● SCIENCEWOMEN’SSLOWBREAKTHROUGH

● PORTRAITFROM MALI TO MARS,AN ASTRONAUT WITH A MISSION

● HERITAGEA CALL TO SAVESIBERIA’S PEARL

● MEDIA WATCHEUROPE’S IMMIGRANTSAND THEIR IMAGE

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CONTENTS

CULTURE

The Intercultural ChallengeThe first World Culture Report analyses themultiple links between globalization andcultural developments from aninterdisciplinary standpoint..........................................................4

SCIENCE

Breaking ThroughDespite progress, women remain a minoritypresence in all scientific disciplines, animbalance that starts early on, during schoolyears.......................................................10

IN BRIEFNews from UNESCO’s different sectors andregions along with new publications andaudiovisual materials.......................................................16

PORTRAIT

Born Under a Lucky StarCheick Modibo Diarra, Mali’s interplanetarynavigator, shares his passion for the heavenswith youth on earth.......................................................20

HERITAGE

A Call to Save Siberia’s Pearl Lake Baikal, revered as a natural and sacredtreasure, is under threat.......................................................21

MEDIA WATCH

The Media’sShift in ToneReflecting hardening public opinions, theEuropean press takes an increasingly toughstance towards immigrants.......................................................23

Toronto, the urbansymbol of a cultural

mosaic.4

10Women inthe lab: still anexception.

A born explorer. 20

An ancient lakeside ceremony.

21

is a monthly magazine published bythe United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization. English and French editions areproduced at Paris headquarters; theSpanish edition in cooperation withthe UNESCO Centre of Catalonia,Mallorca 285,08037 Barcelona,Spain; the Chinese edition incooperation with the XinhuaNewsagency, 57 XuanwumenXidajie, Beijing, China; and thePortuguese edition in cooperationwith the National Commission forUNESCO, Avenida Infante Santo N° 42 - 5°, 1300 Lisbon Portugal.

Director of Publication : R. Lefort. Editors-in-chief :S. Williams, C. GuttmanAssistant Managing Editor :C. Mouillère Associate Editors : N. Khouri-Dagher, C. L'Homme,A-L. Martin. Spanish edition : L. Garcia (Barcelona), L. Sampedro (Paris). Lay-out, illustrations, infography: F. Ryan-Jacqueron, G. Traiano.Photoengraving:UNESCO WorkshopsPrinting:Maulde & RenouDistributionUNESCO's specialized services

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All articles are free of copyright restrictions and can bereproduced, in which case the editors would appreciate a copy.Photos carrying no copyright mark © may be obtained by themedia on demand.

COVER PHOTO: ©

● SCIENCEWOMEN’SSLOWBREAKTHROUGH

● PORTRAITFROM MALI TO MARS,AN ASTRONAUT WITH A MISSION

● HERITAGEA CALL TO SAVESIBERIA’S PEARL

● MEDIA WATCHEUROPE’S IMMIGRANTSAND THEIR IMAGE

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3 No 102 - juin 1998

EDITORIAL

for a good reason: there’s no provenargument to set down on the table.

Advocates, starting with scientists andthe “biotech” sector employing them,put forward a fait accompli policy.When a public information effortbecomes indispensable, they invokethe ideology of progress and pull outa hefty argument: biotechnologies arethe only way to feed a growing popu-

lation, given that arableland has been stretched tothe limits. What’s more,they will reduce chemicaltreatments, and hence pol-lution, as well as waterconsumption (agricultureaccounts for 70% of fresh-water consumption).Hence, you can only goalong with them, all the

way and right away.

The prosecutors, starting with ecolo-gists, hammer in the precautionaryprinciple, but push it to an utmostextreme: caution means putting a stopon everything until we know every-thing about all the ultimate effects ofthese new technologies. They are thusagainst them, and radically againstthem, for always.

In this mutually exclusive and blind-folded all or nothing, citizens cannotunderstand and even lessplay their role, namely todecide.

René Lefort

We still don’t know whe-ther these insidious littleprions that are respon-

sible for “mad cow disease” do in factcross the “species barrier,” be it fromanimal to animal or from animal tohuman being, in whom they arethought to provoke Kreutzfeldt-Jakobdisease.

We don’t know whether plants in whicha gene has been introdu-ced making them resis-tant to a weed-killer -–which allows a field tobe chemically clearedwhile sparing the plants -–will not “charge” them-selves up with this highlytoxic substance and“carry” them into theconsumer’s organism. Wedon’t know whether bacteria to whichcertain plants, after being geneticallymodified, can resist, won’t in turnmutate and become immune to allknown antibiotics. We don’t know whe-ther nor when nature will find a newbalance – and through what kind ofevolution – after the massive intro-duction of genetically modified spe-cies that ignores the barriers betweenkingdoms and hence makes it possibleto cross a rabbit with a carrot, or ascorpion with an apple tree.

Whatever the case, the introductionof genetically modified species is pro-ceeding at a vertiginous speed whiledebate on the subject remains locked,hostage to a set of a priori views. And

EDITORIAL

WE SIMPLY DON’T KNOW

“Citizens cannot

understand and

even less play

their role,

namely to

decide.

* A growth industry: theUS alone counts 1,300biotechnologycompanies postingannual revenue of $13billion and employingover 100,000 people. (Los Angeles Times)

* Around the world,some 12 million hectareswere planted withmodified seeds in 1997,up from 2.5 million in1996. (The Economist)

* In June, the Americanbiotech companyMonsanto launched a$1.6 million campaign toconvince Europeans thatthey have nothing to fearfrom geneticallymodified products.(The Economist)

* In a referendum held inSwitzerland on June 7,two-thirds of votersrejected proposals toban the production andpatenting of geneticallymodified plants andanimals.

3 No 103 - July-August 1998

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THE INTERCULTURALCHALLENGENo society is an island in the global era: from new creative genres such as WorldMusic to cyberculture's participatory potential, UNESCO's first World CultureReport looks at globalization through a positive lens.

CULTURE

Lourdes Arizpe, former Assistant Direc-tor-General for Culture and the Report'sDirector of Research, discusses the

ambitions of this new biennial publication.

Many of the concerns expressed in this

first World Culture Report echo those

found in Our Creative Diversity*. Should

this report be seen as a follow-up?

Lourdes Arizpe: Our Creative Diversity hasfostered a very broad debate in many coun-tries so we needed a World Culture Report

in which data would be collected to furtherstimulate this debate and advance the argu-ments. Our Creative Diversity created a fra-mework on culture and development whichmany groups took up around the world:researchers in universities, NGOs in the field,local communities and government officialsworking on policies, leading to the very rapiddevelopment of new themes. This reportattempts to give data and to analyse caseswhich will help guide policies.

What are the most important themes to

have emerged?

L.A.: Interculturalism, cultures in urbancentres, local community participation for theenvironment, and the relationship betweenculture and democracy, which is emerging asone of the key issues for development. Ano-ther theme is culture as an economic sector.The Report’s chapter on music and interna-tional trade is creating enormous interest, andin each forthcoming edition, we will take upone of the arts as an economic activity.

What are some of the aims of this type

of Report?

L.A.: The Report is really about building upa network of researchers and expert groupsworking on culture who come together toadvance specific issues. It’s not a question ofcoming up with ideas. Today, practice itselfis generating ideas, and these ideas have to be

analysed, looked at with data and statisticalanalysis, and then given back to practitionersand especially used to inform policy-makers.We also want to work with statisticians tocollect hard data on culture and encouragegovernments to collect more reliable data.

Several of the authors call for new glo-

bal spaces in which diversity can be bet-

ter expressed. Could you explain this a

little further?

L.A.: There are several: one is urban cultu-ral spaces where we know that immigrants,people from very different cultural tradi-tions are knitting together and creating newrelationships. The second is global creativity:there is now a global space where artists aremeeting and discussing both art works andthe conditions of work for artists. The thirdspace that is being created is global civilsociety, based on civic organizations in whichpeople from different cultures are partici-pating. The last space is clearly cyberculture.

Although the Report speaks of building

new partnerships between states, NGOs

and the private sector, concentration is

the trend in the arts, at the risk of sti-

fling diversity. Is there a counterweight?

L.A.: I wouldn’t call it a counterweight. Iwould advance the notion of stewardship inorder that people do not get excluded, havethe freedom to create and to become parti-cipants in the global society. The way to doit is giving them the tools to handle infor-mation. Policy-makers have a major effortto make in this field. It means education butit also means ethics, with respect to guidingpeople in their behaviour, and understandingpatterns according to indicators and data.

The question of participation then, is

key.

L.A.: We’re going to build the global from thelocal, not the other way. We have to find the

Contents:A brief rundownThe World CultureReport 1998 bringstogether experts from awide span of disciplinesto look at theinteractions betweenculture and markets,democracy,urbanization, theenvironment and globalethics. Future editionsof this biennialpublication will bedesigned along thesame lines as the first,with sections on cultureand economicdevelopment; globalsocio-culturalprocesses; creativity,markets and culturalpolicies; public opinionand global ethics;building culturalindicators; implicationsfor policy; statisticaltables. Available inFrench by December.An on-line version can be consulted at:http://www.unesco.org/culture. English versionavailable from UNESCOPublishing: 488 pp., 260 FF.

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5No. 103 - July-August 1998

Culture: Thinking for a Global Era

Urban mosaic: with over150 nationalities, Torontois one of the world's mostmulticultural cities.

The process of

globalization is

at work in all

fields of cultural

development

Why don’t artists actually have a direct

voice in this Report?

Because by broadening the debate on culture,we give stronger support to artistic activities.Artists are a very strong lobby. They’ve hadtheir space at the artist’s conference at Head-quarters (June 1997), they were in full forcein Stockholm (April 1998), they are alreadyvery clear about their interests. Our aimwas really to do an analysis of the arts, andto reach policy-makers and practitioners:NGOs, civil society associations, women’sgroups and activists working on culture.

Interviewed by Cynthia Guttman

*Report of the World Commission on Culture andDevelopment.

local solutions that will then build up throughnetworks, governments, international orga-nizations into global solutions.

This is a totally new prescription. Tenyears ago, we thought that global problemsshould be solved at the top and that solu-tions would trickle down to the bottom.Now it’s clear, we have to find local solu-tions. It’s local people who have to mobi-lize for these local solutions. The more free-dom they have to create, to associatethemselves culturally in any way they want,to express their cultures, the more creativitythere will be. And the more creativity, thebetter the solutions they will have at locallevel, and the better the whole system willbe.

