humanism, a new idea-unesco courier

ISSN 2220-2285e-ISSN 2220-2293

Dreams of science

Michal MeyerI am because you are

Michael Onyebuchi EzeHumanizing globalization

Mireille Delmas-MartyWhere is humanism going?

Sanjay Seth Welcome to the Anthropocene

Ruth IrwinThe Muslim phase of humanism

Mahmoud HusseinChild soldiers: a new life ahead

Forest Whitaker A special place for the imagination

Antonio Skármeta

Humanism, a new

idea

CourierTHE UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization,

OctoberDecember 2011

Mireille Delmas-Marty(France)

Liu Ji (China)

Mahmoud Hussein (Egypt)

Oliver Kozlarek(Germany)

Cristovam Buarque (Brazil)

Michal Meyer(Israel)

Antonio Skármeta(Chile)

Paulette Dieterlen(Mexico)

Milad DoueihiCathy Nolan

Forest Whitaker Roger Ross Williams

(USA)

Sanjay Seth (India)

Asimina Karavanta(Greece)

Prudence Mabhena (Zimbabwe)

Michael Onyebuchi Eze (Nigeria)

Salvador Bergel(Argentina)

In 1951, during a ‘Discussion on theCultural and Philosophical RelationsBetween East and West’ held in thecapital of India, New Delhi, from 13 to20 December, UNESCO endorsed theidea of a new holistic humanism. Theworld was recovering from a terriblewar that had sullied the myth oftechnological progress dominatingWestern culture. In a discussiondocument entitled ‘Towards a NewHumanism’, the participants at themeeting spoke of a “confusedintelligence that has lost its soul” and a“crisis of humanism”. They advocated a“spiritual revolution” and “commonspiritual progress” calling for greaterexchange between East and West (p. 27).

Six decades later, the challengesfacing the world have moved on, as has

UNESCO in 2011:

Towards a new humanism and globalization thatrhymes with reconciliation

OUR AUTHORS

our understanding of the meaning ofhumanism. In March 2011, UNESCO helda meeting of its High Panel on Peaceand Dialogue among Cultures at the UNheadquarters in New York. Comprisingsome twenty distinguished figures fromall over the world, the Panel agreed that“rethinking peace and reconciliationresonated with the quest for a NewHumanism for the 21st Century,” calledfor by the Director-General of UNESCO,Irina Bokova.

“In the context of globalization,” saysthe final report on the meeting, “thisconcept has to concentrate on culturaldiversity, dialogue in the age of theInternet, and reconciliation between theNorth and the South […] The newhumanism has to be an authenticallypluralist cosmopolitanism, inspiring

reflections and expressing aspirationsfrom everyone everywhere.”

According to a section of the reportentitled ‘Towards a new humanism andreconciled globalization’, the purpose ofthe new humanism is to “create aclimate of empathy, belonging andunderstanding, along with the idea thatprogress with respect to human rights isnever definitive and requires a constanteffort of adaptation to the challenges ofmodernity. Those challenges cannot bemet without ethical principles, whichshould be at the foundation of what wasaptly coined ‘a public realm of values’.”

The conclusions of the Panel meeting, in March2011, can be found at the following address:http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001923/192362e.pdf

Ruth Irwin(New Zealand)

T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . O C T O B E R D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 1 . 3

Editorial – Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO 5

HUMANISM: A NEW IDEA

Where is humanism going? – Sanjay Seth 6

I am because you are – Michael Onyebuchi Eze 10

What happened to hospitality? – Asimina Karavanta 14

Justice and dignity – Paulette Dieterlen 16

Towards a humanist turn – Oliver Kozlarek 18

The Muslim phase of humanism – Mahmoud Hussein 22

For a world of harmony – Liu Ji 25

UNESCO in 1951: Towards a new humanism 27

Humanizing globalization – Mireille Delmas-Marty 28interviewed by Jasmina Šopova

Digital humanism – Milad Doueihi 32

Welcome to the Anthropocene – Ruth Irwin 34

Dreams of science – Michal Meyer 36

Bioethics: unimagined challenges – Salvador Bergel 39

Seven pointers for the future of mankind – Cristovam Buarque 41

OUR GUEST

Child soldiers: a new life ahead – Forest Whitaker 44interviewed by Katerina Markelova

THE FUTURE OF THE BOOK

A special place for the imagination ‒ Antonio Skármeta 47

OVERCOMING DISABILITY

The flight of Prudence ‒ The story of Prudence Mabhena 51As told by Roger Ross Williams to Cathy Nolan

MILESTONES

UNESCO welcomes 53Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Alsou Abramova, Blaise Compaoré, Roger-PolDroit, Jorge Edwards, Ángeles González-Sinde, The Grandmothers of Plaza deMayo, Herbie Hancock, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Pascal Irénée Koupaki,Julia Kristeva, Alassane Dramane Ouattara, Brigi Rafini, Roberto Toscano,Abdoulaye Wade

CourierTHE UNESCO

October–December 2011

United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization

64th year

2011 – No. 4

The UNESCO Courier is quarterly published in sevenlanguages by the United Nations Educational, Scientificand Cultural Organization7, place de Fontenoy 75352, Paris 07 SP, France

Free subscription to the Courier on line:www.unesco.org/courier

Director of publication: Eric Falt

Editor-in-chief: Jasmina Šopova [email protected]

Managing editor: Katerina [email protected]

Editors: Arabic: Khaled Abu Hijleh Chinese: Weiny CauhapeEnglish: Peter Coles, Alison McKelvey Clayson and Dashika Ranasinghe

French: Philippe Testard-Vaillant Portuguese: Ana Lúcia GuimarãesRussian: Marina YaloyanSpanish: Araceli Ortiz de Urbina

English translation: Peter Coles and Lisa Davidson

Photos: Sophie Suberbère Design and layout: Baseline Arts Ltd, OxfordPrinting: UNESCO – CLDInformation and reproduction rights: + 33 (0)1 45 68 15 64 . [email protected]: Pilar Christine Morel VasquezWeb platform: Chakir Piro and Van Dung PhamIntern: Landry RukingamubiriWith thanks to: Danica Bijeljac

Articles and photos credited UNESCO may be reproducedand/or translated for non-commercial purposes providingthe credit line reads “Reproduced from the UNESCOCourier” and includes date and hyperlink. Photos withoutUNESCO credit require special permission.Articles express the opinions of the authors and do notnecessarily represent the opinions of UNESCO.Photographs belonging to UNESCO may be reproducedfreely. Photos must carry the following caption: © UNESCOand photographer's name. For high resolution, pleasecontact the Photobank: [email protected] on maps do not imply official endorsementor acceptance by UNESCO or the United Nations of thecountries and territories concerned.

From the seriesFaces à l'Âme byFrench artist,Benjamin Bini.Dialogue betweencultures. Fusion ofcontemporary andtraditional art.

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In this issue“The affirmation of human commonalityand dignity is something that is no lessurgent today than at any time before,” saysProfessor Sanjay Seth (India), in hisintroduction to this special feature (p. 6).He puts forward a number of thought-provoking ideas on contemporaryhumanism, like questioning the notion ofa singular Reason, the cohabitation ofdifferent visions of morality developedaround the world, or the need for a globalform of justice. Issues like these arediscussed in depth from a range ofviewpoints by Nigerian-born MichaelOnyebuchi Eze (p. 10), Asmina Karavantafrom Greece (p. 14) and Paulette Dieterlenfrom Mexico (p. 16).

The humanist turn that is currentlyunderway draws on humanist traditions inall cultures, according to the Germanphilosopher Oliver Kozlarek (p. 18). Indeedcertain aspects of contemporary Islamicphilosophy have their roots in the veryidea of humanism (p. 22), says MahmoudHussein, an Egyptian political scientist andIslamic scholar. And the doctrines ofConfucius and Mencius could be seen as amodel for the development of the newhumanism imagined by Professor Liu Ji ofChina (p. 25).

If humanist principles are not turnedinto practice, though, humanism willremain no more than wishful thinking.In these times of globalization, we needto make use of the “envisioning forces”of law to forge a humanist form ofjustice that is pluralist and open, saysthe French lawyer, Mireille Delmas-Marty (p. 28). Among other evidence tosupport her case, she cites two majorchallenges of modernity: climatechange and new digital and biomedicaltechnologies, which are also discussedby Milad Doueihi (USA) (p. 32), RuthIrwin, from New Zealand (p. 34), MichalMeyer of Israel (p. 36) and SalvadorBergel from Argentina (p. 39).

To conclude this special feature, theBrazilian senator, Cristovam Buarqueoutlines his proposal for a newhumanism based on seven pillars:planetary politics, respect for diversity,respect for the environment, equalopportunities, production controlled byman, integration through education andethical modernity (p. 41).

Our guest for this issue is theAmerican actor and film-maker, ForestWhitaker, recently appointed UNESCOGoodwill Ambassador. He is committed

to the cause of child soldiers,explaining what drew him to thisbarren and tragic universe, so farremoved from the luxury of Hollywood(p. 44).

The future of the book is a subjectclose to the heart of the Chilean writer,Antonio Skármeta. Author of the novel,Burning Patience (which inspiredMichael Radford’s film Il Postino) hepredicts that the various types of mediawill continue to exist, side by side – thedigital book, that faithful ally ofresearch and information, and thepaper book, which is ideally suited to“non-utilitarian imagination” (p. 47).

To mark International Day of Personswith Disabilities (3 December), we willbe publishing an interview with theAmerican director Roger Ross Williams,whose film Music by Prudence won himan Oscar for best short documentary.He tells of meeting a youngZimbabwean woman, Prudence, wholost both her legs, yet, through hersinging, managed to overcome anumber of obstacles, includingrejection by her family, discriminationand poverty (p. 51).Jasmina Šopova

© Fred de Noyelle/Godong


EditorialIrina Bokova

Humanism is an age-old promise, as well as anidea that is always new, endlessly reinventingitself. The humanist project has been part of ourhistory since Antiquity, yet it shines like new inevery epoch. In the early years of the thirdmillennium the word can no longer have thesame meaning as it had during the Renaissancein Europe, when it was forged on the image ofthe ideal man, master of himself and theuniverse. It also goes beyond the meanings thatthe Enlightenment philosophers gave it, andwhich have remained, despite their universalistaspirations, restricted to a Eurocentric vision ofthe world.

Respect for cultural diversity is a core element of21st century humanism. It is a vital constituentduring these times of globalization. No singleculture has a universal monopoly. Each and everyone can contribute to the consolidation of ourshared values.

The current threats to the planet’s precariousecological balance, the ethical problems raisedby digital and biomedical technologies, theeconomic and political crises –these are allglobal challenges that demand concertedresponses. The humanism that is emerging todayhas to provide a framework for our commonthoughts and reflections on global issues.

And, beyond the theory, humanist values have,above all, to be translated into practice, in everyfacet of human activity. The adoption of theMillennium Development Goals in 2000constitutes a humanist agenda par excellence. Acentral preoccupation is the promotion ofwomen’s rights and gender equality. Humanismtoday also has a feminine side.

Humanist values form the very foundations ofthe philosophy of UNESCO. Written into its

constitution, they have been guiding the actionsof our Organization for 65 years, in thepromotion of a peace that is “founded upon theintellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.”

Building a responsible world of solidarity is along-term endeavour that has to draw on all thecreative forces of humanity. Culture, education,philosophy, science, information technology, law,and international cooperation provide us withthe means. Building the ramparts of humandignity in everyday life is not a Utopian quest.Humanism is a promise we must all keep.

I Irina Bokova, Director-General ofUNESCO, at theOrganization'sheadquarters, inFebruary 2010, duringthe first meeting of theHigh Level Panel onPeace and Dialoguebetween Cultures. InMarch 2011, the Panelmet again at the UNheadquarters in NewYork, to discuss NewHumanism for the 21st

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Beyond the theory, humanist values

have above all to be translated into

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Humanism is, amongst other things, the claim orintuition that all humans have somethingfundamental in common, and that thismandates equal entitlement to dignity andrespect. This, however, does not serve todistinguish humanism from other doctrines andunderstandings, including religious ones, whichtreat all humans as sharing a commonality (animmortal soul, etc) which commands respect.

What historically distinguished humanismfrom the many other affirmations of humandignity and worth was the specific form that thisaffirmation took; in particular, two supporting orbuttressing arguments which, in affirminghuman equality and dignity, give thisaffirmation its distinctively ‘humanist’ cast. Theseare, first, that human worth is affirmedindependently of god(s), and more generally,that ‘man’ replaces god as the measure of allthings. Second, that what all humans have incommon at once consists of, resides in, and canonly be discovered through, a singularrationality.

Thus understood, humanism is not simply aRenaissance phenomenon, but something thatcomes to full flower in the Enlightenment, in theform of the idea of a universal humanity and asingular Reason.

In this essay, I ask whether the affirmation ofhuman commonality and worth is best securedby an anthropological understanding of theworld, and by the search for a singular rationality.In short, is the aspiration to affirm humancommonality and dignity best served byhumanism?

Man at the centre of the universe

Edward Said1 declares that the ‘core’ ofhumanism is the secular notion that thehistorical world is made by men and women, andnot by God, and that it can be understoodrationally. At the core of humanism, then, is aphilosophical anthropology, which in accordingcentrality to man diminishes (though it does notnecessarily eliminate) the role accorded togod(s). Once the purposes and the acts of godsexplained the world of men; with humanism, tounderstand the gods of men you have tounderstand the men, for their gods are thefantastical creation of their minds.

If the centrality accorded to Man as maker ofmeanings and purposes involves a diminution ofthe role once accorded to god(s), it also involvesa separation, a distinction, between a humanworld and a non-human one. There are twoworlds, one of impersonal processes and laws,the other of human intentions and meanings.

Nature is not a realm of purposes andmeanings, and so to gain knowledge of nature isto gain understanding of the impersonal andoften lawlike forces that shape it; knowledge ofthe historical or cultural world is knowledge ofpurposes and meanings, for the historical worldis where the meanings and purposes of men areapparent in the traces they leave behind.Knowledge of nature, the preserve of the naturalsciences, can lead to mastery of natural forces;knowledge of the historical world, the preserveof the human and humanist sciences, leads toself-knowledge.

