daisyofthehalfmoon

[daisyofthehalfmoon]

Piece 5: Nonviolent Communication

In our 10th week in the course, there was a guest speaker. He talked about nonviolent communication. We all as human beings are compassionate naturally and the term of nonviolence communication connected nonviolence that is the state of compassion. Violence is just bot aggressive behavior in action but also verbal. In other words, there can be violence also in our words.

           The most effective part for me was realizing the language we use. Even though we say that we are not doing or saying violent things, actually there can be violence in our language. When we do assumption by doing generalizing about people. In his slide, there was an example, when we say that you always come late is an evolution which includes violation. Rather than saying it, we can say that last week you come late more than 10 minutes three times. In the first sentence, it deletes the person’s days in which he or she come on time. That’s why, making evaluations, judgments, and labeling includes violence in it. When we look around us, it is easy for people who are using violence in their language, and in this modern world, with full of stress, it is not a far possibility to become a rude person who harms people around us. That’s why becoming aware of our emotions and feelings and also other people’s feelings are very important. Understanding, feeling, and empathizing are what make us human. When we use violent language, it does not just turn us an aggressive and stressful one but also the person that we talk to.

           It has been a long time, about 9 months, we met with COVID, and beginning of the period, I saw much news on the TV, people were many aggressive because of this challenging period and when they ask someone to preserve the distance between them because of the virus, their language was rude and it makes other people resentful, ashamed or aggressive. I also observe this in shopping malls, markets, and many more places. Sometimes, people can forget the situation and distance for a short moment, and at that time, warning people with a kind language is very important.

           We get the feeling which we transfer to the person we talked with and communication includes at least two-person, we should think not just ourselves but also other person’s emotions. At the beginning of the presentation, he shared a quotation from Mevlana Rumi “Somewhere beyond right and wrong, there is a garden. Let’s meet there.”. He says it is about nonviolence. Rather than thinking about who is right or wrong, thinking about how we can solve the problem is the important thing. So nonviolence communication is the one which enables us to solve problems of people in the dialog/communication.

           This presentation was beneficial for me to realize and understand how important is the language we use in our daily lives.

[daisyofthehalfmoon]

Piece 4: CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)

I have met the concept of social responsibility firstly during the last semester in one of my courses. This week also, I meet with this concept in my course again. I always talked about as a citizen, we have responsibilities and in this topic, similarly, we as an individual and also companies are responsible to act favor of environment and society. This action can be spending time or providing money to benefit society. Actually, as an individual, it is not hard to think about social responsibility. However, when we talk about companies, I had not much knowledge about them.

           Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is companies’ social responsibility for the society and environment. So achieving balance in their profitability and benefiting their environment is the thing that they should promote to be ethical.

           In Carroll’s Pyramid of CSR (1991), there are 4 levels which are economic society, legal responsibilities, ethical responsibilities, and at the top philanthropic responsibilities. So, a company firstly be able to profit and then must obey the law. After these, it should be ethical in terms of what is right and fair. Finally, in the end, there is being a good corporate citizen.

           In Freeman’s Stakeholder Theory (1984), it says a company should consider and respect the interest of its stakeholders. Stakeholders can be divided into two groups; internal and external stakeholders. Internal stakeholders are employees, managers, and owners. External stakeholders are suppliers, society, government, creditors, shareholders, and customers. So, it specifies the importance of the relationship between a company and its stakeholders and addresses morals and values to manage a company. Considering the wealth of stakeholders become an objective in the business world.

           After all this theoretical information, the question is how it can put into practice? There are 3 pillars of CSR which are people, planet, and profit. When we talk about people, we can talk about work conditions which they work, health and safety conditions, getting a fair salary. When we look at our environment, it is not hard to see people who are working under bad conditions, getting less money than they deserve, having no rights in their workplace or many people who work as a child especially in undeveloped counties. Even though there are organizations that deal with these issues, it is still a big problem in our world. In Turkey in terms of practices related to people, there is TURKCELL’s project of Kardelenler. The name of the project means snowdrops in Turkish and the reason for giving it as a name of the project is that how a snowdrop grows up by drilling the layer of snow, girls who have not the opportunity to go to school also challenge to go to school like a snowdrop. The project is announced in 2000 and it gives opportunity to thousands of girls to go to school by providing scholarships inTurkey. If we talk about the planet, it refers to sustainable environmental practices. There is a project which is 81 İlde Orman, it means that forest in 81 cities. Türkiye İş Bankası aims to increase the awareness of people related to the environment In the extent of the project, 2.205.000 samplings dibbled in 1.500-hectare land. Finally, when we talk about profits, it is economic values which are gained by companies. When these 3 pillars are achieved, sustainability also can be achieved.

