HACKED then UNHACKED: EdGE Week #3

My observations:

In response to: 

Mandarin Bennet, "Filling the Gap: The Step from Gap Year Volunteering to Global Citizenship"

Bennet's message is pretty accurate and ironical. Although empowerment is key to social transformation, it will not arise just because of a volunteer placement. Empowerment is something the individual volunteer must work on and seek. He or she must see that everyone and anyone can make a change if the right effort is put in. This belief may not occur just through a volunteer placement trip. It occurs after thinking and brain-storming. The volunteer experience might expedite this process. I think "Global Citizen" is a weird term used these days. "Global Citizen" is someone who can blend into any culture or part of the world and produce some positive change. I think it's very hard to do that, and this term is used too frequently, reducing its actual definition.

In response to: 

Semantics: Differentiating 'Us' vs. 'Them'

I never knew how the vocabulary became what it is today. This was a very interesting article. These short terms have begun to generalize a large population and many countries. I think it is necessary to put these terms in quotations because someone else coined it for simplicity and not for broad generalizations. Everyone should not believe that this word symbolizes a whole culture or group of people. It is good to know syntax. When connecting with the public, it is important to use terms they can understand. Most people in America feel pity when they hear "Third World." They have used the term as a pathway to lead them to poverty, famine, racism, inequality, etc. I believe it is important to let the volunteers know how to refer to the people they are helping to the people here in the "Western world."