Gone are the days when debates overcultural policies were set within natio-

nal horizons. Only 20 years ago, one of thekey dilemmas for countries was the extentto which imported products and messagesshould be accepted, interaction with inter-national trends in art and thinking encourag-ed, and endogenous creation protected andpromoted. In Africa, Asia and Latin Ame-rica, some artists opted to integrate the inno-vations of the international avant-garde intotheir local cultures, while others believedthat symbolic customs barriers should beset up to control the ‘invasion’ of foreigncultures. Although these options continue tohave a resonance today, they have becomemuch less viable because of the technologi-cal, economic and symbolic changes in cul-tural market structures. The process of glo-balization – the increasingly tight interactionbetween different economic activities andcultures, generated by a system with many

centres – is at work in all fields of culturaldevelopment.

An increasing sector of cultural produc-tion is taking on an industrialized shape, andcirculating in transnational communicationnetworks. The art market, for example, nolonger functions as a juxtaposition of natio-nal markets, but has its own worldwide struc-ture formed by a network of galleries,museums and publishers who operate on aglobal circuit.

Multinational structuresTowards the end of the 1980s, Sotheby’s

and Christie’s accounted for almost three-quarters of the public sales of art. Their mul-tinational structure enables them to react tomovements, artists and audiences in differentsocieties. In the audiovisual field, the recentexpansion of transnational American toll-free and cable television virtually all over LatinAmerica, Africa and Asia has accentuated the

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imbalance between production andconsumption in developing countries. InLatin America, even in countries wheredomestic production is healthier due to giantaudiovisual enterprises such as Red Globo(Brazil) and Televisa (Mexico), 70% of filmsand series are imported from the UnitedStates. Increased trade within Latin Ame-rica and with the outside world is being pro-moted at a time when the continent is pro-ducing fewer books, films and records. With9% of the world’s population, Latin Americaaccounts for 0.8% of the world’s culturalexports, while the European Union, with 7%of the world population, exports 37.5% andimports 43.6% of all cultural trade.

Regional alliancesThe cultural changes brought on by the

communication technologies and the glo-balization of economies is calling for newrelationships between the state, private com-panies and independent organizations. Theconvergence between these three actorsmust aim first and foremost to strengthen andexpand the endogenous production of per-ipheral countries, and the fluid circulation ofgoods between them. The promotion of regio-nal markets for cultural goods is ineffectiveunless comparable protective measures aretaken to protect distribution and consump-tion. In the field of book publishing in LatinAmerica, Colombia stands as a model forthe continent: its Book Law, which exemptsresident publishers from taxes for twentyyears and guarantees the purchase of 20% ofall their production by libraries, is boostingthe development of a thriving publishingindustry, with transnational capital andincreasing export potential.

Privatization dangersAn important step for reducing the imba-

lance between the central and peripheralcountries is to increase investment in therenovation of technological infrastructuresand technical training. Another key is toreverse the tendency to simply privatize cul-tural institutions and programmes. The pre-sence of the state, considered as a demo-cratic and plural space, is essential if culturalgoods and research are not to be reduced tomere saleable commodities. We need spaceslike national museums, public art schoolsand centres for artistic research and expe-rimentation subsidized by the state or bymixed systems in which governments, privatefirms and independent groups work toge-ther to guarantee that needs are not sacrifi-ced to profit. Cultural policy-makers must notonly bear in mind the weight of culture innational economies, but also better relatepolicies to the employment and educationalneeds of young people.

Intermediate channels exist betweenthe weakening of national local cultures

and globalization. On every continent,groups of countries have recently formedalliances to strengthen their regional eco-nomies in the competitive global market.These regional processes must be supportedby studies and cultural and educational poli-cies to promote mutual understanding andthe intelligent handling of the challengesraised by new forms of multiculturalism.

European initiativesThe European Union provides the most

advanced illustration of this process. It hasdeveloped joint educational programmes,policies to defend the common cultural heri-tage and the European audiovisual space.Member states have agreed on common stan-dards to foster the circulation of Europeanprogrammes, setting minimum requirementsfor programme contents and limits on adver-tising. Other programmes were set up todevelop Europe’s audiovisual industries andpromote high-definition television. Thesepolicies not only defend the European iden-tity but also take into account the importantrole played by the cultural industries in eco-nomic growth, job creation and the conso-lidation of more participatory democraticsocieties.

Transnational exchanges, not entrench-ment in one’s own traditions, are essentialto creativity and critical thinking in a globalsociety. They are also valuable in overcomingprejudice and fostering deeper understanding

Art for art'ssake, not forprofit...

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Indonesia’s gamelan music may well beconsidered as World Music – a marketing

category coined by record-industry execu-tives in the 1980s – but to simply regard it asa cultural commodity available in the largerecord stores of western capitals is to over-look a rich array of cultural practices exten-ding well beyond the commercial domain.Gamelan has become a global music, com-posed performed and taught in many partsof the world, by Indonesians and non-Indo-nesians alike.

Transcending classesA gamelan ensemble is a set of tuned

percussion instruments, usually made ofbronze, typically comprising gongs of varioussizes, metallophones, drums and other ins-truments (violins, flutes and zither). Playedthroughout the islands of Bali and Java,gamelan has a popular and classical tradition:while community gamelan groups have beena central part of everyday village life, game-lan orchestras also occupied an importantposition in the elaborate Javanese court cul-ture which developed in the late eighteenthand nineteenth centuries.

Gamelan has gone on to become a natio-nal cultural institution in Indonesia, fullyintegrated into the modern media land-scape. Performances of gamelan music –

sometimes including western drum kits orsynthesizers – are regularly broadcast onIndonesian radio and TV networks, and game-lan is ubiquitous in everyday media culture,from advertising to fashion shows. It alsoplays a key role in Indonesia’s multi-billiondollar tourist industry: while in its traditio-nal form gamelan was primarily an accom-paniment to a temple ceremony, a weddingor an all-night puppet show, it is now a full-fledged performance, staged for the benefitof western tourists.

A hybrid touchIndonesia’s pop music has added ano-

ther hybrid, modern touch to gamelan: justas Western musicians have been incorpora-ting sampled ethnic musics into their ownworks since the 1960s, Indonesian pop some-times uses sampled gamelan music. Combi-ning the gamelan orchestra with westerninstruments is no simple matter however,since both the tuning and scales of gamelaninstruments are different from those of wes-tern ones. One ingenious solution to thisproblem was found by the producer of theSundanese pop singer Detty Kurnia, who inseveral of her recordings, combines tradi-tional gamelan instruments with a sampledchromatic-scale gamelan adapted to the wes-tern keyboard.

THE MUSICINDUSTRYEver since theemergence of the long-playing record in the1950s, the musicindustry has been aglobal phenomenon.Today, more than 80% ofthe world market iscontrolled by the so-called Big Sixtransnationalcorporations: Sony(Japan), Polygram(Netherlands); Warner(United States), BMG(Germany), Thorn EMI(UK) and MCA (Japan).Data from theInternational Federationof the PhonographicIndustry (IFPI) indicatethat the global value ofreported retail sales in1996 was almost $40billion. Between 1986and 1996, retail salesvalue rose by 7% perannum in real terms,with relatively slowergrowth in the UnitedStates and WesternEurope, and more rapidgrowth rates in EasternEurope, Latin America,Asia and Africa/MiddleEast. In most cases,music from the ThirdWorld has been broughtto wider attentionthrough the activities ofindependent recordproducers. Pirating is amajor concern, withworldwide pirate salesin 1995 amounting toover $2.1 billion.

Cultural Trade On the Rise

Global trade in cultural goods* increased from $67 billionin 1980 to $196,5 billion in 1991.

24$

78$

5$

38$

84$

208$

0,6%

0,2%

0,9%0,8%

1%

*Printed matter, literature, music, visual arts, cinema, photography,radio and television. Source: World Culture Report.

US$ per capita As % of GNP

World

Developing

Industrial

World

Developing

Industrial

1980 1991 1980 1991

between different national communities,especially in a context of growing bilateraltrade. An example that deserves attention isthe Mexico-United States Trusteeship forCulture, a body set up by the RockefellerFoundation, the National Foundation for Cul-ture and the Arts (a Mexican public body) and

a bank institution. Aimed at enhancing cul-tural exchange, the Trusteeship grants finan-cial support every year to bilateral projectsin all fields of the arts. Interviews with artistsand institutions which had received supportnot only pointed to the stimulating impact ofthese day-to-day contacts, but also whateach society values in the art of the other,with a tendency by the United States toignore Mexico’s creativity in recent decades.The value of encounters, workshops andcomparative studies to help the differentregions take advantage of innovations madeelsewhere and better understand the trans-formations afoot in the artistic, publishingand communications industries cannot beunderestimated. By advancing in this direc-tion, cultural policies could set about crea-ting new forms of inter- and multiculturalcooperation in which national and foreigncultures develop side by side, in mutualenhancement.

Nestor García Canclini

Autonomous Metropolitan University

of Mexico

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Embracingtechnologies: a matter ofsurvival, and of practice.

The West’s encounter with the genrebegan about a century ago with ClaudeDebussy’s discovery of Javanese gamelanmusic at the 1889 World Fair in Paris. Later,in the 1950s, American composers such asLou Harrison, John Cage and Steve Reichbegan composing works for various combi-nations of gamelan and Western instruments,from clarinets to electric guitars. But it is onlyrecently that gamelan has broken out of aca-demic circles to become a feature on theWorld Music circuit, although not in thehybridized form it has taken on in Indone-sia. Instead, with the expansion of the WorldMusic market in the 1990s, one of the indus-try’s responses has been to turn increasinglyto the vast and largely untapped archive ofethnomusicological field recordings. Music

of the Gods is one example. Released fouryears ago, it features digitally restored game-lan music recorded in the early 1940s by twoAmericans. With the Library of Congress’sname on the cover, scholarly liner notes anda bibliography, this is clearly not your ave-rage Angélique Kidjo CD. While the album’sproducers acknowledged the vitality of game-lan music today, they express anxieties aboutthe recent impact of tourism on gamelanperformance. Yet their claims to presenting“authentic” gamelan music to consumersshould be tempered. People have been com-plaining about tourists in Bali since the 1930s,and there is little reason to believe that theearliest recordings made by foreigners wereany less staged than contemporary Balinesemusic put on for tourists.

