I am a global citizen

Siraj
Westminster Academy
United Kingdom

I am a global citizen, but what does it mean to be a global citizen? It means that you are a citizen of the world. My experiences as a global citizen are of travelling the world and learning new cultures and languages. This has been amazing. Most of the kids in the world don't have these experiences because of poverty. I have been lucky to travel and to live in countries such as Egypt, Cyprus, and England. Travelling to these countries has showed me that countries are different from one another.

I was born in Tunisia but my family is from Libya, which is a third world country. Libya has a simple lifestyle. It is not developing quickly and people there are used to an easy, simple life. I think that the people in Libya don't want to become a first world country because they are scared of how change would affect them. Now that the government is seeing how technology is being used to make governments better and work faster, the Libyan President wants he country to develop more quickly and become a first world country. The only problem is that this accelerated development might clash with the traditional ways that society is used to.

I left Libya and came to England when I was six months old. I stayed there for two years and then I moved to Egypt. I only remember a few things about Egypt. It was peaceful. There was not too much traffic, but when cars became more of a necessity, people started buying them. Now I see in the news about how Egypt has changed. There is traffic everywhere. The markets started opening earlier than usual because of the amount of traffic. That’s how technology has affected Egypt.

My greatest experience was when I moved to Cyprus. I was seven years old. It was a simple country with simple people. It was divided into two sides: Turkish Cypriots, who live in the north, and Greek Cypriots, who live in the south. It started to change. It was simple but, when it joined the European Union (EU), it started bringing in new stuff and new technology. New shops started opening and people started to change because they wanted to impress the EU. Then the day came to join the EU. It was the greatest thing that had happened in their history. I was 11 years old and I was happy for the Cypriots because it made them happy and proud to join. My school had a special day to celebrate this. Then, a month later, I heard that crime had risen by 35% because of people from different European countries coming into Cyprus. Three months later, the Turkish Cypriots had a plan to allow the Greek Cypriots to get their homes back and for the Turkish Cypriots to go to the north. Everyone was going to say 'yes'. Then the President had to ruin it for everyone by telling his people to say 'no'. They listened to him and they voted 'no' and the plan was ruined. I stayed in Cyprus for five years.

Now I am 12 and I live in England. I came here and thought it was a safe country. Then I started watching the news and seeing people being mugged, kids having fights and people being stabbed. Then I found out that the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, wanted to join the American President, Bush, in the war on Iraq. I don't understand why he wanted to join the war and this is why I have started to question the British government's agenda.

The world now is a dangerous place, but I hope that, in the future, there is world peace. I also hope that I can contribute to it!

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