Tracing World Views Through the Eyes of the World’s

Children

It’s Only a Matter of Time…

In this map drawn by nine year old Bita Garshasbi of Iran, the flags of many of the world’s nations are moving from separate entities towards one global collective. A comfortable global society in which all cultures and nations can live together harmoniously is only a matter of time in this child’s eyes. Even the colors are indicative of change. The blue color at the top of the hourglass seemingly represents water in which all these countries are floating aimlessly. They are collected into one functional whole as they land on green ground. The Global or New World Order is a coming reality.

A Kaleidoscope of Identities

For this Swiss girl, the ethnicities, races, and cultures of the world’s geographic locations is extremely noteworthy. They are cooperating across national boundaries while maintaining their sense of local, regional, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. Pluralism and cosmopolitanism are both represented in this map, showing that true worldwide harmony comes from an acceptance of diverse identities on an individual level.

Basic Human Rights Extend To All

By using some of the world’s most developed countries flags, this Canadian teenager underlines the necessity for providing basic human rights by allowing access to elements like food, water, medicine, and learning. The presence of the tree holding up the globe and the sun suggested in the top right hand corner show that these things ‘grow’ from countries that are developed and able to help developing countries around the world. The artist has done a good job of representing core human needs highlighting the need for their presence in every nation. This map carries an essence of responsibility and good will in its message to the children of the world.

Economic Extrapolation and Cultural Connectivity

Technology has connected places, peoples, and economies. Advancements in transportation has increased trade and connected geographically remote areas to the global economy. International business is the norm. This map with its mosaic style demonstrates the patchwork making up the new transnational world tapestry. The connections made in this network make it impossible to revert back to a segmented world.

Conservation of Earth’s Natural and Human Resources

This map confronts questions surrounding globalization and conservation. How do we best protect the endangered living things on our planet? The implications in this map extend to not only saving a particular species of plant or animal but conserving the environment for posterity and protecting humans who are “endangered” as well by threats like genocide and unethical treatment.

Technological Momentum Shrinks the

Globe

With all the Hollywood films in the last few decades that turn their attention to a worldwide take over by robots, it is no wonder this teenager from Greece depicted a world through the eyes of a cyborg or a machine. Technological momentum continues to produce new ways of communication, machines that can do jobs previously only thought human, and a world dependent on computers. This map captures the global attention given to advancements in technology and how they continue to shape our daily consciousness and one day might even take over!

Morality, Ethics, Religion and

Responsibility

The globe is being whittled away supposedly by a “supreme being” with a scene of war, terror, and death below. There is a garden depicted in between the hands which begs the question of whether the artist was trying to show paradise versus a hellacious scene suggesting the struggle of good against evil. Whatever the artist’s goal, the map shows the goodness of the Earth being stripped away giving way to all the evil exposed underneath. This map possibly is a religious view of how humanity has treated the Earth and one another but definitely carries moral and ethical implications. The use of reds, oranges, and yellows on the globe itself seem to denote an outbreak of disease or diagram paths of a global war.

Global Expansion and International PowerImperialism, Colonialism, and the expansion of nations continues to be a

global issue. Nations now argue over territory, economic/business interests, and resources on an international stage. This student depicts how different cultures, countries, and races continue to fight over parts

of the Earth trying to have a hand up in the global power struggle. There continues to be national oppression and national power at odds with one

another. With the invention of the internet and international transportation/communication, more nations continue to arrive on the front of the struggle to increase their boundaries both geographically

and economically.

Interconnected Socially and

Simultaneously

This student depicts beautifully the role the computer and internet have played in creating a connected global world. While this may seem an understatement, the role of the internet cannot be overemphasized in the trajectory of world communication. We are constantly connected via cell phones and can simultaneously surf the web and chat on the phone. Cultures and countries that were previously isolationist cannot operate in this way any longer. New social networking capabilities connect people socially across the world on a daily basis!

Global Learning Leads to Global Enlightenment

For this Japanese student, only by looking at all aspects of the world can we truly reach a harmonious globalized society. For global enlightenment to occur, we must be true cosmopolitans who learn holistically from other cultures, ethnicities, races, and nations. We must truly become a “borderless” world as Bourne (1916) advocated in his prophetic work on trans-nationalism. Only by viewing the world from multiple perspectives can a person make globally conscious decisions that are both humanitarian and inclusionary. Without this realization, we are all in the dark, lost in our own world of one identity or one perspective. Learning across difference and being exposed to worldviews quite different from our own makes us enlightened world citizens.

References

Title page image entitled “Many Nations, One World” by Sarah Underwood, age 15, United States, 2007

Map # 1 entitled “Living in a Globalized World” by Bita Garshasbi, age 9, Iran, 2009

Map # 2 entitled “Earth Inhabitants” by Lea Rechsteiner, age 15, Switzerland, 1997

Map # 3 entitled “Making a Better World for Children” by Patricia Lan, age 14, Canada, 2003

Map # 4 entitled “Networks from the Global World” by Maria Guadalupe Gabancho, age 14, Argentina, 2005

Map # 5 entitled “Save the Earth” by Sierra Rodeman, age 12, United States, 2001

Map # 6 entitled “The World of Robots” by Evdoxia Kyritsi, age 14, Greece, 1997

Map # 7 entitled “The Earth Began to Cry in a Profound Grief” by Elena Skochkova, age 14, Russian Federation, 2007

Map # 8 entitled “Untitled” by Nayara Tristan, age 14, Brazil, 2005

Map # 9 entitled “The World Connected” by Gabriel Garrido López, age 12, Spain, 2009

Map # 10 entitled “Light of the Earth, Light of Hopes” by Ami Kanno, age 13, Japan, 2007