[daisyofthehalfmoon]

Piece 3: Community Service and Volunteering

Last week, I talked about social change and today, I will talk about community service and volunteering. I have never experienced this kind of thing. Even-though, I think about a lot and want to do it in my heart, I was busy all the time with my school and family. Last year, I went to a meeting of a foundation that provides volunteer education help for children. When I went there, I saw many people who are students but work voluntarily for many years or adults who are actually in work life. That time, I realized that all people are busy with their life already but the thing what makes volunteerism is devotion. Even-though, these people are busy they work voluntarily and get around to do it. That’s why volunteering requires devotion and sincerity. In one way or another, there are a lot of people who use their interests or skills to be beneficial for other people. 

In the lesson, there was a quote from Martin Luther King Jr and it was “Life is persistent and most urgent is question is ‘What are you doing for others?’.” In this short life, it is easy to lose ourselves in the challenges and difficulties of life as a human being. However, the important thing is that there are people, animals, or environmental concerns that need our help. 

Community service is for the beneficence of other people and you do not get paid from them because you do it voluntarily. There are different types of community service; direct, indirect, education, and advocacy. In direct community service, you work with people directly. Indirect includes fund-raisers and collection. Education is teaching and advocacy is done through social or political channels. This information is what is talked about during the lesson. Now, I want to talk about a TED Talks which is suggested by my instructor. 

Kamilla Sultanove has an impressive TED Talks video about volunteering. She talks about how she went abroad to study with a scholarship and find herself. As a woman, and immigrant, she comes over many stereotypes and finds herself in different places, countries. There was a part that affected me. She said that some people ask her ‘Why to do a job for free?’ And she answers that ‘I am paid in so many ways that money can not meet.’. Through volunteerism, she gains her voice and gets skills that are important for both her personality and profession; teamwork, critical thinking, problem-solving, and leadership. Due to volunteering, she becomes beneficial for others and herself too.  Another part that I am affected is about teachers and mentors. She had a mentor who shows the way and encourages her what to do. This mentor has a special place in Kamilla’s life. So, having teachers and mentors who encourage us and then become a mentor for people who need the courage to start, I think it is a very important bond and precious connection by heart and soul. 

Lastly, I want to end my words with Kamilla’s words again. “Life is a one-time project. Go out and volunteer if you have not. When you volunteer, everybody wins!”.

[daisyofthehalfmoon]

Piece 2: Social Change

The word of change is complex in itself. It is hard to change yourself or other things.  Today I want to talk about social change. Social change involves very subcategories in itself and these are about environment, culture, communication, and of course people. Change requires a problem that disturbs the community or somebody’s goodness or functioning. Through the problem, we aware of it and get awareness. When you see something wrong, inherently you think that is not right. This is awareness. And solving this problem requires action. It can be done by using your voice and organizing people to solve it.

           In my first writing, I had said that we live in the community and also, we are a part of it. We have some rights and as a citizen and protecting what is our right can turn activism. I watched a TED Talks video which is done by Hugh Evans. He talked about a girl whose name is Davinia. She collects money to send girls to school. Even-though these girls live in another country from Davinia’s, Davinia recognizes the problem that on the other side of the world, there are people who can not go to school and act to solve it. For this aim, she collects and saves money. In the beginning, she does not expect a big result but unexpectedly she gets a positive reaction from other people who hear her voice. She helps 120 girls in her first action and still, she strives to send these girls to school and saves money.

           We were born from different families, in different cities and countries but the world we live in is the same. Protecting it and its living beings is all of our responsibility. Even a small step is important. These small steps can become a big movement one day. Before I had not thought about issues surrounding me but now when I look there are a lot of problems and concerns; climate change, air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, gender inequalities, etc. We can take precautions by stop using specific things or by preferring species labels, we can organize people and use our voice, when we organize, we are much stronger but still every little step matter. Because many small makes a mickle.

[daisyofthehalfmoon]

Piece 1: Active Citizenship

           Hello and welcome my readers! The first thing I want to say is that it is quite new writing a blog for me.  That’s why I ask for your forgiveness.

           I am Hilal Uzel who is a fourth-grade student in the Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance. I have opened this blog as a project for my course which is called Global Citizenship and my pieces will be about terms/topics related to this course.

           In this writing, I will talk about being an active citizen. I am twenty-three years old and there are a few mounts to turn twenty-four. I had never thought about being an active citizen until I take this course. We live in a society and we are a part of the community. So, we have some responsibilities for societal problems and issues around us. They can be about the district we live in, or about the country, or more global issues. All of them touch us in one way or another. My thought was kind of what I can do for these problems but through the course, I realize that there are a lot of people and organizations that try to solve these problems. If you do not want to be silent about problems around you, there are a lot of things you can do. You can loud your voice to make people aware of these problems. Awareness may be one of the most important things because, without it, we cannot realize the wrong things. When other people hear your voice, they also react to fix them. In this social media era, now it is easier to reach people and organized with them and take action.

           We talk about active citizenship, and one who is an active citizen, have a feeling of responsibility for the well-being of society and take action to achieve it. This is the case.

           Thank you who read this piece and give support for it. I hope all of us can be raise our voice for problems around the world. Have a happy and peaceful day.