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● INDIGENOUSKNOWLEDGEANOTHER WAY OF SEEING THE WORLD

● TECHNOLOGYLIFELINESFOR PATIENTSIN REMOTE AREAS

● HERITAGEHOW TO PROTECT A SITEIN DANGER

● CULTURE THE AFRICANCONTRIBUTIONTO LATIN AMERICA

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WOMEN: HOW FARHAVE WE COME ?

CONTENTS

WOMEN

How far have we come?Five years after the Beijing women’sconference, delegates and militants gather inNew York to assess progress in the quest forgender equality.........................................................4

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE

Tapping into the world’s wisdomTraditional systems of knowledge need to begiven rightful recognition alongside modernscience......................................................11

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

TECHNOLOGY

Connections that save livesNew technology being tested under aUNESCO coordinated project mayrevolutionise medical care for far flungpopulations......................................................20

CULTURE

The third rootThe “Africanicity” of South and CentralAmerica is coming out of the closet......................................................21

HERITAGE

Restoring Myanmar’s city of templesA UNESCO mission visits the fabulous site ofPagan, a candidate for the World Heritage List......................................................22

Education is essential for closing thegender gap

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Cover photo : © Panos Pictures/Hamish Wilson

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The traditional knowledge ofThailand’s sea nomads helps

marine researchers

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Specialist medical help at the flick of a switch

Traditions, dances and even systemsof self defence, were introduced toLatin America by slaves

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● INDIGENOUSKNOWLEDGEANOTHER WAY OF SEEING THEWORLD

● TECHNOLOGYLIFELINESFOR PATIENTSIN REMOTE AREAS

● HERITAGEHOW TO PROTECT A SITEIN DANGER

● CULTURE THE AFRICANCONTRIBUTIONTO LATIN AMERICA

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WOMEN: HOW FARHAVE WE COME ?

http://www.unesco.org/sources

will have a healthier, better educatedfamily… Accelerating the changes that havebegun to take place requires the parti-cipation of both men and women atthe highest political level. With this inmind, the Beijing + 5 meeting in NewYork (see p. 4), should perhaps be thelast “women’s conference.” Future

forums should bring bothsexes together to discuss,instead, gender equalityand partnership. At thesame time governmentsshould legislate againstthe unacceptable, such ashuman rights violationsagainst women, domesticor sexual violence, and toimprove women’s repre-sentation and workingconditions. But above all, women’sand girls’ education mustbe made a priority and

gender equality issues built into schoolcurricula. This is the aim of the UnitedNations Ten Year Initiative for Girl’sEducation, announced by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the Dakar forum,and strongly backed by UNESCO. The benefits will be shared by all. AsKofi Annan pointed out in New York,education is both the entry point intothe global economy and the bestdefence against its pitfalls. There isno development strategy more bene-ficial to society as a whole, he said,than one involving women as centralplayers.

Sue Williams

Women around the worldhave undoubtedly madegreat strides in recentdecades, yet their full par-

ticipation in society is still a distantgoal. Too many persistent and wor-rying disparities remain betweenwomen and men. As noted at the recentWorld Education Forum in Dakar, thegender gap in primary andsecondary school enrol-ment is narrowing but isstill far from being closed.Some 60% of the world’sout-of-school children aregirls and two thirds of the876 million adult illiteratesare women. More womenthan ever before are nowworking outside the homeyet, everywhere, they stillearn less than men, andare still responsible formost unpaid work such asmaintaining the familyhome, cooking meals and childcare.Only 9% of the world’s governmentministers are women. Women alsoremain uniquely vulnerable in mattersof health and sexuality. Trafficking andsexual exploitation of them hasbecome an eight billion dollar-a-yearindustry, reports the InternationalMigration Organisation. Yet consider this. A recent World Bankstudy points out that if the countries ofthe Middle East, South Asia and Africacould reduce the gender gap in edu-cation alone, their annual economicgrowth would increase by 0.5 to 0.9percentage points. And it is now gene-ral knowledge that an educated woman

EDITORIAL

CLOSING THE GENDER GAP

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3No. 125 - July-August 2000”

● “The term‘discrimination againstwomen’ shall mean anydistinction, exclusion orrestriction made on thebasis of sex which hasthe effect or purpose ofimpairing or nullifyingthe recognition,enjoyment or exercise bywomen, irrespective oftheir marital status, on abasis of equality of menand women, of humanrights and fundamentalfreedoms in the political,economic, social,cultural, civil or anyother field.”

Article 1 of the Conventionon the Elimination of allForms of Discrimination

Against Women

Paris, June 17: theWorld March of Womenen route for UNheadquarters in New York

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There is progress: but there could be more. Five years after theBeijing women’s conference, the international community gathersto take stock of women’s rights

In 1995, delegates from 189 countriesgathered in the corridors of a confe-rence centre in downtown Beijing,while 40,000 women’s activists fromevery region of the world met an hour

outside the city, in a place called Huairou.Delegates spent long hours negotiating, andthe activists talked, sang, and shared life his-tories under acres of white tents set up asshelters against frequent rain.

Two weeks later, the UN Fourth WorldConference on Women produced the BeijingDeclaration and Platform for Action (PFA).It was the most comprehensive set of com-mitments toward women’s equality evermade by governments, with avast array ofrecommendations on economics, health, edu-cation, violence, political participation,human rights, the environment and even theportrayal of women in the media.

In June 2000 (5th to 9th), at a special ses-sion of the UN General Assembly in NewYork, delegates and activists convened againto review progress made on these issues,and to map out future initiatives (see box).One of the key words at this meeting, knownas Beijing +5, was implementation.

“It is extremely hard to hold governmentsaccountable for their actions,” says NoeleenHeyzer, the executive director of the UNDevelopment Fund for Women (UNIFEM).“We have created a process that has allo-wed the issues to emerge. Now we need toensure implementation, because that is whatis going to make the difference.”

Beijing was not the first time that theworld’s governments, under the auspices ofthe UN, agreed to do something about the dis-crimination and lack of opportunities facedby the vast majority of women everywhere.Three other world conferences were heldbetween 1975 and 1985. In 1979, theConvention on the Elimination of All Formsof Discrimination Against Women beganrequiring signatories to guarantee women’shuman rights.

Beijing, however, may be remembered asthe point in history when women took overthe international process, injected it with theirown ideas and experiences, and then conver-ted it back into local and national actions.

HOW FARHAVE WE COME?

WOMEN

4 July-August 2000 - No. 125

Since 1995, women have used the ideas andenergy of Beijing to push for progress on manyfronts, often through new activist networksthat span nations and regions.

They have convinced an increasing num-ber of countries to adopt affirmative actionprogrammes that raise the number of womenin politics. There are currently seven womenheads of state in the world, three heads ofgovernment, and 145 countries have govern-ments which include women. Activists inSouth Africa have lobbied their governmentto break down its budget along gender linesso that women can see who really benefits.In Thailand, the government has prohibitedsexual discrimination in its new constitu-tion. In Egypt, women worked with religiousleaders to repeal a law allowing rapists whomarry their victims to avoid jail.

Beijing also encouraged the UN systemto place greater emphasis on gender. It cal-led on UNIFEM, in collaboration with otherUN agencies, to establish the world’s firstfunding mechanism devoted to supportingprojects to eliminate violence against women.Gender units have been set up in many agen-cies to foster women’s contributions to sha-ping critical policies and decisions. AtUNESCO, women have been considered one

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Participants in New Yorkfeared a “Beijing -5”, butwere proved wrong

Photo New York Meeting

The Convention on theElimination of All Formsof Discrimination againstWomen (CEDAW) is theforemost internationalinstrument to guaranteeequality between menand women. UNESCOhas released theConvention’s text in theform of a Passport forEquality, translatedvariously into French,English, Spanish, Portu-guese, Swahili and sooninto Russian, Arabic,Chinese, Hindu andUrdu.

●●● For a copy of thebooklet: fax +33 1 45 68 55 58.E-mail :[email protected]

PASSPORT FOR EQUALITY

of four priority groups since November 1995.After the Beijing conference, the Unit for thePromotion of the Status of Women and GenderEquality, was created, headed by Breda Pavlic,and the Agenda for Gender Equality was esta-blished, which was integrated into UNESCO’smedium term strategy for 1996-2000, aimingto bring gender into all of its programmesand activities, especially in the media, peace,and science and technology education (see fol-lowing articles).

“We are advocating a new partnership bet-ween women and men, girls and boys, basedon mutual respect, dialogue and the sharingof public and private responsibilities,” statesthe Agenda. “A society locks up half its poten-tial when it marginalises women.”

Despite the achievements of the past fiveyears, however, women worldwide continueto lag behind in almost all areas. Accordingto the UN Division for the Advancement ofWomen, women’s employment has increasedin all regions, but their wages are 50 to 80 %of men’s. Up to 80 % of refugees fleeing fromconflict are women and children. Two-thirdsof the world’s illiterates are female, and nearlyhalf the women in the developing world do notmeet minimum daily caloric intakes.

A long list of obstacles stands in the wayof addressing these issues. Discriminatoryattitudes and traditional stereotypes deprivewomen of resources and continue to prop up

In June, 2,000 delegates from 180countries convened at UN head-quarters in New York to evaluateprogress made since Beijing, agree onobstacles, and map out a set ofactions to continue implementing thePlatform for Action. Known asBeijing+5, the process was not aneasy one, and was marred by disputesover resources and nationalsovereignty between developing andindustrial countries that had beenstirred up by last year’s WTO meetingin Seattle. Protracted debates took place overcommitments to reproductive healthand rights, with the Holy See and ahandful of conservative Muslim andCatholic countries attempting to rollback gains women had made on theseissues in previous international agree-ments. While there was no agreementto endorse the use of abortion, themost controversial of the reproductivehealth issues, the “Final OutcomeDocument” (a 44 page document onfurther actions and initiatives toimplement the Beijing Declaration andPlatform for Action) did at least agreeto refer back to progressive commit-ments made in the Beijing platform.