Humanism replaces a view of a single worldshot through with meaning and purpose, inwhich the purposes and designs of nature areprefigured and reflected in the social world, withtwo worlds, one devoid of meaning and purpose,and the other constituted of the meanings andpurposes humans have given their world indifferent times and places.

humanism going?

SANJAY SETH

At the heart of the notion of

humanism is that something that

we all share and which sanctions

our aspirations towards equality,

despite our differences. The

Enlightenment philosophers

looked for it in the crucible of a

singular rationality; today we

need to search at the crossroads of

different visions of morality.

Where is


K Part of the cycle, 'TheoriaSacra' by French painter andsculptor Richard Texier,reproduced with the kindpermission of the artist.www.richardtexier.com

There have always been critics of thesepresumptions, including Hamann2, Kierkegaard3,

Adorno4, Horkheimer5, and Heidegger6. In thenon-Western world, just as there were manywho accepted and celebrated the values thatwere part of western humanism, there were alsoalways those, like Gandhi7, Césaire8 and Fanon9,who were critics of a ‘civilisation’ that inpurporting to exalt Man frequently degradedmen. Nonetheless, it is the account of the birthof this philosophical anthropology delivered bythose who are the progeny of it that has beendominant, and this account celebrates itsancestry.

I suggest, however, that circumstances havechanged such that a critical reconsideration ofthis defining aspect of humanism is required.What has changed is, above all, anenvironmental crisis that calls into question theabsolute privileging of humans, as well as thesharp distinction between man and nature, thatare characteristic of traditional humanism (seepp. 34-35). It is not only and obviously that ourprivileging of man may have something to dowith the despoliation of the conditions thatmake human life sustainable, but also that thevery distinction between the world that menmake and the world that exists independently ofthem is in the process of collapsing. With globalwarming and the mass extinction of species,humans have become geological, and not (asbefore) simply biological agents.

‘What has changed is, above all, an

environmental crisis that calls into

question the absolute privileging of

humans, as well as the sharp distinction

between man and nature, that are

characteristic of traditional humanism.”

1. Edward Saïd [1935-2003], Palestinian American literarytheorist and founding figure in postcolonial studies. Author ofOrientalism (1978) and Humanism and Democratic Criticism(2004.)2. Johann Georg Hamann [1730-1788], German philosopher,friend and intellectual opponent of Immanuel Kant. He wasconvinced that faith and belief, rather than knowledge,determine human actions.3. Søren Kierkegaard [1813-1855], Danish Christianphilosopher, known as the Father of Existentialism.4. Theodor Adorno [1903-1969], German philosopher andsocial critic, and member, with Horkheimer and others, of theFrankfurt School of social theory and philosophy. 5. Max Horkheimer [1895–1973], German philosopher andsociologist, best known for his “critical theory” that combinedMarxist-oriented political philosophy with social and culturalanalysis informed by empirical research. He co-authored withTheodor Adorno Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947). 6. Martin Heidegger [1889-1976], German philosopher, knownfor his phenomenological exploration of the question of being,and for his critique of philosophical humanism. Read: TheQuestion Concerning Technology and Other Essays , HarperTorchbooks,1977; “Letter on Humanism”, in Basic Writings, 1993.7. Mahatma Gandhi [1869-1948], political and ideologicalleader, father of the Indian nation. His philosophy of nonviolentresistance inspired movements for civil rights and freedomacross the world.8. Aimé Césaire [1913-2008], French poet from Martinique, oneof the founders of the Négritude movement. Read: Discourse oncolonialism, Monthly Review Press, 2000.9. Frantz Fanon [1925-1961] French psychiatrist fromMartinique, active member of the Algerian struggle forindependence. Well known as a thinker on the issue ofdecolonization. Read: The Wretched of the Earth, Grove Press,1963.©

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The Enlightenment project

If anthropology (and a consequent divisionbetween nature and society) is one definingelement of humanism, the conviction that whatall humans have in common resides in, and canonly be discovered through a singular rationality,is another. The project to establish this was at theheart of the Enlightenment.In his “Was ist Aufklärung” Kant10 famouslydefined Enlightenment as mankind coming tomaturity through the exercise of its reason. But ifthe pre-modern notion of a morally ordered andpurposive universe had been (in Weber’s laterphrase11) ‘disenchanted’; if tradition and customno longer seemed the source of Reason, orindeed, even reasonable; and if Hume’s scepticalchallenge12 raised the possibility of as manyreasons as there are persons; then what Reasonwas this, and whose Reason?

The most enduring answer to this puzzle wasoffered by Kant. Its power lay, above all else, inthe argument Kant called ‘transcendental’.Instead of ‘dogmatically’ asserting certainpropositions to be true, or seeking to identify, onempirical grounds, a set of rational principlescommon to all men, Kant instead asked whatsort of beings we had to be to have cognitionsand perceptions in the first place. Thetranscendental question allowed Kant to deduceuniversal categories of Reason which were notderived from human experience, which is varied,but was the basis for our having any experiencein the first place. Kant managed to make apowerful argument for a Reason that wasuniversal, because notwithstanding the immensevariety of human experience, moralities andnotions of beauty, it was the precondition forhumans having any sort of experience, moralityor conception of beauty.

Modern knowledge, as elaborated anddefended by Kant and by the Enlightenmentmore generally, could now stake a claim tohaving validated or proven itself, thus revealingall earlier knowledge to have been speculation ordogma. And of course this singular Reason,which does not vary from culture to culture,proved that all humans, irrespective of thedifferences among them, were to be treated asends in themselves, and not means.

It is testimony to the vitality of the line ofargument initiated by Kant that the mostsophisticated contemporary attempts to salvageor retrieve the Enlightenment project, whileacknowledging, as they must, that Reason isinseparably bound with interests, culture andpower, all do so by returning to Kant. Thecriticism that can be levelled at such arguments,unsurprisingly, is similar to the criticism that waslevelled at Kant by his contemporaries andimmediate successors, namely that such proofspresuppose what needs to be proven.

The example of the political philosopherJohn Rawls13 is especially instructive. In his ATheory of Justice and some subsequent worksRawls sought to draw upon Kant to develop atheory of justice (see pp. 16-18) that would begrounded upon a few rationally defensibleprinciples that would be acknowledged byalmost all. In later works, he acknowledges thathis theory of justice, and his defence ofliberalism, already presuppose a certain kind ofpublic political culture, one shaped by the Warsof Religion in Europe, by the separation ofpolitics from religion thereafter, and so on. Theaim of his later theory is thus to elaborate apragmatic and procedural defence of a justicewhich is acknowledged to be Western andliberal, and cannot be passed off as ‘universal’.(Rawls 1995 and 1996).

That which Rawls reluctantly comes to‘concede’ has been levelled as an accusation byothers, who have charged that Reason alwaysturns out to be not a placeless universal, butEuropean. Here are their arguments: What wehave learned to call Reason is not rationality assuch, but a historically and culturally specific wayof constructing and construing the world.Moreover, treating this tradition as universal hasbeen an essential part of the story of, andjustification for, colonialism. Armed with thecertainty that it possessed nothing less thanuniversal Reason, Europe could proceed with itscolonial conquests, no longer principally in thename of bringing the true word of god to theheathen, but rather in the name of bringingEnlightenment and civilization to the benighted.What were being encountered were not othertraditions of reasoning and other ways of beingin the world, but unreason. The institutions andpractices that constituted colonialism, or camein its wake, were now seen to be educating thecolonized, so that they too might one day reachtheir maturity and be able to participate in andexercise the Reason that was to be Europe’s giftto them.

Lest there be any confusion, let me be veryclear that I am not suggesting that theintellectual and cultural tradition of modern

10. Immanuel Kant [1724-1804], German philosopher and apivotal figure in modern philosophy. “Answering the Question:What Is Enlightenment?” is the title of an essay published in theBerlinische Monatsschrift (Berlin Monthly), in 1784.11. Max Weber [1864-1920], German sociologist andeconomist.12. David Hume [1711-1776], one of the most importantfigures in the history of Western philosophy and the ScottishEnlightenment. Known especially for his philosophicalempiricism and scepticism.13. John Rawls [1921-2002], political philosopher. His book ATheory of Justice (1971), is considered as one of the primarytexts in contemporary political philosophy. Quoted works:“Justice as Fairness: Political Not Metaphysical” in Philosophyand Public Affairs, 1995; Political Liberalism, Columbia UniversityPress, 1996.

Modern

knowledge, as

elaborated and

defended by Kant

and by the

Enlightenment

more generally,

could now stake a

claim to having

validated or

proven itself, thus

revealing all

earlier knowledge

to have been

speculation or

dogma. And of

course this

singular Reason,

which does not

vary from culture

to culture, proved

that all humans,

irrespective of the

differences among

them, were to be

treated as ends in

themselves, and

not means.


Sanjay Seth (India), held teaching or

research positions in Sydney,

Melbourne (Australia) and Tokyo

(Japan), before joining Goldsmiths,

University of London (United

Kingdom) in 2007, where he is

Professor and Head of Politics and

co-Director of the Centre for

Postcolonial Studies.


J “Homo Mundo”, sculpture by French artist,Richard Texier, reproduced by kind permission

of the author.www.richardtexier.com

Europe was the only one to think that it wasright and all others wrong, or the onlyone that has sought to impose itsvision on others. Neither the modernage nor Europe has had a monopolyon arrogance or dogmatism. What Iam suggesting is that theEnlightenment heritage – theEuropean conviction in a contextand tradition-free Reason – made itpossible for Europe to conquer andrule not in the name of a traditionthat claimed to be superior to allothers, but in the name of somethingthat did not see itself as a tradition at all.This was a knowledge which claimed notonly to be true, but declared itself to bededuced from nothing less thanReason itself, rather than beinggrounded in the ideals and practicesof real historical communities.

In the era after decolonization,it should however be all too clearthat what humans have incommon, and what may allow usto ‘ground’ their claims to dignityand respect, neither resides in norcan be discovered by a singularReason. All attempts to do so haveended up, whether wittingly orunwittingly, by substituting ‘European’or ‘Western’ for ‘human’. The idea of asingular Reason, although deeplyrooted in Western culture andthought, cannot be sustained, andneeds to be critically re-examined.

New avenues to explore

I began this essay by suggestingthat humanism consists of anaffirmation that all humans,notwithstanding their manydifferences, have somethingimportant in common, andthus that all humans shouldbe equally accorded respectand dignity; and that thisrests upon two supportingarguments/presumptions.One of these is aphilosophicalanthropology, whichmakes the ‘discovery’that men are the sourceof meanings and values,not gods, and discoversalso a domain ofnature that is devoid ofmeaning and purpose,an inert object that issubject to human

knowledge and manipulation. The second isthe presumption that the counterpart of a

common humanity is a singular Reason. I have gone on to argue that

neither of these arguments orpresumptions can be sustained; theywere never true, and are moredemonstrably untrue today thanever before. These were not ‘truths’finally discovered, but rather havebeen a particular way of construing

and constructing the world. As such,they have been the source of many

human achievements; but they have alsoentailed great costs, costs which areespecially apparent today, as the exaltationof man despoils that which is the verycondition for any sort of human life; as thedistinction between the human and thenatural collapses; and as it becomes

increasingly clear that what all humanshave in common neither resides in, nor is

to be discovered through, the search for asingular Reason that abstracts from the

differences that characterise humankind. The affirmation of human commonality

and dignity is something that is no less urgenttoday than at any time before. Because such anaffirmation can plausibly be seen as being, insome sense, at the core of humanism, wecannot reject humanism, but rather need tore-found and to reinterpret it. I suggest thata reinterpreted and viable humanism, willbe one in which our moral intuitionsregarding human commonality and dignityno longer rest upon a questionableanthropocentrism or on dubious claims toa universal Reason. I further suggest thatsuch a reinterpretation will be theproduct of a dialogue between differentcivilizations and moral perspectives,rather than a declaration that one moralperspective (that of the modern West) isthe correct one. ■

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For many people in the Bantu language countries of Africa, the term Ubuntu/bothoencapsulates all the qualities of a respected member of society. But the term is also used

by Africanist scholars as a critique of colonialist doctrine and even forms the core of a

humanist ideology upon which the new democratic South Africa is constructed.

I am because

T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R . O C T O B E R D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 1 . 1 1

MICHAEL ONYEBUCHI EZE

Ask anyone on the streets of Harare,Johannesburg, Lusaka or Lilongwe (in Southernand Eastern Africa) what they understand byUbuntu/botho and they will probably list thevirtues to which a person in these societies isexpected to aspire – such as compassion,generosity, honesty, magnanimity, empathy,understanding, forgiveness and the ability toshare. Indeed, Ubuntu/botho (or the localequivalent in the various Bantu languagegroups)1 is understood as the very definition of‘person’ or ‘personhood’. But the termUbuntu/botho impregnates societies in theregion to a much greater extent, forming the

basis for communitarian ethics, discourses onidentity and even a bourgeoning pan-Africanideology.

In terms of contemporary Africanistdiscourse, though, Ubuntu/botho is bestunderstood as a critique of the logic ofcolonialism – the process of attempting to“humanize” or “civilize” non-Western culturesthrough colonization. Colonialism was apowerful and condescending narrative thatthrived through a pretext of “humanizing” or“civilizing” non-Western peoples. Theconsequences of this false doctrine of humanismwere to become the bedrock of colonial practicesin Africa, as an institutionalized form of socialDarwinism2 nurtured by racialist capitalism.

Racialist capitalism is a theory in which aperson’s race determines his or her life choices orpotential, like the kind of job to have, where tolive, the kind of person to marry, the kind ofschool to attend, and so on. The effects of thistheory on the South African experience can beseen in the many draconian laws aimed atcurbing the potentialities of the black person.This system motivated the 1913 Land Act thatforbade blacks from buying lands in South Africa;the colour bar of 1918; the Bantu Education Actof 1953 which abolished the teaching of Africanhistory; the job Reservation Act which gavepriority to whites in matters of employment; thevarious segregation policies from as early as 1907that restricted the movement of blacks andreduced them to mere instruments of labour.

