Students
should care about international events
Daniela
Gutierrez
Why should we care about international events? Why should a 20-year-old student
who is worried about finding someone to take over his lease in order to move
out care? Why should students worried because of the terrible parking situation
care? Why should the boy nervous to talk to the girl in front of him care?
Why should any of us care about the situation in Paris? Why should we concern
ourselves with the arrest of the former Peruvian president, or that there are
people dying because they do not have clean water. Why should we care about
upcoming presidential elections in South America?
Let me tell you why. It might be a little bit disturbing for your Southern
Californian beach spirit, but turns out that you are not the center of the
world.
For someone like me, who has never questioned the importance of the international
actuality, it is hard to make others understand the reasons why seemingly distant
international events are important.
First, I believe others should care about human interests. How people live
and die, how injustice takes place, affecting innocents, how governments steal
people’s dreams and money, how a few people decide the destiny of millions — all
that has inherent importance.
Although we should care about other people’s sufferings, hopes and joys.
We could realize that they, 376,458 miles away, are dreaming about the same
things we are dreaming before going to bed, whatever kind of bed that may be.
Secondly, now more than ever, I believe it is vital to know what is going on
in the rest of the world. I am sure you have heard it before and probably you
have noticed, but the communications revolution has changed the way of living.
This is the communication era. What do you want to communicate? Information.
The world has never been closer than now. The Internet and satellites give
you the possibility to read, see and hear what people are saying in other countries
and in other communities at this very moment.
What our country does influences other countries and vice versa.
The amount of information we have now is overwhelming. But information is power.
It is the power to do something and the power to change things, the power to
change even you.
This leads me to No. 3. If you knew people your age were being persecuted
for their religious beliefs, how young women can’t choose when or with
who to marry or that thousands of people die daily from a lack of water, are
you going to look at your life and your problems with the same eyes?
Knowing
what is going on in different societies
with people just like you but under different
circumstances will give you a broader perception
of reality.
All of the sudden parking is not that big of a deal. All of the sudden you
too can do something to help. You could impact other people’s lives.
All of the sudden your world is bigger.
Daniela Gutierrez is a junior international studies and journalism major.
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