This focus on the local and traditional isan irony, as if global modernity had not hap-pened. And yet, the dissonance of gamelantuning and scales in relation to their Westerncounterparts serves as an apt metaphor: game-lan cannot be reduced to the commercialdimension of the global music industry, whichtends to ignore a modern, hybridized form ofgamelan. Rather than metaphorically try toretune it to fit western models, we would dobetter to listen more attentively to its musi-cal and cultural dissonance, reflect on thelimitations of our own scales of value andmeaning, and recalibrate them accordingly.

Martin Roberts

New School for Social Research

New York

Indigenous Groups on-lineCommunicating by electronic mail is

already a way of life in the CanadianArctic, where a new semi-autonomous ter-ritory known as Nunavut – ‘Our Land’ inInuktitut – will officially come into being onApril 1, 1999 with the forming of a govern-ment. “Nunavut is a new territory that isadministratively different from a province,”explains Jim Crump, a senior policy analystworking for the Nunavut Planning Com-mission (NPC). “It is unique in the world: forthe first time, a democratic state has creat-ed within it a jurisdiction dominated by abo-riginal people. It is a form of self-govern-ment in which Inuit will be making decisionsabout issues such as land use and health.”The NPC is headed by a nine-member board,including several hunters who live off theland. Dispersed across 350,000 sq. kilometres,they communicate in their own language bye-mail using a syllabic font. Their keys carrystickers representing letters of an alphabetdeveloped for their oral language in recent

years. Meetings with partners from the Cana-dian Government are also digitized: requiredinformation is stocked on a CD-ROM whichBoard members can load onto their computersand consult in their own language. “It’s comewith practice,” explains Crump, pointing out

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that Inuit populations have always adaptednew forms of technology as a means of sur-vival. The NPC has its own Internet site (inEnglish and Inuktitut) and also uses digitaltechnology to map out caribou migrationsand land resources, based on information col-lected by people in communities. “To me, thisis just another tool. Canadians tend to lookat people in the north as cling-ing to survi-val, living isolated and insular lives, whe-reas in fact, Inuit culture is vibrant and peopleare using the new technologies to reach outto the world.”

Shrinking distancesWhether it is to publicize a platform,

communicate among each other or with sup-porters and policy-makers in other parts ofthe world, a growing number of indigenousorganizations in the North and South aremaking use of the new technologies, a trendhighlighted in the World Culture Report. Inthe past two years, the Copenhagen-basedInternational Work Group on IndigenousAffairs (IWGIA) has helped 20 to 30 indige-nous organizations in Latin America becomeequipped with e-mail and Internet. “First ofall, it’s much cheaper to communicate via e-mail,” explained the IWGIA’s documents edi-tor. “I think it’s also improved communica-tion. Indigenous leaders tend to have a veryformal style. With the e-mail, they write in atotally different language.” Being able toexchange information at minimal costs hasstrengthened groups such as COICA, a bodyrepresenting indigenous organizations of theAmazon Basin. “In the past year, we’ve mainlyused the e-mail to exchange documents andideas of member organizations that are sepa-rated by thousands of kilometers in the ninecountries of the Amazon Basin. Before, wehad to limit such exchanges because of thephone or fax costs,” said Rodolfo Asar, fromCOICA’s Information Office.

Language barriersHaving a web site is clearly a window on

the world. COICA features a home page inEnglish outlining its main goals and provi-ding contact numbers for groups working ondifferent issues. “Web sites are an educa-

tional way of spreading our policies andactions and informing people about specificproblems. They offer the potential to reacha much larger audience,” said a Guatemalanmember of the Council of Mayan Organiza-tions. Still, the cost of setting up one remainsprohibitive to most groups.

“A great majority of indigenous people arestill outside the flow of technology and it willtake most of them more than one generationto get a computer,” said Inger Sjoerslev of theUniversity of Copenhagen. Language is oftenanother barrier. “Just a few people useEnglish to communicate,” said a member ofIMPECT, an organization grouping differenthill tribes in Thailand. While pointing outthat e-mail has helped the organization strikeup contacts with other groups in Asia, henoted that subscribing to the Internet carriedlimited benefit because of the language pro-blem.

Heritage on the networksBesides their political and humanitarian

dimension, the networks offer an unprece-dented opportunity to record oral culturesand create data banks. In this endeavour,one of the keys is to develop a vision of heri-tage in which culture is a means of sheddinglight on the present, explains Isabelle Vinson,author of a Report chapter on “Heritage andcyberculture”. A site on the Canadian School-net network for example, establishes thelink between the contemporary works ofInuit artists and the memories, legends andmyths recounted by the elders in recordedinterviews. The project is designed not onlyto preserve traditional knowledge and cul-tural perspectives, but above all to transmitthem to future generations, in the Inuit tra-dition, using the most modern technologies.“The networks must be the tool for establi-shing a new notion of culture and heritage.One of the keys is to learn how to adaptcontents on minority heritage to the net-works,” explains Vinson. “ It is a problem ofcontents, of structure and of a revolution inknowledge. In this process, the age-old oppo-sition between oral and written cultures isbound to be modified.” ●

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The Ten Most Translated Authors

Of the ten most-translated authors in 1994*, no less than six were women, andnearly all were from the UK. The Bible deserves a mention, with 126 translations.

131 120 112 110 109 98 96 95

*Latest available data Source: World Culture Report

AgathaChristie

218 translations

93

DanielleSteele

VictoriaHolt

PatriciaVandenberg

StephenKing

JulesVerne

BarbaraCartland

Robert L.Stevenson

EnidBlyton

John-Paul II

Cultural Indicators:A Word of WarningA word of warningbefore looking for figureson cinema attendance,book production,performing artscompanies or otherfacets of culture: as LeoGoldstone, Director ofWorld Statistics Ltd.underlines, there is “acrippling lack of basicindicators of culture (...)and, as might beexpected, this lack isgreatest in the poorestcountries.” As many asone-third of the nearly200 data items in thereport were notavailable in somecomparable form for atleast half of the 150countries with apopulation of more thanone million. Rejecting theidea of building a singlecultural developmentindex that wouldinevitably end up as arich-countryachievement ranking,the Report attempts totakes a broad approachto culture by including“multi-cultural”indicators like heritagesites, travel and studyabroad. It also drawsattention to the”formidable list“ ofcultural concerns thathave not yet beenquantified: freedomof linguistic expression,rights of and support tominority cultures, andleading religions'freedom of worship... An agenda for the future.

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that girls received 30% of encouragingremarks and 84% of discouraging ones, while70% of ‘persistent interaction’ concernedboys, who were the only ones involved incontacts lasting over five minutes. Thisinfluences pupils’ confidence in their owncapabilities. Girls respond more often “Idon’t know” to a question than boys, who aremore inclined to risk a reply. Overall thesestudies show that for the same curriculum,boys and girls don’t receive exactly the sameeducation.

Daily relations between boys and girls inthe classroom are another source of rein-forcement for gender-based stereotypes.Like teachers, students find it normal forboys to dominate and girls to take a back seatwhen, for instance using a microcomputeror carrying out an electrical wiring project.

Gradually, these experiences lead youthto categorize courses or occupations – a pro-cess that influences the way they see them-selves and others: “physics is for boys so Ican’t be a girl and do well or compete withboys in this area...”. Not only is mathema-tics perceived as a masculine subject but is

Why do so few girls choosea career in the sciences?Over the last 20 years, stu-dies undertaken in schoolsacross the world, in the

wake of the feminist movement, have triedto understand the roots of the problem. Theconclusion: girls are not encouraged inschool to stick with science subjects.

There are no difficulties at primary level:girls and boys show the same interest andenthusiasm for arithmetic and experiments.It is with the onset of adolescence – at secon-dary school – that girl/boy differences startto show. This phenomenon is found acrossthe world, regardless of culture.

Research shows that girls perform bet-ter in the sciences in single-sex schools, ata time when mixed schools are the norm. Inthe presence of boys and in fields deemedmasculine, girls tend to underestimate them-selves. It is also an age, when consciouslyor not, girls seek to affirm their femininity:classroom observation demonstrates thatapprehension of a dissection or an experi-ment, the refusal to get dirty or protect hairduring hands-on lessons, and even clumsi-ness are all behaviour used by girls to under-line their femininity.

Role modelsTextbooks also contribute to reinforcing

sexist stereotypes. An analysis of physicsmanuals in Britain found that there are twoto 10 times more men or boys than womento serve as examples. Surveys of curriculashow exercises are more often than not gear-ed at boys’ interests. When upper secondarystudents are given identical arithmetic pro-blems involving bags of cement or recipeingredients, the girls obtain higher scores inthe second case.

Girls and boys are not treated equally inthe classroom. All classroom observationsreveal that science teachers unconsciouslyinteract far more with boy students and givethem greater encouragement. A survey of aFrench high school geometry class showed

WOMEN AND SCIENCEBREAKING THROUGH

SCIENCE

The times may be slowly changing, but women continue to hold a very lowprofile in the scientific world. Perhaps the time has come to rebuild the house ofscience with women, a task that starts off in the classroom.

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also the spearhead of scholastic competi-tion, in a context where femininity implies,among other things, giving up individual com-petition.

Some comfort may be found in the know-ledge, that with time, the stereotyped natureof preferences for subjects appears to bedeclining, and that more and more girls todayare choosing to study science. One Britishstudy reveals that among youths aged 11-12,mathematics are now (almost) perceived assuitable for girls as boys, which wasn’t thecase in studies carried out 10 years previously.Now, biology or the first foreign languagehave a less feminine connotation. More

women are becoming teachers; studies showthere is a link between having had one ormore female science teachers and choosinga career in the sciences. Aside from the“image” of subjects is the concept of pro-fessions “suitable for women”. It is thereforean increase in the number of female scien-tists, teachers – and school textbook desi-gners – that will encourage girls to opt for achoice that their mothers or grandmotherswould never have dared to take on.

Marie Duru-Bellat

Professor in Education Science

Bourgogne University (France)

COMPUTERSCIENCE:A "MASCULINE"GENESISHow has a relativelynew subject such ascomputer sciencedeveloped into a chieflymasculine domain?The question is posedby Marie Duru-Bellat in“The ScientificEducation of Girls”(Jessica KingsleyPublishers/UNESCOPublishing, 1995). Onehypothesis runs alongthese lines: in the earlystages, the disciplinewas mainly taught bymen who showed apreference for certaintypes of applicationsand made reference touses by professionals,generally male. Hence,manuals were plannedin which women weretotally absent. Add tothis a backdrop ofcomputer games thatgenerally have a maleappeal and thediscipline gains anoverriding masculinecharacter. However,opposition between thepassion for computersand the feminine modeldoesn’t exist at theprimary school level,where youngenthusiasts of bothsexes are perceivedpositively, as lively andfull of curiosity. Atadolesence however,girls' interest incomputers tends to beassociated withnegativecharacteristics, be itthe intellectualengrossed in herstudies or the lonerseeking refuge in hercomputer, which isclearly not the casewith boys.

