Citizenship: A Global Ethic for Sustainable Development” – BIC 1993).

2. World Citizenship    "... a reorientation of education so as to give young people everywhere a sense of the shared interests and basic oneness of mankind and to prepare them for effective participation as members of a world community is, I believe, a clear necessity for human survival in the twenty first century.“ Edwin O. Reischauer, Harvard Professor and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan— in his book (1973) “Toward the 21st Century: Education for a Changing World”

3. Without the recognition of the Oneness of humanity, human beings de-humanize the “Other” On October 30, 2003 the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations released a report to the press, citing research done by the American Jewish Committee.  The report cites such examples as an eighth-grade textbook, published by the Saudi Ministry of Education, that labels Christians and Jews as non-human "apes" and "pigs"

4. Stages of Demonizing the "Other" • Self-preservation – as form of violence. • Insular identity – segregation (human). • Perception of scarcity – competition. • You label the other as the “enemy” (threatens self-preservation). • You label the other as “non-human.” • You deny the “other” membership in the human race. Then you can do anything. • You conceptualize the “Other” as evil (demonized). He MUST be destroyed.

5. De-humanizing the “Other”—It’s in the News On Sunday, April 25th, 2004, Tim Russert on NBC's “Meet the Press” asked Prince Bandar about these Saudi textbooks dehumanizing and demonizing "other" religious groups. 

6. De-humanizing the “Other”—It’s in the News And on April 15th, 2004, Fox News reporter Steve Harrington decried that the same problem exists in the 70,000 madras schools of Pakistan, reaching over 1.5 million students between the ages of 6 and 24

7. De-humanizing the "Other“ in Rwanda “I first realized that this was what was happening when I served as head of our organization in Rwanda as the genocide unfolded. When I learned that a hospital, under control of the Hutus, sheltered several hundred children, I went to the Hum leader in charge and asked to take the children -- to transfer them to a safer place. The Hutu leader said, “no.”  I then asked, “Do you have children of your own?” “Why yes,” the leader replied, proudly pulling out photos.  Then I said, “But these children in the orphanage are children, too.” The Hutu leader replied, “No, they are cockroaches.” Dr. James Orbinski, a French-Canadian physician -- President of Médecins Sans Frontières (“Doctors Without Borders”), tells how membership in the human race was taken from an entire people in Rwanda. 

8. De-humanizing the “Other” in Rwanda The next day, half of the Tutsi children had been murdered.”  Within 100 days, 800,000 people – mostly Tutsis – lost their lives because they had lost their membership in the human race.  The world stood by indifferently and let it happen, because no one else had sufficiently identified with their plight – no other culture or civilization sufficiently shared their identity as fellow humans. The same has happened in Sudan, Uganda, and the Congo. (According to Steven Lewis, UN envoy for AIDS, a similar indifference and racism exits towards African countries with respect to AIDS.)

9. Ghosts of Rwanda

10. De-humanizing the “Other” in Balkans During the last Balkan war, a reporter having dinner with a family in Kosovo witnessed a six year-old child coming up from the basement where he had been playing and the parents inquired what he had been doing.  “Killing rats,” he said, referring to the Serbians. In Bosnia, Muslims were referred to as sub-human by the Serbs.  In 1993 Croat nationalists began their own “ethnic cleansing” campaign in an effort to carve an all-Croat “homeland” out of Herzegovina. 

11. Bosnia-Herzegovina In 1984 the world watched with wonder and delight, the Winter Olympics held in picturesque Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. What a beautiful and civilized place, one would think, right in the heart and center of Europe! Just eight years later, the world watched in horror at the human tragedy unfolding in that same area of the world.

12. Bosnia-Herzegovina Thousands and thousands of civilians were assaulted, tortured, raped, displaced or killed in the ultimate barbaric siege known as “ethnic cleansing” – the euphemism for nationalistic, ethno-centristic and murderous insanity.

13. Bosnia-Herzegovina Three warring “interfaith” populations Bosnian (Muslim) Croatian (Catholic) Serbian (Eastern Orthodox Christian) 

14. Bosnia-Herzegovina The siege of Sarajevo continued until late 1995 when the Dayton Peace Accords were signed.  This was the beginning of the end of the conflict that had, in the words of one writer, “displaced hundreds of thousands of people, left thousands dead, mutilated, tortured, and without hope.”

