mtwenty-second Session,

Transcription

1 mtwenty-second Session, Information document Paris 1983 General Conference Conference generale Vingt-deuxikme session, Document d information Conferencia General rehepanbhar KoHaepeHqm inf 22. reuni6n ABajlUaTb BTOpaX CeCCWR, 22 C/INF.12 Documento de informacidn kih@opmauhohhbifi llokymeht 9 November 1983 Original: French fw +ij&i A 4 %= tsbdat2. d*sr;ji> +WI -ij>jll +%I Address by Mr FranCois Mitterrand President of the French Republic at the inaugural meeting of the twenty-second session of the General Conference Unesco House, 25 October 1983

2 22 C/INF.12 Mr President, Mr Chairman of the Executive Board, Mr Director-General, Distinguished delegates, Cast your minds back. What did the world look like in 1945? In the North--ruins, the aftermath of war. In the South--colonies, the first uprisings, a climate presaging war. That was when Unesco was founded. That was when Ldon Blum, as we have just been reminded, requested for France the honour of being host to the new organization. Today, thirty years later, 160 countries are united in the same ambition: 160.countrie: that have subscribed to the same charter, whose terms have just been cited by the Director- General. Despite tension and drama, Unesco has become that valuable forum--until yesterday no more than a dream--in which all the people of the world pause to converse and act together. At the threshold of this twenty-second session of the General Conference, I therefore feel it to be a great privilege, ladies and gentlemen, to address you--the representatives of all countries and all continents--this morning. I welcome you on behalf of France and its people. I wish you every success in the work you are about to begin, and I thank the distinguishedpersonswho have preceded me at the rostrum for the words they have spoken. Since its inception, Unesco has fulfilled its mission in its chosen fields, and met the priorities it had set itself. Its action has been spectacular, and progress significant. But for Unesco--but for its admirable literacy campaigns--how many millions of children would have been deprived of the most basic knowledge? To be unable to read or write is to be condemned--by man, not by nature--to the fate of the blind, the deaf and the dumb. In recent years, if an example is needed, tens of millions of people have benefited directly from these programmes in various countries. Again thanks to Unesco, scientific co-operation has developed at a pace commensurate with the stakes, which as you know are great. Similarly, through Unesco some of the greatest treasures in the universal heritage have been preserved. Passing just now through the rooms adjoining this hall, I asked myself what would have become of the temples of Borobudur without Unesco and, without Unesco, who could save Venice. We French are particularly grateful to your Organization for its support in the immense task of rescuing Mont Saint Michel from the encroaching sands. Thus, at the very point where science and culture meet, Unesco has conferred on environmental research its patent of nobility. France, like you, supports this approach whereby the whole range of resources--human and natural, terrestrial and marine--can be mobilized in a single project in the service of development. Under the Man and the Biosphere programme, the scientific foundations are 'being laid for a genuine management 05 the earth's main ecosystems, particularly in tropical or coastal zones. This is a long-term project, to be thought of in terms of geological time, but a vital task because, as you know, damage done to the natural environment is irreversible. Central to this heritage is water--the symbol and mainspring of life, so unevenly distributed over the globe. The launching of the International Hydrological Programme and the establishment of an Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission are two exemplary measures, among others, to which I wish to pay tribute.

3 22 C/INF.12 - page 2 However, Unesco does not rest content with preserving this heritage: it seeks to enrich it daily by promoting the rebirth of cultural identities, by fostering dialogue everywhere between ideas, the arts and even dreams. Sometimes I hear doubts or criticism expressed. International organizations, it is said, are too cumbersome. That can happen. But let the sceptics look at your record. In thirty-eight years, to have developed education, promoted scientific co-operation, preserved our heritage and always to have kept alive the flame of interchange between all the countries of the world: who can improve on that? In this field, to be sure, no achievement is ever final. Much remains to be done. But the results are there and the pace is being maintained. The Director-General, I am bound to say, has played no little part in this success. A man of culture, Mr M'BOW is perhaps first and foremost a man of cultures: those, of course, of Africa--that continent that holds so many treasures and so many half-revealed secrets--but also those of other parts of the world of which he has always been a staunch defender. This openness of mind, akin to that which inspires you, ladies and gentlemen-- this openness of mind, combined with great force of character, has kept this Organization on course and has preserved its lofty goals in the face of many assaults. In your thirty-eight years of existence, years of relentless struggle, you have succeeded in winning universal acceptance for these two key ideas: culture, the dialogue between cultures, far from engendering conflict, serves the cause of peace; without cultural progress no development is possible. Nowadays such ideas seem self-evident. But what efforts were needed before this message of solidarity--in appearance so simple--was accepted: Today your Organization is starting a new phase, a phase that will be especially difficult since we shall have to call yesterday's certainties into question. No sooner are we convinced of the unifying power of culture than centrifugal forces make themselves felt. No sooner have we begun to settle down to the dialogue I mentioned just now, and to feel easy in it, than a new scientific fact throws everything into turmoil. Today culture can cut the world in two. The reason for this threat is simple: science, unlike the arts and literature, introduces time as a powerful factor in culture. A masterpiece is timeless, whereas a discovery--any discovery--is dated, that is to say soon outmoded. And the more science progresses, the more unevenly access to knowledge is distributed. The faster science advances, the more the gap between peoples grows. Shall we allow this gulf to widen? There can of course be no question of slowing down the progress of science; in any case, how would we set about it? But scientific development must be better attuned to the capacity of our societies to train people. This, in my view, is the major challenge of the next twenty years. The threat which I have just described is matched by the hopes aroused. Science carries within it the means of loosening age-old constraints. It would be terrible to waste, through thoughtlessness or selfishness, the opportunity to develop at last, the whole of the planet. Unesco has not been caught unprepared. Without abandoning its previous responsibilities, it has placed itself at the core of the revolution created by the new technologies. Its very name dictated that it should. But,it took boldness to do so. I can assure you that, in all these fields of activity, you will always have France's support. To prevent the world from being torn apart, a strategy is required. The Second Medium- Term Plan, adopted last November, lays down the main lines for it. I should like to thank its initiators, for this plan puts the emphasis on the real priorities, in particular on the need for everyone to familiarize himself as fast as possible with the technologies I am speakingof,and on the urgency of building a new communication order. These priorities will overtake all nations, for often identical reasons and in pursuit, I hope, of common objectives which it is our task to define together.,

