Global Citizen Journey

GCJ Community Picnic, 8/22 5 to 9 pm

Come join us for Ghanaian dance lessons, music, international potluck and fun! At Seward Park, Shelter #1

Burundi 2009 delegation

Apply now to join this amazing group of delegates

Come to the next orientation

Learn about opportunities to volunteer and upcoming Burundi delegation. Tuesday, July 29, 5:15 to 7 pm. Learn details.

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Downloads

Articles for Global Citizens

Ben Okri: Healing the Africa Within Us
Tijn Touber: The World According to Ubuntu
Lee Brown: Cherokee Prophecies

Books for Global Citizens

Africa

A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africaby Howard French

Howard French is an African journalist who was on assignment for years for New York Times in Africa. This book is a look as a journalist about what was going on behind the scenes in the last forty years, with heavy focus on last ten.

Africa: A Biography of the Continent by John Reader

This is an awe-inspiring synthesis of the African story from the Earth’s “cooling phase” to 1997. This one takes work but is worth it.

Ghana: The Bradt Travel Guide, 3rd Ed by Philip Briggs

Seems to be the only good travel book on Ghana. You can also sign up for a free Ghana Update Newsletter.

Malaria Dreams: An African Adventure by Stuart Stevens

Account of two Europeans in N. Africa, trying to get a land rover and return it to Europe. Book tells about their travels and what they experienced. Informative of culture and geography.

Somebody’s Heart is Burning: A Woman Wanderer in Africa by Tanya Shaffer

A moving tale of a young American volunteer in Ghana who relates her experiences in powerful, enlightening, and non-judgmental ways. A great source of expanding cross cultural understanding and developing sensitivity to the inevitable places of misunderstanding.

The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Kapuscinski is a Polish Journalist who lived and reported from Africa beginning in the late 50’s through the 90’s, including Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and many more. Incredible, entertaining, and enlightening stories that relate what his personal experiences with insights into the times. Reads like a novel.

The White Man’s Burden by William Easterly

Discusses and evaluates the world’s attempt, especially the West’s attempt, to aid “the Rest”, as he puts it. Written by an ex-World Bank employee, this is a frank criticism of how these “big” programs are needed for “big” things like roads, bridges, new harbors, etc., But on the more local level, nothing really changes. Programs are dreamed up at desks somewhere, and the real local nitty-gritty just never gets addressed.

King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild

The subtitle tells all: “A story of greed, terror, and heroism in colonial Africa.” The book helps us see how the morass of Congo today is the legacy of colonialism, and gives insight to the dynamics of the tragedy of resource richness – such as rubber was at the turn of the century. Overwhelming and deeply disturbing.

General

dance lest we all fall down: a journey of friendship, poverty, power and peace by Margaret Willson

An inspiring first person account of the founding and development of Bahia Street, a grassroots organization in an African-Brazilian shantytown that is dedicated to creating a top quality educational center for girls. Wise insights about the pitfalls of ‘do-gooder’ impulses and the complexities of racism, class and power, and a powerful example of community based change.

Manifesto for a New World Order by George Monbiot

“Our task is not to overthrow globalization, but to capture it, and to use it as a vehicle for humanity’s first global democratic revolution.” Powerful attempt and radical thinking to replace our “Age of Coercion with an Age of Consent” – true democracy and global justice.

Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement In the World Came Into Being and Why No One Saw it Coming by Paul Hawkens

Paul Hawken (author of Ecology of Commerce) examines the worldwide movement for social and environmental change after spending over a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice. Check out the amazing database www.wiseearth.org (GCJ is there!). “From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person dot.causes, these groups collectively comprise the largest movement on earth, a movement that has no name, leader, or location, and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the media. Like nature itself, it is organizing from the bottom up, in every city, town, and culture. and is emerging to be an extraordinary and creative expression of people’s needs worldwide.

Peacemaking

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

An inspiring story of an impassioned, visionary and extraordinary global citizen who is building schools (especially for girls) in the rugged, rural, remote highlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan. His is the master of the grassroots, community based approach Global Citizen Journey aspires to.

Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures by John Paul Lederach

Of interest for trainers, mediators, and community development workers. Lederach brings his vast experience to blend a special training method in mediation with a tradition derived from his work in development. Helps expose assumptions and the ease with which we can fall into the rescue triangle. His elicitive approach moves away from training and changes the relationship between facilitator and participant. “It invites us to move away from the residue of imperialism embedded in the prescriptive framework… toward a relationship of social and cultural empowerment based on mutuality and respect."

Websites

Human Rights Watch: www.hrw.org
Amnesty International: www.amnesty.org
Anti-Slavery Society: www.antislavery.org
Fair Trade Foundation: www.fairtrade.org.uk
Minority Rights Group: www.minorityrights.org
Tourism Concern: www.tourismconcern.org.uk
Worldwide Fund for Nature: www.panda.org