April 28, 2008
“I believe that ordinary people can make a difference on a
global scale,” said Dr. Craig Warkentin, Associate Professor of
Political Science at the State University of New York, Oswego,
where he teaches courses in International Politics, Global Issues
and Women’s Studies. Dr. Warkentin spoke to over 50 St. John’s
students and faculty for the Academic Lecture Series Event,
“Laptops, Rats, and Taxis: Ordinary People and the Politics of
Global Change at the Queens campus of St. John’s University April
24, 2008.
Dr. Warkentin believes the framework to positive social change
consists of the use of the internet and a fundamental belief in a
global civil society: “The internet allows people to interact on a
global scale and connect on so many levels be it religious or
social and by living in a global civil society we become part of
socially constructed and transnationally defined networks of
relationships that provide opportunities for everyone to become
politically involved.”
Three stories of people who exemplify Dr. Warkentin’s message,
that everyone is capable of making a change in the world, are
featured on his Web site Laptops,
Rats, and Taxis. These stories of sustainability grew out of
the individual’s personal interest in a subject mixed with a strong
desire to make a difference in the world. Dr. Warkentin told the
story of One Laptop per Child
founder Nicholas Negroponte, former director of the MIT Media
Laboratory. Negroponte began his non-profit organization, which
sells laptops to schools for as low as $100 dollars each with the
belief that laptops and the internet are vital to a student’s
success and that everyone in this world should have access to a
computer.
“People can make a change based on their own personal
interests,” said Dr. Warkentin, “and that is exactly what Bart
Weejens did with his love of rats.” Weejens, Dr. Warkentin’s second
example, began Apopo, a
non-profit organization that trains rats to sniff out and uncover
land mines that are planted underneath the ground in African
countries, like Mozambique. The rats are trained to sniff TNT and
are a safe alternative to using machinery to detonate mines that
endanger the livelihood of the people living there: “These mines
handicap the whole economic system, field workers are in danger of
being hurt while working and it gets very expensive to detonate
these explosives and dig them out with machines. The use of the
rats is much cheaper and safer because no one gets hurt.” Dr.
Warkentin explained that although these “hero rats” are two times
the size of American rats they are not large enough to set off the
explosives underground.
Dr. Warkentin’s last example of positive change comes from the
organization Kiva. Kiva was founded
by Matt and Jessica Flannery, who used the idea of micro lending to
create a way for people to contribute and help people in the
developing world rise from poverty and start their own business.
“This idea is very different from a bank because these are people
who would normally not be approved for a loan, but with a donation
of just $25 you can help someone become self-sufficient and manage
their own business.”
Dr. Warkentin stressed that making a difference does not have to
take a lot of time and energy, “Small things can be integrated into
our daily lives in order to make an impact and change in our
world.” Dr. Warkentin made suggestions which take a short amount of
time to do, but which have a huge impact, “Freerice.com is a Web
site that allows you to donate rice to impoverished countries with
the click of a mouse. It only takes two seconds to help feed
thousands of people.”
Taking action against global injustice is an important way to
embody the University’s mission of helping people around the world
who are less fortunate. Dr. Warkentin’s encouragement of students
to use their own interests to create ways to help the larger
community is founded in the belief that small things really can
make a difference in someone else’s life. Whether it is donating
$25 for a student in Uruguay to have a laptop or sponsoring a rat
that will help protect millions of citizens, there are so many
distinct and meaningful ways that St. John’s students can become a
part of the global justice movement.