For the first time, governments agreedto address the problems of “honourkillings” and forced marriages. Therewas consensus on the need to enactstronger laws against all forms ofdomestic violence, and to set upquota systems to bring more women

into politics. The agreement alsocontains a reference to the right toinheritance, which has long beendisputed by Muslim countries.Developing country delegates alsoregistered satisfaction withstatements linking structuraladjustment, debt, and trade, andrecognising the often negative impactof globalization on women. “This isone of the strongest stands taken sofar by the UN on this issue, and it willset a precedent for futurenegotiations,” says Jocelyn Dow, adelegate from Guyana. Some activists expressed disappoint-ment with the Final OutcomeDocument due to the lack of progresson the issue of sexual orientation. The 2000-plus advocates whoattended the meeting, however, said itmeant more to them than the finalconsensus document. NosaAladeselu of the African WomenEmpowerment Centre in Benin Citysaid she founded her NGO after theBeijing meeting, and had come backto renew her inspiration. “I find thesegatherings so useful,” she says.

Gretchen Sidhu

Beijing + 5 : yes to women in politics, no to violence

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Women demonstrating for the rightto vote in Koweit

the laws, policies and institutions that preventgreater progress. For example, so-called“honour killings” which are committed bymen who feel that women have damaged theirreputation, are still legal in three countries.

The Beijing platform itself, while over-flowing with good ideas, is not a legally bin-ding document. Governments follow itsrecommendations because it serves theirinterests to do so, or because women mar-shal the political power to persuade them tochange laws and policies.

While women’s movements and networkshave grown in strength and in their ability towork with national and international politi-cal systems, they must also contend with agrowing set of new challenges.

Angela King, Special Advisor to theSecretary-General on Gender Issues and theAdvancement of Women, notes that Beijing+5provided an opportunity to contend withthese challenges and identify new ways totranslate the commitments to gender equa-lity made by governments and the UN system.“Women at the grassroots have successfullyused the PFA to advance their rights,” shesays. “Now governments need to eliminatethe gap between what they have agreed to doand the reality of their actions.”

Gretchen Sidhu

New York


Cultivatingthe seeds of peaceIngeborg Breines, as director of

UNESCO’s Women and a Culture of

Peace Programme, what did you have on

your agenda five years ago when prepa-

ring the organisation’s participation at

the Beijing conference?

We noticed that while women from theNorth often put the emphasis on equality,women in the South mainly focused on deve-lopment, and even less importance seemedto be given to peace, which was a key preoc-cupation at UNESCO. We developed theWomen’s contribution to a Culture of PeaceStatement, for Beijing. It influenced thePlatform for Action, under paragraph 146, “topromote women’s contribution to fosteringa culture of peace.” For the first time thisconcept was officially used outside ofUNESCO by the UN. Unfortunately it cameunder “Women and Armed Conflict,” a nega-tive concept. Women have a positive role inconflict prevention and resolution and shouldnot always be seen as victims. It should havehad a chapter of its own. Soon after theConference, the Women and a Culture ofPeace Programme (WCP) was set up withinUNESCO.

Your programme has since worked

closely with African women?

We wanted to combine the three prioritygroups of UNESCO: women, Africa and theleast developed countries (youth is also apriority now). African women are particularlycourageous and creative. They show verystrong surviving and bridge-building capa-bilities in times of conflict. We set up a SpecialProject to research seven case studies inBurundi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Cameroon,the Central African Republic, Somalia andNamibia. We hoped to find out whether sometraditional ways to tackle conflict could beadapted to modern societies. The role of

elderly women, for instance, or arrangedmarriages between clans, are part of a tra-dition of peace building. We have just finali-sed with FAWE (Forum for African WomenEducationalists) a training module based onthese case studies. Then in May 1999 weorganised the Pan African Women’sConference in Zanzibar which called forhigher participation of women in decision-making and better access to networking pos-sibilities. Flexibility is another one ofwomen’s skills, especially since they are oftenin and out of the work force. Finally, they havea great interest in the environment, which isan important part of any peace process.

You have worked on male roles and

masculinities. Is there a connection bet-

ween domestic violence and armed

conflicts?

Boys are expected to assert themselves,to be strong and to control their emotions.They are prepared for working life, to try tohold dominant positions. Thus if they getfrustrated they might use their physical super-iority. A lot of very young boys join localarmies and become a risk-factor for them-selves and society. The “real man” role modelis a straight jacket for lots of men. After theMale Roles and Masculinities in thePerspective of a Culture of Peace Meeting inOslo three years ago, it became a major fieldof research for us. In a UNESCO AssociatedSchools Project site in Norway, for instance,the teachers take time to deal with the causesof conflict and emphasise positive behaviour.When one previously “bad” boy suddenlysaid: “It’s fun to be nice!”, it became the nameof the programme. Personally I think theimage of virility should move from competi-tion to care.

What are your objectives now?

Two projects from outside partners: aUN Conference on Men; and an InternationalMen’s Day like women have on the 8th ofMarch. It would give us one day to discussmen’s situation from a gender perspective. Anaward is being discussed as well. RegardingAfrica, our training module is being transla-ted and we are working on a database ofbest practices. Then in December we willhold the Asian Women for a Culture of PeaceConference in Hanoi. We are also searchingfor partners to set up a Summer School foreducation on gender sensitivity and non-vio-lence.

Interview by Natacha Henry

Millions of women protest against a cultureof violence, in Washington (USA) in May

The fight against sexualdiscrimination is partiallycarried out by the elimi-nation of sexist stereo-types in all areas.UNESCO has paidparticular attention tothis matter, and haspublished a number ofworks to raisepoliticians’ and teachers’awareness, such as the1986 book “No toStereotypes“ aboutchildren’s literature andschoolbooks.To promote the use ofgender neutral language- crucial to an equalrepresentation of menand women - the booklet,“Guidelines on Gender-Neutral Language“provides bothrecommendations andexamples. Currentlypublished in both Englishand French, the bookletwill soon be published inSpanish and Arabic.

GENDER NEUTRALLANGUAGE

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Looking after their own backyard:women and environment

For centuries, accepted wisdom held thatwomen belonged at home. Prevented

from moving beyond their immediate neigh-bourhoods by family and social customs,women became extremely influential in theirlimited sphere of activities. Even today, inaddition to their new roles in society, manywomen’s lives revolve around domesticissues: access to clean and potable water,family health, food-gathering and hygiene.Already active in these roles, women havethe potential to play a further role in mana-ging their immediate environments. Amongmajor programmes carried out by UNESCOare two significant projects which have foundthat women can have a real impact in dea-ling with social urban problems.

Coordinated by UNESCO’s MOSTProgramme (Management of SocialTransformations), the projects examine howwomen are capable of transforming urbanenvironments, and how young peoplemanage in their urban environments.

‘Cities, the Environment and SocialRelations between Men and Women’ ana-lyses and compares groups of women intheir social and environmental relations, inmedium sized cities in West Africa, LatinAmerica, Eastern and Western Europe .

One such group is from Ouagadougou(Burkina Faso). A women’s group calledLagem Yam (‘Uniting our Intelligence’ in thelocal Moore language) has improved the qua-lity of life for a 900-strong community byclearing up household waste from the streetsand gutters of the Section 10 neighbourhood.Since post-colonial independence in the1960s the population of Ouagadougou has

almost doubled to 800,000, with an annualgrowth rate of 8.73 %. Many municipal ser-vices – such as waste collection – have fal-len by the wayside. Rubbish lines the streetsand clogs the gutters; animal and humanexcrement lies in the path of running water.Waste management is nominally a govern-ment affair, but according to a MOST reportonly 42 % of the city’s 500 tonnes of dailywaste is cleaned up.

Lagem Yam’s activities began with theorganisation of waste collection in 1993. Thefollowing year, Lagem Yam began to pro-duce compost, as well as building wash-houses, latrines and cess-pools. In 1997 thegroup started a project to clean up the drin-king water. According to the MOST study ofthe group, the women came to understandtheir potential to change the quality of neigh-bourhood life. “Men can build, but they don’tlook after what they build,” one group mem-ber pointed out.

Girls more restrictedThe second programme – Growing Up

In Cities – is an international comparativeresearch project aimed at documenting howyoung people’s use and perception of theirenvironment affects their lives and their per-sonal development; and looks at ways ofusing young people’s own perceptions andpriorities to create – or rehabilitate – urbanenvironments. The project allows resear-chers to compare and contrast results fromcities in Norway, the USA, South Africa, India,Mexico, Argentina, Poland and Australia andhas highlighted how “invisible” young girlsare in public space.

Australian GUIC director Dr KarenMalone points out: “Girls... led more res-tricted lives than the boys in the neighbour-hoods we researched”. Too old to play onswings but too young to venture into the citycentre, young women in these areas havefew resources. Meg, 14, looks after her youn-ger sister and grandmother after school. Shecooks the evening meal while she babysits,and then spends the rest of the time wat-ching television, or on the phone with herfriends. She told researchers that : “There’snothing in Braybrook to do. It would be goodif there were some seats and playthings, rol-lerblade stuff in the park, in the shade, thenwe could talk there and mind the chil-dren,”she says. As a result of the GUICresearch in Melbourne, local residents havebegun to improve their environments, and along-term plan for greening the western sub-urbs of Melbourne is under way.

A girl from Sathyanagar,India, portrays her ownurban environment(GUIC project)

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In South Africa, GUIC research wasundertaken with African boys and girls in aninner-city squatter camp. As in the Australianproject, boys generally had more freedom torange widely than girls, and for more or lessthe same reasons. Although boys carried outsome household chores, once they were donethe boys did not have to stay near the homes,and were free to wander. The girls felt unsafewandering through the camp, and often saidthey wished it were a safer place. “Projectinvolvement with the boys and girls has ledto women and children being drawn into

community decision-making processes, whe-reas these sites were formerly the preroga-tive of men,” says GUIC South Africa direc-tor Jill Swart-Kruger.