A choice that her mother or grandmotherwould never have dared take on.

In their own wordsIf a growing number of young women are

opting to study science, their itinerariesstill read like something of an obstacle course.Gathered in Paris last April for a meeting on“Scientists of the Future: Men and Women”,high school girls from around the world, allof whom had chosen to pursue scientificcareers, discussed their choices and reflectedon the difficulties encountered along the way.

In all cases, they denounced the weight oftradition. “In Nigeria, there is a kind of men-tality according to which women are justaround to have kids and raise them, and arenot entitled to an education. Most of those whoare uneducated agree with that,” (ChikaYoung-Nwafor, Nigeria). “Officially, there isequality between the sexes, but in the mindsof people, a woman’s place is in the home,”(Melissa Adoum, Ecuador). Centuries of ega-litarian ideology like communism appear tohave made little difference. “In Asian coun-tries, the man generally prefers that his wifestay at home – this is the oriental way ofseeing things,” (Samira Bakirova, Kazaks-tan).

Attitudes make a differenceAt school, girls often work harder than

boys: “Even if I’m ill, I’ll manage to get myhomework done. Boys are very jealous, theycan’t deal with a girl doing better than them.They’ll say: “You know that tomorrow you’regoing to get married and have a husband, sojust leave us alone instead of picking up allthe best marks,” (Adeline Yameogo, BurkinaFaso). “In my school, girls outnumber boys inthe sciences. Boys don’t work hard enough toget to our level,” (Nadine Scotland, Saint-Lucia).

Far from putting all the blame on a sexistsociety, girls recognize their own responsibi-lity in the current picture: “Most of the timegirls say: “What will I get out of it later since

I’m going to get married and have children?We’re better off learning how to cook andclean, and wait for the husband to arrive,”(Balkhissa Konate, Côte d’Ivoire). “Girls areafraid. They think that science is too com-plicated,” (Bryone Vermeuln, South Africa).“Girls underestimate themselves a bit. Boyshave more of a tendency to try things out,even if they don’t have the skills to do so yet,whereas girls will say: “I don’t think I’mcapable, so I won’t try it,” (Hélène Scour,France). “I’ve decided to challenge boys: forthem, a girl can’t get through Terminale C,”(Adeline Yameogo, Burkina Faso. Ed.note:Terminale C is the equivalent of 12th Gradewith an emphasis on science, the compulsorystream for going onto study science or medi-cine at university).

All students recognize the key role thatparents play in encouraging them to follow

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a difficult path. “I’m lucky to have parentswho want me to work and do somethinggood,” (Asra Sabeen, Pakistan). “My parentsare very proud of my choice,” (BalkhissaKonate, Côte d’Ivoire). “My parents let mechoose. They made no difference betweenthe girls and boys in our family,” (Maha Rizk,Egypt).

A vocation to contributeAre they aware of having more choice

than their mothers? “A growing number ofgirls are interested in science. There havenever been so many girls in the scientificstream at our high school,” (Colombe N’zore,Côte d’Ivoire). “Normally there are no girlsin Terminale C. This year, three out of 12students are girls. People talk about this asa real event,” (AdelineYameogo, BurkinaFaso). “It’s not that our mothers were lessinterested. They just didn’t have as manyopportunities and there weren’t as manyschools,” (Nadine Scotland, Saint-Lucia). “Invillages, many intelligent women who coulddo well don’t have the chance to go out andstudy. But if you look at how they run theirhouse, you’ll understand what they could doif they were only given the chance,” (AsraSabeen, Pakistan).

Is there an intrinsic vocation to helpothers? All seem motivated by the desire tomake a contribution to society rather thanend up in highly visible or lucrative profes-sions. “I think that I could help to reduce theproblems we have with water in my country,”(Adeline Yameogo, Burkina Faso). “I want tobe a good gynaecologist and take care ofother women, so that they have a healthy lifeand healthy babies,” (Desyi Indriani, Indonesia).

Above all, girls aren’t seeking any type of“revenge” on men. Whether they believe ornot in a feminine approach to the world,they do not perceive themselves as compe-titors to men, but rather as their allies. “Idon’t see an enormous difference in per-ception beween men and women. But incombining the work of women and men, weget more people and more scientists,”(Melissa Adou, Ecuador). “We see things dif-ferently from men. By combining the twovisions, we can make the world a betterplace,” (Nadine, Saint-Lucia). Finally, as AnaCarolina Pontes of Brazil affirmed, “I don’tthink one woman can make a difference.But a group can – when we start to be pre-sent in numbers.”

Nadia Khouri-Dagher

Where are women in science and tech-nology today? Three factors stand out

across the board: women are under-repre-sented in science and technological profes-sions; they are found more frequently in thelife sciences than in physics or engineering;the higher one climbs in any hierarchy, thelower the percentage of women.

Already a minority presence in acade-mic institutions around the world, femaleuniversity professors are even harder tocome by in scientific disciplines. Nor dodevelopment levels necessarily translate intoa larger share of women in science and tech-nology: as the American magazine Science

points out, “countries with large physicsestablishments, high levels of industrial deve-lopment, and strong women’s rights move-ments have the poorest records.”

Still the US has the highest average rateof female professors in all fields – at roughly18% – but women only account for about 5%of associate and full professors in the natu-ral sciences. In the UK, the national ave-rage is 8.1%, but only about 3% are in thesciences. The former communist countriesfared significantly better. In the mid-1980s,women in Eastern Europe accounted for 20to 50% of scientific researchers. Before 1990,

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Women in Physics Faculties in UniversitiesSelected countries, 1990, by percentage

0 10 20 30 40 50%Source : Megaw , J.(1990) in Barinaga, Science, 263, 1994

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40% of East German academic staff werewomen. In West Germany, just 2% of seniorfaculty staff in the five major disciplines – bio-logy, physics, chemistry, math and the geos-ciences were women. In Mexico, the numberof female researchers in physics and mathe-matics declines from roughly 15% at the mid-level to about 8% at the top level. In the Phi-lippines, a breakdown of membership of theNational Research Council shows that seniorwomen researchers hold the majority in thebiology, pharmacy and chemistry sectors.Men dominate in physics, engineering andindustrial research. The pattern holds inChina, where in 1992, women led nearly halfof the Academy of Medical Science’s researchprojects, but only a minority are found insenior positions in the national science aca-demy.

No data, no visibilityAcross all continents, women have a tiny

minority presence on government scienceand technology advisory boards or their equi-valent. The same goes for prestigious sciencebodies such as the British Royal Society(which did not admit women until 1945),where only 3% of fellows are female. Thereare few reasons to believe the position ofwomen in top management in the privatesector is any different from academia. Sta-tistics are hard to come by. German cell bio-logist Mary Osborn told a European Com-mission conference on Women and Sciencelast April that it was almost impossible to getdata on the percentage of top posts held inindustry by women in individual Europeancountries but that anecdotal evidence sug-gests that it is less than the percentage ofwomen who are full professors. Dr Paola M.Manacorda told the conference that of the 70members of Telecom Italia’s top-level mana-gement, she was the only woman. The situa-tion appears no brighter in the US. “Govern-ment scientific agencies are frequently farless discriminatory than are industry labs,”

comments Sandra Harding, a professor of phi-losophy and women’s studies. “More womencan be found in senior mangement levels ingovernment science projects than in indus-try.”

This lack of clear data tends to accentuatewomen’s lack of visibility in the sciences,making them a low priority on policy agen-das. Jim Megaw’s study (see chart) remainsone of the few to compare representation ofwomen in specific scientific disciplinesaround the world. Some countries havemade efforts over recent years to collectinformation, prompting various inquiries andcommissions dealing with the issue, but theevidence suggests the problem is deeply root-ed. Promotions and tenure for women donot seem to be keeping pace with increasesin enrolments in science and technology attertiary level. Equal pay for equal work is ararity. Childcare can be problematic. Socio-logists believe that better childcare arran-gements may have contributed to the higherlevel of women scientists in the former eas-tern bloc. So has the low status of some pro-fessions: the former Soviet Union may havea high percentage of female physicians, butit is a position that is not held in high regard.

High school influencesMegaw draws a corollary between the

higher level of women in science and tech-nology in Latin countries and the number ofchildren in those countries attending single-sex schools. Shielded from the notion thatscience is a masculine domain, young womenare less likely to drop out of math and scienceat the secondary levels. The mandatory tea-ching of these subjects throughout highschool is also thought to influence the num-ber of women who continue to study themat tertiary level. Nevertheless, the numberof women in senior academic posts remainslow. Mexican physicist Ana Maria Cettoreflects that “discrimination alone does notaccount for the lack of women in science; it

RegionalForumsA series of regionalforums to feed debate atthe World ScienceConference in Budapest(Hungary) in June 1999,will take place beforethe end of the year.Each region (Africa,Latin America, Europe,the Mediterranean Basinand the Asia-Pacific) willmake recommendationsbacked by statistics andpropose an action planaddressing the issue ofwomen in S&T. Women’snetworks andassociations areessential partners. Theforums are also de-pendent on governmentsfor supporting change.Issues to be addressedinclude:* Science by whom?Gender needs to betaken into account in thecollection of S&T data. * Do women in sciencehave careers? A closelook at employmentstatistics andinformation concerningcareer paths.* Is scientific educationaccessible to younggirls? A call forcomparative studies on aregional scale.* Science for whom?An examination of theimpact that S&Tadvances have onwomen’s daily lives. * Science for what kindof society? Aperspective on how theinclusion of more womenin S&T might changeattitudes in, for example,bioethics, theenvironment, hygiene,decision-makingprocesses.The regionalconferences aim tomobilize decision-makers, the S&T com-munity, NGOs and thepublic at large in order tostimulate debate,thereby assuring a“visibility” for the issue. ©

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(UNCSTD). The Secretariat will have a pivo-tal role in coordinating and promoting acti-vities in the Association of South East AsianNations (ASEAN: Brunei, Indonesia, Malay-sia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand andViet Nam) and with neighbours Australia,China, Fiji (for the Pacific Islands), Japan,Republic of Korea, New Zealand and PapuaNew Guinea.