As early as 1858, the South African-Boerconstitution had already ruled out any form ofequality between blacks and whites in matters ofState or Church. The prevailing argument wasthat forced labour was ordained by God as adivine privilege for the white race to claimauthority of domination over blacks, as the thenpresident of the South-African Republic, PaulKruger, informed his Volksraad [Peoples’ Council]in August 1897 – “Our constitution wants noequality and equality is also against the Bible,because social classes were also applied by God.”And, later, in his Memoirs, he wrote: “…wherethere were only a handful of white men to keephundreds of thousands of blacks in order,severity was essential. The black man had to be

1. The term Ubuntu/botho is generally derived from avernacular mode of referring to a ‘person’ among the peoplesof southern, eastern, (some western) and central Africa,generally referred to as the Bantu language groups. The Shonacall a ‘person’ in the singular munhu and in the plural vanhu.The Zulu, Xhosa, and Ndebele call a ‘person’ umuntu in thesingular and abantu in the plural. The Sotho and Tswana referto a ‘person’ as muthu in the singular and bathu in the plural.2. A derivative of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection,Social Darwinism means that stronger nations have the moralauthority or even an obligation to conquer, subjugate anddominate weaker nations. It is simply the natural order ofthings.

Colonialism was a

powerful and

condescending

narrative that

thrived through a

pretext of

“humanizing” or

“civilizing” non-

Western peoples.

The consequences

of this false

doctrine of

humanism were

to become the

bedrock of

colonial practices

in Africa, as an

institutionalized

form of social

Darwinism

nurtured by

racialist

capitalism.

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taught that he came second, that he belongs tothe inferior class which must obey and learn.”

This mindset would form the politicalblueprint for South Africa’s colonial history andwas the foundation upon which the new SouthAfrica gained national sovereignty. But if theSouth African colonial state had been foundedupon the ideology of social Darwinism, whatshould be the ideological foundation of the new,democratic, independent state? This is whereUbuntu/botho comes in.

As a public discourse, Ubuntu/botho hasgained recognition as a peculiar form of Africanhumanism, encapsulated in the following Bantuaphorisms, like Motho ke motho ka batho babang;Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (a person is aperson through other people). In other words, ahuman being achieves humanity through his orher relations with other human beings. But thisunderstanding does not need to generate anoppressive structure, where the individual loseshis or her autonomy in an attempt to maintain arelationship with an ‘other’.

Many Africanist scholars would describeUbuntu/botho as an arbitrary communitarianethics that admits the individual’s good andwelfare only as a secondary necessity. But acritical reading of this condition of relationshipto others might suggest that a person’s humanityflourishes through a process of relation anddistance, of uniqueness and difference. Arealization of the subjective gifts (of humanity)we bear to each other motivates anunconditional desire to view and harness otherpeople’s uniqueness and difference, not as athreat but as a complement to one’s ownhumanity. The Christian African philosopher, J. S.Mbiti’s now classic phrase, “I am, because we are;and since we are therefore I am”, captures a keyfeature of this kind of subjective formationthrough relation and distance. Mbiti subscribesto an affirmation of human subjectivity that putscommunitarian good before individual good. Idisagree, however, with this prioritizing of thecommunity over the individual. Neither is prior.The relation with the ‘other’ is one of subjectiveequality, where the mutual recognition of ourdifferent but equal humanity opens the door tounconditional tolerance and a deep appreciationof the ‘other’ as an embedded gift that enrichesone’s humanity.

A unifying ideology?

Within the contemporary history of South Africa,there are three main ways in which Ubuntu hasbeen understood:

First is the assumption that Ubuntu is merelyan anachronistic philosophy produced by Africanacademics. Here Ubuntu functions as analternative narrative to replace colonial logic, adesperate discourse of identity – a

sledgehammer kind of ethics that helps us todeal with the traumas of modernity andglobalization. The argument is that, since wecannot positively identify Ubuntu as an authentichistorical culture, it remains an inventeddiscourse, in an alien format. Being ‘invented’,Ubuntu is more or less an ‘empty concept’through which Africanist academics perform asupple manoeuvre of identity formation using an‘imported’ cultural nationalism. Evidence issought from different African cultural traditionsto homogenize a range of values that are thenrepresented as Ubuntu. Ubuntu is thusgeneralized as a universal African value,irrespective of the actual historical context of thesocieties that practice it. However, Ubuntu doesnot need to generate a homogenous historicity3

to become an authentic African value. Andneither does a lack of historical authenticitydeprive Ubuntu of such normative legitimacy.

The second conjecture is that Ubuntu has thecharacter of an ideology, appropriated forpolitical ends, as was evident in its applicationduring the Truth and Reconciliation Commission(TRC), and the initial draft constitution of SouthAfrica. As an ideology it can be applied as a‘magic wand’ to deal with every emergent socialcrisis. And as an ideology, its usage can also beabused and ceases to be an ethical value,becoming a value-commodity which is thenappropriated to create a positive corporate orbrand image, as in ‘Ubuntu security’, ‘Ubunturestaurant’, ‘Ubuntu linux’, ‘Ubuntu cola’, etc.

The third sequence is a vision of history inwhich Ubuntu/botho is considered within thehistorical context in which it emerged. Beinghistorical, it also gains an emotional and ethicallegitimacy, since it is signified as a good thatremains internal to the practices of a communitywhere Ubuntu/botho values are invoked.

The question, then, is whetherUbuntu/botho, construed as an ideology,precludes all possibilities of creative historicity?4

My answer is no! The context in whichUbuntu/botho emerged (even as an ideology) inthe political history of South Africa was anattempt to configure a theory of politicalsuccession that is consistent with the vision of an

3. The idea that African historiography is a single historicalnarrative irrespective of many cultures, people(s) and traditionsthat inhabit the geographical place called Africa. 4. Creative historicity argues that history is neither a fixation onthe past nor a mere chronology of events. Good history is opento multiple influences and contexts.

A beach for Whites only inCape Town, South Africa, inJanuary 1970

As a public discourse, Ubuntu/botho

has gained recognition as a peculiar

form of African humanism.

Everyday life underApartheid

emergent national imaginary. Irrespective of itsdoubtful origins, the moment at whichUbuntu/botho became a public virtue that iseasily recognized by all South Africans,constitutes its historicity. The lack of authentichistorical origins (in written records, or as anuanced cultural dogma) does not neutralize itscredibility.

Understood as a narrative of a new nationalconsciousness, Ubuntu not only offers anemotional legitimacy to displace the old politicalorder; it also gives the new political order asense of identity and political purpose. While theold order thrived on a notion of citizenshipbased on discrimination and difference, the newregime attempted to gain legitimacy by tryingto forge a notion of democratic citizenship thatthrives through inclusion and civic virtues. Butthe new dispensation has to be based on asystem that excludes the oppressive structuresof the past, and adopts instead a system ofvalues that is built on a notion of rights and theunconditional dignity of the human person. Atthis point, the ‘notion’ of Ubuntu assumes anethical character in forging a new sense ofnational identity.

Critics of the use of Ubuntu as a unifyingideology argue that it is merely an incoherent,invented ethics with no history. But ideologiesdo not predate history; they emerge as aresponse to specific issues within a historicalepoch, challenging, correcting or displacing amindset (or old ideology). The challenge, then, isto see whether Ubuntu can be rehabilitated asan ideology, focusing primarily on its normativeessence, or whether the lack of historicity willalways deny it any real substance.

At the same time, the practice of the humanvirtues through which a Bantu becomes aMunhu, Umuntu, or a Muntu (etc) is not external,but internal to the context where it is practiced.Yet, Ubuntu has been able to transcend thismoral relativism by generating an ethicalpractice, which all South Africans, irrespective oftheir socio-cultural background, have judged tobe good. This evaluative norm was to becomethe inspiration for building the new SouthAfrica, guarded by the need for reconciliationand not division; forgiveness, not resentment;understanding, not vengeance; and ubuntu, notvictimization (see the Truth and ReconciliationCommission Documents of South Africa). Thesewere time-honoured values to which mostSouth Africans already aspired, paving the wayfor a new national imaginary. And this givesUbuntu its moral authority. ■

Michael Onyebuchi Eze is a Nigerian-American

visiting research scholar at the Center for African

Studies at Stanford University, (USA). He received

his PhD in Intellectual History from Universität

Witten-Herdecke (Germany) and taught African

studies at the universities of Augsburg and

Frankfurt. He is author of two books, The Politics of

History in Contemporary Africa and Intellectual

History in Contemporary South Africa (Palgrave-

Macmillan, 2010).

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respective communities and cultures,often diasporic, multilingual, andintercultural.

Because humanism is no longersolely the product of Europeanmonarchies and empires whose colonialprojects grounded their ideologicalimperatives in Enlightenment ideals;because it no longer defines the nationexclusively as a monocultural,monolingual construct, it is “making acomeback” as a “newer variant, one thatreprises an earlier humanism in whichwhat is common to humans is notrationality but the ontological fact ofmortality, not the capacity to reason butvulnerability to suffering.”3

human being and a certain kind ofsociety, namely that of western culturalvalues.

The discrepancy between thepromise of humanism and itsinstrumental role in colonialism,imperialism, and the slave trade,generated a severe critique of humanismand its ethically and politicallycontradicting principles that reached aclimax in the 1960s. This systematicdeconstruction of humanism as anincontestable universal1 (see pp. 6-9)has intensified the need to reconfigurehumanism from the perspective ofthose who were “only recentlyrecognized as humans”2 and their

Two world wars, concentration camps,sweat shops, and the other apparatus ofglobal capitalism whatever theirqualifying differences, are definingevents of the twentieth century ashaving a very dark history. The victimsof anticolonial and civil wars must alsobe factored in. This sombre tableau isevidence of the destructive potentialthat was lurking beneath the cloaks ofEnlightenment philosophers once theirhumanistic discourses weretransformed into an ideologicalprivilege of only a certain kind of

An ongoing series of crises and a growing number of refugees have transformed the socio-

cultural landscape of the contemporary world. To address the challenges these changes

have wrought, a new kind of humanism is required– one capable of responding to the

needs of communities made up of different cultures that are forever multiplying.

What happened

to hospitality?

ASIMINA KARAVANTA

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J Demonstration in support of illegal migrantworkers. France, 2009

cultures. These ideas prompted heateddebate after they appeared in hisposthumously published Humanism andDemocratic Criticism. For Said, as forothers, humanism, “as the exertion ofone’s faculties in language in order tounderstand, reinterpret, and grapplewith the products of language inhistory, other languages, and otherhistories,” […] “is not a way ofconsolidating and affirming what ‘we’have always known and felt, but rather ameans of questioning, upsetting, andreformulating so much of what ispresented to us as ‘commodified’,packaged, uncontroversial, anduncritically codified certainties.”

The need to engage the ‘complexityof history’ by learning how to rememberthe forgetting of those constituenciesand their heretofore marginalized andrejected cultures has become animperative in the present age. If the 20th

century is the “age of exilicconsciousness,” as Said avers at the endof Culture and Imperialism,5 the 21st

century is the age of anthropos, that is,of the human species. Anthropos means:having a human face.

Intercultural society

The ancient Greeks believed the humanbeing’s specificity in relation to otherspecies was that he lived in a societyruled by law, in other words, in a citystate (polis, in Greek). The philosopherAristotle [4th century BCE] developedthe idea of human beings as “politicalanimals” dwelling in the city [biospoliticos in Greek]. Closer to our timethe German-born Americanphilosopher Hannah Arendt hasdepicted the modern day refugee as abios politicos par excellence, but onebereft of a polis.

Humanism as a necessity

In view of the growing number ofrefugees and stateless people, of thesuccessive economic and political crises,the rise of fundamentalisms,xenophobia and new forms of racism,and the subsequent revolts of massesdemanding democracy, humanismemerges as part of the “need” – in thewords of the Palestinian-Americanwriter Edward Said (1935-2003) − for“deintoxicated, sober histories thatmake evident the multiplicity andcomplexity of history without allowingone to conclude that it moves forwardimpersonally, according to lawsdetermined either by the divine or bythe powerful.”4

Said is known for having analyzedthe historical, philosophical and literaryvalues of Western humanism; he hasstudied Western humanism’s violentideological impact on non-Western

Today, the political and economiccrises raging in the world are not onlyrapidly increasing the numbers ofrefugees but also stripping thoserecognized as citizens of a long-established right to work and a right toeducation. The citizen now becomes ana-polis citizen, one who is beingdeprived of rights. In the squares ofMadrid, Cairo and Athens, to mentiononly a few recent cases of mass revolt,the stateless refugee meets the a-poliscitizen. Even if their demands aredifferent, they are bound by their sharedclaims to a democratic ideal thatrecognizes the anthropos as its first andmost fundamental principle. Despite thedifferences in their political andeconomic positions, both the statelessrefugee and the a-polis citizen requirethat a new polis be configured. In thisnew polis, where diversity of languages,traditions and myths constitute a dailyreality, the practice of translation andtransculturation are practices of survival.

One of humanism’s currentchallenges is how to develop conditionsfavourable to intercultural societies. Inother words, how to create societies

1. See Judith Butler, Ernest Laclau and Savoj Žižek,Contingency, Hegemony, Universality. London & NewYork: Verso, 2000.2. See contribution of Joan Anim-Addo, “Towards aPost-Western Humanism Made to the Measure ofThose Recently Recognized as Human.” Edward Saidand Jacques Derrida: Reconstellating Humanism andthe Global Hybrid. Eds. Mina Karavanta and NinaMorgan. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press,2008. 250-274. 3. Honig, Bonnie. “Antigone’s Two Laws: GreekTragedy and the Politics of Humanism.” New LiteraryHistory, 41.1 (2010): 1-33.4. Said, Edward, Humanism and DemocraticCriticism, New York: Columbia University Press,2004.5. Said, Edward, Culture and Imperialism, VintageBooks, 1993.

K Exercise in a Lebanese secondary school to teachabout dialogue, tolerance and peace, in 2003.

Photo : Bassam Jamalelddine © UNESCO/Aspnet

“Only where things can be seen

by many in a variety of aspects

without changing their identity,

so that those who are gathered

around them know they see

sameness in utter diversity, can

worldly reality truly and reliably

appear.”

Hannah Arendt


6. Derrida, Jacques. Of Hospitality. Trans. RachelBowlby. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000.7. Butler Judith. Precarious Life. The Powers ofMourning and Violence. London & New York: Verso,2004.