As the declaration of the Fourth UN’sWomen’s Conference in Beijing said, “sus-tainable development will be elusive ifwomen’s contribution to the managementof the environment is not recognised andsupported.”

Chloë Fox

Science: women’s last frontier ?It is estimated that developing African coun-

tries need 200 scientists per million inha-bitants if they are to make real strides indeveloping their own industries, and repla-cing the expatriates that they recruit in enor-mous numbers.

“To reach this level of scientific and tech-nological provision no African country canleave 50 % of its population – that is to say,women – out of the process,” says the 1999UNESCO report, Scientific, technical andvocational education of girls in Africa.

But society’s attitudes to women inscience are not encouraging. Around theworld, girls and women are constantly fed ste-reotyped images of scientific careers beingincompatible with a woman’s life. And theramifications of women’s subsequent under-representation in the scientific field are far-reaching, and perhaps incalculable. Unlesswomen contribute to solving scientific anddevelopmental problems on all levels, thereis a real worry that solutions to these pro-blems will under-value women’s’ concernsand needs.

According to Anna Maria Hoffman-Barthes, a programme specialist inUNESCO’s Science and TechnologyEducation Section, socio-cultural barriersare among the greatest impediments towomen’s access to scientific education.“Negative family attitudes about sciencecreate a lack of self confidence among girlsand women in their motivation to opt forscience,” she says. So when the UNESCOAgenda for Gender Equality (see box p.4)was released in 1995, it was recommendedthat specific campaigns be organised toovercome these barriers.

The campaigns run by the Science andTechnology Education Section are aimed atthe millions of girls and women in Africawho are excluded from the study of scienceand technology. They include science cli-nics, special summer camps and road shows.

Future Nobel prizewinners? Why not!

A young artist in Mali has produced a comicbook seeking to motivate potential sciencestudents. Work is well advanced in the pro-duction of kits for African countries whichwill enable students to carry out experimentsfirmly rooted in their own daily experience– in recycling waste materials, for example,or studying the properties of soap.

On a continent where providing educationof any kind, at any level, for either sex oftenposes enormous problems, the task of per-suading girls into science and technology –and keeping them there – has no easy ans-wers or quick fixes. Nonetheless there doesappear to be some limited reason for opti-mism, if only because the issue is at leastfirmly on the agenda now.

“There’s a lot of action, a lot of associa-tions reacting,” says Hoffman-Barthes, citingin particular the NGO, Female Education inScience and Mathematics in Africa (FEMSA).“There’s a movement going on and you canfeel that there’s a change.”

Stephen Jessell

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Participants at the 1995Beijing conferencereturned home afteragreeing on a declarationand platform for action inwhich the education andtraining of women weredirectly addressed, with fiveout of 11 recommendedactions referringspecifically to the need forwomen to become moreclosely involved in science,mathematics andtechnology.The momentum wassustained at the WorldConference on Science inBudapest in the summer of1999 which adopted the

following declaration.“The difficultiesencountered by women inentering, pursuing andadvancing in a career in thesciences and inparticipating in decision-making in science andtechnology should beaddressed urgently.” “Unless women are fullyrepresented in thinkingabout and developingsolutions to technologicaland scientific problemsthere is real disquiet thatthe solutions that emergewill under-value theirconcerns and interests,”argued UNICEF consultant

Karin A.L. Hyde in acontribution to the DakarEducation for Allconference last April.So there was somedisappointment at theprominence – or lack ofprominence – assigned tothe issue at Beijing + 5.Some observers suggestthis merely reflects thearchitecture of the originalBeijing meeting and thatthere is a tendency toexamine the role of womenin science and technologyas part of a social ratherthan an educationalproblem. But othersregretted the session did

not place more emphasison science and women.“I would have liked it tohave gone much further onthe fundamental role ofscience in relation tosustainable development –uneducated, illiterate, poorwomen cannot participatein development and thatcontributes to the generalfailure of the system,” saysRenée Clair, ProgrammeSpecialist from UNESCO’sspecial programme onwomen, science andtechnology.

Stephen Jessel

Winning hearts and minds in the media

If the media serves as a mirror of society,the reflection it projects of women is

unquestionably distorted. Under-represen-ted (of 100 people cited, 82 are men, only 18are women), women appear unnamed andwith no professional label twice as often asmen, while, at the same time, they are over-represented as victims. These figures froma study carried out this year by the CanadianNGO MediaWatch have scarcely evolvedsince the previous study carried out by thesame group in 1995. Moreover, in spite of theconsiderable feminisation of the media, toofew women occupy positions of responsibi-lity to influence either the content of newsor of the programmes.

In March 1995, the Toronto Conferenceorganised by UNESCO focused on profes-sional women in the media, the conclusionsof the conference serving as backgroundmaterial at the Beijing conference onwomen’s rights (later that year) in particularfor Chapter J of the Platform for Action.Addressed to governments, NGOs and themedia, Chapter J made a number of recom-mendations. They were aimed on the onehand at increasing women’s participation inthe media, facilitating their access to decision-making in and by the media, and new com-munication technologies as well as promo-ting a positive, more balanced, lessstereotyped image of women.

UNESCO works towards these objec-tives, says Alain Modoux, Assistant Director-General for Communication, Informationand Informatics, mainly “through trainingactivities, which are discreet and behind thescenes but very important, for professionalsof the written press, radio, television andnew media; and by promoting networksamong them.”

Seminars, which aim at reinforcing pro-fessional competence and analysing stereo-types in the content of messages, are orga-nised in partnership with national or regionalassociations of women journalists. In Africa,some of the seminars are geared to raisingthe awareness of media leaders on questionsof gender. Another, carried out with theAssociation of African CommunicationProfessionals, focuses on training for pro-duction of radio programmes, while yet ano-

Science in the future: are women being ignored?

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More than 25,000 peoplelisten to this children’sradio programme in thePhilippines


ther is devoted to a data bank on women andthe media in francophone Africa. Workshopsare also organised in Central Asia and inMediterranean countries where women jour-nalists are particularly under-represented.

From a user's point of view, radio is themost accessible medium. “Women Speakto Women” is a Special Project in commu-nity radio, launched in 1996 to promotedevelopment in seven countries – Surinam,Trinidad and Tobago, Cape Verde,Cameroon, Malawi, Cote d’Ivoire and India– through the creation of local radio stationsoperated by and for women. UNESCO finan-ced training and provided equipment.Programmes concern daily preoccupations:literacy, health, professional training andcreativity.

Training in cyberspaceIn Mongolia, the Radio for Women in the

Gobi Desert, set up in cooperation withthe government, is a non -formal educa-tional activity for nomadic women, encou-raging them to learn and exchange know-ledge and skills. Its success convincedUNESCO to adapt the project to otherpopulations excluded from the formal edu-cation system.

The spirit of Toronto led to the creationof the network WOMMED/FEMMED (Womenin the Media) set up after the conference toencourage greater freedom of expressionamong women and their access to decision-making in the media. The Asia PacificWomen's Information Network (APWIN) isan active partner and also participates in theUNESCO chair devoted to communicationtechnologies for women at the University ofSookmyung in Seoul (Korea).

Women are taking advantage of oppor-tunities provided by new information tech-nologies around the world. The multidisci-plinary project “Women on the Net“ carriedout with the Society for InternationalDevelopment (SID), and NGO, aims at rein-forcing their presence in cyberspace, nota-bly through training.

The first workshop for an electronic net-work of women, organised in 1999 in Seoulwith participants from 11 Asian countries,resulted in the creation of five internet sites.A number of publications support this effort:An International Annotated Guide of WomenWorking on the Net (1997, in English),Women in the Digital Era, andWomen@Internet: Creating New Culturesin Cyberspace (1999, in English).

Nonetheless, the world coalition ofwomen in the media, meeting in New Yorkat the Beijing+5 recalled that, while all ofthese initiatives were welcome in the sector,much remained to be done to attain pro-fessional equality and banish stereotypes.

Monique Perrot-Lanaud

The simplicity of theoperation was itself alitmus test. On January31, UNESCO Director-General KoïchiroMatsuura called onthe world’s media toensure womenjournalists hadeditorial responsibilityon InternationalWomen’s Day, just fiveweeks away. Theword then spread,mainly throughinternet. A specialwebsite, the hub of theevent, was backed upwith contact by e-mail,phone and fax. Media liked the idea ordismissed it. Thosethat took it up - 1,000-plus media in some 60countries in everycontinent - did exactlyas they chose. Somewrote specialwomen’s news. Some,like Algeria’s El Watan,got the men to writespecial women’s newswhile the women ranthe main news. Othersrejected the idea of“women’s news” alto-gether. Some put onewoman in chargewhile others replacedentire teams of maleeditors for the day orwent on to ensure thatwomen were also incharge of the radiotransmitters, the TVcameras, the pressassociation, the uni-versity faculty of jour-nalism...The only limitwas a time limit : the24 hours of March 8. For several thousandwomen journalistsparticipating aroundthe world, those 24hours had at least onelasting effect : seniormedia positions weredemystified once andfor all. As Hawa Ba,editor-for-a-day onSenegal’s SudQuotidien told otherwomen journalists in a

post-March 8 column,“Refuse the carefullypreservedmystificationsurrounding themanagement of anewsroom. What mencan do, women cando.” That realisation,in itself, wedges openthe editor’s door.The event “may looklike tokenism, but it isa unique gesture thatcan make us thinkabout the role,

presence and status ofwomen in the newsmedia,” commentedIndian journalistSidharth Bhatia. Manywomen journalistscontacted UNESCO tosay this shared actionon a shared problemwas a great oppor-tunity to challenge thestatus quo. Both menand women sentmessages describingthe enthusiasm andcreative energy asroutines were shakenup and newsrooms re-shuffled.So a one-day event -by empoweringwomen, demystifyingauthority, raising lowexpectations,exposing thesystematic waywomen journalists fillsubordinate posts -can teach valuablelessons. It can evenchallengeassumptions about

what constitutesnews. Albanianwomen in chargethroughout thenational mediabanished for a day thehabitual hate languageof a bitter politicaldivide. Women editinga US newspaperdismissed as trivia aprurient voyeur story,defended as a frontpage piece by thedemoted male editors. But can such stepsultimately change thegender balance in thekey media postswhere influence andauthority are wielded.It is surely nocoincidence that theall-powerful Westernmedia were notablyabsent from the March8 initiative. Entry to theleadership positionswhere real power liesis bound to be the lastand hardest stage ofthe struggle for genderequality. This first WomenMake the News Daywill not be the lastsuch action. Waysmust be found toconvince those mediathat heard but chosenot to heed UNESCO’scall. Reasons forrefusing to take partwere varied. It was“tokenistic” and“demeaning” to callfor one day only. Awhole week, then,next year? To focus ongender undermineswomen’s efforts tosucceed byprofessionalism alone.But the figures showthe imbalance andlack of progress at thetop – and a day in theeditor’s seat helps.

