Summit strengthens international ties

Summit strengthens international ties

by Josh Palubicki
The Fourth Estate
March 6, 2006

Area citizens had the opportunity to learn about international issues and discover a variety of ways to connect themselves to the global community at the first Citizen Diplomacy Summit held at UW-Green Bay Feb. 25.

The Phoenix rooms in the University Union looked like a global culture collage with their walls decorated in native clothing from many countries, some of which were represented by people attending the summit.

Along with the clothes, music from around the world played. There also was a world map in the room and people were asked to place a dot on the map in the areas where they had personal ties. By the end of the day, the map had more than 150 dots. There were dots in every continent with the exception of Antarctica.

“It was a really good visual on just how international the people in one room can be,” said Jay Harris, coordinator of international projects at UWGB.

Booths were set up along one of the walls, which had displays on study abroad programs and other programs promoting world studies. One booth had a visual display on a program for the Kenya School Project.

Mary Stusek, Kenya School Project representative at the summit, described the program as a two-pronged approach to helping the poorest of the poor in Kenya. The first approach is philanthropy, and the second is teaching the Kenyan citizens vocational skills, such as sewing, welding and tying fishing flies.

“We’re a small, grassroots Wisconsin non-profit group just trying to see if the average person can do any good,” Stusek said. The summit also hosted a variety of speakers, who each gave insight on different things people around the United States and other countries are doing to close the international gap.

Sara Bodenberg, advocacy and outreach coordinator at Citizens for Global Solutions, spoke forGeek Organizing and EActivism– Empowering Global Change through Technology.

She focused mainly on how the advancements in technology and the Internet can be used to empower people who aren’t ordinarily involved in politics.

She helped develop the CGS Flash Competition encouraging students to create a flash cartoon that addresses a current global issue. Her speech was intended to show people how they can use the Internet for global change. Bodenberg was followed by Provost Sue K. Hammersmith who welcomed everyone to the conference.

Hammersmith addressed the importance of educating everyone on global issues to better prepare for the problems the world may face in the future. “We’re facing some revolutionary kinds of changes that will fundamentally change the future of the world,” Hammersmith said.

One of the changes she spoke of was the issue of population growth.

According to Hammersmith, the world’s population was at 1 billion people 150 years ago, and it is now at 6.5 billion and is estimated to grow to 9 billion by the middle of this century.

Seth Green, co-founder and chair of Americans for Informed Democracy, spoke on two issues. His first was called Messaging 101, which was a workshop designed to teach people strategies on how to talk about global issues more effectively to their friends, family and the public.

His second, How to Organize Town Halls that Educate and Activate Your Community, was also a workshop, but this focused on how to organize a town hall meeting and spark interest in the world to diverse, non-expert members of the public.

Another speaker, Damian Murphy, field director of the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign, spoke on how the U.S. International Affairs Budget is vital to ensuring national and global security, promoting prosperity and supporting humanitarian values. The summit ended with a question and answer session where the audience asked the speakers questions.

This summit is one of many being held around the United States. They will culminate into one national summit in Washington D.C.