It is truly reassuring to know that so many students are R.F. Staples took an interest in participating in the model UN hosted at the University of Alberta this weekend. About 30 students expressed an interest this year, teacher Wayne Pidsadowski said.
Although the event has only been going on for nine years, it speaks volumes about the increasing importance of global issues; chances are many of them will affect us even here in Westlock.
Mostly, it speaks volumes about how the world keeps getting smaller and smaller.
Early humans had little reason to care what was beyond their own borders or beyond their next meal. One might care what their next-door neighbour was up to, but that was probably it.
After thousands of years, we developed improved transportation methods — the wheel, sailing, etc.
Suddenly it made sense for people to start thinking about what their neighbours in the next kingdom or across the harbour were up to, even if it took weeks or months to find out.
Further technological developments streamlined this process. The steam engine, for example, meant that huge trains or ocean liners could enable somebody to quite literally traverse the world.
Now instead of one country over, people could wonder what was happening one continent over. The discovery of oil refinement and the internal combustion engine finalized this process.
The next step was to improve our telecommunications potential — you didn’t need to go to Vietnam to see the televised images of what was happening over there in the 1960s.
And now, almost 50 years later, the ability to televise something is as simple as uploading it to YouTube or some other video streaming site. We could watch the Tunisian revolution from our living rooms from one thousand different angles.
It’s inspiring, to say the least. Kudos to all the students who take it upon themselves to learn more about the global geopolitical situation.
We’re more connected than we ever have been before, and it behooves us all to know as much as we can about what’s happening to our neighbours on the other side of the world — it’s practically next door.
