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Achieving Global Citizenship by Leading International Integration |
Peter Kalil
International integration is not an easy job, but Peter Kalil '78, Chief of Integration, Trade and Hemispheric Issues Division at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), takes the challenge everyday.
Peter explained at his conference in February 2007, that the challenges include balancing the rewards of trade, focusing on sensitive sectors of local economies, regional disparities, trade diversions, and the plethora of trade agreements in the region, including NAFTA, CAFTA, CARICOM, MERCOSUR, and many others, colloquially called "the Spaghetti Bowl."
The real challenge, Peter said, is to raise awareness of opportunities. But what makes him want to unravel the "Spaghetti Bowl" of International relations? Working in an international organization, with peers from all its 47 member countries.
"When you interact with people from different backgrounds and different parts of the world, it broadens your mind in such a way that you gain perspective. And by gaining perspective, you gain depth as a person and enrich your life," he explained.
This, Peter explained, is what creates global citizenship, which he defines as the ability of seeing the world from the viewpoint of people of different nationalities, while having the nationality of your country of origin.
"As a U.S. citizen, I feel American in many ways, but in other ways I feel like I am not restricted in my viewpoint to that of being an American," he explained. He added, "It comes from traveling abroad and working with people from different nationalities."
It is because of these opportunities at global citizenship that Peter works for the IDB. "In the IDB, you have an amalgam of people from all these different countries and everyone there is a global citizen in the sense that all are working for the same goal," he explained. "So that same kind of perspective-broadening happens on a broader scale there just by virtue of everyone being together in the same organization working towards the goals of the institution."
Peter credits his experience at Thunderbird as a step towards this global citizenship. "My horizons expanded just by being here at Thunderbird," he said in his conference. "My Thunderbird education completely exposed me to a new area of knowledge that I was never exposed to before."
He added, "All of those things that I learned at Thunderbird, I applied at my job and perhaps the most important one would be cross-cultural communications." he added. "There is definitely a Thunderbird mystique. Thunderbird students are not typical business students. There is definitely something different about Thunderbird students."
To all these fellow Thunderbirds who are now students, he offered some advice on how to become a global citizen. "Keep an open mind. I think Thunderbird students already come with a pretty broad mind, but be open to new ideas, beware of the self-reference criteria – that was one of the things I learned in one of the courses here at Thunderbird," he said. "Just because something seems the same way to you doesn't mean it's going to seem that way to other people."
Peter added, "Never close doors. Maintain your own integrity, model your behavior, and keep that adventurous spirit no matter where you go and no matter what situation you find yourself. In the future, keep the openness and optimism that characterizes Thunderbird students." And with a smile, Peter glanced at the place that was his home a long time ago, and viewed the horizon towards the challenges of tomorrow.