Political Literacy by Gabrielle P. Kreidie (Advanced Essay #2)

The power of political literacy is that the smartest and most determined have the most courage to use it. One of the most genius political creatures in our world today is Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia. He’s powerful, commanding, strong and forceful. Here in the US, we all have this necessity to say we hate him. Too many don’t understand the capabilities of this guy and what he hopes to accomplish. To fully accomplish a excellence in understanding political literacy, one must understand and follow the news, create their own educated opinions, and utilize information and evidence in a beneficial way.  

At the 70th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, as one would expect hundreds of world leaders (both democratically elected and forcefully elected) took part of the occasion. In addition to leaders of the EU, poor countries and countries with small populations, the President of the Russian Federation, a political icon, and tiger hunting shirtless beast, arrived at the event, as well. This was a very important diplomatic mission for Putin. With his increasingly voice in the Syrian conflict and strained relationships with multiple world leaders, he had something to prove. What greater way than by having a one on one interview with Charlie Rose!

“A lot can be done, but not everyone immediately succeeds in everything. How long has it taken the democratic process to develop in the United States? Since it was founded. So, do you think that as regards democracy everything is settled now in America? If this were so, there would be no Ferguson issue, right? There would be no other issues of similar kind, there would be no police abuse. Our goal is to see all these issues and respond to them timely and properly. The same applies to Russia. We also have a lot of problems.” The quote is a answer Putin gave to Rose on the topic of political instability in Russia. Putin connected the US to Russia and talked about the ways where the two were so similar. He later went on to not fully criticize Obama and rather have it as a right of the American people to create their very own opinions on their leader. Through soft and hard questions, Putin responded with a exquisite sentence. He gave tremendous answers that had the ability for the world to see him as a equal and as a intelligent guy, which he wanted. He is truly a master of literacy.

The Chief of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, talks about the importance of reading with the approval of the Sustainable Development Goals, “Promoting literacy must stand at the heart of this new agenda,” she said. “By empowering individual women and men, literacy helps to advance sustainable development across the board – from better healthcare and food security to eradicating poverty and promoting decent work.” A campaign for all students of the world to have basic education has evolved across the world. Most notably, people that advocate for equality in education want all people to be literate.

It has been proven in multiple studies throughout the years, that when people are literate they have on average a greater intelligence level than that of one who can’t read, comprehend or write. Across our world are able to use their literate powers to undercover the truths and realities that hold our nations and beliefs.

To Gloria Steinem, a feminist idol and writer herself, states that in order to be a member of our world today, through being informed of the conflicts facing the world, “you have to be literate, which a lot of women in the world are not; and you still have to make change happen in real life, because empathy—the ability not just to know but to feel—only happens when we are together with all five senses”. According to Gloria Steinem, literacy in today’s way of life is not reading fiction, the false stories, rather it’s reading the truth. That’s how you change the world.

As it’s known, nearly a billion people have basic or below basic literacy of their native languages, worldwide. Most of them women or young girls. We can change that number. Nelson Mandela, a hero to the people that want to change the world, founded a foundation named after himself in 1999. This foundation fights for his morals for the world’s citizens. For a 12-month period, the foundation developed a campaign to increase literacy in areas where it was most needed. Through the influence of the book Long Walk to Freedom by Madiba, the people of South Africa had the motivation to create encouragement nationwide to learn how to read and encourage the understanding of others literacy levels through following current events and creating informative opinions. This has the potential to become a worldwide campaign, so that all could create their own opinions on Vladimir Putin.