Passport to Freedom: SHANNON WADE, ISRAEL
As I read “Soft Versus Critical Global Citizenship,” I
to make travel plans months in advance to allow ample
was struck by the author’s statement that “having the
time to apply for a visa to the country they want to
choice to traverse from the local to the global space is
visit, and even then their visa application can be denied
the determining factor for whether or not you can be
for no discernible reason. Travel is not a basic right for
a global citizen.” She goes on to point out that those
my Palestinian friends – it is a long, difficult process and
who have the privilege of being global citizens often
something I always think about whenever I open my
project their point of view as being everyone’s point of
passport.
view due to one-way cultural diffusion. I didn’t think much about this fact before coming to Israel, but I realize now just how true these statements can be. This study abroad semester was my first time traveling outside the U.S., so it was also my first time possessing
I am very lucky in that the Arava Institute challenges its students every day to look at problems such as the one discussed above from a critical global educational perspective. We don’t just scratch the surface of these problems; we pick them apart to get to the heart of the matter (which almost always reveals injustices and inequalities). Speaking for myself, I am part of the an American passport. I knew that once I had a passport, the world was open to me. I could travel to and visit essentially any country I wanted to with ease, and I assumed it was just as easy for anyone with a passport.
problem when I assume that all citizens have the same ease of travel as I do, but by allowing myself to recognize this flaw and work to move past it and get to the center of the issue, I am also part of the solution. Lasting change can only be achieved through a critical global educational perspective, one that looks
It was only when I got to the Arava Institute that I
at all sides of an issue in an attempt to reach an
realized how wrong that assumption was. It is very
understanding about that issue.
hard for my friends from the West Bank to travel outside of Palestine. They can’t just decide on a whim to book a plane ticket to another country – they have