Tapping talentThe Secretariat is a timely development

for a region undergoing massive politicaland economic change. Apart from basicarguments of gender equality, many coun-tries in southeast Asia and the Pacific sup-port promoting women in S&T because theylack trained human resources for industrialdevelopment (most ASEAN countriesremain very dependent on foreign techno-logy, mainly from Japan, Europe and NorthAmerica). Tapping into the female talentpool is one way of addressing the problem.But effective policies can’t be decidedwithout a sound information base. Collect-ing sex-disaggregated data will be a priorityfor the Secretariat, because without it thereis “no visibility, and hence no priority” as thechapter on the Gender Dimension of Science

Strength through numbers:Southeast Asia sets the way

Changing the gender dimension of scienceand technology in Southeast Asia and

the Pacific is the overall goal of the Regio-nal Secretariat for Women and Gender,Science and Technology in Jakarta, Indone-sia. The Secretariat is currently being esta-blished as a joint activity between UNESCOand the Indonesian Institute of Science withfunding from the United Nations Commissionon Science and Technology for Development

may also be that women expect somethingelse from their profession, which sciencedoes not offer because, certainly in LatinAmerica, it is so locked into the academicenvironment.”

Reshaping scienceIs science gendered and hence unap-

pealing to women? An investigation into theSwedish Medical Research Council, a govern-ment body that funds biomedical research,found that on average, a woman needed tobe 2.5 times as productive as a male coun-terpart to win a grant.

The study, published last year, took manyby surprise in a country where sexual equa-lity is officially part of public life and broughtthe rewards system of the sciences into ques-tion. If the sciences are seen as patriarchaland neglectful, social scientist Hilary Rosebelieves “there are good reasons to seek toconstruct knowledge friendlier to both gen-ders and nature alike...to reshape or rebuildthe sciences.” As stated in the UNESCO 1996World Science Report, “it may not be somuch an issue of whether women produce

a ‘different science’, as a principle of pro-ducing science relevant to societal needsand reflecting all interests in society.”Emphasizing the consequences of the gen-der imbalance in any discipline, Dr ShirleyMalcom, a member of the American Asso-ciation for the Advancement of Sciencereflects that “when there is a mass exclusionof a group of people , with a different set ofperspectives and world view – whether inten-tional or coincidental – the profession is thepoorer.”

“I am sure that when we try to be bothwomen and scientists without sacrifices, wewill find new ways of being both and we willthen really be able to have some influenceon science,” reflects physicist Ana MariaCetto. “I would encourage young scientiststo see science as something that can be reno-vated, not as a finished building that opensits doors only to certain ways of being orthinking but that anyone trained in the sciencedisciplines can go into that building andchange it.”

Ann-Louise Martin

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Recognizing the role ofwomen: the first step tosharing the advances oftechnology.

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*Since its inception,UNESCO has beenpromoting the equalaccess of girls toeducation. TheEducation Sector hasnotably beensensitizinggovernments on theneed to produce anon-sexist image ofwomen in schooltextbooks. Several ofthe sector’sprogrammes addressgender issues,notably 'Scientific,technical andvocational educationof girls in Africa'.During the first phaseof this project,national surveyswere undertaken in21 countries and asub-regional meetingwas held inSeptember 1997, inHarare (Zimbabwe)with the participationof NGOs andministries ofeducation. In the1998-1999 phase,emphasis is oninnovative activities

identified during theconsultation process.Mechanisms will bedeveloped to assessprogress in girls'participation inscientific, technicaland vocationalprogrammes.

* The Science sectorincorporates aspecial projecton'Women, Scienceand Technology'which is coordinatingregional forums onthe issues ahead ofthe World ScienceConference (see p. 13). Overall, theproject aims toimprove the accessof women toscientific andtechnologicaleducation andcareers, and tostrengthen theirparticipation inresearch throughtraining programmes. Also in the works is atool kit on GenderIndicators forEngineering, Science

and Technology. Itaims to underline theimportance ofdeveloping statisticsin this area with theaim of promoting theentry andparticipation ofwomen in thesesectors. The projectincludes a pilotsurvey and genderanalysis of sex-disaggregated datato be conducted byUNESCO.Another Sciencesector projectconcerns 'Womenand water resourcesupply and use insub-Saharan Africa.'This four-yearproject, launched in1996, aims to improvethe quality of life ofwomen by facilitatingtheir access to waterresources and byimproving watermanagement in semi-arid areas.

UNESCO, Women and Science: A Multiple Approach

and Technology in the UNESCO 1996 World

Science Report clearly explains. We need toknow how many girls are in science educa-tion, how many go on to university, howmany are employed and what their jobs are.We also need to talk to women about theirexperiences. Policy- makers can then workout exactly what they need to do in terms ofrepairing the “leaky pipeline,” a reference towhere women drop out of S&T, warming the“chilly climate” that contributes to their leav-ing the field, and changing the “nerdy” imageof S&T. For example, curricula changes toS&T in schools and universities may makethese disciplines appear less dull and irre-levant to women. Equal opportunities inpromotion and pay may help S&T seem moreattractive as a career option.

Local knowledgeOther priorities for the Secretariat include

promoting women’s participation in science,taking into account the key role they play inbasic aspects of village life such as watercollection and management and sanitation.It means that women need to be trained inthe development of technology such as watertanks and water catchment systems. In agri-culture, as UNESCO’s “Gender Sensitivity”manual points out, women produce as muchas men economically, but most modern farm-ing technology is taught to men or throughmen. This must be changed. Another of theSecretariat’s functions is the promotion ofregional cooperation in studies on the impactof scientific and technological change affec-ting the majority of women, especially inlow-income groups. For example, officetechnology displaces some job functionswhile creating others. In rural development,the introduction of new crop varieties maymean more intensive weeding which, moreoften than not, implies more work for women.

Acting as a vector for regional exchange,the Secretariat will focus on recognition ofthe gender dimension in indigenous know-ledge and its links to modern science andtechnology. Indigenous knowledge is oftensynonymous with “women’s knowledge”:

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take for example information concerningplants, their locations and uses. Similarly,aspects of traditional technologies are oftenregarded as “women’s work”. Rather thanbe marginalized, indigenous knowledge sys-tems should be built upon and promoted aspart of society’s overall knowledge base.

In times of crisis, such as many parts ofthe region are now crossing, the Secretariatwould join efforts to combat school drop-outrates, with particular concern for girls sincethey are usually the first to go when familiesrun out of money and food.

Under the umbrella of the Gender Advi-sory Board of the UNCSTD, this southeastAsia-Pacific project will provide the blueprintfor planned regional secretariats on Womenand Gender, Science and Technology in LatinAmerica and Africa. ●

Tony Marjoram

Engineering and Technology Division

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IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF

EXHIBITIONS

A dramatic “virtual undersea”sound and light show using agiant projection canopy, and aWeb station to access informa-tion on such ocean-linked topicsas El Niño are among the attrac-tions featured at the UnitedNations Pavilion at Expo ’98. TheExpo, in Lisbon (Portugal), runsuntil September 30. Its maintheme, “The oceans, a heritagefor the future,” aims to increaseawareness of the ocean's role in

Thirty photographs by UNESCOphotographer Inez Forbes of NewZealand’s Te Wahipounamau andTongariro parks, two WorldHeritage sites, were on displayat UNESCO from June 22-29.“Place of the green stone” inMaori, Te Wahipounamauspreads over 2.6 million hectaresin the southwest, making it oneof the largest natural, temperate

THE AMERICAN DREAM“Kennedy, the American Dream”was the title of an exhibition ofpictures and videos displayed asa tribute to the human rights workof John F. Kennedy and his bro-ther Robert at UNESCO from June12 to July 24. The exhibitionincluded 150 photographs by theKennedys’ official photographerJacques Lowe as well as histo-ric TV news reports. Severalconferences covered Americanpolitics then and now, the Cubanmissile crisis, an analysis of theformer president’s communica-tion style, a hommage to his wifeand a debate on Robert Kennedy’scivil rights contribution. As theDirector-General noted, “Johnand Robert Kennedy sought toreconcile ethical values with

The United Nations at Expo ’98

WORLD HERITAGE IN NEW ZEALAND

sustaining life on this planet,along with the host of otherissues that must be addressedto prevent conflict and preserveocean resources for future gene-rations. As UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor pointsout in a video message broad-cast at the end of the visit:“Science shows that life on ourplanet needs healthy oceans tosurvive... A clean sea is our right.A living ocean is our duty.”

climate zones in the world, witha richly varied landscape. Thevolcanoes in Tongariro are themost spectacular in the South-west Pacific and are closelyrelated to Maori mythology andbeliefs. As one Maori sayinggoes, “The breath of my moun-tain is in my heart.” This travel-ling exhibition arrives in NewZealand in November.

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political action, to reconcile thecommunities that enrichAmerican diversity with a unifiedAmerican vision. This was theguiding light of their public ser-vice.”

Media and SocialPerceptionsAbout 40 scientists, media playersand experts met in Rio de Janeiro(Brazil) from May 18-20 for aninternational seminar on "Mediaand Social Perceptions" organi-zed by UNESCO and theInternational Social ScienceCouncil. In the course of debateson future developments in masscommunication, some partici-pants observed a dimming of themass media. The causes: thegrowing fragmentation ofdemand and the explosion ofthe multimedia and audiovisualsupply. In a much commentedpaper presented at the confe-rence, French sociologist JeanBaudrillard reflected that "themodern individual no longer hasa destiny. Today, it's culture thatclones us." He saw the media asresponsible for spreading thissingle way of thinking.

JOURNALISMCOMPETITION"Photograph or write articles onthe right to education in yourcountry": such is the challengeof the International JournalismCompetition organized to markthe 50th anniversary of theUniversal Declaration of HumanRights. The competition encou-rages aspiring journalists toanalyse the conditions ofschools, the relevance of learn-ing, who's missing out and otheraspects of education and lite-racy. Journalism schools aroundthe world are invited to organizea local competition and selectthe five best articles and tenbest photos. These must be sentbefore Oct. 1, 1998 to the EFAForum Secretariat at UNESCO.