Stella Hughes

executive officer,

Office of the Director

General, UNESCO

MARCH 8 - WOMEN MAKE THE NEWS

A role model: RebekahWade, 31, editor ofBritain’s News of theWorld

DR

Sophisticated knowledge of thenatural world is not confined toscience. Human societies allacross the globe have develo-ped rich sets of experiences and

explanations relating to the environmentsthey live in. These “other knowledge sys-tems” are today often referred to as tradi-tional ecological knowledge or indigenous orlocal knowledge. They encompass the sophis-ticated arrays of information, understan-dings and interpretations that guide humansocieties around the globe in their innume-rable interactions with the natural milieu:in agriculture and animal husbandry; hunting,fishing and gathering; struggles againstdisease and injury; naming and explanationof natural phenomena; and strategies to copewith fluctuating environments.

Numerous scientists and developmentagencies dismiss these other systems as insi-gnificant. Yet they have already contributedgreatly to the development of “modernscience.” When colonial Europe was “dis-covering” the world, for example, ethno-botany and ethnozoology were establishedto grapple with the sudden influx of biolo-gical information from ‘foreign parts.’Western taxonomic knowledge and practicewere significantly transformed by thisencounter with traditional systemsof know-

ledge. Western science profited from theappropriation of traditional taxonomic andecological understandings, with little ack-nowledgment of their intellectual origins.

Traditional knowledge remains the basisof local food production in many developingcountries. As Lazare Sehoueto of theKilimandjaro Institute (Benin) points out,“‘local knowledge’ is the principal know-ledge resource for small-scale farmers whorepresent 70 to 90% of agricultural producersand more than 60% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa.” Similarly, the Maya havedeveloped a large number of herbal remedieson the basis of their “astute understandingof the signs and symptoms of commondisease conditions.” These remedies repre-sent, in the view of Brent Berlin of theUniversity of Georgia (USA), an invaluableasset for remote regions of Mexico where“the delivery of modern medications is eco-nomically impossible.”

The pharmaceu-tical industry hasnot been blindto this

11July-August 2000 - No. 125

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE

Western science is one type of knowledge system among many. It’s time torecognise the others

TAPPING INTO THEWORLD’S WISDOM

Building a hutin Lesotho

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12 No. 125 - July-August 2000

Traditional know-ledge andmanagement arenot new themes forUNESCO. Earlyinitiatives in the1970s and 80saddressedtraditional agro-pisciculturalsystems in Mexicothrough the Manand the BiosphereProgramme, andtraditional marineresource manage-ment in the PacificBasin through theCoastal MarineProgramme. At the1992 United NationsConference onEnvironment andDevelopment, clearreference wasmade to traditionalknowledge in theRio Declaration andAgenda 21. As well,the “knowledge,innovations andpractices ofindigenous andlocal communities”are the focus ofArticle 8 (j) of theConvention onBiodiversity.Recently, traditionalknowledge has re-emerged as apriority concern forseveral ofUNESCO’s sectors.The issue receivedstrong support atthe WorldConference onScience, held in

Budapest inJune/July 1999,where a specialsession wasorganised on“Science and OtherSystems ofKnowledge”. Anumber ofimportant recom-mendationsconcerning tradi-tional knowledgesystems wereapproved by theover 150 countriesparticipating in thisevent co-organisedby UNESCO and theInternationalCouncil for Science(ICSU). SeveralUNESCO MemberStates also broughttraditionalknowledge to thefore at theorganisation’s lastGeneralConference(October 1999,Paris) whichdecided that anintersectoralproject ontraditionalknowledge shouldbe proposed forinclusion in the nextmedium termstrategy (2001-07).In the Sector forCulture, stronginterest intraditional know-ledge has beenvoiced through thepriority given to“intangible cultural

heritage”, and inparticular, the callsto establish aninternationalnormativeinstrument on theprotection offolklore andtraditional culture.A preliminary studyis presentlyunderway toinvestigate thelegal and technicalimplications ofestablishing suchan instrument. Inaddition, the issuesof “cultural rights”and of indigenouspeoples, inparticular in thecontext of the on-going Decade forIndigenous Peoples(1994-2004), arealso of greatsignificance forUNESCO and havea clear relationshipto the traditionalknowledge area.Given theseconvergingpriorities relating totraditional know-ledge, UNESCO iscurrently elabor-ating a proposal forintegrated action inthis area involvingits sectors forNatural Sciences,Social & HumanSciences, Culture,Education andCommunications.

D.N., L.P. and P.B.

UNESCO is well placed to address this pres-sing contemporary issue in the more com-prehensive framework that interlinks thegoals of social equity, biodiversity conser-vation, sustainable development and pro-tection of the intangible cultural heritage.

Douglas Nakashima,

(UNESCO Science sector)

Lyndel Prott,

(Culture sector)

Peter Bridgewater,

(MAB Programme)

potential. It recognises that traditional healthpractitioners may greatly facilitate the searchfor new bioactive ingredients by providinginformation on their selective use of biodi-versity. Biotechnicians, including those ofthe agro-chemical industry, are very muchinterested in the genetic potential of thenumerous crop varieties developed and sus-tained by generations of small-scale farmers.In tropical agro-ecosystems in Thailand andIndonesia, for example, peasants commonlymaintain more than 100 domestic plant spe-cies, as well as harbouring in their paddies,rice varieties adapted to a range of environ-mental conditions.

While this growing recognition of traditio-nal knowledge might seem beneficial, it posessome major problems. It dissects and reducessuch knowledge into the categories of “useful”and “useless”, fragmenting traditional systemsand leading to their accelerated replacementby science. It has also triggered an intensifi-cation of “biopiracy”, the unauthorised appro-priation of traditional knowledge, and subse-quently calls for appropriate systems ofprotection for this knowledge.

Property rightsAdapting intellectual property rights (IPR)

arrangements is one solution. Patent andcopyright laws, however, have evolved withinnarrow socio-economic and political contexts.Designed to protect individuals whose inven-tions require safeguarding in view of theirpotential commercial value, they remainincompatible with traditional knowledge,which is collectively owned, whose “invention”extends across generations, and whose rai-

son d’être is not profit, but ecological unders-tanding and social meaning.

Due to these contradictions, legal rightsmay have impacts quite other than those inten-ded. By protecting select elements in isolationfrom the larger cultural context, they encou-rage fragmentation of the cultural system. Bydesignating knowledge “owners”, they maytrigger social dissension between recognisedproprietors and others who are excluded.Finally, as IPRs protect knowledge by settingrules for their commercial exploitation, theymay facilitate the appropriation of traditionalknowledge by the global marketplace. In short,extant legal arrangements are ill adapted forprotecting traditional knowledge. Today,efforts are turning towards the challengingtask of defining new or sui generis systems.

There is clearly a need for novelapproaches to traditional knowledge sys-tems, which can meet the challenges arisingfrom their increasing prominence. Perhapsone important step forward is to consider tra-ditional knowledge, not as static sets of infor-mation, but as integral components of livingand dynamic societies and cultures: a pro-cess, not a product. With its ethical, scienti-fic, cultural, and educational mandate,

A New Impetus for Action on Traditional Knowledge

13

Thailand’s sea nomads

July-August 2000 - No. 125

Walking patiently into the beach forestday after day for months, Salama

Khlathale finally found the right tree formaking his kabang (boat).

The choice is important. The boat willserve him as vehicle, home, fishing instru-ment, a place for giving birth and, on occa-sion, a place for dying for the next 20 years.Only a few species of tree are suitable for thetask, such as rakam (Salacca wallichiana)

and a local tree called mai pan. Others wouldgive the boat the wrong weight, says Salama,a sea-nomad and member of the Moken tribewhich lives in the Surin Islands alongThailand’s Andaman Sea coast.

The selected log will be crafted into arough boat-like shape, then immersed inwater and heated in order to enlarge it. It willthen be “grilled” over a fire of tanai wood (anunidentified species of sapotaceae), whichblackens the lower part of the boat, and pro-tects it from damage by barnacles once it isin use. Its sail will be made from the toei

naam’s (pandanus) leaves.Boat-making is both a science and an art

for the tribe. The techniques used have beenhanded down from generation to generation,perpetuating the experience and skills oftheir ancestors.

The Moken also rely on many other forestproducts. According to Moken expert DrNarumon Hinshiranan, an anthropologistChulalongkorn University in the Thai capi-tal, Bangkok, the tribe uses some 80 plant spe-cies for food, 28 medicinal plants, 53 speciesfor housing and other 42 for other purposesincluding handicraft.