Asimina Karavanta holds a

doctorate in comparative literature

and teaches at the University of

Athens. She is specialized in

postcolonial literatures and theories,

and is the co-author with Nina Mogan

of Edward Said and Jacques Derrida:

Reconstellating Humanism and the

Global Hybrid, Cambridge Scholars

Publishing, 2008.

that will allow both the refugee and thenative born citizen to establish exchangesthat are at once durable and productive.When viewed as a common field sharedby multiple alliances and potentialaffiliations, this intercultural societypresupposes a radical reconfiguration ofthe institutions and social, educationaland political discourses that should beaddressing the needs of expandingintercultural communities in the nation-states and their supranational formations.

Interculturality is a condition, bothontological and political, that hasalready transformed the nation-statefrom within. But for human beings to besocially and politically recognized assingular yet also equal, it is necessary toreform education so as to enable theblossoming of an intercultural learningand living that is − in the words ofFrench philosopher Jacques Derrida −continuously opening the laws ofhospitality to the foreigner to whom“hospitality is due.”6

Building this kind of humanism,hospitable to the one who remains aforeign anthropos, and which byreconstituting its laws and discourses,speaks to her/his often radicallydifferent ontological and politicalcondition is the task of the humanitiestoday. According to the Americanfeminist scholar Judith Butler, this task is“no doubt to return us to the humanwhere we do not expect to find it, in itsfrailty and at the limits of its capacity tomake sense.”7 In other words, it is tothink of the human as the anthroposalways already at stake, always alreadyat risk, the face whose gaze is fixed onus in an open and persistent invitationfor justice on a planetary scale. ■

Justice

Despite the numerous treaties,agreements and international summitmeetings of the twentieth century, andthe ongoing goal of combating povertyand reducing inequality in the world,one fact is clear: far from declining,poverty continues to grow. Accordingto the World Bank, 1.4 billion peoplewere living below the poverty level in2008, surviving on less than $1.25 perday, per person. The planet nowsupports nearly 7 billion people, whichmeans that 20 per cent of the world’spopulation do not have sufficientresources to meet basic needs; thesepeople suffer inhumane treatment andare doomed to subsist in conditions ofsocial, economic and political exclusion.

There is a theory in moralphilosophy that deals directly withpoverty and inequality: ‘distributivejustice’. This concept examines ways toalter the principles governing thedistribution of goods and resources,when these principles do not respectthe rights, worth and needs of eachperson.

The various facets of this theoryarise from the particular vision of thehuman being that underpins one policyof distribution rather than another. For

example, an approach that views themost underprivileged people aspassive, unable to set goals forthemselves and determine their ownneeds, gives rise to paternalisticpolicies. Those receiving the distributedbenefits cannot voice their opinions norhave any power over their essentialrights, as others are deciding in theirstead. This occurs frequently in manycountries. In Mexico, for example, aspart of a social housing programme,the government decided to put alaundry room into every house. Butwomen were used to taking theirwashing down to the river. They turnedthe laundry rooms into family shrines,where their offerings ended upblocking the pipes.

Another version of distributivejustice defines individuals essentially aseconomic agents seeking to ‘maximizeoutcome,’ in other words, to boost theirincome and/or their purchasing power.Proponents of this theory, whichmeasures costs in monetary units andresults in terms of ‘units of outcome,’push for policies geared towardincreasing the units of outcome for themost impoverished, to improve theirwell being and to mitigate theirpoverty. In this case, priorities are setaccording to their value for money. Forexample, in the USA a decision wastaken regarding medical care thatfavoured State funding for operationsto remove tonsils, rather than for renaldialysis, even though dialysis patientsare far more seriously ill. The decisionmeant reaching a larger number ofpeople at lesser cost.

If, however, we conceive ofindividuals not only as means but alsoas ends, the ensuing distributionpolicies must foster better economicand social conditions so that thebeneficiaries can work towardachieving their life goals. This idea isbased on the concept of the humanbeing as an autonomous and worthyindividual, able to choose from amongthe various options at hand. This iscertainly the most ethical and humanistposition offered by distributive justice.The Mexican “Progresa” programme isan example. Rather than offering foodhandouts, it runs education andinformation campaigns on health andnutrition and allocates subsidies tofamilies, leaving them free to decidehow to use the money.

Global justice

That being so, should distributivejustice opt for the individual or thesocial group as the unit of distribution?This question pitches liberal thinkers,who have adopted an egalitarianposition, against those who promotemore communitarian theories. Thelatter maintain that individual-basedsocial policies are deficient in that theyfail to take into account the fact thathuman beings do not live in isolation,but are an inseparable part of a cultureor social group that defines theiridentity. Hence the importance, forcommunitarian theorists, of factoring inthe history and peculiarities of eachcommunity — as each social group

Hundreds of millions of people suffer from hardship and

poverty throughout the world, a situation that sanctions a

philosophical approach promoting distributive justice. This

theory underpins a truly humanist intervention when it is

dispensed with respect for the dignity of the individual, his

or her autonomy and personal responsibility.

dignity

PAULETTE DIETERLEN

and

J Outside the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court, inBrasilia, 1998© UNESCO/Ivaldo Alves

If, however, we conceive of

individuals not only as means but

also as ends, the ensuing

distribution policies must foster

better economic and social

conditions so that the

beneficiaries can work toward

achieving their life goals. This idea

is based on the concept of the

human being as an autonomous

and worthy individual, able to

choose from among the various

options at hand.



develops specific forms of production,redistribution and consumption ofgoods and services.

Proponents of individual-baseddistributive justice maintain thatcommunities are not uniform in natureand that it is therefore impossible tomeet the criteria of distribution withoutgiving priority to the individuals whoform these communities.

Yet a third version of distributivejustice exists, known as ‘global justice.’This theory transcends the traditionalconcept of the nation-state, focusinginstead on the problems posed bypoverty and inequality on a worldwidescale. Theorists of global justice supporta system of international institutionsresponsible for redressing injusticescommitted against individuals asresidents of the planet, rather than asmembers of a community, or citizens ina particular country.

From a humanist viewpoint, thesethree theories — individual,communitarian and global — share thesame goal: to implement policies ofdistributive justice, by viewing peopleas worthy individuals capable ofexercising their own autonomy. TheMexican government is currently usingincentives as part of its policies tocombat poverty – people are able toexpress their needs and choose whatseems to them most essential. Thishelps to strengthen the beneficiaries’sense of responsibility and their abilityto make decisions.

If the person, in and of him- orherself, forms the cornerstone of thisphilosophy, and if policies to improvequality of life with decent conditions ofequality and respect for rights areproposed, distributive justice can besaid to comply with the values ofhumanism. ■

In the 1960s social movements all aroundthe globe started to modify theiragendas. Instead of looking for universalsolutions — which were increasinglyidentified with totalitarian ambitions —they began to pay more attention to therecognition of cultural, ethnic and sexualdifferences and identities. The studentprotests were perhaps the mostemblematic sign of a profoundreassessment of the role that cultureplays in human life that was also beingplayed out in theoretical debates and inpolitics throughout the 1960s and 70s.Simultaneously, intellectual andacademic debates began to be interestedmore in culture and initiated what todayis widely recognized as a ‘cultural turn’ inthe social sciences and humanities.1

This ‘cultural turn’ strengthened andpropagated a number of values,including cultural pluralism and an

awareness that, in our modern world, itis important to reflect upon thecoexistence of distinct cultures andforms of life, while at the same timeresisting the temptation to reduce thisplurality once more to an artificial,abstract unity dominated by one set ofinterests. And this provides us with aglimpse of the critical potential of the‘cultural turn’. In contrast to the idea thatall human cultures are being propelledtowards the same evolutional end-goal(telos) — an idea that was promulgatedby the influential ‘modernizationtheories’ in the first decades after WorldWar II — the cultural turn rescues theidea that processes of civilization andculture – and their results – do notfollow a logical, predetermined path.

But, however important the culturalturn may have been, I also believe thatculturalism has given rise to a climate ofcultural relativism that is not onlydangerous but also incorrect. The errorsin these positions, though evident, havebeen ignored for a long time. One of the

Paulette Dieterlen is a Mexican

philosopher and researcher, member

of the Instituto de Investigaciones

Filosóficas at the Universidad Nacional

Autónoma de México (UNAM), and an

expert on distributive justice and

public policy. She has published,

among other books, La pobreza: un

estudio filosófico (Poverty: A

Philosophical Approach), Fondo de

Cultura Económica/Instituto de

Investigaciones Filosóficas, 2002.

Instead of looking for the universal in biological nature, a

recent humanist turn in the social sciences and humanities

is focusing on what all human beings around the globe

share, without neglecting their differences. And instead of

thinking that a universal humanist culture has to be

invented or imposed on other cultures, the new approach

believes that universal ideas and values are already present

in all cultures. It also acknowledges that people

everywhere on the planet are sharing dehumanizing

experiences – which should encourage us to consider what

it means to live a humane and dignified life.

Towards aHumanist

turn

OLIVER KOZLAREK


most obvious is that different culturesare incommensurable and cannot bereconciled, while in fact they sharemany affinities and similarities.

The work of the Germananthropologist, Christoph Antweiler,gives a spectacular account of howmany ‘norms, values and ideals’different cultures share2. Antweilersuggests that we often do not see thesesimilarities because we do not want to.However, he also suggests that if onlywe looked for similarities we would findthem. With the right attitude, Antweilertells us, we are able to see formulationsof human rights not only in the ‘West’but also in Confucianism, Buddhismand Islam. Antweiler’s main argument isthat the idea of the ‘Clash of

Civilizations’ — put forward by SamuelHuntington, and which proposes thatdifferent cultures are profoundlyincommensurable — is wrong.

Antweiler’s ideas seem to have hit anerve. We can already see signs thatculturalism is losing its energy. Manyauthors feel the need to look fornormative tendencies across cultures,not so much to deny the reality ofcultural differences, as to opposecultural relativism. The question then is:with what can we identify, as humanbeings, beyond the cultural andnational differences that separate us?Many are looking for a new orientationin some form of humanism. They seemto think that the simple fact of beinghuman grants us a new form of global

solidarity. However, I do not believethat this shared humanity is sufficient; itis too abstract.

Instead, we must engage in adialogue between cultures to discusswhat it means to live a dignified life as ahuman being. It is within and throughculture that we learn how to perceiveourselves as human beings. By studyingand comparing different cultures wecan see just how much they share. The‘humanist turn’ and the ‘cultural turn’must complement one another. Thismeans that humanism must beintercultural and involve dialogue.

Lessons from traditional humanism

All cultures and civilizations havehumanist traditions. But the ‘humanistturn’ is not a return to traditional formsof humanism. One of the problems withtraditional forms of humanism is thatthey are inspired by historicalexperiences that are no longer ours.The humanism that accompanied theEuropean Renaissance, for instance,cannot be detached from ambitions tochallenge the authority of the Church.

Another problem is that manytraditional forms of humanism areoverly linked to naturalism. Again, thehumanism of the European Renaissancecould be quoted as an example. It wasinterested in discovering the ‘nature ofMan’ in accordance with the ‘nature ofthe universe’. This tradition of naturalismis still very much alive today in variousscientific ideas that tend to reduce thehuman condition to biology. In contrastto naturalism, a new humanism needsto understand that we become humanin and through culture.

But it would be equally mistakensimply to forget about the traditionalforms of humanism that can be foundin the legacies of many differentcultures. It is in these traditions that wecan find clear evidence for the fact thathuman beings share, and have alwaysshared, very important ideas aboutwhat it means to be human. Butlearning from other traditions ofhumanism does not only mean toreaffirm what we already know. In hisbook on Humanism in East Asian

1. Doris Bachmann-Medick, Cultural Turns.Neuorientierungen in den Kulturwissenschaften,Rowohlt Verlag: 2006.2. Christoph Antweiler: Mensch und Weltkultur [Manand World Culture], Transcript Verlag, 2010.

L "Study of the proportions of the human body according to Vitruvius" by Leonardo da Vinci at the end ofthe 15th century, as reworked by Sri Lankan photographer, Janaka Dharmasena

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Oliver Kozlarek is professor of political

and social philosophy at the Institute

for Philosophical Research, Universidad

Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo

(Mexico). He was a member of the

research project on ‘Humanism in the

Age of Globalization’ from 2007 to 2009.

Since 2010 he has also been director of

the research project ‘Modernity, Critique

and Humanism’ in Mexico. He is

currently co-editor of a major book

series on Intercultural Humanism. His

books include: Humanismo en la época

de la globalización: Desafíos y horizontes

(2009) (with Jörn Rüsen), Octavio Paz:

Humanism and Critique (2009).

3. Chun-chien Huang, Humanism in East AsianConfucian Contexts, Transcript Verlag, 2010.4. Erich Fromm (1900-1980), German-bornAmerican humanist psychoanalyst, and author ofEscape from Freedom, 1941; The Art of Loving, 1956;The Sane Society, 1955.5. J.M Coetzee, South African writer, Nobel Prize inLiterature, 20036. Rubem Fonseca, Brazilian born writer7. Octavio Paz (1914-1998), Mexican writer andessayist, Nobel Prize in Literature, 19908. Theodor W. Adorno (1903 – 1969), German-bornsociologist, philosopher and musicologist9. Jörn Rüsen/Henner Laass (eds.), Humanism inIntercultural Perspective. Experiences andExpectations, Transcript Verlag, 2010.

Confucianism3 Professor Chun-chiehHuang explains brilliantly that EastAsian Confucianism was very muchconcerned with the harmoniousrelationship between human beingsand the social and natural world thatthey are a part of. One cannot helpthinking that a strong sense of ‘worldharmony’ such as this could guide usthrough the ecological and socialdisasters accompanying the moderndestruction of the natural world as wellas the devastations of our social worlds.Questions like this have to be discussedwithin an intercultural perspective. AndI am convinced that the social sciencesand humanities provide excellentspaces in which this kind of interculturaldialogue among different traditions ofhumanism can be cultivated.

