Today we visited the Chicago Council on Global Affairs to learn about Chicago’s global position in the world today. Normally the east coast of the United States is associated with being connected to the rest of the world, especially Europe and since Chicago along with the rest of the midwest is landlocked, many are left uneducated about the rest of the world. Yet because Chicago is a global city and wants to be known as such, they created this council to educate the public and hold community forums to discuss global issues. Here is what we learned and how we can connect it to GCE.
The Chicago Global Council’s main goal was connecting Chicago with the rest of the world and that is what we do here at GCE. In my economic fundamentals class we just wrote an essay on a topic of our choosing focusing on the 2008 economic crisis. I chose to write my paper on the global impact the collapse had and it was very interesting to research how America really does effect the rest of the world especially with the introduction of outsourcing. Another class which connected was my Spanish class, where for recent milestones I have studied countries like Argentina, Ecuador, and Venezuela. The country Venezuela was mentioned in today’s discussion as last year they held a forum discussing the political issues facing Chavez and his country. Lastly, for my Crimes Against Humanities class, I am currently writing a crime fiction story based in Cape Town South Africa, and at the CCGA I learned a bit about Chicago’s opinion on Africa as a whole, which was fascinating because Cape Town is so different than many parts of Africa.