“A local plant, morloon is used to makea fire the heat of which is used to treatwomen who have just given birth. The yaa

thale’s bark is mixed in boiled water andused for bathing sick kids,” says AroonThaewchatturat, a researcher studying theMoken. Plants are also used for entertain-ment: the violin-like kating is made frombamboo for example. They also learn toselect proper materials for house-buildingand use pandanus for weaving mats andboxes.

The Moken are one of the last sea tribesin Thailand which follow a traditional life-style. Salama’s tribe settled in the SurinIslands three decades ago, when the politi-cal situation in Myanmar (then Burma) for-ced them to quit their traditional sea-routealong the coastline of both Myanmar andThailand.

A decade later, in 1981, their new homewas declared a national marine park andrestrictions were placed on their fishing andforaging activities. Authorities perceivedthese traditional activities as a threat to theenvironment (although subsequent studieshave refuted this). Tourism also began todevelop there, bringing the Moken intocontact with a world which, until then, hadremained largely unknown to them. “Snacks,instant noodles, and condensed milk havebecome favourite foods and paracetamol acommon medicine,” says Dr Narumon.

Once again, the lifestyle and culture wasunder threat. The problem was exacerba-ted by the fact that the Moken are not reco-gnised as Thai citizens and therefore not

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The Moken make use ofrenewable resourcessuch as fast-growing

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14 No. 125 - July-August 2000

Cévennes: French peasantsrestore their ancient landsThe terraced landscapes of the Cévennes

biosphere reserve in southern France(one of the Man and Biosphere programmesworldwide network reserves) are a goodexample of human beings adapting to anenvironment and becoming its protectors.Centuries ago, local people learned how tomake use of their steep mountain slopes,poor soil, and a climate that swings fromdrought to heavy rains: generations of pea-sants worked hard to prevent streams deve-loping by breaking up the slopes into ter-races to stop precious soil being washedaway. The enemy, stone, was transformedinto an ally.

However, thousands of hectares of ter-races fell into decay with the exodus from theFrench countryside that began in the 19thcentury. By 1975, certain valleys countedfive times fewer inhabitants and 20 timesless farmers than in 1850. Erosion set in andthe unchecked growth scrubleft the land vul-nerable to fire.

But in recent years, these neglected landshave been coming back to life and people arereturning to live in the Cévennes. Qualitynatural produce is in demand these days,

the farmer’s role in managing the land isrecognised and machinery is now availableto farm the terraces properly.

“This cared-for landscape is the sign ofa healthy countryside. It is part of a moun-tain region that is alive and a source of localidentity. The Cévennes people are fiercelyattached to their terraces because they arewell aware that if they disappear, the landwill be neglected and lost forever,” saysDaniel Travier, curator of the Museum ofthe Valleys of the Cévennes.

In Le Vigan, in the southern Cévennes,farmers grow the region’s traditional mildonion, the St André. “Production of theseonions has doubled in the past 10 years,” saysNicolas Escand, head of the onion farmers’cooperative. “It’s brought many young peopleinto farming and we’ve been able to restoremany abandoned terraces. The farmers getfinancial help to rebuild the dry stone wallsfrom the Cévennes National Park and Bio-sphere Reserve and from the EuropeanUnion.”

In the village of Soudorgues, other far-mers produce medicinal and aromatic plantson the terraces, and sell them under an

Gathering sand worms atlow tide: the Moken’sknowledge of theirenvironment could proveinvaluable in managing it

allowed to own land or attend publicschools.

In 1997 UNESCO launched the AndamanPilot Project, which seeks ways of integratingthe traditional knowledge of the Moken intothe region’s sustainable development, the pro-tection of its environment and the preserva-tion of their distinct cultural heritage. A firstphase of the project included extensive

research on the Moken’s traditional know-ledge and practices, their migration and sett-lement history. This knowledge is now beingarticulated with a number of marine sciencestudies in the area to better understand thelocal ecology. The environmental impact oftourism activities is also being assessed, andthe role the Moken could play in tourism deve-lopment is being looked at.

Such involvement, and the recognitiongiven to their skills and culture, will in turn,it’s hoped, allow the Moken to gain controlover the changes that contact with themodern world has brought about for them,improving their standard of living while sus-taining their traditional lifestyle.

Enough is now known about this indige-nous community, that today number some5,000, to convince Park officials that theyshould remain a significant force in the SurinIslands (which the Thai government is pro-posing for World Heritage listing), and even-tually become partners in the area’s conser-vation. This acknowledgement is only a firststep towards a much bigger goal, but, saysDr Narumon, it’s a vital one.

Kamol Sukin

Bangkok

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Rebuilding the drystonewalls of the Cévennesterraces

15July-August 2000 - No. 125

organic produce label. An organisation cal-led Forgotten Fruit is restoring terraces toplant traditional fruit trees on them. ChristianSunt, a spokesman for the group, says the ter-races “are particularly suitable for growingfruit. The dry stone walls help the soil todrain as well as reflecting the sun’s rays toallow crops like olives to ripen over a lon-ger period.”

Some villages have restored terraces bythemselves. The people of Bonnevaux areworried about the risk of fire on neglectedland and have teamed up with three other vil-lages. Georges Zinsstag, Bonnevaux’s for-mer mayor, says the problem is that “theownership of the land is very fragmented.The 17 hectares we’ve restored are madeup of 298 lots. We had to get 70 landownersinvolved and this took a lot of time. Today,people are rearing goats and sheep thereand the countryside looks wonderful again.”

Restoration of the terraces is nonethelessa costly affair. However, the locals are dis-covering that the investment pays off in anumber of ways. The terraces are clearly atourist drawcard for example. The village ofSaint Germain de Calberte plans to build atrail for visitors who want to see the ter-races and the crops growing there. The vil-lage’s deputy mayor, Gérard Lamy, says “thetrail will encourage agro-tourism and bringpeople to the region because its inhabitantsfarm the land and look after the country-side.”

The Cévennes Biosphere Reserve is alsoencouraging people to learn how to workwith the dry stone walls needed to restorethe terraces. The basic method is simple (thestones must overlap each other and the wallmust be sloped upwards a little), but thecraft is difficult and takes years of

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The Cévennes terraceshave come back to life,thanks to the revival of

an ancient technique

experience. Practitioners are few and farbetween and the work has a low status.Efforts are being made to give the masons ahigher profile, get them work and set up adiploma course, as has been done in placeslike Majorca, in Spain.

The village association for the develop-ment and conservation of the Galeizon Valleyis training five young local people. The asso-ciation’s chairman, Yannick Louche, saysthey are “taking courses and restoring partsof the Cévennes heritage such as the lowwalls along the roadsides and elsewhere, aswell as the ancient paved pathways. We hopethey’ll get jobs with local firms or set up ontheir own,” he says.

The biosphere reserve is also cataloguingtraditional local skills relating to workingwith dry stone. It plans to publish a manualof them to remind the people of the Cévennesof the rich culture associated with the wallsand to encourage them to restore the ter-races.

Jean-Baptiste Lanaspèze, a French offi-cial of the European Union project Proterra,which is pushing the stone terrace restora-tion, says the terraces “have an agriculturalfuture, are historical places, boost tourism,are ecologically rich and also have a heritageof building and associated skills that needsto be preserved.”

The terraces and dry stone walls have notbeen built by architects but by the efforts ofa whole people. By reviving terrace farmingand the art of building with dry stone, theinhabitants of the Cévennes have perhaps dis-covered their own way to contribute to sus-tainable development.

Didier Lécuyer

Cévennes

Ethiopian peasants havedeveloped throughcenturies methods toassess erosion based onreal-valuedobservations. In China,populations living nearthe Minjiang river in theSichuan province have abotanical knowledge forthe reforestation ofdegradated watersheds.Women in Costa Ricahave been using atraditional method tohouse and feed henswhich enables a highproduction of eggs.During drought seasons,Sri Lankan families havebeen using the ‘Bethma’practice of temporaryredistribution of lands.These are a few of the27 examples oftraditional knowledgewhich are alsoexamples of sustainabledevelopment practices,included in a bookrecently published byUNESCO (MOSTprogram) and NUFFIC(Netherlandsorganisation forinternationalcooperation in highereducation), “BestPractices on IndigenousKnowledge”.www.unesco.org/most/bpindi.htm

DEVELOPINGBEST PRACTICES


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

CULTURE

COMMUNICATION

Just for kids...is a section of the WorldHeritage Centre's website thatis devoted... just to kids! Theaim is to sensitise young-sters to the importance ofworld heritage and itsprotection. It includesgames, resource infor-mation, discussion forumsand virtual tours of sites

WEBSITE OF THE MONTH

Ciak JuniorMore than 300 children fromfour continents took part in the11th Ciak Junior Festival offilms written, directed andselected by children, held atTreviso (Italy) from May 29 toJune 3. Among several prizesgiven at the final ceremony onJune 3, UNESCO/ OFTC FelliniPrizes were awarded to twofilms: "Long Journey Home"from the Czech Republic, and"Discovered Colours" fromHungary.To celebrate the UN Internatio-nal Year for a Culture of Peace,a film entitled "Messages in theBottle" in which children sendmessages in a bottle, was co-produced by countries partici-pating in the festival.Children in Chile, for example,wrote: "We are children of a non-declared war. Against non-equalopportunities, AIDS, violence,etc. When I was a little child Ithought that the peace existedonly when there was no war, but

I know that it is much morethan this. Peace is the mostimportant and simple of thingsto obtain. It's just enough to puta bit of ourselves to get it." Thefestival was sponsored by tele-vision companies from Europe,South America, China andAfrica.

such as the historical centre ofNaples (Italy) or the Great Pyra-mid of Giza (Egypt), although

you need to be equippedwith the ade-quate plug-insfor this. It also

informs kids onwhat they can do to protectworld heritage.www.unesco.org/whc/

INTANGIBLEHERITAGE LABELLAUNCHEDThe international jury named byUNESCO to proclaim culturalspaces and forms of culturalexpression as "masterpieces ofthe oral and intangible heritage

of humanity," met for the firsttime on June 15. The jury, whichwill be renewed every fouryears, is made up of nine mem-bers including: Hasan M. Al-Nabooah (United ArabEmirates), Juan Goytisolo(Spain) who was elected pre-sident, Ugné Karvelis(Lithuania), Richard Kurin (USA),J.H. Nketia (Ghana), RalphRegenvanu (Vanuatu), DawnheeYim (Republic of Korea), ZulmarYugar (Bolivia) and MunojatYulchieva (Uzbekistan).First candidatures for this newlabel must be submitted beforeDecember 31st this year and thefirst proclamations will be madein June 2001. Proclamations willthen be made every two years.(More details in Sources No.126, September).