Shared experiences of

dehumanization

An idea expressed by Erich Fromm,4

among others, supports the possibilityof a common humanist understanding,despite differences. Humanism is alwaysa consequence of experiences ofalienation. It is an outcry from peoplewho feel that the conditions for living ahumanely dignified life are witheringaway. In a world like ours, individualexperiences may vary greatly. In ourglobal, modern world, chances areunevenly distributed, and economic,political and military powers areunevenly concentrated. However, it isalso a world in which certain

experiences of alienation seem totranscend these differences. We are allsuffering from the destruction of ournatural environment; we are all living insocieties where social relations sufferfrom a growing sense of mistrust. Thosewho are better off may try tocompensate for the lack of satisfyingsocial relations through consumption,while those who do not have the meansexperience a desperate longing forconsumption. In most parts of the worldpeople are exposed to old and newforms of violence and injustice. Politicaland economic institutions behave inways that people can hardly identifywith.

Again, despite considerable localand social differences, the experiencesof human beings under thesedehumanizing conditions tend to bevery similar all over the planet. And thismust surely be something we can learnfrom, if we compare contemporarycultures on a global scale. J. M.Coetzee’s5 South Africa resemblesRubem Fonseca’s6 Brazil; Octavio Paz’7

critique of modernity is similar to thatfound in the writing of Theodor W.Adorno8. Comparative research in thesocial sciences and humanities couldextend our understanding of thedehumanization that people all over theplanet are suffering.

Humanism in everyday life

By the same token, the ‘humanist turn’should not be seen as an endeavourconfined to academic or intellectualcircles alone. Some time ago, theGerman historian, Jörn Rüsen, explainedthat humanism has to have ‘practical’ambitions as well: “The idea ofhumanism must always be put intosocial contexts in order to make itplausible and give it its place in reallife”9. What Rüsen expresses here seemsto me to be of fundamental importance.It is only if humanism comes toconstitute a central influence on theways we think and act in everyday lifethat it can hope to begin to foster ahumanist culture that is not onlytheoretical and abstract. It is mycontention that this ‘translation’ ofhumanist ideas and values intoeveryday political, social and economicpractices represents above all a task forpolitical and economic institutions. Butagain, the social sciences andhumanities can play an important role.

At least a part of their endeavour shouldbe dedicated to the cultivation andpromulgation of a humanist culturebeyond the ivory tower.

To sum up, the current humanistturn that is starting to appear in manyacademic and non-academic arenas,seems to be motivated by the need tomove beyond the awareness of culturaldifferences and to look for that which allhuman beings share, withoutneglecting the differences. Instead oflooking for the universal in biologicalnature, or thinking that a universalhumanist culture has to be invented orimposed on other cultures, the currenthumanist turn presupposes thatuniversal ideas and values are alreadypresent in all different cultures. At thesame time, the new humanism seems torecognize that global modernity needsnormative orientations that all humanbeings can agree upon. And last but notleast, it is a result of commonexperiences of alienation that globalmodernity has provoked in differentparts of the world. The most importanttask, however, is to translate the ideasand values into everyday practices. ■

L Painting courtesy of Indian artist, AnanyaBanerjee.

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International research

The Project ‘Humanism in the Age of Globalization – an Intercultural Dialogue about Culture, Humanity and Values’ washosted by the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) in Essen, Germany and directed by Jörn Rüsen. Theproject initiated a dialogue between scholars from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America in order to show that differenthumanist traditions have existed in different parts of the world, but also that these humanist traditions could become animportant inspiration in our contemporary modern world. Although the project concluded officially in 2009, after havingreceived generous financial support from the German Mercator Foundation, publication of the results continues. From 2009to date a book series by the German publisher Transcript Verlag has published 14 volumes in German and English. The workof the project is being continued in other projects. The project ‘Modernity, Critique and Humanism’ directed by OliverKozlarek with funding from the Mexican Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT) can be seen as an offspring.

J From the Faces à l'Ameseries by French artist,Benjamin Bini.

Instead of looking

for the universal in

biological nature,

or thinking that a

universal

humanist culture

has to be invented

or imposed on

other cultures, the

current humanist

turn presupposes

that universal

ideas and values

are already

present in all

different cultures.

Humanism did not arise in Europe in thefifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Thisperiod, known as the Renaissance, wasone period in the long history ofhumanism, which began two thousandyears earlier in Athens and continuedduring the Golden Age of Islam, fromthe ninth to the twelfth century.

Renaissance thinkers referredspecifically to the legacy of ancientGreece, which they revived and used asa model. But they preferred to overlookthe Muslim period of humanism.

Those who make the same mistaketoday do so because they believe thatthe humanist approach is, by definition,anti-religious. Yet for most of its history,humanism developed within theframework of religious thought, notoutside of it. Neither Leonardo da Vinci,1

Michelangelo,2 Shakespeare,3 Racine,4

Descartes5 or Newton6 ever questionedthe power of God.

Humanism objected to a certainimage of God: the image of aninaccessible God, indifferent to humansuffering, who had determined thepersonal fate of each and every personfor eternity. This was the image fosteredby the dogma of predestination,according to which men and womenhave no free will over their lives. Notonly does earthly existence have noimportance in and of itself—it is only a

Contrary to popular belief, humanism developed within the framework of religious

thought – first Greek, then Muslim and finally Christian. In the Golden Age of Islam from

the 9th to the 12th centuries, first the Mu’tazili, then the Falasifa explored the limits of

humanist thought and the concept of free will in a world dominated by a unique and all-

powerful God, anticipating the 18th century encyclopedic approach to knowledge.

MAHMOUD HUSSEIN

J The Abu Dulaf mosque in Samarra (Iraq) is one ofthe most important works of architecture in theIslamic world. It dates from the 9th century. TheSamarra archaeological city is inscribed on theUNESCO List of World Heritage

The Muslim phase of humanism

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path to heaven—but mankind has nocontrol over its destiny. There is no freewill. On the one hand was the absolutepower of God; on the other, theabsolute powerlessness of mankind.

“We were … chosen from thebeginning,” wrote Saint Paul, “under thepredetermined plan of the one whoguides all things as he decides by hisown will.”7 One millennium later,traditionalists and classical theologiansof Islam adhered to this same belief;seven centuries after them, Luther8 andCalvin9 would use the same words. Itwas against this concept of the all-powerful divine that humanism fought.

But how was ancient Greece usedas a model for those who, first in theMuslim world and later in the Christianworld, would wage the fight against thedogma of predestination?

A perimeter of intellectual freedom

In a context entirely different from thatof monotheism, Greece had alreadyconfronted this concept ofpredestination. In their view, thecosmos was a finite space, with aharmonious and hierarchical structure,in which everyone’s place was definedonce and for all. Mankind was not atthe top of the cosmic structure; godsstood above them. But cosmic lawsapplied to everyone, gods and menalike.

The latter therefore endured a dualburden: first, the abstract, impersonal,immutable one of the cosmos; and themore personal, familial and capriciousconstraints of the gods.

Man was powerless against theorder of the cosmos; he could only tryto navigate his own way. Yet with thegods, who had superhuman powersbut were riddled with human frailties,mankind learned how to negotiate,trick and cheat. Ultimately, mandiscovered that nature operatedaccording to specific laws of thecosmos, which lay beyond the power ofthe gods, and that men could thereforework to learn and master these laws.

This was the context in whichhumanism developed. The Greeksinvented a new, specifically humanenvironment: the polis. Within it, theindividual was no longer subject to thetraditional power of tribes and clans;citizens were equal before the law andpersonal merit could prevail over theprivilege of birth.

In the democratic city, debate waswidespread and speech ruled supreme.To convince others, one had to reason.The principles of abstract logic, valideverywhere and for all, encouraged theexploration of philosophy andmathematics. And with it, mandeveloped powerful leverage overaspects of his life.

Humanism in ancient Greecetherefore formed a perimeter ofintellectual freedom and efficiency,through which human life—withoutchallenging the overall global order orthe power of the gods—became avalued enterprise in and of itself.

Qudra or the power of man

The monotheistic God changed thesituation. He not only took over thepartial power wielded by the Greekgods, but also the universal cosmic forcethat applied to these gods as well as tomankind. The abstract, impersonalpower of the cosmos was replaced bythe omnipotent, personal, creative andactive power of God. He became boththe One and the All-Powerful.

From this point on, the believer hadto explore his own freedom within theorbit of this Almighty. There was noquestion of pitting the derisory powerof man against the infinite power ofGod. More humbly, it involvedcultivating the intellectual, moral andaesthetic realms where human initiative

could be expressed, as distinguishedfrom the will of God, but withoutchallenging His supreme authority.

This realm was conceptualized forthe first time in the ninth century inBaghdad, under the Abbasid Caliphate.

Islam was by then an immense,powerful and prosperous empire thatencompassed a multitude of differentpeople, religions and cultures. Itscapital, Baghdad, had a population ofone million, while Rome had 30,000people, and Lutetia, barely 10,000. Intrade, trust was the rule, so that a bill ofexchange signed in India was honoredas far away as Morocco.

The great caliphs decided toembrace this power and diversity,opting to encourage intelligentthought. They supported efforts to

1. Leonardo da Vinci, [1452-1519], Italian painter,polymath and humanist philosopher.2. Michelangelo [1475-1564], Italian Renaissancepainter, sculptor and architect.3. William Shakespeare [1564-1616], one of thegreatest English playwrights and poets. 4. Jean Racine [1639-1699], classical Frenchplaywright. 5. René Descartes [1596-1650], Frenchmathematician and rationalist philosopher.6. Isaac Newton [1643- 1727], English physicist,philosopher and theologian.7. Epistle to the Ephesians8. Martin Luther [1483-1546], German priest andfather of protestantism.9 Jean Calvin, [1509-1564], French theologian andscholar, one of the main architects of the Protestantreformation.

K Miniature by Al-Mubashshir (Syria) from the early 13th century. It shows Socrates (left) with two of his students

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revive ancient knowledge—includingsecular knowledge drawn from thelegacy of Greek science and philosophy,which would soon be translated intoArabic.

This context fostered thedevelopment of a theological movementamong religious scholars of the period;these were the Mu‘tazili, who interpretedthe Quran from a viewpoint of rationalthought and inquiry.

According to this interpretation, menare distinct creatures, separate from therest of Creation, due to the fact that Godgave them an effective power (qudra),once and for all time, by which they canchoose to act freely.

This freedom allows them to act as‘God’s lieutenants on earth.’ During theirtime on earth, men are not supposed tobe self-effacing. Quite the opposite, theyare encouraged to be assertive, to displaya sense of initiative and to develop theirtalents, all with the purpose ofconstructing a fair and united Muslimcommunity.

Within this community, worldlyexistence is celebrated for its own value. Itis recommended, insofar as is possible, toimprove the living conditions of others.Beauty is prized, the body is honouredand pleasures are encouraged, within thelimits of decency and moderation.

“Allah is He Who made the earth aresting place for you and the sky for acanopy, and fashioned you and perfectedyour shapes, and hath provided you withgood things ...” (Quran, Sura 40, verse 64).

On Judgment Day, each person willhave to personally answer for the goodand the evil they have done during theirlifetimes. As God has full knowledge oftheir actions, He will reward or punishaccording to a rational and moral justice.

The Mu‘tazili approach wassupported and even imposed on thereligious elite by some of the greatestAbbasid caliphs. But it was so bold and sodisturbing that, in the end, most of thetraditionalists, jurists and ultimately thetheologians themselves would uniteagainst it.

All of them rejected the very idea of arational interpretation of the acts of God,insofar as this placed limits on His all-mighty power. Divine will is a mystery; itis not subject to any limitation. Hence,while having preordained the destiny ofeach person, God reserves the privilegeof reward and punishment, according toHis unfathomable will.

This vision, which fully expressed thedogma of predestination, may seemunjust and immoral. What is required ofthe believer is not understanding, butrather acceptance and submission to Godthrough an unconditional embrace oftotal faith. One is then allowed to placeone’s hopes in divine mercy andcompassion.

Precursors of the Encylopedists

By the late ninth century, theconfrontation between the Mu‘tazili andthe traditionalists was decided in favor ofthe latter. They not only eliminated theconcept of free will, but worked to flushout and combat all the rationalistmovements that appeared in Muslimthought.

They specifically targeted the Falasifa(philosophers), who were pursuing anencyclopedic approach that embracedevery sphere of knowledge. Theyredeemed the secular disciplinesdeveloped by the Greeks—medicine,mathematics, astronomy andpharmacology—and studied nature as itwas, and not as a reflection of the all-powerful divine.

Al-Kindi,10 al-Farabi,11 Ibn Sina(Avicenna)12 and Ibn Rushd (Averroes)13

developed a new philosophy, throughwhich Aristotelian reason was reconciledwith monotheism; it would inspireMaimonides14 and later, ThomasAquinas.15 There is no ontologicaldifference between the truths reached byphilosophers and those revealed by Godto His prophets. The prophets perceivedthrough instant illumination that whichphilosophers discovered, step by step, viarational thought.

The Falasifa therefore explored thelimits of humanist thought within amonotheistic framework. Adopting theargument of reason over that ofauthority, even when the latter is based

on divine revelation, they heralded theencyclopedic approach of the eighteenthcentury.

The Falasifa had a longer, althoughless specific influence than that of theMu‘tazili. They were in the forefront for atime in Baghdad, Cordoba and Cairo, butwere also eclipsed for long periods. Theirdoctrinal authority ended with the deathof Averroes in the late twelfth century.

In the meantime, the Islamic empiresplit into two, then three rival empires.Islam suffered major military defeatsagainst the Crusaders around Jerusalemand the Catholic kings in al-Andalus.Soon after, it was devastated by theMongol invasions.

In various capitals, Islam wasundermined by doubt, and power shiftedfrom the hands of cultivated princes tothose of military leaders. The confidentquest for knowledge was replaced by acautious defense of well-establishedbeliefs. The concept of free will was lost inthe Islamic world. And with it, thesignificance of a humanist approach.

Yet the works of the Muslim Falasifa,translated from Arabic into Latin, wouldbe taught in every European university.For several centuries, they nourished thegreat debates that would lead toRenaissance thought. ■

10. Al-Kindi (Alkindus) [801- 873], one of thegreatest Arab philosophers, translator of manyGreek manuscripts. 11. Al-Farabi (Alpharabius) [872- 873], Arabpolymath and commentator on the works of Plato. 12. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) [980-1037], Persianphilosopher, writer, doctor, astronomer andalchemist.13. Ibn Rushd (Averroes) [1126-1198], Andalusianphilosopher, lawyer, mathematician, doctor andIslamic theologian .14. Moïse Maimonides [1138-1204], doctor,philosopher and Andalusian rabbi.15. Thomas Aquinus [1224-1274], one of theprincipal masters of scholastic philosophy andCatholic theology.

