• Disparity in access to clean drinking water and sewage systems around the world. In 2005, roughly 1000 residents of the Kashechewan First Nation of Northern Ontario were evacuated for treatment of the health effects of using tainted water; many had skin conditions. Teenagers in Brazil breathe highly polluted air and may drink contaminated water that puts them at risk for disease. Access to water is a fundamental need and, therefore, a right; contaminated water endangers both the physical and the health of all people.

Standard of Life 

• Only some countries and individuals have a high standard of living because they can afford the goods and services that they need and want; however, other countries and individuals do not have the wealth to purchase goods and services that others take for granted. 
• The desire of Franco-Albertans to live part of their lives in their first language through cultural events and other means. 
• Standard of living involves foreign investments and products that are cheaper and overpowering our own products and farmers.
•  Governments and countries that embrace globalization has had economic growth and, through sweatshops, lifted many people out of poverty.
• Inuit have embraced the global community, paying taxes and watching TV. As well, the Inuit still eat traditional foods, hold drum-dances, and throat-chanting events. They feel that you should have a balance between individual and collective identities and the acculturation of other cultures. 
• The Western concept of wealth developed during and since the Industrial Revolution. When the economy produces more than the year before, it means that there are more jobs and a higher standard of living for workers.   

Internationalization of Human Rights

• Globalization has increased internationalism- policy of countries working together for the common good regardless of nationality, race, etc. 
• The UN promotes human rights internationally and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a basis of UN policy. The document states all of the rights- political, civil, equality, economic, social and cultural- that every person on the globe is entitled to. 
• In order to promote social progress and better standards of life laws that protect human rights must be enforced.
• These documents include: convention on elimination of discrimination against women and the convention on the rights of the child. 
• There are some countries that are not apart of the UN and these countries do not promote or protect human rights; because they are not apart of UN, the UN has no way to enforce human rights in countries like China and North Korea.  

• Some of the products or services in your life may be associated with child labour and sweatshops. Lots of children work in sweatshops to avoid poverty; however, they are paid very little and sometimes must work in poor conditions.  
• Globalization has decreased the amount of children that do not attend school especially in developing countries.
• The spread of Western value for minerals and resources has caused conflicts in developing countries. For instance, the congolese rebels force children into mines to extract tin, tantalum, and tungsten.
• Transnationals employ children because they don’t have to pay as much.
• Globalization changed peoples views on child labour and slavery. Thus, many countries got rid of slavery; however, there is still child slavery in some countries.

Women (Education, work, opportunities) 

• Globalization has brought freedom to women especially to those living in conservative countries where women are able to be economically independent and to have some choice in their lives. The amount of women in the workforce has dramatically increased but the 'race to the bottom' on which the expansion of global capital is being built means that this work entails long hours at low wages. 
• According to the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Bank, 57 percent of the 72 million primary school aged children who do not attend school are females. Additionally, girls are four percent less likely than boys to complete primary school
•  A gender gap exists in employment, with a 24.8 percentage point difference between men and women in the employment to-population ratio in 2012. The different percentages around the world may be attributed to social cultural factors, such as the belief that women do not work. Globalization is changing these norms; the new global developing economies demand women in the monetized as well as non monetized sectors of work.
•  As of January 2013, the world representation of women in parliament was just over 20 percent (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2012). Women are assuming more power in the world’s parliaments, boosted by quota systems. 
• In every income bracket, there are more female children than male children who are not attending school. Girls in the poorest 20 percent of household have the lowest chance of getting an education 

•   Globalization allows many immigrants and their communities to maintain close ties with their homelands; the internet, transportation, and cell phones makes it very easy to contact and to visit friends and families back home. 
• As immigrants form transnational networks, they create political, social, cultural, and economic links between locations around the world; many members of transnational communities see themselves as multicultural and as global citizens in which they embrace multiple identities. 

Pandemics

• International travel, agricultural trade, and other forces of globalization can enable the spread of infectious diseases to create a worldwide epidemic. 
• Avian flu (bird flu) was discovered in poultry and quickly spread to other birds; it had crossed the species barrier from birds to humans. Experts say that the flu will continue to follow the migration routes of wild birds, ultimately reaching North America; there’s no immunity and there’s no vaccine for the virus. 
• The first epidemic known in North America was when the Europeans first arrived and brought diseases such as influenza, smallpox, and measles; First Nations had no immunity and overtime, millions of people died. 
• The Spanish flu occurred in 1918 and was a virus that started from birds; it killed roughly 2.5% of the world’s population at that time.

Natural Resources

• Many believe that resource development can improve quality of life and raise the standard of living for many individuals and communities.
• The number of people in the world who will face water shortages is expected to increase substantially. Fewer than 1 billion people competed for fresh water during the agricultural and industrial revolutions; more than 6 billion people compete for the same amount of water today. 
• Global water industry wants to privatize private water resources and services in many countries. Because local governments lack the money needed to upgrade aging water infrastructure, they issue long-term contracts to TNC’s to manage water services. Those who support privatization say that private industry has the financial resources to upgrade infrastructures and deliver safe drinking waters; however, people who disagree say that it leads to higher prices and violates human rights. 

• Consumers have the power to boycott products, companies, and industries with what they purchase. 
• Boycotts have been a strong implement of citizen’s discontent in the market. Consumers refrain from purchasing certain products to force transnational corporations to pay attention to individual’s social, political, and social concerns. 

Civic Responsibility

• Businesses feel they should operate ethically where they respect the communities in which they operate; corporate social responsibility. 
• Competition propels companies to pay low wages, to ignore the environmental impacts their businesses create and to ignore safety or health problems. 

Connecting with Your Citizenship

• Your identity, rights, roles, and responsibilities as a member of a community impacts who you are as a citizen; citizenship is who you are as a member of society. 
• Francophone Albertans lobbied the provincial government and school boards about education rights of both official language minorities; they convinced the school boards to establish a school for each minority. Being a citizen means that you are willing to take action and it involves the willingness to be involved. 
• Globalization has provided us with lots of challenges and opportunities, roles, and responsibilities to improve the world.