●●● For more informationInternet:http:/www.education.unesco.org/efa.Fax: 33 1 45 68 56 29; e-mail:a.muller@unesco.org

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“Less than two monthsago, UNESCO paid

tribute to the journalistChristina Anyanwu, whoat the time was jailed inKaduna. Today, I rejoice inthe knowledge that shehas regained herfreedom, after three yearsof detention underparticularly harshconditions.” The Director-General Federico Mayormade the comment onJune 16 following therelease of nine Nigerianpolitical prisoners,including ChristinaAnyanwu, director of TheSunday Magazine andlaureate of the 1998UNESCO/Guillermo CanoWorld Press FreedomPrize (see Sources No.100). “The arrest of ajournalist has neverresolved problems ordeterred events. Theliberation of one isalways a gage for hope.”

“You have opened thedoors to a better

future based on peaceand the desire to buildtogether a united andsolidary nation,” declaredSenegal's PresidentAbdou Diouf toPhilippines PresidentFidel Ramos and NurMisuari, representing theMoro National LiberationFront, whose armedfaction has long foughtthe Manila government.The occasion was the1997 Felix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize awardceremony in Dakar(Senegal) on June 17. MrMisuari stressed hisdetermination to work onthe consolidation ofpeace. He appealed toother rebel movements tocease fighting and sit atthe negotiating table.President Ramos, for hispart, said the newconditions created inMindanao "now favourthe settlement ofconflicts through othermeans than those ofmutual extermination."

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PEOPLE

Composers in the spotlightWatt for trombone and orchestra by French composer PascalDusapin and Seven Miniatures for orchestra by the youngFinnish composer Tommi Karkkainen are the works selected byradio music producers participating in the 45th InternationalRostrum of Composers held at UNESCO in Paris, June 15-19.Organized by the International Music Council with the support ofUNESCO, the Rostrum included representatives from nationalnetworks in 32 countries. The aim is to foster the exchange ofcontemporary music performances between broadcastingorganizations.

CHINA FIGHTSAGAINST THEFT AND SMUGGLING OFCULTURAL PROPERTYChina plans to adopt a series ofmeasures to reinforce its fightagainst the theft and illegalexport of cultural property. Theannouncement came at the endof a seminar held from June 8-16in Beijing, organized by theNational Commission for CulturalHeritage of China, with the sup-port of UNESCO. China's effort tocombat the illegal trade in suchitems has led to the uncoveringof ever more cases: customs offi-cials said they uncovered morethan 600 cases last year and sei-zed 11,200 items, while the policerecovered 2.962 items. Further-more, cooperation betweenChina and Scotland Yard led tothe return of nearly 4,000 stolenitems from the United Kingdom inApril.

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The winner with Federico Mayor andFrançoise Gallimard

them through a literary work,thus helping to build a betterworld." Although the prizewent to a French languagewriter, it must be given in turnto candidates from all parts ofthe world.

CULTURE

formed in the northwest. Thesouth is renowned for the tradi-tion of klapa singing, a term

CroatiaTraditional Music of TodayUNESCO/AUVIDIS, 1998.Price: 120 FF.Located at the crossroads ofCentral Europe, the Mediter-ranean and the Balkans, Croatiaboasts an extremely rich anddiverse musical tradition cap-tured in this album. The tam-burica, a plucked lute widelyconsidered as Croatia's nationalinstrument, generally accompa-nies popular rural dances per-

SOUND & VISION

referring to a group of five to tenmen who sing in different voices.This recording is also the chanceto discover the ongoing vitalityof Croatia's traditional music,be it through an example of thefolk music revival or a song com-posed in 1991, which is musi-cally close to traditional tunes ofEastern Croatia and inspired bypeople forced to seek refuge inthe western parts of the country.The album also includes tunes byCroatia's ethnic minorities.

The 1998 UNESCO/FrançoiseGallimard Prize was presentedon June 3 in Paris to 31-year-old Marie Ndiaye for her sixthbook "La Sorcière" (TheWitch). "Beyond me," said MsNdiaye, "this prize gives reco-gnition to a certain vision ofliterature, a vision whichrefuses to despair of thesetimes, which dares to believethat the novel is still able todepict, as much as images, thecontemporary world." The$US20,000 prize was awardedfor the first time this year andis financed personally by MsGallimard. It aims to rewardyoung authors "who attempt toexpress the tensions andhopes of our times and reflect

BOOKS

18 July-August 1998 - No 103

IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF

Trade in AntiquitiesReducing Destruction and Theft, by Patrick J. O'KeefeUNESCO Publishing 1997. 134 pp., Price: 128 FF.There are probably more collec-tors of antiquities than everbefore in the world, but there isonly a finite supply of antiqui-ties legitimately available to the

trade. “Under existing condi-tions, this can only lead to thetheft from collections and, evenmore significantly, to a worse-ning of the already widespreaddestruction of sites and monu-ments important to humanity'shistory,” writes the author, a spe-cialist of heritage law and mana-gement. This study, written in very directstyle and illustrated withexamples, examines policies fre-quently put forward to deal withlimiting illicit trade. Theseinclude sustained campaigns inall media highlighting thedamage caused by acquiringantiquities from illegitmatesources, rendering acquisitionsfrom such sources financiallyunattractive, changing the law,and ensuring that chance findsare dealt with fairly for all par-ties concerned. But there is nosimple solution: the law applyingto the trade in antiquities is com-plex, and what may be the per-fectly lawful possession of anantiquity in one country may be

considered by another as a crime.Underlining the need for coope-ration by all parties involved, thisstudy points out that educationcan lead to a wider understan-ding of the importance of pre-servation.

A Personal AccountLife of an untouchable,by Viramma, Josiane and Jean-Luc RacineVerso/UNESCO PublishingCollection of Representative Works. 1998, 312 pp., 90 FFTo emancipationists, Viramma isa Dalit, one of the oppressed; toGandhians she is a Harijan, adaughter of God; in her village,she is still treated as anUntouchable, a Pariah. Told overten years to the authors, this is anintensely personal self-portrait,informed by a sense of profoundsocial change in contemporaryIndia. Born in Tamil Nadu inSouthern India, Viramma was mar-ried at age 11, gave birth to 12children, and was employed as anagricultural worker, 'condemned

to bake in the sun'. Known for herrepertoire as a singer, Virammaalso tells tales of gods and malignforces, who cast their shadowsover her daily life. Listening tothis profoundly humanistaccount is to hear those who nor-mally do not speak, whose humi-liation renders circumspect or evensilent in the presence of others.

CULTURE OF PEACE

WHAT KIND OF SECURITY? Since the end of the Cold War,security can “be demilitarized,reassigned to its primary tasksof protecting citizens, dedica-ted anew to the public interestand brought back under thecontrol of the law and of demo-cratic debate.” So writes theDirector-General in the prefaceto this book published by Cultureof Peace programme. The bookincludes lectures by specialistsfrom different regions on themessuch as new challenges to inter-national security, the emergenceof an information society in theU.S. and its implications forsecurity, the army's missions inthe international context and therole of the religious dimension inthe new rules governing socialrestructuring.

No to the NuclearArms Race“Nuclear arms represent moraland material waste. They denythe fundamental aspiration ofpeople everywhere to live inpeace,” declared the Director-General Federico Mayor on June5 following nuclear tests by Indiaand Pakistan. These countries"have shown the world howstrong they are. It is my ardenthope that both will now demons-trate that they are also wise.Indeed, the course of wisdomwould be for both countries todevote the considerable re-sources they have squanderedon weapons of death and des-truction, to education and capa-city-building, so they may achievethe level of endogenous deve-lopment to which their peoplesrightfully aspire.”

EDUCATION

EFA 2000 As the cover story Issue No. 32reports, inclusive education is aconcept that is gaining groundin ministries of education aroundthe world, breaking a long his-tory of segregated provision.Traditionally, special needs edu-cation has been largely limited tochildren with various physical,sensory, intellectual and emo-tional difficulties. Today, its scopehas considerably widened to dealwith children, who, for whateverreasons, are failing to benefitfrom school. Still, despite positivetrends, making a school moreinclusive is not an easy move."The most important barriers toinclusive education are the nega-tive attitudes and force of habits

that prevail within schools and inthe education system as a whole,"comments Lena Saleh, chief ofUNESCO's special needs educa-tion programme. In an editorial,David Blunkett, England'sSecretary of State for Educationand Employment, recalls his ownexperience as a blind youngsterat school and goes on to explainwhy England has just launched afar-reaching review of specialneeds education. “This year weare spending more than everbefore on improving access withinmainstream schools for pupilswith a range of disabilities.” Theissue also includes a feature ona successful integration project ina mountainous province in wes-tern China.

19No 103 - July-August 1998

IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF

Nature and ResourcesEvery day over one million tonsof hazardous waste are genera-ted worldwide, with 90% comingfrom industrialized countries,according to the latest issue(Numbers 3-4) of Nature and

Resources. In a special reporton "Information support fortoxic waste management,"examples from the database ofthe International Centre forChemical Studies in Ljubljana(Slovenia) concerning theeffects of major pollutants are

●●● To find out moreUNESCO publications and periodicalscan be purchased at UNESCOHeadquarters and through nationaldistributors in most countries.For further information or directorders by mail, fax or Internet;UNESCO Publishing, 7 place deFontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP. Tel. (+331) 01 45 68 43 00 - Fax (33 1) 01 45 68 5741. Internet:http://www.unesco.org/publishing.

“IN BRIEF” compiled by:Christine Mouillère.

MUSEUMINTERNATIONALThe cover of the April-Juneissue of Museum Internationalfeatures an aerial view of theIron Age site of Eketorp inSweden after it was fully exca-vated. Inside, Bengt Edgren ofSweden's Central Board ofNational Antiquities, argues thatby bringing the archaeologicalheritage to light through care-ful reconstruction, a site canbecome both a source of conti-nuing scientific discovery aswell as a tourist, economic andeducational resource. Thegeneral manager of the LuxorMuseum of Ancient EgyptianArt, Madline El Mallah looks atways to involve the local com-munity in the programme of asite museum which is one ofthe world's foremost interna-tional tourist destinations. Inthe southern Urals, the disco-very of a perfectly conservedcity some 3,600 years old –which set off a chain of far-fet-ched speculation and ethnicnationalism – is reported on byV.A. Shnirelman, of the RussianAcademy of Sciences.

The UNESCOCourierThe July-August issue marks thelaunch of The Courier's new look.The magazine aims to maintainall the elements that have contri-buted to its reputation: qualitycontents, a humanist messageand an international outlook. Atthe same time, however, it isstretching towards a livelier,more journalistic coverage, withthe ambition of being at the cut-ting edge of global trends andattracting, first and foremost,young adults in the course oftheir studies.