Mahmoud Hussein (Egypt) is a

political scientist and Islamic scholar. His

latest book (in French), “Penser le Coran,”

is published by Gallimard, Paris: 2011.

L Avicenna as "Princeps Abinsceni" with crown andsceptre, woodcut, Venice 1520

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the origins of science to understand thecomplexities of human behaviour andadvocated a synthesized philosophy ofscience to bridge the gap between thesciences and humanities, calling it ‘newhumanism’.

However, American literary criticIrving Babbitt [1865 – 1933] is largely

New humanism is by no means novelbut rather a product of the evolutionarypath forged by humanity. Its prominentemergence can be linked to GeorgeSarton [1884 – 1956], a renownedBelgian-born American historian ofscience, who redefined humanismthrough a scientific lens. He turned to

considered a founder of the movement.Shocked by a progressively materialisticsociety in the United States, Babbittbelieved Western society had become

The Confucianists honour

benevolence, the Mohists

universal love, the Taoists

compassion, and the

Buddhists loving-kindness.

As society evolves at high

speed, the core values of

Chinese civilization can be

considered a blueprint for

the development of

universal harmony and,

thus, new humanism.

L "Love" an ink painting on rice paper pasted onto damask paper, by Zhen Ping Qiu. The artist donated this workto UNESCO in 2006, on the 60th anniversary of the Organization. It is reproduced by kind permission of the artist.

For a world of

Adapted from the speech, “Embrace the Era of NewHumanism”, delivered by Liu Ji at the 9th Euro-ChinaForum on June 27-28 at UNESCO Headquarters.

LIU JI

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conscience to normalize socialbehaviour. In contrast, Westerncivilization regulates social behaviourby external powers based on scientificreasoning, hence the rule of law.

The dichotomy between Westernand Chinese civilizations is much likethe two hemispheres of the humanbrain: the logical left side and theemotional right side. Only when thesetwo hemispheres are mobilizedsimultaneously can their full potentialbe realized. Thus, logic and affectionshould be combined together to give afull-scale representation of newhumanism.

Chinese people attach extremeimportance to “the debt of gratitude”they owe others, repaying debt at anyprice.

They hold family affection sacred,and try to avoid public conflict likesuing relatives. However, the challengeis to simultaneously attain loyalty tothe nation and filial piety, which is therespect a child should show his or herparents.

Harmony instils “good-tempered”individual behaviour in Chinese socialorder. Families believe that if they livein harmony, they will prosper. Businessetiquette is based on the notion that“harmony brings wealth.” In countrygovernance, harmony is the ultimate

pursuit, whereas Western societybelieves in the “survival of the fittest”and ‘a law of the jungle’ where “theweak are the prey of the strong.”

Harmony also encompasses theideal relationship of oneness betweenman and nature, whereby man is aninherent part of nature and thusshould act according to natural laws.

The Confucianists pay tribute tobenevolence, the Mohists to universallove, the Taoists to compassion, andthe Buddhists to loving-kindness. Loveseems to be an omnipresent topic forall schools of thought in China.

Confucian roots of humanism

The great Chinese philosopherConfucius (551 BC – 479 BC) describedbenevolence as “loving people”; “Youyourself desire rank and standing, thenhelp others get rank and standing,” hesaid. “You want to turn your ownmerits to account, then help others toturn theirs to account.”

For Confucianists, the ultimategoal is to develop a world of universalharmony where people love allequally. As a result, those who are lessfortunate in society, the aged, orphansand people with disabilities would besupported by the community. Materialresources would be used for goodwill,and social wealth owned and sharedby all.

According to notable Confucianist,Meng Ke, known as Mencius [372 -289 BC), man possesses four initialsenses just as he possesses four limbs.“The sense of compassion is thebeginning of benevolence; the senseof shame the beginning ofrighteousness; the sense of modestythe beginning of decorum; the senseof right and wrong the beginning ofwisdom.” These four sensesdifferentiate man from animal, andonly with their integrateddevelopment can man really beconsidered human.

The doctrines of Confucius andMencius have been the cornerstone oftraditional Chinese culture forthousands of years and are stilldominant today. According to somethinkers, it is under the influence ofConfucianism that the Enlightenmentphilosophers of the 18th centuryconstructed the monumentalDeclaration of the Rights of Man andof the Citizen in 1789.

Thus, the substance of newhumanism can only be enriched withthe ingredients of Chinese culture. Ashuman society evolves at high speed,the construction of a harmoniousworld, which has long been theuniversal ideal of mankind, calls for therise of new humanism. ■

Liu Ji is honorary president of CEIBS

(China Europe International Business

School) and former vice president of

the Chinese Academy of Social

Sciences.

victim to emotional and individualisticinstincts and thus campaigned for self-restraint. An opponent of Romanticism,his key principles conflicted with theintellectual trend of his time and weredeemed controversial, yet sparked agreat philosophical debate, whichshaped conservative intellectualthinking post-World War II.

Babbitt’s humanistic philosophyentered China’s political and literaryconsciousness through numerousChinese scholars who studied with himat Harvard University. Inspired byBuddhist and Confucian values, Babbittappealed culturally to his students wholater adapted new humanism locally asa counter-reaction to the May 4th

movement, which called for a rejectionof Chinese traditional values, Marxismand radical beliefs.

Virtue, affection and harmony

The practices of Chinese ancientculture can be considered a blueprintfor the development of newhumanism. Specifically, The Book ofChanges (also known as the I Ching),one of China’s oldest classic texts, saidto have been written by Emperor FuHsi (2953-2838 B.C.). It focuses on thebalance of opposites and theinevitability of change. According tothis text, “By observing the ornaments

of the sky, we may understand theprinciple of the transformation of thefour seasons; by observing ethicalhuman relations and teaching thecommon people, we may transformsocial traditions for the better.” Thus,we should observe human nature tolearn how to improve it, and in doingso, follow the fundamental values ofChinese culture such as virtue,affection, harmony and love.

Throughout China’s longcivilization, virtue, both personal andsocial, has guided people in their day-to-day living, relying on one’s inner

The dichotomy between Western and Chinese civilizations is much

like the two hemispheres of the human brain: the logical left side and

the emotional right side. Only when these two hemispheres are

mobilized simultaneously can their full potential be realized. Thus,

logic and affection should be combined together to give a full-scale

representation of new humanism.

were to insist on taking the pre-eminence of human reason as absolute.But man’s excessive and outmodedpretensions today are to a totalawareness of his own truth and energy.

After four centuries of striving todissociate all things by means ofanalysis, starting with himself, he iscoming back to a synthetic view of theperson, revivified by the soul. As aconsequence, all values, everywhere inthe world, and from all periods of worldhistory, not only find their use, but alsotheir order and hierarchy. Whetherthese values have their origins in theEast or West, they are no longer rivals,but are all converging towards this newhumanism, with its tendency towardsuniversalism arising from a real innerimpulse, and no longer from some questionable aspiration […]

But the impulse that is needed today isto liberate the human spirit from thebonds by which Western thinking hasheld it captive for so long. The newhumanism will be one where themethods of leadership and labour thatthe Western intellect has been able toacquire will be applied to therediscovery of spiritual domains thathave long been deserted. So, instead ofthe intellect leading man to run the risksthat arise from his presumptions andusurpations, it will need all the vivacityand strength it can muster, this time toserve the cause of the truly completeman – not the man steered off courseinto the material world by his intellect,but a man with body and soul united,using his mind to confront his ownmystery.

We believe that if this latter humanismwere to develop, East and West wouldsee the disappearance of much thatseparates them, and the appearance ofall that unites them and that unites allmankind […]

UNESCO in 1951: Towards a new humanism

Sixty years ago, UNESCO

held a ‘Discussion on the

Cultural and Philosophical

Relations Between East and

West’ in New Delhi, the

capital of India, which

endorsed the idea of a new

holistic humanism. Here we

are publishing extracts

from the discussion

document submitted by

participants, under the title

‘Towards a new Humanism’.

At the time, Asian nations

were gaining

independence, while the

world was still suffering the

aftermath of the Second

World War. The first steps in

this humanist project,

supported by UNESCO,

aimed to bring Eastern and

Western cultures closer

together.

The full text of the document, written by the Frenchwriter, André Rousseaux, can be found in UNESCO’sdigital archives (in French only):www.unesco.org/new/unesco/resources/publications/unesdoc-database/

J Photograph from the 'Reflections in an eye ofgold' series by French artist, Laurent Goldstein,reproduced by kind permission of the artist.


[…] What Western man has, for fourcenturies, been calling humanism is theambition to achieve mastery overhimself and the universe by the exerciseof his intellect in isolation from the restof his being. […] What it has called thedominion of the complete man is thecontemplation of the entire world by aman reduced to a part of himself. Wemust abandon this error if we are torepair humanism and expand it.

Certainly not to destroy it, nor, as wehave said, to renounce the conquests ofscience, which are, after all, positiveachievements of the same spirit. For acertain time and in certain places,Western humanism has been the spherefor human accomplishments that are ofinherently outstanding value. But wecan no longer allow it to be exclusive[…] If the word humanism is the namewe have to give to the home of humangenius, humanism does not date fromthe 16th century; its only and permanenthome is not Mediterranean Europe; itssole source is not a certain idea ofClassical Greek and Roman antiquity[…]. On the other hand, when modernWestern humanism is put squarely backwithin the limits that need to beimposed on it, the crisis that it iscurrently facing comes as no surprise,and is not a hopeless disaster. Thisadversity would only be absolute if one

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Are legal systems becoming

progressively more humanized with

globalization, or are they staying

much the same?

At first sight, legal humanism seems tobe gaining in strength with themultiplication of legal instruments andinternational bodies monitoring theobservance of human rights, as well asthrough the appearance ofhumanitarian law and the emergenceof universally applicable criminaljustice. And in terms of the economy,the global market should create jobsand increase prosperity.

So, on the surface, everythingseems to be for the better, in the best ofworlds… But globalization acts like akind of magnifying glass and isrevealing a series of contradictions,raising a whole host of questions. Howcan we reconcile the concept ofsecurity with the principle of freedom?Economic rights and protection of theenvironment, etc? Globalization caneven makes the situation worse when,for example, it separates alreadyglobalized rights such as economicrights, from social rights, which are thepreserve of States, themselvesweakened by constraints imposed byfinancial markets. We could even

Making use of the ‘envisioning force’ of the law to forge a form of legal humanism that is

both pluralistic and open, in areas as diverse as lasting peace, global warming or the

regulation of new digital and biomedical technologies – in these times of rampant

globalization, this is the credo of the French lawyer, Mireille Delmas-Marty.

MIREILLE DELMAS-MARTY interviewed by Jasmina Šopova

I Work by the artist Najah Zarbout (Tunisia)www.najahzarbout.blogspot.com

2 8 . T H E U N E S C O C O U R I E R

Humanizing©

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the notion of equitable developmenthas not been integrated, this synergywill remain an illusion.

By modifying man’s fate, aren’t new

technologies adding to the

paradoxes?

Technologies have always been ‘new’.What has changed is the rate at whichinnovations are being made. So, fordigital technologies, French law isunable to keep pace. By the time theConstitutional Council has given itsruling on a law, actual practice hasalready moved on and escapes thelegislation!

Information technologies can helpstrengthen democracy, as we haveseen recently in certain Arab countries,but, at the same time, they encouragea move towards a surveillance society.

This ambivalence is equally markedin the field of biotechnology, whichcan be used to counteract sterility,through artificial procreation, as well asto select embryos using pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, thusmoving towards eugenics, which isconsidered a crime.

The widespread use of suchpractices would reduce therandomness of genetic selection – theelement of chance – and thus thebiological diversity of human beings.And this is where the paradox arises –in the name of individual liberty (beingin control of one’s body and one’soffspring), our societies run the risk ofprovoking a kind of artificial shaping ofthe human species (see pp. 39-40).

Another paradox is that the morewe come to depend on digitaltechnologies, the more we lose ourautonomy; yet at the same time we aremaking increasingly autonomousrobots. Robots can help the elderly andthe sick and contribute to generalwellbeing. But in both the USA andFrance, programmes have beenlaunched to develop robots to replaceflesh and blood soldiers to carry out‘clean wars’ and reach militaryobjectives without harming civilians.This would mean entering ethical rulesinto the robot’s programme, with allthe risks of error involved ininterpreting such a programme. Themost important ethical choices areextremely subtle and difficult toanticipate with mathematicalprecision.


wonder if there is not a contradictionbetween the universalism laid down bythe 1948 Declaration on Human Rightsand the 2005 UNESCO Convention onthe Protection and Promotion of theDiversity of Cultural Expression, whichqualifies cultural expression as thecommon heritage of mankind.

How do these contradictions

translate into reality?

One of the most marked contradictionsconcerns migration. Borders are openfor trade and capital but closed tohuman beings. The trend is eventowards a tightening of control andrepression in many countries, to thepoint of merging immigration andcrime together. But, by opening theirborders to the global market, these

same countries destabilize localmarkets and encourage people toleave. Basically, the same players aresimultaneously manufacturingimmigration and repressing it.

At the same time, the dissociationof economic and social rights restrictsgrowth to economic and monetaryprofit, while doing nothing to limitincreasing vulnerability and socialexclusion, whether in terms ofunemployment or poverty. Asprosperity increases, the gap betweenthe highest and lowest incomeswidens.

Finally, multinational companiesare often a driving force in the naturalresources sector and are behind a largenumber of conflicts across the world,notably in Africa and Latin America.This is why war crimes, genocide,crimes against humanity and crimes ofaggression continue, despite thecreation of an International CriminalCourt (ICC).2 It is true that it only cameinto force relatively recently (2002), butthere are also structural reasons – thestatutes of the ICC do not cover theresponsibility of legal persons,3 and soenterprises go unpunished when theycommit a crime. This undermines thedissuasive role of the ICC, which waswritten into its statutes. Unlike ad hoctribunals, which judge crimes alreadycommitted, the ICC sits permanently.

And what of the contradictions

between economic rights and

environmental rights?

