Kofi Annan Foundation and One Young World conducted this third "Google hang-out" of the The Kofi Annan Dialogues. The topic was "Democracy and Elections".
Mr. Annan said the following:
"No one is born a good citizen, no one is born a good democrat, it takes participation, it takes observation and reflection and quite a bit of training to get to be a good citizen, a good democrat."
Reference: First 3 Minutes from the Video of first session
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S2WEcLFXHo
Mr. Annan asked of three things: Participation, Observation and reflection, and training.
First two, participation and observation, are integral to an individual traits. These one would achieve based on many externally influencing elements over of period of time. But the third element - Training, can actually be the most important enabler.
Training of Democracy is an essential aspect which can provide a ground for participation and provide environment to exercise observation and reflection. Unfortunately there isn't much available where one can go and train oneself or learn to participate.
September last year (2012) I took a course at Coursera titled "Securing Digital Democracy". Professor J. Alex Halderman of University of Michigan is a delight to listen to and learn from. This course is a very fundamental to learning democracy. It touches upon the bear minimum right to vote and what it means by a fair voting system. He does this amazingly by providing a detailed historic context.
We also have Khan Academy which has an entire section for American Civics. This can serve as a good platform as well as an excellent source of required content via participation.
MOOCs and Social Media have already proven to enable increased participation, observation and in turn better learning and promotion of collective plurality and tolerance. The very core principles of Democracy.
That brings us to a thought, what if, we also have places, similar to libraries, where one can go and learn (train), participate in debates, observe the debaters and in turn train oneself to be a good citizen and better democrat (not to be confused with the American political party DNC or any such).
And may be .. just may be .. we call them "Temples of Democracy".
Mr. Annan said the following:
"No one is born a good citizen, no one is born a good democrat, it takes participation, it takes observation and reflection and quite a bit of training to get to be a good citizen, a good democrat."
Reference: First 3 Minutes from the Video of first session
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S2WEcLFXHo
Mr. Annan asked of three things: Participation, Observation and reflection, and training.
First two, participation and observation, are integral to an individual traits. These one would achieve based on many externally influencing elements over of period of time. But the third element - Training, can actually be the most important enabler.
Training of Democracy is an essential aspect which can provide a ground for participation and provide environment to exercise observation and reflection. Unfortunately there isn't much available where one can go and train oneself or learn to participate.
September last year (2012) I took a course at Coursera titled "Securing Digital Democracy". Professor J. Alex Halderman of University of Michigan is a delight to listen to and learn from. This course is a very fundamental to learning democracy. It touches upon the bear minimum right to vote and what it means by a fair voting system. He does this amazingly by providing a detailed historic context.
We also have Khan Academy which has an entire section for American Civics. This can serve as a good platform as well as an excellent source of required content via participation.
MOOCs and Social Media have already proven to enable increased participation, observation and in turn better learning and promotion of collective plurality and tolerance. The very core principles of Democracy.
That brings us to a thought, what if, we also have places, similar to libraries, where one can go and learn (train), participate in debates, observe the debaters and in turn train oneself to be a good citizen and better democrat (not to be confused with the American political party DNC or any such).
And may be .. just may be .. we call them "Temples of Democracy".
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