PERIODICALS

Marking the International Yearof the Ocean, the issue's cen-tral dossier, “20,000 worldsunder the sea” focuses on thekey role played by the ocean inmaintaining the planet'sbalance. It stresses the impor-tance of the ocean, now and inthe future, as a provider of natu-ral resources. It is a role threa-tened by many sources, – a role

SCIENCE

WATER: PREVENTINGA CRISIS”Water: A Looming Crisis?“ wasthe theme of an internationalconference held at UNESCO fromJune 3 to 6. Some 450 partici-pants, most of them scientists,debated measures to avoid afresh water shortage in the nearfuture given that "in 25 years, percapita annual water availabilityhas dropped by about one third,"as UNESCO Director-GeneralFederico Mayor pointed out.Among the conference‘s recom-mendations: the collection ofdata on previously neglectedareas such as mountains andglaciers, arid areas, wetlands,brooks and ponds; the creationof at least one water measuringstation per 100,000 people world-wide; more efficient and trans-parent water resource manage-ment; and better publicawareness of issues relating towater.

Physics and the unknownWhat role does physics play inunderstanding the modernworld? During an internationalsymposium (May 27-29) on "NielsBohr and the Evolution ofPhysics in the 20th Century,"some of the world's leading phy-sicists, including five NobelLaureates, underlined the scien-tific impact and ethical perti-nence of the Danish father ofquantum physics. Jens JørgenGaardhøje of the Niels BohrInstitute compared the impact ofBohr's scientific works to AlbertEinstein's, saying that “theirideas, and the many newconcepts that developed in theirwake, have formed the basis forrevolutionary developments...”They have also led to many “un-knowns” that are probablybehind the feeling of “estrange-ment” felt by many peopletowards science.

given. The world's forests alsocome under detailed scrutiny ina summary of the Food andAgriculture Organization's"State of the World's Forests1997" report. The low impactuse of plant resources withinthe Bwindi Impenetrable Forestin Uganda is explored in a sepa-rate article. This approachmarks a departure from tradi-tional forest management withthe accent on management shar-ed between park authorities andlocal communities. The issueconcludes with new stories fromaround the world, book reviewsand "soundbites" from the scien-tific community.

which only long-term, coopera-tive management can protect. A report on the landless pea-sants' movement in Brazil bythe Franco-Brazilian photogra-pher Sebastião Salgado opensthis issue. The Courierconcludes on an interview withthe Senegalese world musicianYoussou N'Dour.

Malian astronaut

Cheick Modibo Diarra is a born

communicator, a gift he has

started to share with UNESCO.

20 July-August 1998 - N° 103

BORN UNDERA LUCKY STAR

He found his vocationthrough a radio pro-

gramme. Growing up in theMalian town of Ségou,young Modibo loved theweekly science feature onthe Voice of America.“There wasn’t any televisionthen and the Apollo spacelaunchings were going on,”he recalls.

Today, at 46, “Cheick”Modibo Diarra is the chiefnavigator of the MarsObserver Mission spear-headed by the US spaceagency NASA. He and histeam were responsible forthe historic landing on Marsof the Pathfinder probe onJuly 4 last year. AndUNESCO has just namedhim one of its “goodwillambassadors.”

SPACE DREAMSHe still has a big African

laugh which punctuates histalk and refuses all appoint-ments before 9 am. “I have totake my daughter to school.”

PORTRAIT

Exploration Program throughan education and publicoutreach project. For Diarrahas communication in hisblood and explains a spacemission to you as he mightdescribe how to fix some-thing around the house. Onhis trips home to Mali, helikes to explain his astro-naut’s job to the peasants intheir own Bambara lan-guage.

REACHING YOUTH“A scientist who took the

time to explain things insimple terms used to befrowned upon,” he says.“But today, a new genera-tion of really top-level scien-tists spend between a quar-ter and half their time doingthis. They reckon that theyenjoy their work, so theywant to share it with the restof the world. When parlia-ments vote budgets forscientific projects withoutunderstanding them, theyare likely to cut off fundingwhen they please. We musttrain the new generationsbecause they’re our futureleaders.”

Diarra runs severalgroups in the US whichencourage science teaching

© D

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SCIENCE FOR AFRICA●●● On July 7, Cheick Modibo Diarrapresented his plan for Africa at UNESCO.Combining voluntary work, contributions fromAfrican governments and foreign organizations,it involves:

* Building a “Pathfinders’ Corps,” namely high-level experts “enthusiastic about popularizingscience” who will lead seminars, give lecturesand train teachers all over the continent. Thefirst of them started work this summer.

* Setting up “science centres” in four Africancapitals “for people who can't afford acomputer and don’t know what the Internet is.Scientific principles will be presented in a verysimple way.”

* Establishing an African Institute of Techno-logy “where all African countries will send theirbrightest students and which will serve as acentre for the whole continent. If I succeed indoing these three things, I’ll be happy,” saysCheikh Diarra, who knows all about crazydreams which sometimes come true.

“When I was a boy, Idreamed about space. But atthat age, in Mali, you dreamtabout virtually anything, itwas all so far away.” ButModibo was a good studentand after state high schoolin Bamako (“It’s importantto stress that the public edu-cation system isn’t bad,” hesays), he won a scholarshipto study mathematics andphysics in France, at theUniversity of Paris-Jussieu.

He loved exploring, andspent his student vacationsglobetrotting. On a trip tothe United States, he enrol-led, without much convic-tion, at Washington’s pres-tigious Howard University.But he fared well there,earned a doctorate in aeros-pace engineering and taughtfor five years until, one dayin 1988, two visiting engi-neers from NASA spottedhis gift for teaching and sug-gested he apply for a jobwith them.

“I’d never heard of inter-planetary navigation be-fore,” he said. “A navigator!So one could actually envi-sage becoming a futureChristopher Columbus ofthe heavens!”

After the launching ofthe Magellan probe to Venusand Galileo to Jupiter,Pathfinder landed on Marsjust over a year ago. “I wasvery moved that day: I wasstanding in the room nextto Buzz Aldrin.

1 You can call

him a hero, and there I was,a boy from Ségou right nextto him. I was in seventh hea-ven!”

The landing was trans-mitted on Internet. “Thatday, more than 100 millionpeople visited our site tohave a look at corners of ouruniverse no human beinghad yet seen,” Diarra recal-led. It was his idea to showthe landing live on theInternet. Four years ago, hewas also put in charge ofpopularizing the Mars

Before threats to Lake Baikal, the world’s

largest freshwater expanse, local groups have

sprung up to protect and promote a natural and

sacred treasure.

HERITAGE

21No 103 - July-August 1998

A CALL TO SAVESIBERIA’S PEARL

in schools. For thePathfinder landing, heconvinced the big toymakerMattei to turn out models ofthe robot, which are stillvery popular.

He has also kept hisclose ties with Africa and in1996 founded the WorkingGroup on Space Science inAfrica, as well as the conti-nent’s first astronomy maga-zine, the bilingual African

Skies.2

Where does he get hisgift for communicating?

“At school in Mali,” herecalls, “we were taught inFrench, which isn’t ourmother tongue. My friendswere always mumblingthings they had learned byheart. I wanted to find outhow to save time and energy.So I devised a way of liste-ning and trying to unders-tand exactly what each wordmeant. Translating in myhead into Bambara what Iwas being told in Frenchalso allowed me to explainit to others using the simplewords I had used in doingthe process for myself. Itbecame a habit to think likethis, and I was able toexpress to children, adultsand even colleagues what Iwanted to say in simpleterms, without using bigwords.”

Diarra is urging Africansto turn their difficulties intoadvantages, through sheerimagination: “People oftengive up on their own pro-jects, saying they don’t havethe means to carry them out,without checking to see ifthey can find such resourcesin some other way. You’vegot to be creative, to inno-vate.”

N. K.-D.

1 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin:the first men to walk on the moonon July 16, 1969

2 The group and magazine can becontacted on the web at:http://www.saao.ac.za/~wgssa/

Lake Baikal may be themost pristine lake on

earth, but it runs a strongrisk of going on the list ofWorld Heritage in Danger atthe end of the Year.

Stretching over 31,471square kilometers in Siberiaat the Mongolian border,Lake Baikal, the deepest,largest and by far the oldestfreshwater lake in theworld, was inscribed on theUNESCO World HeritageList in 1996, on conditionthat a law protecting thearea, referred to as the LakeBaikal Law would be adop-ted by the Russian Duma.At the time, it was in itssecond reading. Althoughthis law was eventuallyadopted, it was vetoed byPresident Yeltsin and is inthe process of being upda-ted. For this reason, it wasone of the items on the

agenda of the World HeritageCommittee’s Bureau, whichgathered in Paris from June22-27. In light of threats toparticular sites, the Bureaucan make recommenda-tions for these to be inclu-ded on the List of WorldHeritage in Danger, or putpressure on member statesto co-operate in respectingthe World Heritage Conven-tion. According to theRussian observer at theBureau meeting, LakeBaikal fulfills all the criteriafor going onto the endan-gered list. He noted that thesituation at the lake was of“major concern” and thatthe site was under “seriousthreat,” citing the status ofthe Lake Baikal Law, pollu-tion and a lack of resourcesfor the protected area, natio-nal park management andmonitoring. Final decisions

are made in December, atthe World Heritage Com-mitee meeting in Kyoto.

“There are two nationalparks and several naturalreserves around the lake,but the fact that there is nouniform legal protection ofthe site is a real threat,”explains Mechtild Rössler,of the World HeritageCentre. “In the case of theGalapagos, the Committeerequested Ecuador to pro-vide that law, saying that ifit was not adopted by June22 when the World HeritageBureau meets, the site willautomatically go onto theList of World Heritage inDanger. Ecuador providedthe Galapagos law in March1998. This is one case wherethe Convention showed thatit was a tool for conserva-tion. The point is of course,that it has to be implemented.”

Reverence for nature: performing a traditional ritual at Shamancki Rock

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22 July-August 1998 - N° 103

Although the Centre hasreceived no official infor-mation on why the BaikalLaw was vetoed, economicinterests could be at stake.While the felling of treesalong the shoreline of thelake was halted in 1986 aswell as the harmful practiceof floating logs across thelake, lumber in the sur-rounding region is still hea-vily exploited. The lawwould exclude an old pulpand paper mill at Baikalsky,regarded as one of the mainsources of pollution to thelake through the dischargeof sewage. “Proposals havebeen made to change themill’s system so waste wateris produced in a way thatdoesn’t pollute the river, butit costs enormous amountsof money to change this.Then there’s a social com-ponent: what do you do with3,000 people if the mill shutsdown?” asks Rössler.