4 22 C/INF.12 - page 3 In the face of the scientific revolution, our current levels of development will come, faster than we imagine, to seem transitory and precarious. The only things that will really count in the actual lives of people in each of.our countries are the intelligence with which we adapt, and then master, what we may now term computer culture: a culture which by the end of the century will infuse all activities in North and South alike. The industrialized countries meeting in OECD are already finding in their own midst-- yes,.in the rich countries--an army of almost 40 million unemployed. This bleak figure is likely to grow even worse over the next five years in the fate of the irresistible advance of mechanization and robotization--which, it must be said, have become essential. I have often argued that it was a mistake to put the blame on technology itself, which can and should serve man. There is no point in rebelling against advances that can and should be beneficial. And crises--or what are called crises--are not bad in themselves, but simply a sign of change. Who, then, is to blame? Certainly not science, but societies and the dominant interests of the moment, which are slow to train people and to adapt their structures to new requirements. The shorter the period separating scientific discovery from its effective introduction into society, the more the crisis will result in new situations, new tasks and an evolution in awareness and knowledge. The so-called 'developing' countries--a term sometimes applied to them in mockery, victimized as they are by international circuits and situations which are imposed on them and which often actually increase their poverty--are feeling today the effect of the havoc wrought among their peoples by uncontrolled technological advance: an advance which too often remains the privilege of the few, whether they be powerful countries or favoured castes. Thus the situation we have been living in for the past ten years would not allow us to rest even if we were tempted to do so. Current developments are constantly making obsolete the tools of production we have been used to since the electrical revolution. Tens of millions of men and women are being cast asideandbanished fromtheproductiveprocess. And thus, ladies and gentlemen, we find Unesco returning to its original source of inspiration: to buildin spite of storms; to build a world in which hope will find its place. It would be a mistake to think that the new technologies I am speaking of, and in particular computer science, affect only few sectors that are the preserve of a few Powers. As I said just'now, we are all involved. It should not be thought either that the new languages, the new means of understanding and transforming the world, should be kept for an elite. Previous levels of knowledge are irrelevant, and our children already understand the means of communication better than we do. The Director-General knows this, and I solemnly repeat it here: all measures to disseminate these techniques and these languages on a worldwide scale will have the unequivocal support of countries like mine. I should say, since I am speaking for France, that France is also worried at the growing disorder in all fields of communication and in all fields of material, intellectual and spiritual exchange. I believe that the International Programme for the Development of Communication, launched within these walls, is a response to urgent needs. Almost three years ago in this hall I launched the idea of holding a Representative Assembly of Culture in Paris. At the World Conference held in Mexico City last year, a recommendation on this project was adopted unanimously. Since then, in consultation with you, ladies and gentlemen, and in particular with the authorities present on this rostrum, the matter has been given further thought. This is the way of things, and that is as it should be.thus, too, faces change from one conference to the next. Most of those in charge are leaving their places, but I would like to address particular thanks to those here who are moving on elsewhere, and to tell them that they have worked well in the interest of mankind.

5 22 c/iw.12 - page 4 All we who carry responsibility--1 shall add my testimony to those that have gone before--live in a world of tensions, silences, a mixture of conservatism and uncontrolled initiative. The thrust of the crisis and the acceleration of progress are giving us this new Opportunity. Let us use it to change our habits and to speak together, at last, of what is essential. This, after all, is why you are meeting. A month ago, addressing the United Nations General Assembly, I emphasized the link-- in my view, the crucial link--between the,two notions of development and disarmament. For development is not merely economic growth but the sharing of knowledge and, through it, access for all to the ideals of justice and freedom--a justice and a freedom which, as you know, do not exist in the natural state. They must be built up patiently, by daily effort. I am convinced that this twenty-second General Conference of Unesco will make great progress along this path; and I express to you again, ladies and gentlemen, the great pleasure it has given me to welcome you, on behalf of the French Republic, to this forum.