Global Citizenship

This past weekend, the Calgary Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders held a development conference entitled Global Professionals, themed on exploring global citizenship.

The event began with a keynote address by Samantha Nutt. A medical doctor by training, Dr Nutt has spent the past 15 years working in humanitarian relief and rehabilitation in war zones around the world. Her first experience with humanitarian medicine was in war-torn Somalia at age 24. That experience changed her life. Four years later, after perceiving a need, she founded War Child Canada, an organization that deploys humanitarian assistance to war zones and organizes rehabilitation programs for children and youth scarred by war in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan.

“It’s not about charity. It’s about our common humanity,” Dr Nutt said, powerfully.

Easy access to weaponry lubricates the war machine in many developing countries gripped in civil conflict, with borders porous to smugglers. AK-47 automatic rifles, called “the world’s favorite killing machines” by Oxfam, are cheap. They are light, easy to reload and virtually indestructible (many rifles in use today were manufactured in the 1950s). They are easy to handle by children and youth, the obedient pawns of many militant groups. The UN estimates that there are 300,000 child soldiers worldwide.

Frustratingly, Dr Nutt pointed out, a fraction of the $1 trillion spent annually on military expenditures globally could eradicate extreme poverty forever and ensure that no child is ever forced to be a soldier.

Also challenged was the commonly held belief that Canada is a peacekeeping nation. Over the first half of the decade, Canada’s military exports totaled $3.6 billion. In rank, after the 5 members of the UN Security Council, Canada is in 6th place for weapons exports. Details of these exports have been difficult to obtain. In fact, the Small Arms Survey, a weapons trade monitoring research group in Geneva, reports that Canada’s weapons export transparency is among the lowest of the G8, and just above that of Iran.

National spending on foreign aid is also comparatively low. In the 1969, Trudeau’s government along with many other developed nations committed 0.7% of gross national income to official development assistance (ODA).  It is a target that is yet to be reached in Canada: currently foreign aid is roughly 0.3 % of gross national income. Many Scandinavian countries have already surpassed 0.7% level of giving.

Dr Nutt spoke of the devastating effects of the ethically irresponsible material consumption of the developed world. Forty percent of the world’s supply of coltan, a mineral used in the manufacture of the semiconductors inside cell phones and other electronics, is mined in the Congo. The boom in electronics sales has boosted the market price of coltan significantly since the start of the decade. Profits from the sale of this mineral are believed to finance the civil conflict in the Congo. While some Western electronics companies specify conflict-free coltan, many do not.

Dedicating time overseas in war zones is for the highly trained, but Dr Nutt says that “we can do so much without ever getting on that plane.” She named four important actions of global citizens: 

• The first is education and awareness. We should keep ourselves informed of what is going on in other parts of the world, even if it is a commitment to reading one piece of international news per week. 

• Secondly, we need to give, and continue to give regardless of the tides of the economy.  

• Third, our financial investments and purchases need to be ethical. We need to ask the hard questions of our financial advisors and politicians, scour the holdings of our mutual funds, and ask electronics manufacturers about ethical sourcing practices.
  
  
• And finally, we need to talk about the issues – to keep the passion alive and instill it in others. 

You can follow Dr Nutt on Twitter (NuttsAtWarChild) or visit War Child Canada at http://www.warchild.ca/