One partial answer is thedevelopment of sustainabletourism. Although prized byRussian tourists, foreign

tourism remains limited,partly due to a shortage offacilities. Recently, how-ever, there has been gro-wing interest in the region,making the development ofunplanned tourist facilitiesalong the shore a more im-mediate threat. As Rösslerpoints out, “tourism is notyet having a negative effectbut it could: what if theystarted putting cruise shipsout there? This may createproblems with the wastewater.”

ECO-TOURISMLast year, Rössler atten-

ded a seminar organized byUSAID (US Agency forInternational Development)at Lake Baikal on the sub-ject.“These initiatives star-ted the process of involvinglocal people in the actualplanning of tourism and visi-tation, and showing themhow they can benefit,”explained Art Pedersen ofUSAID, co-author of the firstEnglish-language guidebook to Lake Baikal. With

USAID funding, a regionaltourism organization hasbeen set up, and grassrootsprojects launched to engagelocal people in national parkplanning and in the starting-up of a bed-and-breakfastnetwork.

As the guidebookstresses, Lake Baikal is anatural treasure for theRussian people: not onlydoes the lake, surroundedby mountains, rivers andforest, contains 20% of theearth’s unfrozen fresh water,it is also believed to be themost biologically diverse lakeanywhere in the world. Its richplant and animal life includesthe unusual Baikal seals, theworld’s only freshwaterseals (a particular attrac-tion for Japanese tourists –after all, Irkutsk is only athree-hour flight fromTokyo). The lake’s unusualdegree of purity – watertaken from 400 meters isdirectly bottled for drinking– is attributed to the pre-sence of a variety of plank-ton, which cleans it. TheBaikal Museum inListvyanka focuses on thelake’s diversity and runs anenvironmental educationprogramme.

But the lake is also a cul-tural treasure mentioned asa sacred site in many of theregion’s legends. A largevariety of archaeologicalremains and vestiges havebeen found on the shoresof Lake Baikal, includingrock drawings, stone wallsand the remains of ancientsettlements. The culture ofthe Buryats and the Evenkswho live on the periphery ofthe lake is imbued with adeep reverence for nature,and the entire region is dot-ted with Buddhist andShamanist shrines. Sincethe collapse of theCommunist system, therehas been renewed interestin the religious aspects ofthe region, particularly bythe younger generation.Shamancki Rock on OlkhonIsland, for instance, is trea-ted with reverence by theBuryat people and plays an

important role in the mytho-logy of Tibetan-Buddhistshamanism. Rituals areregularly performed here,for the rocks of this site areregarded as symbols ofmale fertility. But it is alsothreatened by an adjacentpetrol tank, the presence ofcars and waste disposals.During the seminar,Shamans, local people andnational park personnel dis-cussed how the site couldbe better protected and pre-sented to tourists, throughfor example, explanatorypanels highlighting itssacred value and the designof a type of itinerary aroundit. Such issues will also beaddressed next summer,when Russian World Heri-tage site managers gatherfor a training course at LakeBaikal.

GROWING AWARENESS Not surprisingly, when

Rössler explained thenotion of a cultural land-scape during the June semi-nar, she received an enthu-siastic response: “When Ishowed slides of Maorirituals at sacred sites inNew Zealand, participantswere very touched andcame up to me afterwardsto say that they had unders-tood this integratedapproach... Biodiversity canalso be protected by usingthe notion of a cultural land-scape.”

It is this growing localawareness, reflected in theforming of a number of localgroups, along with thesacred nature of the site thatperhaps holds the greatestpromise for protecting LakeBaikal’s heritage. As theBuryat writer KonstantinKarnyshev put it, “the heartburns at what is takingplace on the sacred site ofLake Baikal. Let us lookabout us and take fright atall the things we have done.”

CG, with extracts from

the World Heritage

Review No. 7

●●● A few hot cases discussed by the WorldHeritage Bureau during its meeting in Parisfrom June 22 to 27:* Kakadu National Park in Australia: the sitecould be considered for the List of WorldHeritage in Danger because of a uranium miningproject at Jabiluka, within the park. UNESCO isrequesting further assessment of the ecologicaland cultural impact of the proposed mine. Dueto the importance, complexity and sensitivity ofthe issue, a mission will be undertaken toKakadu, headed by the Chairperson of theWorld Heritage Committee.* Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu in Peru:Earlier this year, the government gave aconcession for the design of a cable car systembetween the village of Aguas Calientes and theruins of Machu Picchu. The Bureau reiteratedits call for a comprehensive master plan and seta September 15, 1998 deadline for receiving areport from Peruvian authorities on progressmade in this regard.* Angra do Heroismo in the Azores, Portugal:Serious concern was expressed over a newdevelopment proposal for a marina in the Bay ofAngra. In addition, the reconstruction of thewaterfront could destroy many of itscharacteristic features. UNESCO has requestedfull information about the project by mid-September.

WORLD HERITAGE HOT SPOTS

weather and then battlewith tuberculosis and car-bon dioxide fumes. This isthe lot of such underprivi-leged people.”

The image of migrantsis linked to that of theircountry of origin. Bonna-fous noted that “the immi-grant worker has been thesymbol of capitalist exploi-tation for a whole section ofthe left. It went with theMarxism and anti-colonia-lism of the 1960s.”

Italian sociologist EnricoPugliese mentioned the “cos-mopolitan solidarity with thepoor of the Third World” onthe part of Italian tradeunions in the 1970s.Today, interest in theinhabitants of the coun-tries of the South is consi-dered old-fashioned“Third Worldism.” Andsince the rise of Islamic fun-damentalism, Arab coun-tries are regarded with sus-picion.

Spanish historian GemaMartin Muñoz noted in hiscountry’s media “a view ofa Muslim world seen as

The most effective wayto expose increasingly

hostile public attitudestowards immigrants is toshow how such views havecome about. Researchersfrom the countries of sou-thern Europe gathered inParis on June 5 to presentsome disturbing conclu-sions based on analysis ofthe media, one of the bestmirrors of public opinionand political discourse. Theconference was sponsoredby UNESCO’s programmedealing with managementof social change, knownas MOST, which includesstudying immigration, andby the French journalConfluences-Méditerranée.

THE POWER OF WORDSOne participant, French

linguist Simone Bonnafous,analyzed the French pressbetween 1974 and 1996 andran a computer search forkey words. She found howthe vocabulary had chang-ed during the period. In the1970s, the phrase “immi-grant worker” was the mostcommon description. In the1980s, it was “immigrants,”and today it is “illegal immi-grants” and “people withoutpapers.”

Re-reading the newspa-pers of 20 or 30 years agogives an idea of how muchpublic attitudes havechanged. In the issue ofConfluences published forthe conference, YvanGastaut quoted an editorialfrom the French daily Le

Figaro of 3 January 1970which reflects the benevo-lence of the time: “Who’sgoing to look after thehealth of these displacedunfortunates? They sweepthe streets in freezing

Researchers find that public attitudes towards

immigrants in Europe have considerably hardened since the 1970s.

THE MEDIA’SSHIFT IN TONE

MEDIA WATCH

23No 103 - July-August 1998

incompatible with modernattitudes.”

Today’s media tend touphold a negative image ofimmigrants. Pugliese saidthey “tend to exaggeratetheir number and stresstheir most visible and nega-tive aspects,” because “thepoorest immigrants are themost visible. You don’t seethe Senegalese who has aregular job in some provin-cial town,but the down-and-out on the pavement inMilan.”

SKEWED COVERAGEThe quest for “sensatio-

nalism” distorts the news.In Italy, the arrival of 300Albanians became an “inva-sion” in the press. Albaniansarriving in Greece were seenas responsible for anincrease in crime. Greeksociologist AnastassiaTsoukala noted that “thepress talked about theAlbanian mafia, but theRussian mafia was nevermentioned, nor the Greekswho are involved with suchpeople.”

But why worry aboutstereotypes and what peoplesay? Legal expert Jean-PaulChagnollaud, whose ideathe conference was, explai-ned that as attitudes harden,“legislation gets tougher,since the government simplyreflects much broader opi-nion.”

At stake are the dailylives of millions of men,women and children whoare governed by such laws.This is so even in countrieslike Italy and Greece, whoseinhabitants were themselvesemigrants until recently, orSpain with its Arab-Muslimpast.

Writing in the specialissue of Confluences, oneconference participant,Christina Papadoulou, notedthat attitudes in Europetowards foreigners go backa long way. In the time ofPericles, the 20,000 inhabi-tants of Athens who werenot “Athenian citizens” werecalled “wogs.” The wordand the image have remai-ned.

N. K.-D.

How often does the press speak about immigrants with regular jobs?

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on UNESCO's calendar

next month's issue :

HIGHER EDUCATIONFOR TOMORROW

SAVING LOCAL LANGUAGES

from 15 to 19 september 21ST CENTURY TALKSAt Headquarters (in Paris), five days of public debate featuring some of the world's frontlinethinkers, from all fields of knowledge.

from 22 to 25 September NATURAL SACRED SITES AND DIVERSITYAt Headquarters, anthropologists, scientists and religion specialists study the relation between natural sacred sites, cultural specificity and biological diversity.

from 29 September to INFOETHICS AND CYPERSPACE3 October In Monte-Carlo, Monaco, a second international congress addressing the ethical,

legal and societal challenges of cyberspace.

from 4 to 9 October UNIVERSITIES AND HERITAGEIn Melbourne, Australia, a forum gathers universities from 40 countries belonging to a network on World Heritage and its safeguarding.

from 5 to 9 October HIGHER EDUCATIONMore than 3,000 participants are expected for the first World Conference on Higher Education at Headquarters.

from 5 to 9 October MARINE POLLUTIONIn Monte-Carlo, Monaco, this international symposium will be one of the main scientific events of the 1998 International Year of the Ocean.

from 5 to 10 October URBAN CONSERVATIONIn Recife, Brazil, specialists discuss ways of reconciling urban growth and heritage conservation.

from 7 to 9 October CENTRAL ASIA ON-LINEIn Almaty, Kazakstan, a conference with Central Asian countries and the EuropeanUnion on information technology applications for healthcare, education and trade.