The imperative for development andcompetitiveness is discouraging Statesfrom taking action to protect theenvironment. And this raises thequestion of how best to protect theplanet against the negative effects ofclimate change, declining biodiversityor water pollution (see pp. 34-35).While industrialized countries arealigning their own commitments tothose of developing or emergingcountries, these latter countries areinvoking the notion of historical equity– if industrialized countries wereoriginally responsible for the pollutionof our planet, they now need to join inthe general effort to preserve theenvironment, while allowing others todevelop. The expression ‘sustainabledevelopment’ is supposed to stimulatesynergy between economic rights andenvironmental rights, but so long as


All of these examples demonstrate a

process of dehumanization. What can

the law do?

Its role is difficult because, in a world ofaccelerating change, we cannot returnto a static concept that we might call‘legal humanism’, but need to establishmore dynamic processes ofhumanization. Rather than repeatedlyaffirming principles, we need to try toreverse the movement towardsdehumanization in reality. Only throughthe effective upholding of human rightscan we avoid some of the aberrations oftotalitarian politics, such as markettotalitarianism, notably in the financialmarket.

What resources does the law have?

The law does not offer a response toeach of the challenges I havementioned. But certain current legalprocesses do offer the beginnings of aresponse in order to humanizeglobalization. For example, to create amulti-tiered form of citizenship – it is aslow and difficult process, but it doesrespond to problems of immigration aswell as to those of the environment.

The idea of global citizenship is adream that dates back to Antiquity. Butmore recently, in the Germany of thelate 18th century, Emmanuel Kantdreamed of perpetual peace betweennations,4 just as, Kang Youwei,5 in China,dreamed of the age of great worldpeace at the end of the 19th century.

This ‘Dream of the two Ks’ couldgradually become reality. We are alreadyseeing that the creation of Europeancitizenship tends to complementnational citizenship, rather thanundermine it. And on a planetary scalethe Global Forum on Migration andDevelopment6 is gradually instigating aglobal approach, integrating a concernfor humanization alongside economicconstraints. While we wait for theemigration countries to ratify the UnitedNations Convention on the Protection ofthe Rights of Migrant Workers (signed in1990!), we can see the beginnings of aprocess of recognition of certain rightsthat foreshadows global citizenship.

It is by looking towards the future,to global risks, that we begin to seehumanity as a community with a sharedfate. But it is only by referring back tothe history of humanity that UNESCOcan help to establish, disseminate andconstruct intercultural forms of

have neither the means nor the will topursue them, for fear of losing the jobsthey provide. And the parent countriesare rarely competent (and do not wish tobe) to pursue deeds committed abroadagainst foreign victims.

There is a very old text (Alien TortClaims Act, 1789) that empowers thefederal legal system in the USA toprosecute anyone who has violatedhuman rights, even abroad and againstforeigners, which has been used recentlyagainst multinationals. But sentences arerare. And, in fact, I am not in favour of thisprinciple of ‘universal competence’ if ittransforms superpowers into judgespresiding over the whole world. In theabsence of a world court, we will soonneed an international convention which,when multinationals violate humanrights, assigns competence to the parentcountry and, if this country does notprosecute the perpetrator, would providethe country in which the corporation isestablished with the resources (in termsof personnel and logistics) to take thematter to court.

Could such a case not be referred to

the International Criminal Court?

Even if we were to extend its range ofcompetence to include corporate bodies,the multinationals would only be judgedfor the most serious crimes – such asgenocide, crimes against humanity, warcrimes, etc. On the other hand, the ICCcan prosecute an incumbent Head ofState, which is something of a political aswell as a legal revolution. Unfortunately,without a police force, it has no means to

citizenship – that is intercultural ratherthan multicultural, since it is not enoughto juxtapose cultures, but important toaim for the more ambitious objective ofreciprocal humanism (see pp. 14-16).

Is it utopian to imagine global

governance founded on humanist

principles?

At present it is still utopian. The unequaldistribution of power, shared between afew States and multinationalcorporations, renders the organization ofthis kind of global governance extremelydifficult. In cases where human rights areviolated we need to be able to hold allthose in power to account. For States,this kind of process is beginning tooperate within the Council of Europe(with the Convention for the Protectionof Human Rights and FundamentalFreedoms and the European Court onHuman Rights in Strasbourg), as well asin Latin America (with the Inter-AmericanConvention on Human Rights not havingbeen ratified by Canada and the USA)and more recently in Africa (with theAfrican Charter on Human and People’sRights). In the absence of a World Courtof Human Rights less restrictivemechanisms are being established, butthey are inadequate and scattered.

And multinational corporations?

So-called ‘social’ responsibility is limitedto a few small islands of hard law7 in anocean of soft law (guiding principles,codes of conduct, etc). In the case ofserious violations, the countries wherethe multinational firms are established

Both generations are concerned

about the dangers arising from

technological innovations, which you

have cited as one of the challenges

facing modern humanism.

We obviously cannot ban alltechnological innovation. That would beabsurd, given that throughout history,mankind has become humanized bydeveloping technologies and globalizingthem. We globalized the wheel, then thewheel-barrow, the compass, etc. But thisdoes not mean that just becausesomething is possible it should beallowed (as innovations are unavoidable,it would be pointless to resist them). It istherefore important to adapt the legalresponses to technological innovations. Relations between scientists andpoliticians also need to be revised –between knowledge and power –because there is also a gap in globalgovernance there. States defend nationalinterests, corporate and private interests,and, apart from a few internationalorganizations with few means of action,noone is responsible for defending thegeneral interest. Experts fill the gap. Inprinciple, they do not have the power tomake decisions but in practice they oftenplay a key role regarding scientificinnovations and their applications. Whileexpertise still has no global status,various scattered bodies are beginningto guarantee the independence andimpartiality of experts in order to avoidconflicts of interest.

1. La Force imaginante is the title of a book byMireille Delmas-Marty not yet available in English2 .Established by the Rome Convention of 17 July1998, the International Criminal Court, whichentered into force in July 2002, is the firstpermanent court set up to judge, according to itspreamble, the perpetrators of “…unimaginableatrocities that deeply shock the conscience ofhumanity.”3. A legal person (persona ficta) is an entity, otherthan a natural (human) person, with a legalexistence and, as such, has rights andresponsibilities.4. In a 1795 text, Zum Ewigen Frieden (PerpetualPeace), Kant summarized Enlightenment thinkingon peace and the idea of the federation of freenations. 5. Kang Youwei, Datong Shu, trad. L.G Thompson,The One World Philosophy of K’angYu-wei, London,1958. 6. The Global Forum on Migration andDevelopment (GFMD), which held its first meetingin Brussels in 2007, is a platform for exchangingpractices and experiences in an attempt to definethe means to use international migration to besteffect for development and to reduce its negativeeffects.7. Hard law refers to a traditional form of law, whilesoft law is a norm that is not legally binding.

K "Borders are open for trade and capital butclosed to human beings," says Mireille Delmas-Marty. This idea is illustrated in the "New WorldClimax" installation by Cameroonian artist,Berthélémy Toguo.

make an arrest. At present it appeals toStates, as well as UN and NATO forces, tocooperate, but with very unsatisfactoryresults. The link between the law and theforces of order still needs to be organizedon a global scale.

And the links between the law and

peace?

Ordinarily, lasting peace is notconsidered possible if justice has notpreviously been seen to be done. Butexamples like the South African Truthand Reconciliation Commission showthat peace can be re-established withoutall the criminals being brought to justice,but just those who refuse to recognizetheir guilt. And in this respect, thedeveloped world has probably a greatdeal to learn from Africa if it is to avoidwhat I call ‘legal fundamentalism’, which,like religious fundamentalism, meanslimiting and rejecting any plurality ofinterpretations. The exigency of the lawhas to be reconciled with the need forpeace. And the refusal to let the guiltygo unpunished must not itself becomeoverly rigid.

What do you think about our

responsibility vis-à-vis future

generations, which is already written

into the French Charter on the

Environment?

It is true that references to futuregenerations are beginning to appear inlegal texts, especially this charter, which

has constitutional validity. In practice, acertain amount of imagination isneeded to introduce future generationsinto the law. Who can represent theirinterests? What is one responsible forand for how long? How can wecompensate those who have not yetbeen born? etc. I personally amreluctant to speak about the ‘rights’ offuture generations, or the ‘rights’ ofnature or animals, because there can beno reciprocity. But as responsiblebeings, humans do have duties towardstheir future descendants, and indeedtowards non-human living beings.

But we still need to be careful,because, for a long time, the notion of‘human duties’ was part of theargument used to legalize State tyranny,whereas the expression ‘human rights’,when attached to States, enables limitsto be placed on the abuse of power, andto make it possible to ‘rationalize’ thereasons (or lack of reasons) of State. Onthe other hand, when relations are notreciprocal, duties still need to berecognized. The right balance has to befound, because the duties that we havewith respect to future generations mustnot obliterate the rights of presentgenerations.

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The global nature of communicationsand what we have chosen to call the‘information society’ are invitinganthropologists to rethink, at leastpartially, the basic matter and categoriesof their discipline – forms of exchangeand the ways in which social links arewoven.

For the French anthropologistClaude Lévi-Strauss [1908-2009],anthropology is not only a humanistdiscipline, but also the product of formsof humanism that have left a mark onhistory and the development of Westernsocieties. As early as 1956, in adocument written for UNESCO,1 heidentified three forms of humanism inconclusion to his analyses of therelationships between the sciences andsocial sciences: Renaissance humanism,with its roots in the rediscovery ofclassical antiquity texts; exotichumanism, associated with theknowledge of Eastern and Far Easterncultures; and democratic humanism,associated with an anthropology thatembraces all the activities of humansocieties.

These three forms of humanism, itshould be pointed out, are linked todiscoveries of texts, oral traditions orother expressions of culture, whichopened up new fields of investigationand allowed the development of newcritical methods and, as a result, newknowledge. In the case of Renaissancehumanism, it was the knowledge of


But adapting the law to encompass

practices arising from new

technologies, or trying to anticipate

the risks to come, is not enough…

Quite true. Ambivalences also have to betaken into account. Technologiesengender dehumanizing effects, like theemergence of a surveillance society orshaping of the species, which we need toresist if we are not to lose what we havegained from humanization, on thegrounds that globalization would wipeout the history of all peoples.

What would be the components of this

human community of values?

It is hard to tell in advance. They graduallyemerge through reciprocal humanization,as cultures intermingle. Even the notionof human dignity, which we might thinkhas been defined once and for all, stillneeds to be consolidated, especiallyregarding the status of women.

Even so, the list of crimes againsthumanity, or prohibitions like tortureand inhuman or degrading treatment,implicitly allow the commoncomponents of humanity to appear,such as the uniqueness of everyindividual and their equal membershipof the human community. And the riskscreated by new technologies suggestthat a third component needs to beadded – indeterminism. Human beingsare not determined in advance, this istheir share of freedom and the basis fortheir responsibility.

It is by referring to these threecomponents that the law could play itsreal role – to resist, to renderresponsible and to anticipate. Resistingdehumanization, holding those whohold the reins of global powerresponsible for their acts, thinkingahead about future risks. This could bethe instrument for a new form ofhumanism, which would not be a fixeddogma but conceived as a dynamicprocess of humanizing practices. ■

Elected member of the French

Académie des Sciences Morales et

Politiques in 2007, Mireille Delmas-

Marty (France) has, since 2002, been

chair of ‘Comparative legal studies and

the internationalization of law’ at the

Collège de France where her course

on ‘Sense and nonsense in legal

humanism’ questions the

humanization of legal systems, at a

time when it seems more than ever

necessary. She is the author of several

seminal books, some of which have

been translated into English, including

Towards a Truly Common Law

(Cambridge University Press, 2002) and

Ordering Pluralism (Hart Publishing,

2009). She is noted for her

monumental work comprising several

volumes, entitled La Force imaginante

(Seuil), the latest volume of which will

be published in 2012.

L Portrait of Mireille Delmas-Marty by Emmanuelle Marchadour.

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The notion of humanism is

evolving, apace with

scientific discoveries and

political developments. In

this digital age, technologies

are increasing the

opportunities of the

hybridization of cultures,

but also encouraging the

advent of democracy and

the emergence of a universal

form of humanism.

MILAD DOUEIHI


Greek and Latin, an awareness of historyand an internal critique thatundermined the authority of aninstitution as powerful as the Church.For exotic humanism, the meeting ofEast and West encouragedcomparativism, which in turn gave riseto new sciences and disciplines, likelinguistics. And the humanism thatembraced all human societies gave rise,among other things, to the structuralmethodology. This enabled Lévi-Strauss,in particular, to observe the world in itsglobality and to discover an orderunderlying the diversity of forms ofsocial organization and manifestationsof culture. For the father ofstructuralism, this order was a mark ofthe human mind.

It is also worth remembering thatthese three forms of humanismcorrespond to political developments:the first was aristocratic, limited to a

privileged few; the second wasbourgeois, because it accompaniedWestern industrial development; and thethird, democratic, as it excluded no one.

It is this universal dimension thaturges me, in all modesty, to propose afourth humanism, digital humanism.

The fourth humanism

Digital humanism is the result of atotally new convergence between ourcomplex, cultural heritage and atechnology that has become a space forunprecedented sociability. Thisconvergence is new in the sense that itredistributes concepts and objects, aswell as the practices associated withthem, within a virtual environment.

And, like the three forms ofhumanism defined by Lévi-Strauss,digital humanism is linked to a majordiscovery that opened multiple fields ofinvestigation – the new technologies,which are overturning establishedsocio-cultural categories.

Besides its technical and economicaspects, which need constant scrutinyand questioning, digital technology is inthe process of becoming a culture, in thesense that it is changing our view ofobjects, relations and values, and that itis introducing new perspectives into thefield of human activity.

1. “How the social sciences have humanisedtechnical civilisation,” a document dated 8 August1956, first published in the UNESCO Courier n° 2008-5, ‘Claude Lévi-Strauss: the view from afar.’ Availablein the digital archives of the Courier:www.unesco.org/en/courier

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Cultural practices like writing,reading or communication, for example,have continually been subject totransformation since the arrival ofdigital technologies. As the Frenchanthropologist Marcel Mauss [1872-1950] pointed out, technology can playan essential role, when access to thetechnical instruments not only modifiesindividual behaviour, but also the entiresurrounding culture.

