From the Syracuse Cultural Workers (SCW)
**This was sent to our community from one of the former JVs who left Belize earlier this summer.
Think of no one as “them”
Don’t confuse your comfort with your safety
Talk to strangers
Imagine other cultures through their poetry and novels
Listen to music you don’t understand
Dance to it
Act locally
Notice the workings of power and privilege in your culture
Question consumption
Know how your lettuce and coffee are grown: wake up and smell the exploitation
Look for fair trade and union labels
Help build economies from the bottom up
Acquire few needs
Learn a second (or third) language
Visit people, places, and cultures—not tourist attractions
Learn people’s history
Re-define progress
Know physical and political geography
Play games from other cultures
Watch films with subtitles
Know your heritage
Honor everyone’s holidays
Look at the moon and imagine someone else, somewhere else, looking at it too
Read the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Understand the global economy in terms of people, land, and water
Know where your bank banks
Never believe you have a right to anyone else’s resources
Defy corporate domination
Question military/corporate connections
Don’t confuse money with wealth, or time with money
Have a pen/email pal
Honor indigenous cultures
Judge governance by how well it meets all people’s needs
Be skeptical about what you read
Eat adventurously
Enjoy vegetables, beans, and grains in your diet
Choose curiosity over certainty
Know where your water comes from and where your wastes go
Pledge allegiance to the earth: question nationalism
Think South, Central, and North—there are many Americans
Assume that many others share your dreams
Know that no one is silent though many are not heard—WORK TO CHANGE THIS"
Solidarity, building global community no matter how you say it recognizing the struggles of those around me is key to recognizing my place in the world and my purpose within that place. I have always known this was important but it is things like this which remind me how much of an impact my simple decisions or actions can affect an entire group of people.
Keep thinking, loving and living globally!
Em
