Community Involvement and the Procurement of a Better World - Essay Example

Admissions Essay: Which recent development or world event has most influenced your thinking and why' Admissions Essay The recent storm disaster in Myanmar has most influenced my thinking since its occurrence. Generally, with the advent of modern media and other technologies necessary to witness these events both as they occur and immediately after their impact, such situations do not instill the type of deeper thinking and rationalisation which this particular hurricane created. I believe it was a combination between the outpouring of community support from global citizens which occurred as well as the responses from within the country itself which made me alter my previous view on becoming part of an ever-growing global community. Immediately after the storm hit Myanmar, which had been classified as a major natural disaster, the immediate death toll numbers were broadcast across the world, creating a sense of urgency toward helping the victims as well as a sense of empathy for their situations. This empathy came not only from me as a concerned citizen, but from different nationalities at each side of the globe. Offerings for food, support, clothing and water were immediately decided by national leadership, however initially these tokens of assistance were refused by Myanmar's leadership. In fact, Myanmar rulers (who were in control of the government due to an unauthorised series of uprisings) made it clear to the global community that any attempts to deliver assistance items to Myanmar citizens would meet with an appropriate, violent response. Finally, leaders of Westernised countries managed to create a minor collaborative effort with Myanmar leadership by agreeing to bring airplanes and ships loaded with food into the country, quickly, to ensure that the citizens of the country were able to survive in harsh environmental conditions. What appeared to me to be the most unique situation during the immediate negotiations for disaster aid was that Myanmar's leaders would have rather put millions of citizens at risk of starvation or disease than to risk the chance of their regime being removed from power by stronger national forces. Seemingly, to prevent this, Myanmar's government closely monitored the incoming behaviors and actions of international disaster aid coalitions to make sure that no global force was able to remain in Myanmar for a split second longer than the offloading of cargo machines took. Over a period of several months, citizens of Myanmar were presented, using various television and print media channels, struggling to simply rebuild the modest and meager dwellings they had always been forced to live in. I watched as the world stood relatively helpless to assist these people, as it did not take long for Myanmar forces to refuse the entry of any further international aid. Instead, citizens were forced to create their own, broader sense of personal community just to survive, using their own limited resources to attempt to rebuild some sense of life as it had been before the natural disaster. As a student entering the academic world, witnessing events such as this particular disaster remind me, truly, of how far the world must progress in order to become the global community which is often presented in various textbooks and media outlets. Media often illustrates the growing use of the Internet across the world to remind us all that we have obligations to those people who are not necessarily as advanced or privileged as others in the Westernised world. Simply through the design of complicated trade routes, mass media, and the growing internationalisation efforts of various country industries, the world has become a much smaller place and, at the same time, affords tremendous opportunities for the future in terms of sustaining long-term international relationships with various global citizens. What adjusted my thinking most notably was the fact that Myanmar seemed to have no contingency plan for taking care of its people, which clearly illustrates that the leadership running that nation are more concerned with their own ill-conceived perceptions on power and authority and do not appear to be regulated by any international rules except their own. These rules are not sufficient for managing or assisting millions of citizens and there is no global force which seems authorized enough (through legislation) to simply enter the Myanmar region and establish a new ruling force which establishes the rights of the people as a primary goal. Myanmar leadership cannot simply hide behind the veil of false authority and, essentially, turn the country into a xenophobic community which has no obligations for culturally-mandated social responsibility. All of these events, as they played out over a period of months, dramatically changed my view of that of a single citizen with obligations only to my local environment to one which will inevitably require the skills and talents necessary to become a true global citizen. It made me consider the needs of others in ways which I had never even previously considered. The whole point of entering a college or university is in the pursuit of knowledge. We generally think of knowledge as being a conglomerate of textbook learning and written lectures which iron out the fundamental details of mathematics, grammar, or any specialised field of knowledge such as mechanical engineering. However, I have noticed that many schools attempt to reinforce the softer understandings provided by higher academics, such as service concepts or interpersonal relationship teachings. This seems to have given me a new perspective on education, where learning is not only fundamental, it is the receipt of