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This Mongol musician’s skillsform part of his intangiblecultural heritage.

Gutenberg on-lineA first set of pages of one of theworld's most famous books, theGutenberg Bible, is now avai-lable on-line. The digital ver-sion of the two volumes of the1454 edition of the Bible wasprepared at the Centre forRetrospective Digitisation ofthe State and University Libraryin Göttingen, Germany. The sitepreview already offers exquisitedigitised photographs of themanuscript, which were takenusing special equipment forcontact-free digitisation so asto ensure minimum stress onthe binding.

http://www.gutenbergdigital.de

Responsible youth mediaFifty Brazilian journalists and 20youth activists from around thecountry met in the capital,Brasilia, over the first weekendin June to look at ways of bet-ter communicating AIDS relatedissues into youth media. Reportson the portrayal in the media ofdrugs, education, family issues,poverty, sexual orientation, teenpregnancy and youth leadershipwere presented during themeeting, which was organisedby UNESCO along with the NewsAgency on Childrens Rights(ANDI), the Ayrton SennaInstitute, the National Coordi-nation of STDs/AIDS from theBrazilian Ministry of Health, theOdebrecht Foundation, theUNDP and UNICEF. The resultswill be disseminated throughoutBrazil at a later date.

CDS/ISISCDS/ISIS distributors andusers’associations from Euro-pean countries met at head-quarters on June 30-July 1.Debates focussed on the revi-sion and evaluation of existingCDI/ISIS products and solutions,

as well as proposals for furtherdevelopment of CDS/ISIS soft-ware and applications, and forthe setting up of an internatio-nal CDS/ISIS group. CDS/ISIS is one of the world’sleading information storage andretrieval softwares, whose posi-tion as a Public Domain toolUNESCO would like to streng-then in the coming years.

http://www.gutenbergdigital.de

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ote.

..

“We have to act.Theglobal connectedness

that brings the bad newscan also serve to tacklethe problems. In the sameway, the globalisingprocesses underlying therapid social and economicchange triggering manyenvironmental problemscan be made to work forthe environment, notagainst it. It isfundamentally a questionof political will andpolitical action.“

Koïchiro Matsuura,UNESCO Director-General,

in his message for WorldEnvironment Day (June 5)

“All rights for allpeople should be the

goal of this century.“

UN DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP),

Human Development Report2000

“Democracy... is theonly political system

that is capable of correc-ting its own dysfunc-tions.“

Koïchiro Matsuura,UNESCO Director-General,

speaking at the Communityof Democracies conference in

Warsaw (Poland)

“Our battle-cry is:Never again will this

country sink into theabyss of the recent pastwhen human rights abusewas the order of the day.“

Olusegun Obasanjo,Nigerian President

quoted in the UNDP’s HumanDevelopment Report 2000

“This is the mostimportant, most

wondrous map everproduced by humankind.“

Bill Clinton,US President,

commenting on thecompletion in June of rough

map of the genetic makeup of human beings,

which took ten years to finish


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

PEOPLE

KEEPING THE BALL ROLLINGIn a follow up to the World Parliament of Children organised byUNESCO and the French government in Paris in October 1999, chil-dren from 12 countries travelled to Ottawa last April 7 to 15 for a ses-sion with the Canadian parliament. The event was organised by theCanadian National Commission for UNESCO with children fromAustralia, Bahamas, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Canada, France, Kenya,Northern Ireland, Norway, the Republic of Korea, the RussianFederation and Sri Lanka, also presented the Canadian MPs with theYouth Manifesto for the 21st Century, prepared in Paris. "I'm honou-red to be here in Canada representing my country," said AustralianCaitlin Ross, "but the greatest honour of all would be to have you takethe message of the Manifesto and act on it and pass it on to others."Several other Member States are also looking at ways to follow upthe Paris meeting. And a small delegation of the children will pre-sent the Manifesto to the UN Millenium Assembly in September.

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Afghan WomenThe cultural association RUDAKIin association with UNESCO pre-sented a diverse showcase aboutAfghan women on June 20 atheadquarters. Film, personalaccounts, dance, poetry, musicand painting were united topraise these Afghan women,whose very physical and moralidentity is currently under threat.The audience discovered the styleand tone of these women’spoems, as well as learning moreabout their roles in the war andtheir ongoing fight for access toeducation.

EDUCATION

Guide to TeachingA valuable new education tool,“A guide to teaching and lear-ning in higher education” hasbeen released on CD-rom, and isalso available on the web(http://breda-guide.tripod.com).The information is specificallypackaged for all those who arein higher education with a desireto improve their teaching andlearning practices. Whileexamples have been largely

HIGHER EDUCATION FOR PEACEMore than 500 participants from40 countries met in Tromso(Norway) from May 4 to 6 to

drawn from Africa, worldwideuse of the information is pos-sible. The guide was produced bythe higher education section ofthe UNESCO regional office inDakar (Senegal), and is for useby both students and teachers.

discuss the role higher educa-tion can play in building peaceand promoting human rights."Universities and other institu-tions of higher education are ina unique position to help shapethe minds and attitudes of deci-sion-makers" and to provide"both students and the largercommunity with relevant know-ledge, the ability for criticalreflection, skills of dialogue,insight into important globalissues and, not least, success-ful outcomes and non-violentsolutions to confrontations,"said Ingeborg Breines, whorepresented UNESCO'sDirector-General at the meet-ing. Participants agreed on theneed for more and better peaceeducation and decided tostrengthen cooperation andnetworks between institutionsof higher education, amongstudents, with UNESCO andcountry authorities. The conference was organisedby the University of Tromso withthe Norwegian National Com-mission for UNESCO as a contri-bution to the UN InternationalYear for a Culture of Peace, anda follow up to the WorldConference on Higher Educationheld at UNESCO in 1998.

Don’t forget that she has rights too !

http://breda-guide.tripod.com



FACTS IN FIGURES

SOLVING THE PUZZLEManaging land, water and theliving resources in a way thatpromotes conservation and sus-tainable development in an equi-table way is the goal. But how toachieve it? By adopting "the eco-system approach," says theConference of the Parties of the

Convention on BiologicalDiversity (CBD), which recentlyadopted it as the primary frame-work for action under the con-vention.To better understand thisapproach, UNESCO's Man andBiosphere Programme (MAB)has published an illustratedguide explaining the conceptand its 12 guiding principles. Thebooklet comes with a poster-

Middle Easternscience centreJordan is to host a major scien-tific research and training centre,the International Centre forSynchrotron-light for Experi-mental Science and Applicationsfor the Middle East (SESAME).The UNESCO-initiated projectfor an international researchcentre for the Middle East andMediterranean region will bebuilt around the BESSY I syn-chrotron-light source facilitydecommissioned in Berlin at theend of 1999 and which Germanyis willing to donate. Eleven mem-bers have joined the project,offiially launched at a meeting inParis a year ago: Armenia,Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Iran,Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Oman,the Palestinian Authority andTurkey. Jordan has guaranteedopen access to the facility to allinterested scientists.

•$1 trillion: the combined wealth of the world’s 200 richest peoplein 1999• $146 billion: the combined incomes of the 582 million people livingin the 43 least developed countries in the same year• 100 million: the number of children around the world who live orwork on the streets• 1 person in 5 is estimated to participate in a civil society organi-sation• In 1990 no country had universal adult suffrage. Today nearly allcountries do

(Source : UNDP Human Development Report 2000).

EXHIBITIONS

SCIENCE

size map of the biospherereserve network which was ini-tiated in 1970 and which todayincludes 368 reserves in 91 coun-tries. The booklet and map areavailable free of charge from theMAB secretariat at UNESCOheadquarters in Paris. For further information, emaili.fabbri©unesco.org

WHEN EUROPE DISCOVERED BRAZILThe oldest known globe of the world, from 1492, does not showthe American continent. But today Brazil is one of the world’smajor economies and at headquarters an exhibition (13 June-15July) followed and portrayed its discovery. Beautiful historicillustrations and accompanying text tell the tale, with all its upand downs, of how Europeans and Indians met. The exhibition pays homage to the pre-colonial way of life,showing how the colonists failed to understand that their couldbe other, acceptable ways of life apart from their own Europeannorm. Ironically, those practices that were then perceived as"savage" are now enjoying a new popularity, such as local,decentralised administration, collective farming, and closefamily ties.

Children’s RightsThe Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the UNESCO Chairon Education for Human Rights and Peace organised anexhibition in May entitled “Children Write and Draw theirRights”. The exhibition included the best work of primary school pupilswho participated in a competition launched by the Greekgovernment and UNICEF. Some 56 drawings and 48 books wereon display. A large number of students visited the exhibition andparticipated in workshops and discussion groups regarding theConvention on the Rights of the Child.

Valparaiso - the beloved city of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, andshowcase of all the world’s architecture, built on 45 hillsoverlooking the Pacific ocean, was the subject of an exhibitionat headquarters from June 26 - 30, featuring the paintaings ofRoxana Werner (Chile) along with a selection of remarkablephotographs. Valparaiso is included on UNESCO’s World HeritageList.

