Some good thinking on global thinking

Think global. In today’s rapidly shrinking world, the words are redundant. Sort

of like saying “Nice day” while lounging on the beach on a typically sunny

Kaua’i day.

Nevertheless, economic globalization is all around. Electronic

commerce is making certain of that. Experts say Hawai’i is in an ideal position

to snap up a good share of the international e-commerce market in Japan, China

and Korea, where Internet users are expected to increase from 38 million this

year to 98 million by 2003. That will be an estimated one-quarter of all the

Internet users on the planet. It’s also projected that two years later, only a

third of Internet users around the world will communicate on-line in

English.

So Nov. 13-17’s designation by Governor Ben Cayetano as Hawai’i

International Education Week, with its theme of “Promoting Global Awareness,”

is timely. More than 100 educators, researchers and professionals from various

fields have volunteered to speak to students statewide in grades 6 through 12.

The topics will be range from space and the environment to Botswana and Nepal.

The East-West Center and the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council, with the

support of Hawaii’s universities, the military and other organizations, is

spearheading the effort to help young people and their communities do the

global-thinking thing. The wise and ambitious project can also be labeled

forward thinking.