15. Are we headed towards a “Balkanized” society in the U.S.? “There is no greater challenge facing our nation than race… If we continue to ignore growing inequalities and divisions, we will become a thoroughly balkanized society dominated by a declining white minority.  History and headlines worldwide provide ample evidence of the grievous consequences along that path.” -- Harvard Civil Rights Project

16. We have only ½ a Generation in time United States is in the throes of the largest migration in American history while we are simultaneously witnessing increasing segregation at an alarming rate. “And while only a half century ago the country was nearly 90% white, within the next fifty years there will be no racial majority, and non-Europeans will actually outnumber whites in the general population -- a demographic shift already appearing in an accelerating number of institutions and communities.” -- Harvard Civil Rights Project

17. Our choice: Segregation or Unity Many fear that increasing diversity in the U.S. will lead inevitably to ethnic segregation and a“thoroughly balkanized society”(Harvard Civil Rights Project) — with disparate groups violently oriented towards one another. If justice and unity within this diversity can be achieved, America — as the most culturally diverse country in the world —could lead the world towards UNITY, harmony and purposeful co-existence.

18. Our choice: Segregation or Unity In one sense it could be said of America that its dream of equality, union and democracy is about to be truly tested – whether it is merely a mythological ideology or whether it can become real. At the same time this quickly developing shift towards a more equal diversity represents a microcosm of the world.

19. Our choice: Segregation or Unity The irony, perhaps, is that the United States is being forced to implement its espoused theoretical ideal or perish. At the same time, the world must awaken to the realization that what is happening with diversity in America – if it truly is the microcosm – is everyone’s challenge ultimately.

20. World Citizenship and Race Unity:“Two sides of the same coin.” (Reischauer – 1973) ". . .most people are probably not conscious that our traditional education is overwhelmingly about our own particular group, and thus tends to build a strong sense of identity with it, to the exclusion of the other members of the human race who do not qualify for membership.“ Edwin O. Reischauer (1973) “Toward the 21st Century: Education for a Changing World”:

21. “They” are not “us”

22. But what if the world was only “us” ?? One Human Family!

23. World Citizenship

24. Consciousness leads to Unity     ". . . the consciousness of world citizenship will be born, a consciousness that can alone provide an adequate basis for the organization of world unity, on which a lasting world peacemust necessarily depend, the peace itself inaugurating in turn that world civilization which will mark the coming of age of the entire human race." [Shoghi Effendi, “Messages to America,” 1934]

25. Even the most subtle pathologies – such as indifference and apathy – destroy human relationships. Therefore, EDUCATION is of the greatest importance.

26. “Every child is potentially the light of the world – and at the same time its darkness…” Therefore, EDUCATION is of the greatest importance.

27. World Citizenship Inherently a child may have tendencies for both good and bad behaviors, but education makes the greatest difference because a child can learn the values, ethics, attitudes and civilized behavior.

28. How do we bring aboutgreater unity? –How do we create a sense of “world citizenship”?

29. Love for humanity is higher than love for one’s country “…a wider loyalty…should not, and indeed does not, conflict with lesser loyalties.... It lays. . . the only foundation on which the concept of world citizenship can thrive, and the structure of world unification can rest.”(Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, 1938)

30. Lesser loyalties are not destroyed by a wider loyalty World Citizenship calls for loyalty to the human family

31. World Citizenship is the natural evolution of global society Does not the child disappear in the youth? …and the youth in the man? yet neither child nor youth perishes? Isn’t this also the normal development of societies? Cities become part of states, and states nations, and nations the world.

32. The world is emerging from its adolescence – attaining to maturity “The principle of the Oneness of Mankind... implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society — a change such as the world has not yet experienced.” Shoghi Effendi (1938)

33. The modern world makes world unity possible “Time and space are not nearly as much against the organic unity of the world now as they were against the organic unity of the United States a hundred years ago.” Bridgman (1905)

34. Easier to unite the world of today than the original colonies of America Even though the American states had similar traditions and culture, the task of welding them into a single federation was infinitely more complex than that which confronts our divided world in its efforts to achieve the unification of all humanity. Why? The facilities of modern progress – transportation, telecommunication, television, satellites, word-processing, computerized data-analysis, Internet, AND global interdependence (economic, environment, etc.)

35. Even the negative threats drive us towards unity The choice before the entire world at the present time is to avert or mitigate the disaster being called the "clash of cultures" or the "clash of civilizations" that could bring all nations to simultaneous ruin.  For example, an ecological or economic disaster or bio-terrorism could simultaneously threaten everyone on the planet.