Images of Valparaiso

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BOOKS



PERIODICALSHandbook for the collectionof traditionalmusic and musicalinstrumentsBy Genevieve DournonUNESCO Publishing160 FF, 24,39 €Collecting in the field is the bestway to assemble ethnographicand ethnomusicological collec-tions: it gives access to the socio-cultural context without whichan object, a tale, a piece ofmusic or an instrument, depri-ved of its true significance, hasno cultural or scientific value.This handbook provides thebeginner with an essential foun-dation for the recognition, iden-tification and classification ofmusical instruments. Collectorswill find two systems for field-work: the first, which is easilyapplicable to all kinds of objects,

is for musical instruments; thesecond, intended for audiovi-sual and musical documents,can also be adapted to the col-lection of oral literature.The final chapters of the bookexplain the procedures to befollowed for the scientific andmuseographic treatment of ins-truments, films and sound recor-dings, and will be of use to anynew institution in which col-lections are deposited.

The Venice LagoonEcosystemMan and the Biosphere Series, Volume 25UNESCO Publishing and The Parthenon PublishingGroup, 2000595 FF, 90,71 €Coastal lagoons comprise about13% of the world’s coastline, andare found from tropical zonesto the poles. In many parts of theworld, lagoons have long beenclosely interlinked with humansocieties, nowhere more so thanin the Lagoon of Venice, wherethe mingling of human actionsand ecological processes hasbeen so enduring, complete,complex and profound.The Venice Lagoon Ecosystemproject was carried out in theearly 1990s, with the aim of deve-loping an integrated scientificapproach to the Venice Lagoonas recommended by a group ofexperts jointly set up by theItalian Government andUNESCO in 1981.The scientific results reported inthis volume represent a dis-tinctive contribution to theunderstanding of one of theworld’s most renowned coastallagoon ecosystems, as well as todecisions on the future deve-lopment of Venice and its lagoon.The approaches and insightsdescribed in this book will alsobe of interest to scientistsworking on coastal lagoon eco-systems in other parts of theworld.

MUSEUMINTERNATIONALMore than five million visitors ayear discover the wonders ondisplay at the Louvre in Paris.But more than one million visitorsa month now view the museum’streasures on its internet site(www.louvre.fr). The latest issueof Museum International (204)

focuses on how museums areworking with the internet tocreate a new group of museumvisitors. In fact, the internet ischanging the face of museums.But how has the museum com-munity exploited the resourcesavailable on the internet? Thisis the question. Other articlesinclude a fascinating insight intothe Peruvian archaeological siteKuntur Wasi, which is at once amuseum and an experiment incommunity development; and anarticle about how a combinationof unique historical and politi-cal factors has given rise to anexplosion in the number of Italianethnographic museums.

The UNESCOCourierHip-hop was born in the fire ofNew York’s ghettos, while elec-tronic dance music was born on

●●● To find out morePublications and periodicals are soldat UNESCO’s bookshop(Headquarters) 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. (+33 1) 01 45 68 43 00 - Fax (33 1) 01 45 68 57 41. Internet:http://www.unesco.org/publishing

the thudding dancefloors of thecity’s underground clubs. Thesetwo genres which have helpedto define a generation are thesubject of a special dossier inthis month’s issue of theCourier. Young people have sei-zed upon these rhythms andbeats to express anger and aspi-ration - but is the spirit of themusic being lost to commer-cialisation?The issue also discusses thelegitimacy of the embargo onIraq, the vigorous debate overthe trading of endangered spe-cies, and mobile phones as adevelopment tool in the South.However the highlight of theissue is perhaps a selection ofastonishingly beautiful photosfrom Mali, taken by Dogon vil-lagers themselves.

http://www.unesco.org/publishing

New medical technology being tested

under a UNESCO project holds out hope for patients

in the world’s most remote regions


CONNECTIONSTHAT SAVE LIVESS

pecialist medical helpmay soon be available

to patients in the world’smost remote regions, thanksto new portable ultrasounddevices that can transmitand receive three-dimen-sional images to hospitalsanywhere around the globe.The equipment is now beingtested by physicians inUganda, Kazakhstan, andthe Canary Islands (Spain)and the Azores Islands ofPortugal, under a projectknown as TeleInViVo(InViVo is a software toolfor viewing 3D data), whichis funded by the EuropeanCommunity. UNESCO hasbeen given the task of coor-dinating the project in thenon-European countries.

The project makes tele-diagnosis and teleconsulta-tion a reality in even themost extreme conditions,while promoting internatio-nal medical collaboration

TECHNOLOGY

the most sparsely popula-ted regions in the world.Epidemic outbreaks are notuncommon to the regionwhich is plagued by worse-ning human-induced envi-ronmental problems. TheCentral Regional Hospitalof Aralsk serves this remotepopulation and despite thehigh level of medical capa-city inherited from theSoviet era, the hospitaltoday does not have theresources or expertise todeal with the deterioratingmedical situation.

This project enablesdoctors there to make 3Dmedical images of thepatient, which can then betransmitted via the satellitelink-up established in theproject to the DiagnosticCentre in Almaty, the capi-tal. In Uganda, transmissionis made via the internet fromNakaseke to Mulago hospi-tal in Kampala.

Given the principle thatit is faster and cheaper toship information aroundthan people and especiallythose who’re gravely ill, theTeleInViVo experience be-comes very compelling.Teleconsultation allows “allphysicians, particularlythose working in isolated ordisaster areas, to exchangeideas, experiences, discussdoubts, diagnoses and esta-blish therapy in a moreconfident way, in order toachieve the best for thepatients,” said Dr. LuisaTexeira. Dr Texeira is aradiologist at the Hospitaisda Universidade de Coimbra(HUC), Portugal, whichserves as a focal point forthe project. She adds thatthe system could ultimatelybe used “inside the ambu-lance during transport to thehospital,” allowing “doctorsto see the images and takethe most adequate decisionsbefore the patient arrives,”which gives a whole newperspective to emergencyhealthcare.

Over the next sixmonths, data transmission,teleconsultation and tele-diagnosis will take placeonce a week between spe-cialists in the urban hospi-tal of each country invol-ved, and specialists in theHUC. Tests, ranging fromgynaecological and abdo-minal scans to cardiologi-cal examinations, havebegun in both countries, andDr. Texeira indicated that“until now, all the diagnosesproposed have been confir-med.”

International collabora-tion is proving beneficial toall parties in this project. Dr.Matovu, a radiologist atMulago hospital explainedthat TeleInViVo “will be use-ful with difficult caseswhich we find at Mulago”while “European doctorscan gain access to and

and mutual sharing of spe-cialist information andexpertise.

Nakaseke Hospital lies60 km outside Kampala, thecapital of Uganda. “The wholesystem was without a tele-phone line, fax or e-mail,” saidMeddie Mayanja, the ProjectOfficer at the UNESCONational Commission forUganda. A multipurpose com-munity telecentre, establi-shed there in 1999 (seeSources No. 114), providedthe infrastructure for the trai-neing of local doctors in theuse of basic computers andinternet connection.

“The hospital is nowconnected to the world anddoctors can get informationfrom anywhere,” saidMayanja.

Aralsk (Kazakhstan),once an important fishingport, now lies 100km fromthe northern shore of theshrinking Aral Sea in one of

Learning to use theequipment in Kampala

DR

South and Central America are starting to

recognise their ‘Africanicity’, and acknowledge the

contribution of this ‘third root’ to the continent’s

identity

CULTURE


THE THIRD ROOTunderstanding of diseasesnot common to the Euro-pean set up.”

The creation of medicaldatabases using the cases stu-died in the project will alsoallow doctors to “review thedata stored whenever theywant, to remember theimages and the pathology orto compare with new cases,”explained Dr Texeira. Tra-ditional medical archives “aredifficult to retrieve,” accor-ding to Dr. Matovu, “so it isdifficult to use past expe-rience for current diagnosis.TeleInViVo allows the pro-cessing, storing and retrievalprocesses to take place.”Thus, application of telema-tic techniques facilitatespatient management and dia-gnosis, by reducing patientreferral, and saving time.

A BREAKTHROUGHFOR AFRICA

Meddie Manyanja wantsto place the project within a“fully developed strategy forthe use of telemedicine in abroader sense, with appro-priate and affordable tech-nical solutions.” He viewsthe project as a “break-through in medical supportand practice in Africa.

“In Uganda, the Ministryof Health has established atelemedicine taskforce,which is understudying theactivities of our project forpossible replication. Thereare two students from thesurgery and technologyfaculties who are also doingresearch on the project. Thiswill help in building localcapacity and understandingof the project.”

Similar optimism existsin Kazakhstan, where tele-medicine is an increasinglyhigh priority area. The abi-lity of specialist doctors tolink up to and supportremote doctors in consulta-tion and diagnosis couldhelp to create a major inter-national shift, in both thepractices and principles ofhealth care.

Jack Skillen

project assistant,

UNESCO

Long taboo, the Africancomponent of American

culture is starting to be reco-gnized. Not only in Braziland the Caribbean where80% of the 30 to 40 millionsurvivors of the slave tradelive, but also in CentralAmerica, in the Andeanregion and the southerncone of the continent - whe-rever African culture wasable to survive, adapt andsometimes mix with indige-nous and European cultures.

This meeting of the threeworlds is the subject of anexhibition entitled Afro-America, the Slave Route,which opened in MexicoCity on June 24. The showwill travel later to differentstates in Mexico, to Cuba,the Dominican Republicand on to Africa, Spain andother European destina-tions.

“Using graphic docu-ments – maps, drawings,

paintings, texts – along withship models, photographsand objects linked to thereligious cult of the slaves,we wanted to present a com-prehensive picture of thetransatlantic slave trade,”explains the show’s organi-zer, Mexican anthropologistLuz María Martínez Montiel,who is Director of the asso-ciation, Afroamerica: la ter-

cera raíz (the third root)and a member of the Scienti-fic Committee of UNESCO’sSlave Routes project, laun-ched in 1994.

