Belouga’s Global Student Council is back for it’s second cohort during the 2017-18 school year. The Student Council is made up of a group student leaders from around the world that have excelled in global education and collaboration. Each month, these students write blog posts covering a range of topics related to global education. It is a great way to receive feedback and give a voice to the Belouga experience from a student’s point of view. We will be sharing these posts and hope you feel inspired to join in with questions and conversation!
This month’s topic is “Lessons for Positive Change.” Student Council members were tasked with identifying one thing that your own respected community and country can learn from another country around the world to improve the lives of their local citizens? Additionally, what is one thing other communities and countries can learn from their country? What problem would it solve? How would this help them?
Lessons for Positive Change: To Be The Change
by Zainab, age 17 , from the United Arab Emirates
Having just visited the States this summer, a breath of fresh, American air was just what I needed. The packed streets of NYC and the beautiful streets of LA; America was beyond good to me. Having stayed there for a little over a month, I blended in with my surroundings quite well and began to take it all in. In doing so, I came to a realization. Something I noticed in the people of the nation was that they were very mindful and self-deprecated. We often hear about episodes of brutality but what we fail to realize or highlight is that – most of the time it’s Americans bringing these things to light! The most people most likely to call out Americans are Americans themselves. Peaceful protests, movements, campaigning and so much more surrounded me left, right and center. Americans identify the injustice that lays within their community and nation & address it on a local, global and international level. There’s no ‘sacred cows’ or ‘that’s just how things are’, the one thing we could all learn from them is to stand up & use our voice to create change. To be the change.
UAE is a nation that is well beyond its years. Something I greatly admire about UAE and its population is their immense tolerance and mutual-respect towards different segments of society. With the country being a melting pot of cultures, we take it as an opportunity to learn about every corner of the world from all the different people that now call this place their home. There’s hardly any racism that takes place around here, people from the Philippines, USA, India and Kenya may all very well be in the same vicinity & what’s more is they’re probably great friends!
It’s sad to say however, that this isn’t the case everywhere. And more often than not, countries have been unpleasant towards outsiders or those with different beliefs. If everyone saw each other as just mere humans and not through the colour of their skin or what they choose to believe, it would create a peaceful society, one that is healthy to grow up in. If everyone were to be given equal opportunities to fulfill their potential imagine what the world could achieve. UAE has set the bar for the rest of the world & it’s time that countries that are lagging behind make an effort to catch up. After all, we are one at the end of the day & we are better together. As the saying goes – united we stand, divided we fall.