collaborative templates and the recognition of common human behaviours and psychology whereby a student develops the secondary skills necessary to adapt to a wide variety of environments. To me, in the near future, global disasters such as the aforementioned in Myanmar will still continue to occur as a natural evolution of the planet. People across the world will witness the Earth and all of its ever-changing behaviours wreak havoc on international communities. However, we generally witness the empathy and compassion of others who immediately try to step into the rough and disastrous environment to ensure that those affected by the natural tragedies receive the support necessary to continue to thrive and grow. Leadership like the current ruling parties in Myanmar, which think only of their own needs and thoughts toward power, cannot seem to abide by simple social principles which dictate that with the role of responsibility (leadership) comes the necessity to push personal ambitions to the side (when appropriate) and contribute to the well-being of the social community. I have witnessed, for the first time in my life, global leaders who seem to care little about their people and have done nothing but provide long-term anguish to those whose only mistake made were being born in the wrong place at the wrong time. The events in Myanmar tie in closely to my new academic ambitions which have altered significantly since this disaster (and its accompanying social dramas) took place. I merely hoped to be granted the skills necessary to succeed in my unique degree programme and thought that through this process I might develop life-long relationships with peers and academic instructors. However, I recognise that when facilities of higher learning attempt to promote the softer realities of community living and contemporary lifestyle, they are likely attempting to reinforce that with modernism comes a higher responsibility for positive relationship-building and the awareness of the global community as a whole. Previously, prior to the Myanmar situation, I had no real grasp or concept of life in a wholly-different international environment nor did I have try to put myself into their shoes when faced with both disaster from the heavens and a leadership regime which would rather let them suffer than to face potential removal from power. These events, also as related to higher learning, have made me realise that today's schools, regardless of their country of origin, attempt to build a longer-lasting sense of personal growth and accomplishment to equip students with the skills and aptitudes necessary to become business, personal and broader social leaders. This process of skills transference may, in some degree, be of benefit to the people of tomorrow's Myanmar when socially-responsible citizens, who have been crafted by the talented hands of academic classrooms, will no longer tolerate a lack of global unity and can work with these skills to negotiate potential solutions to human crisis across the globe in a method which does not fit the needs of the few, but can benefit the social condition of people in a multitude of different international environments. I am not attempting to offer an unrealistic solution to the problems in Myanmar by suggesting that my changing attitudes about international social importance will lead me to take dramatic steps to travel to Myanmar for a one-to-one intervention with corrupted leadership. I am saying that the needs and desires of these struggling people are at the forefront of my thoughts today and I am satisfied that, in some future capacity, the receipt of learning will provide me with the lessons necessary to succeed toward prompting global change. I have learned, through this tragedy, that change does not necessarily have to begin with violent assaults or legislative pressure, it seems to actually begin with just one person changing their viewpoints which focus on the self to the needs of strangers halfway across the globe. Yes, I definitely am still pursuing education so that I can become a learned and intelligent person with the specific degree programme skills necessary to excel in my personal ambitions. For this, I turn to higher learning. However, there are aspects of human psychology which are constantly in play in countries like Myanmar and its people could not possibly hope to achieve their maximum capacity as people if they are worried about their basic physiological needs such as shelter and food. Further, having a governmental regime which works only to suppress their individual creativity and ambitions must be a significant stress on the human condition. Here in Westernised countries, such frustrations do not even exist and we, as global citizens, tend to forget how fortunate we are to have the ability to grow and nurture our personal ambitions to a nearly-limitless series of accomplishments. I think that it can be clearly seen how my thinking has changed in relation to my role in community involvement and the procurement of a better world for every man and woman across the globe. From a social perspective, as a well-educated and thoughtful person, it is my responsibility in the future to promote these values to others, both professionally and personally, to reinforce the importance of recognising the needs of others. These self-reflections in which a person changes from self-motivated to being motivated for the sake of others, I believe, is a positive development in the pursuit of achievement. To the people of Myanmar: Somebody out there is thinking about you and I hope that, at the very minimum, that brings you comfort in your difficulties. I am taking the steps necessary to make sure that positive changes might spill in your direction. Read More