“We didn’t want to limitourselves to the periodending with the abolition ofslavery, but rather to go fur-ther by studying the lives ofthese people, what they hadbecome, ” she said. “ In thissense, the exhibition isclearly didactic. The officialhistory of our countries hasnever attributed a civilisingrole to Africans in the

Americas. We have too longlooked upon them as num-bers, a work force, andnever as cultural agents.”Indeed, most history booksrefer to “Latin” America,thereby excluding theAfrican element (the conti-nent’s “Africanicity”). Andyet, from the far corners ofMexico to the summit ofthe Andean Cordillera, theculture of the Americancontinent is impregnatedby historical figures, ritesand traditions of Africanorigin.

According to DoudouDiene, Director of UNES-CO’s Slave Routes projet,“slaves never stopped put-ting up cultural resistance tothe slave trade - in the holdsof the slave ships wherethey were lined up like sar-dines, on the plantations orin the mines where theyreplaced the manpower ofthe indigenous populations

The capoeira (Bahia-Brazil), is a system of self defense that has its origins in a dancepractised by slaves to discreetly train for battle

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The towers are built indelicate stone and some

have been coated with goldthe thickness of a finger.Others have been coveredlikewise with silver. Theking ordered these towers to

be built every so often tomark the splendour of hisreign and as a an act of piety.The result is there for all tosee. They make up one ofthe most beautiful places inthe world – magnificent,

lavish and extraordinarilywell finished.”

Five centuries after theexplorer Marco Polo thusdescribed the city-state ofBagan in his Chronicles of1298, it is still one of the

world’s greatest archaeolo-gical sites – a harmoniousblend of nature and humaneffort and a masterpiece ofreligious devotion andhuman creativity.

From the mid-11th

RESTORING MYANMAR’SCITY OF TEMPLES

A candidate for the World Heritage List, Pagan first needs

to be properly protected

HERITAGE

which had been massacred.”Across four centuries oftotal oppression, slavesincorporated everything theslave traders imposed onthem and transformed, itwhile seeming to obey. Theythus created a maroon cul-ture, composed of resis-tance and integration. “Forinstance, they integrated theVirgin Mary and the Catholicsaints with their own gods,and gave them a place in thevoodoo pantheon (Haiti, theCaribbean, Brazil), the san-teria (Cuba, Mexico, CentralAmerica) or the candomblé(Brazil, Uruguay),” saidDiene. A number of sacredAfrican objects, contributedto the exhibition by Jean-Paul Agogue, a specialist inAfrican ethnic groups, illus-trate this heritage.

The African presence iseverywhere, but “we don’tsee it, because we don’twant to,” explained OlindaCelestino, an ethnologist inthe College de France(Paris) laboratory of SocialAnthropology, founded byClaude Levi-Strauss, andmember of a group ofresearchers put in place byLuz María Martínez Montiel,across South America. “Wedidn’t want to acknowledgethat, up until the 1920s and30s, the black population ofBuenos Aires was biggerthan the indigenous popu-lation,” she continues, orthat dances like the Tango

contain “a big African com-ponent”. The existence of“whole black quarters in thebig South American mega-lopoles (Lima, Mexico City,Bogota...) as well as in vil-lages and entire regions hasalso been denied or hiddenjust like the fact that thePatron Saint of Lima (Peru),San Martin de Porras, wasthe son of a black slave.”

It is in this context thatMartínez Monteil has wor-ked for over 20 years to ini-

tiate a dialogue between theAmericas and Africa, bet-ween “the two continentswhich barely know eachother although they bothsuffered the hardships ofslavery.”

Her efforts, however,have remained relatively iso-lated until recently.Nonetheless, the 1970s sawthe emergence in Latin

America of black writers likeManuel Zapata in Colombia,Gregorio Martí-nez andNicomedes Santa Cruz inPeru. “These writers incitedthe scientific world /scho-larly historical establishmentto consider the question ofthe descendants of theslaves,” said OlindaCelestino. Little by little,everywhere in Latin Ame-rica, these writers came toge-ther, proclaiming their“Africanicity”, their role in

local culture and denouncingtheir marginalisation and thepoverty in which they wereliving. They demandedaccess to modernity anddevelopment (sanitary condi-tions, water, health care...)from which they, more thanany other social or ethnicgroup, were excluded.

Doudou Diene attributesthis exclusion to several

factors: first of all colour,“specific to the transatlantictrade: European thinkershave, over the centuries, ela-borated racist doctrinesbased on the prejudice ofcolour which justified thesale of human beings asslaves.” From this stems theidea of the “normal” econo-mic and social inferiority ofpopulations of African ori-gin.

Today “globally, the des-cendants of slaves are seve-rely marked by inequalitiesborn in this period and incounties like the FrenchAntilles; those who controlthe land, the ‘Béké’, are des-cendants of slave traders!”

“In an attempt to cor-rect this marginalisationgrown out of the slavetrade, some countries havechosen a system of quotas(affirmative action) inemployment, housing, etc.Others advocate nationalintegration. But neither sys-tem is truly successful.” Forthe moment, it is mainly intheir spiritual and culturalexpression that the des-cendants of slaves are gain-ing ground.

Cristina L’Homme

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In Brazil, a ceremony that pays homage to Omolou, god ofdiseases, has its origins in Benin and Nigeria

●●● 23rd August: InternationalDay for the Remembrance of theSlave Trade and its Abolition


century to the end of the13th, a great outburst of reli-gious fervour led to thou-sands of Buddhist religiousmonuments (stupa) andtemples (pahto) being builton a loop of the riverAyeyarwady, in what is nowcentral Myanmar (formerlyBurma). To grasp themajesty of the place, ima-gine all of Europe’s medie-val cathedrals concentratedin an area of 50 sq kms.

Pagan is not yet onUNESCO’s World HeritageList, which currentlyincludes 630 natural andcultural sites around theworld. The World HeritageCommittee deferred itsinclusion in 1997, mainlybecause the Myanmarauthorities could not suffi-ciently guarantee the pre-servation of the site and itsfuture management. Thecommittee instead offeredtechnical help to put toge-ther a new application tojoin the list and four inter-national experts were sentto Myanmar last April.

“Our visit focused ontwo sensitive matters,” saysMinja Yang of UNESCO’sWorld Heritage Centre andone of the four. “A golfcourse was built in 1996right in the middle of thesite. At the same time, a pro-ject to widen a road leadingto Old Bagan threatened to

spoil the site and its cha-racter and so prevent it frombeing put on the list.

“When we got there, wenoticed that the golf coursehad been built on land thathad switched to agriculturecenturies ago. So thedamage to the archaeologi-cal heritage was done longbefore the golf course wasbuilt. But to avoid otherharm, we recommendedthat the land be declared anarea reserved for tourists soas to strictly limit its use forother purposes. As for theroad, we suggested buildinga detour leading directlyfrom the airport to NewPagan to keep cars andbuses away from the histo-ric centre of the site.”

These “frank” proposalswere “taken positively” saysMs Yang. “The mission hasbeen interesting and usefulfor us,” confirms U NyuntHan, the director-general ofthe archaeology departmentin Myanmar’s Ministry ofCulture.

Restoring the buildingsthemselves is a more com-plex matter. Since thegovernment’s tourist pro-motion – Visit Myanmar Year– in 1996, more than a thou-sand temples and otherstructures have been resto-red or rebuilt using methodsa long way from Westernnorms of strict respect forthe details of the originaledifice.

FUNCTION NOT FORMS“The people of Myanmar

don’t see it the way we do,”says Ms Yang. “For them,restoring a temple doesn’tmean so much restoring it tohow it originally looked asenabling it to become aplace of worship again. Andin the Buddhist tradition, abuilding doesn’t become atemple unless a holy objectis placed on top of it.Without this, the remains ofa temple, even if they’re1,000 years old, are only aheap of stones of no reli-gious significance.

“So the technicalities ofrestoration and rebuildingare less important in theeyes of local people thanwhether the final result

allows the building to oncemore be used for religiouspurposes. As a result, whe-ther it’s done for touristicand cultural reasons – sincereligion is important inMyanmar – the work is quiteshoddy. In some places,industrial bricks and cementhave been used to restore11th century buildings madeof delicate bricks joinedtogether with barely visiblevegetal glue.

“The Myanmar authori-ties admit the work has beendone too hastily and that thecountry does not haveenough skilled people to dorestoration work,” she says.“So we returned from thetrip with a request for helpwith training people. I hopethe international communitywill respond because a pro-perly done restoration willimprove the monumentsand make the site a model ofconservation for the future.It’ll also be a way to meet thedemands of more and moretourists for ‘authenticity’ –and tourism can obviouslybe a way for Myanmar todevelop.”

Pierre Wolf

Details of a frieze at the Hti-lo-min-lo temple

A shrine at the Ka-ma-kyaung-u-hpaya temple

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on UNESCO’s calendar

Next month’s issue :

YOUTH AND VIOLENCE

FORUM ON THEPACIFIC

5 September DIALOGUE AMONG CIVILISATIONSAt United Nations headquarters in New York (USA), a round table discussion on inter-cultural dialogue, organised by UNESCO and Iran in preparation for the United Nations Year for Dialogue Among Civilisations, 2001

8 September INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY

8 to 10 September URBAN PRIDEEdinburgh (Scotland) hosts a congress on “Living and Working in a World Heritage City.”

14 to 18 September INTERDENOMINATIONAL EXCHANGEReligious leaders and leading philosophers meet in Tashkent and afterwards in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) as part of UNESCO’s Routes of Faith programme

27 to 29 September CO-OPERATIVES FOR HOUSINGIn Oujda (Morocco), which has a long tradition of self-help communities, a seminar on promoting a network of small local co-operatives in the housing sector is organised with the help of MOST

women:how far have we come - unesdoc …unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001202/120200e.pdfindigenous...

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