Posted on

The responsibilities of Global Citizenship (This post is part of Blogging Abroad’s 2017 New Years Blog Challenge).

I started the New Year with my morning coral reef climbing workout that allowed me to look at the waterfront with my environment sector cohort, assess the environment, marine life and shoreline as well as, get my muscle building training started. I will use the information gained from these workout sessions to inform our environment club’s recycling projects and lesson plans for this year.  The effort required adroit, focused, careful navigation of a difficult and dangerous terrain. In the end however, the exhilaration of having accomplished the completion of the 2 hour workout of my mind and legs was priceless. My dedication to life this 2017 and ad Infiniti, is to finesse difficult and dangerous terrain with the poise and focus of a skilled, intentioned affirming disposition. Feeling powerful, focused and guided. Aww the awe-inspiring majesty of nature’s raw, organic beauty is indeed unmatched.

I  cannot say enough of how important it is to control, limit, heal the environment from our global footprints.  Nature is globally beautiful in all its permutations. As citizens, indeed global citizens, we have a duty to preserve all of nature, not just in our specific part of the world, but wherever it is found, whether we individually ever lay eyes on it there. It is in fact this nature, and all it encompasses, that nurtures our existence as a species on the planet we now occupy. Let us be reminded of how fragile this space is, and the responsibility we each have to the posterity of the earth and our human species.

As I assess the legacy of my service to Jamaica, in Jacks River, St. Mary, I think about the education environment, I think about the social environment, the physical environment, the cultural  and the psycho-social environments of the people I serve.  I am reminded of my commitment to the people of Jamaica, the people of the United States, and my membership in this elite group of “do-gooders” who sees the proverbial global glass as half full and, in so doing, allow themselves to be placed in countries across the globe, hoping to accomplish their sustainable mark of goodness in the world. As I go through this, the first week of the new year, I recommit in 2017 to the mission of the three goals that is the why of my existence in Peace Corps Jamaica. I recommit to doing my small part in the larger Peace Corps ocean of, peace, relationship and sustainable development, globally. 

https://fb.me/2bNz6dIYJiNiVnL 

Published by: Local Lives, Global Voices

I, Chandra Young, ‘the moon that outshines the stars, was born in Kingston Jamaica to an Indian Father whose family migrated from India, and a mulatto mother, whose family, paternally and maternally, trace their history on the island to the 17th century sale of slaves, and slaves themselves. We migrated to the United States while I was a youngster. I later went on to graduate from The City College of New York, with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science; then Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, with a Jurisdoctor degree; and I am currently on hiatus from my doctoral studies in Law and Policy at Northeastern University. After graduating from law school, I successfully sat for both the Florida and New York Bars, and worked in both the Private and Public Sectors. Simultaneously, my role as mother and my passion for education pushed me into Academia, where I have lectured at colleges in the areas of Political Science, History, Business Law, Sociology, Pluralism and Diversity, Critical Thinking, Critical Academic Reading and English Composition. In these capacities, I have mentored inner city/urban college students, and have also served as Guardian Ad Litem to the Seminole County Courts, where I advocated on behalf of children of families in crisis. Being a scholar of Political Science in my collegiate years, I contributed my talents and passions towards championing of the rights of my fellow students, many of whom, like myself, were of Immigrant families. I was instrumental in a student movement that spearheaded a University-wide student boycott protesting tuition hikes in the City University system. The successful protest led to the shutdown of all the University’s colleges in every Borough, and got the attention of the media and politicians of the day. The result of the successful protest was a halt of any tuition increase for several fiscal terms. Today, the City University and State University systems are free to families earning less that $125,000.00, which include most urban, inner-city and immigrant students. While at City College, I was selected as a student ambassador contestant in the Ms. Jamaica-USA pageant, sponsored by the Jamaica Progressive League and the Honorable Una Clarke, the first Caribbean and Jamaican born woman to be elected to the legislature of the City of New York, and mother of United States Congresswoman Yvette Clark. A diligent advocate of affordable housing for New Yorkers, I was committed to the mission of realizing the American dream of home ownership for New Yorkers and I am the recipient of a Proclamation by the City Council of the City of New York, for my efforts in that regard. My dedication to the City of New York and immigrant communities, particularly those of Caribbean heritage, have been unwavering, and I was presented with the Marcus Garvey Award of Recognition by the New York based Jamaica National Movement, for service to Jamaicans and Caribbean people in the City of New York. I continued my passion of being a part of a mission to champion the rights of underprivileged and underrepresented persons in my recent milestone, the United States Peace Corps, where I dedicated 18 months of my life, away from home and family, to the people of Jamaica, as a Literacy Adviser and Community Developer. I am the mother of two children, a writer, blogger and poet. I always loved writing. As a child, I remember finding privacy and solace to write in my garage, where I could hide the written pages amongst the plethora of books our family stored there. I began blogging on my Facebook page and was encouraged by friends who enjoyed by posts, to start a blog. I officially started this blog during my Peace Corps Service, but it is certainly not limited to my service. In fact, it represents an amalgamation of thoughts expressed and lived through the direct and vicarious experiences that being a global citizen can provide. This blog is my way of building a bridge that connects our local lives experienced in our specific localities, with the global voices that unites us in the similar experiences, concerns, pains, passions, etc that joins us together as human beings in spite of geography. You there.......Me here. We....together in one world....one humanity.

TagsLeave a comment

Leave a comment