36. As the world gets smaller we must be reconciled “… in the end [we must] reconcile ourselves to existence side by side...” Kant (In 1795)

37. World Citizenship as “consciousness” “The different peoples of the world are just beginning to find each other. Whatever is best in any part is now being brought out into the light for the good of the whole. Whatever national geniuses have discovered is now being made the common possession of all nations.... Multiply present conditions a hundred fold and then compute, if possible, what the world mind will be when it has come to its own inheritance” -- Bridgman (1905)

38. World Citizenship as “consciousness” “The supreme aim of education is to develop men and women who can carry on effectively and nobly the work of the world.” “... The phenomenal growth of a world consciousness is the distinctive feature of the twentieth century; and contributing to this development is the whole category of human activity. In the advancement of industry, education, religion, science, literature, art, philanthropy and government, the inhabitants of the world, regardless of national boundaries, have intermingled their interests in the pursuit of great achievements.” F.F. Andrews (1908)

39. World Citizenship as “consciousness” In 1908, F.F. Andrews continued…. “The teacher of the twentieth century is an international figure, and he can never perform his highest function until he is imbued with this international consciousness. He should stand shoulder to shoulder with his fellow teachers in the world for the achievement of a higher civilization. One generation of teaching the principles of justice, peace and international unity would revolutionize the world; these sentiments can be taught in literature, geography, history, and, in fact, in every exercise connected with the school... To what nobler work can the teacher consecrate himself than to build up a new people whose country is the world, whose countrymen are all mankind!”

40. World Citizenship Listen again to those key words and concepts ringing through her vision: “international consciousness,” she said. “Teaching peace and unity,” she said, could “revolutionize the world” within “one generation.”

41. How do we get “world citizenship” in one generation? The Civil Rights project at Harvard states that we have only half a generation before the United States will have a thoroughly Balkanized society if the present trends towards segregation and inequity continue.

42. Diversity “united” or diversity “segregated”? How will we choose? Without “unity in diversity” as the watchword in our society (and schools), could we not be facing the prospect of increased tensions, conflict and violence among our (U.S.) ethnically segregated populations?

43. The role of a scholar is “to bring a heart to heaven and earth, to bring livelihood to the general population, to continue the lost teachings of past sages, and to bring about peace to ten thousand generations.”为天地立心，为生民立命，为往圣继绝学，为万世开太平— Sung dynasty scholar

44. What is the present state of civilizationin relationship to moral competence?

45. Science without moral competence can become destructive Science without the moral force of spiritual values can lose its ethical compass. It can become the means of human perversity and destruction. Hiroshima: 92,000 died Nagasaki: 50,000 died

46. “If a thing is carried to excess, it will prove a source of evil…”   “Consider the civilization of the West, how it hath agitated and alarmed the peoples of the world. Strange and astonishing things exist in the earth but they are hidden from the minds and the understanding of men… An infernal engine hath been devised, and hath proved so cruel a weapon of destruction that its like none hath ever witnessed or heard… These things are capable of changing the whole atmosphere of the earth and their contamination would prove lethal.” Baha’u’llah (1863)

47. Moral development = Virtues Moral development results from learning the social rules and principles at the same time we transform ourselves into more loving human beings . . . human beings who can sustain authentic relationships. The basic measure of morality is simple: Either a person has acquired the capacity for self-sacrifice and love, which he demonstrates through active, humble, reliable servicetowards others (with kindness, compassion, courtesy, etc.), or he has not, in which case his behavior will reflect various pathologies that destroy human relationships – such as greed, untrustworthiness, jealousy, self-centeredness, coldness, indifference, anger, or cruelty. (Partly derived from W. Hatcher– “Love, Power, and Justice”)

48. Normally internalize the values into what we think we know as “right” Principles and rules of society Think Know Feel Norms become values Know Emotion +/- Dichotomy Volition, Will, Intention Decide, Commit, Plan Emotional Attachment to untruths Subconscious resonance with role models Active will Prejudice Passive reaction “Unconscious” socialization process Action becomes a “conscious” choice Empathy, comes into awareness Personality & Behavior Education creates the possibility of transformation—expressed in less-selfish behavior (integrity over dichotomy)

49. Moral development = Virtues Behavior and actions reflect what we are, and the degree of our moral development. All these proper behaviors and attitudes can be learned.

50. “Every child is potentially the light of the world – and at the same time its darkness…” Therefore, EDUCATION is of the greatest importance.