Digital technologies can play aneven more essential role by radicallychanging categories of space and time,thus facilitating meetings betweencultures and their hybridization –through the elimination of frontiers andgeographical distances, the immediacyof communication, etc.

Of course, they have theirlimitations – digital technologies havebeen based on mainly Western socio-cultural models; they have not managedto overcome linguistic barriers, and theyare not immune to abuse. Also, theirglobal distribution is unequal, whichcan exaggerate inequalities betweenrich and poor.

But despite this, digital technologieshave become a global reality, a universalmeans of communication, even aninstrument for democratisation, as wesaw in the Arab Spring at the beginningof 2011.

The hybrid space of the digitalculture is a new way of “living together”,with its myths, discoveries and utopias.It makes the global village a reality.Digital humanism is one way of thinkingabout this new reality. ■

Milad Doueihi (USA) is a religious

historian and Chair of Research on

Digital Cultures at Laval University

(Quebec). He is the author of several

books, including Digital Cultures

(Harvard University Press, 2011) and A

Perverse History of the Human Heart

(Harvard University Press, 1998)

J 'Flux' an interactive video installation by Belgianartist, Thomas Israel in the entrance hall of theInternational Youth Office in Brussels (Belgium)

DIGITALhumanism?

Digital humanism is the result of

a totally new convergence

between our complex cultural

heritage and a technique that

has become a space for

unprecedented sociability.

Apocalypse scenarios crop up often inour modern civilization. We have seeneconomically driven famines, wars overgold, oil and diamonds. There arethreats of imminent ecological disasterand global nuclear war. Civilizationshave disappeared in the past and ourscould also come to an end. Now climatechange, like nuclear winter, joins thegrowing list of potential disasters thatcould tip mankind towards calamity.

Unlike nuclear war, the agency thattriggers climate change is not clear-cut.Science has ‘very high confidence’ thatthe changes occurring in theatmosphere are a result of humanindustrial activity, pumping billions oftonnes of greenhouse gases into thelower atmosphere for the past 150years.1

No single individual has triggeredclimate change, any more than oneindividual – not even an individual State– is in a position to halt the industrialtechnologies of modernity. It is true thatconsumer decisions on a mass scalecould alter the way corporationsproduce goods and services and thiscould, in turn, have an impact onclimate change. But, morefundamentally, to cope adequately withclimate change, the very role of‘consumer’ needs to be transformed.

Individuals can and do lead veryecologically friendly lifestyles. But theysoon realize how hard it is when thecommunity as a whole is not designedto have a light ecological footprint.2

Ancient cities in Europe and the MiddleEast are much easier to walk around

than the densely populated, sprawlingconcrete jungles of the New World,where public transport is a much moreeffective way to get around. But in thelow-density suburban sprawl, if publictransport is not well organized, the car isstill king.

In the end, then, it is up to ourpolitical leaders to make the rightdecisions. Yet, on an international scale– the scale on which our future is beingplayed out – there is an evident lack ofleadership. Every year in theinternational conferences on climatechange that have been held since 1995,our political leaders have failed tochallenge the technological norms thatprevail in modern societies.

For me, the reasons that those inleadership positions find it so difficult tochallenge the status quo lie in the twinapparatus of modern technology andglobal economics, which are central tomodern civilisation. And we are allstruggling with this. To transform themseems impossible, tantamount tochanging civilizations, shifting from oneecological epoch to another. But,according to the Royal Society of GreatBritain, we have already done just that.

In 2010 this venerable body officiallydeclared that the planet has shiftedfrom the temperate, placid, Holoceneepoch – which lasted for over 10,000years, and saw the development ofagricultural and urban civilizations – tothe turbulent and probably catastrophicAnthropocene epoch, influenced byman’s activities (from the Greek,anthropos: human).

The shift had undoubtedly begunmuch earlier, at least by 1945 (with ourentry into the nuclear era) and, more

Since the industrial revolution, technological innovation

has been freeing mankind from many of the bonds that link

it to the rest of Nature. But this supposed progress could

have a tragic ending. Climate change is now showing us

that it is time we stopped behaving like strangers in our

own ecological niche.

RUTH IRWIN

Welcome to the

Anthropocene

L Maputo, Mozambique.

1. Climate change 2007, IPCC report2. The ecological footprint is a measure of theamount of land needed to fill the needs of anindividual (or population) according to his lifestyle:consumption versus regeneration.3. Workers' movement at the beginning of the 19th

century in England led by Ned Ludd, which turnedinto the massive destruction of machinery, seen asthe main cause of unemployment.

likely, towards the end of the 18th

century, when the Industrial Revolutionsignificantly changed the way peoplerelate to their local ecosystems.

Damaged links between man and

nature

Post-industrial technologies have givenmodern man the feeling that he is freefrom the bonds that link him to the rest



of Nature. In cities, we are no longerdependent on local seasonal produce.Thanks to refrigerated transport andstorage, people living in urban areascan import food stuffs and other goodsfrom far afield, compared to a tenkilometres or so walking distance in the18th century. We will not die of hunger ifthe crops fail, as we would have in thepast – and this has changed therelationship of city-dwellers to theirlocal ecology. We may even be unawareof floods and droughts in surroundingrural areas, or where our drinking watercomes from, or how healthy our forestsare. And, as the proportion of globalpopulation living in urban areas grows,cities are continuing to spread into thesurrounding countryside, with a

constellation of technological andeconomic necessities, rather thanpublic need, dictating how they arebuilt.

The physical shape of our cities, ourmodes of agriculture, mining, energyproduction, forestry, fishing andcommerce have all changed radically inthe space of a century and a half,transforming the way much of theworld now looks.

Our communities have become soembedded in the tempo andexpectations of modern technologicalinnovations that these are evenshaping our understanding of ourselvesas ‘individuals’, as humans, whilenarrowing our view of the Earth,rendering it increasingly remote.

Globalization – the new ecology?

While there has been a long tradition ofsmall groups of ecologically mindfulpeople, their impact on the norms ofmodern life has been limited. Individualethics has meant little to the juggernautof modern progress. But climate changehas brought the scale of modernindustrial technology and its by-productof greenhouse gas emissions into globalconsciousness in an unprecedentedway.

The Anthropocene epoch maybecome one of the planet’s majorextinction periods, similar to when thedinosaurs became extinct 65 millionyears ago. For the first time, we can seeclearly the impacts of moderntechnological progress on ecology at aglobal, planetary scale - unlesssomething radical shifts.

But this shift is slow in coming.International schemes for tradinggreenhouse gas emissions, for example,show just how little the real scale ofecological realities is being taken intoaccount.

This is not a Luddite, anti-technological position.3 But we can nolonger remain strangers in our ownecological niche. Modernity is global inscope, and our ecological niche hasbecome global too. Climate changemakes it clear that ecological boundaryconditions need to be taken seriously.Gone are the days when the humanimagination is free to construct an idealreality. Human activities, technologiesand economics need to be appropriatefor the harsh realities of ecologicalconditions.

The awareness of planetary ecologythat climate change has awakened in usshould force us to shift the normativelens through which we comprehend theworld. We can do nothing withoutstrong political decisions on aninternational scale. Perhapsglobalization can also be seen as the‘new Green.’ ■

Ruth Irwin is Senior Lecturer in

Business Ethics at Auckland University

of Technology, New Zealand. She is the

author of Heidegger, Politics and Climate

Change (2008) and Editor of Climate

Change and Philosophy:

Transformational Possibilities (2010),

both published by Continuum, London.

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MICHAL MEYER

Dreams ofscienceBecause of the power it bestows on

those who practice it and apply its

results to the real world, science

feeds our hope that planning and

organizing can drive human

evolution to a higher plane. This

has often proved a dangerous

quest.


Science and human identity

Take, for example, the case oftranshumanism, which focuses onindividual rather than societalimprovement. Transhumanism is futureoriented and relies on technologiesboth new and as yet confined to thepages of science fiction books. Itsultimate goal is to transcend humanbiological limitations and so create atechnologically based immortality.While transhumanism’s technologicalorigins lie in post World War IIcybernetics, nanotechnology, andgenetic engineering, its essenceconnects to the ancient alchemicalquest to create the Philosopher’s Stone,which supposedly provided nearimmortality to those alchemical adeptsclever enough to create it.

Transhumanism ranges from thecurrently realistic to the futuristicallysurreal, from stem cell therapy to theuploading of human consciousness intomachines—at which point it morphsinto a strange religious hybrid.Transhumanist British thinker Max Morewrites that transhumanism is a “blanket

After Victor Frankenstein’s Monsterescaped from the laboratory he went ona rampage of murder and mayhem. Yetthe Monster had potential for good: Hecraved friendship and love and hehelped a starving family.

Mary Shelley’s1 famous tale is atleast in part the story of responsibilityabandoned. Victor Frankenstein,scientist, had wished to “pour a torrentof light into our dark world,” but hadended by forsaking all moralresponsibility for his creation, which heabandons in the hope he will forgetabout what he has wrought. Out of thattheme has come a long list ofHollywood mad scientists who seekpower by fleeing from responsibility.

Science (and technology) is powerover the world, and increasingly powerover our biological selves. Thecombination of science and humanismaims to harness science for thebetterment of humanity. Yet we tend toforget that using science to better theworld is a project as old as science itself.How we use science in the real world oftoday brings up questions of meaning,values, and responsibility.


1. Frankenstein: the modern Prometheus, publishedin 1818, is British author Mary Shelley’s (1797-1851]most famous work. 2. Jules Verne [1828-1905], a French writer, is bestknown for his Voyage to the Centre of the Earth(1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), TwentyThousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Aroundthe World in Eighty Days (1873).

L 'Sparkle Man'. Group F. Firework display.www.groupef.com© Danica Bijeljac

Verne’s scientific romances2 captured awildly progressive view of science, withsuch wonderful creations as deep-seasubmarines and ships to the moon.Science dazzled the human imaginationand grounded a universal belief inhuman progress, both moral andmaterial. But a darker side of that

term given to the school of thought thatrefuses to accept traditional humanlimitations such as death, disease andother biological frailties.”

Other older examples have alsogiven science the power to influencewhat it means to be human. In thesecond half of the 19th century, Jules

imagination emerged towards the endof the 19th century. In the United Statesa potent brew of cultural fears − highimmigration, cities as hotbeds ofdepravity, evolution and degeneration −intersected with the scientificknowledge of the day to createeugenics.

The goal of the eugenicists was toput science into the service of betteringthe human stock, and, indeed, someappeared to regard humans as similar tolivestock when it came to avoiding


‘negative’ traits. In the U.S. and Britain,eugenics was often class- and privilegebased, with the middle and upperclasses considered to be biologicallysuperior. For a while eugenics wasmainstream, subscribed to by scientifichumanists like the great science-fictionauthor H. G. Wells,3 who was concernedabout species immortality.

Portraits of the ‘perfect’ scientist

Other scientific humanists, such asGeorge Sarton,4 one of the founders ofthe discipline of the history of sciencetook a more benign (though still elitist)approach. In 1924, in an article on ‘TheNew Humanism’5 published in Isis, hewrote that science is the “fruit of aninternational and ageless collaboration,one single organized body, thecommon treasure of all peoples, of allraces; in fact, the only patrimony uponwhich they all have equal rights.” ForSarton, humanity’s true purpose is inthe “creation of new values, intellectualvalues; the gradual unveiling andunfolding of the harmony of nature, thedevelopment and organization of whatwe call art and science.” Yet again,science was given power over valuesand meaning.

Another universalist, Morris Goran,writing in The Journal of HigherEducation in 1943 described his perfectscientist in a politically utopian vision:“He will belong to mankind at all times,serving human values, eternally vigilantfor transgressions, and policing societyagainst tyranny, intolerance, anddespotism . . . The threat of onemoment’s refusal by the scientists of theworld to do the bidding of tyrantswould forever ensure peaceful solutionsof world problems.” This is the scientistas philosopher king, whose knowledgeof science gives him power and moralauthority.

3. Herbert George Wells [1866-1946], English writerof science fiction, is best known to readers for TheTime Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897) andThe War of the Worlds (1898).4. George Sarton [1884-1956], the Belgian bornAmerican historian, is known primarily for his 3-volume Introduction to the History of Science. 5. This article was originally published in 1918, inScientia, in French.6 George Perkins Marsh [1801-1882], was anAmerican diplomat and philologist.

L Microscope photos of stem cells taken in 2001 by the Généthon laboratory in Evry (Génopole) in France.

Using science to better the world

is a project as old as science itself.

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In the 1970s, science and humanismfinally clashed when they intersected insociobiology. In this new discipline,evolutionary theory was applied tosocial behavior in animals and humans.Extreme forms of biologicaldeterminism argued that the socialstatus quo reflected biology. Society, ineffect, was being forced to mirror thescience of the day. Applying biologicaldeterminism to male aggression, femalesubjugation, or lagging IQ scoresamong African Americans suggested anunchangeable reality of inequality andinferiority.

Paleontologist and evolutionarybiologist Stephen Jay Gould fought thedeterminists through such popularbooks as The Mismeasure of Man (1981).For Gould, humanity shared a commongenetic heritage, on top of whichexisted significant social and culturaldifferences. G. P. Marsh,6 the man whofirst sounded a warning abouthumanity’s environmental impact onthe natural world, beginning in the 19thcentury, believed that science andtechnology would solve the problemscreated by humans, but in that solvingwould create new problems.

We will need both science andhumanism to work together in thefuture. We should also learn from pastmistakes. We must not expect fromscience that it will provide us withultimate meanings. It cannot tell us whowe should be and it cannot tell us what“better” means. Science is a humancreation, and it has the meaning andpurpose that each generation gives it.

Responsibility and ethical behaviorshould be central to the choices wemake. ■

Science cannot tell us who we

should be and it cannot tell us

what “better” means.

Michal Meyer was born in Israel. She

has worked as a meteorologist in New

Zealand and Fiji and as a journalist in

Israel. She has a Ph.D. in the history of

science and has worked for the

Chemical Heritage Foundation since

September 2009. She is the editor in

chief of Chemical Heritage magazine

(www.chemheritage.org/discover/ma

gazine/index.aspx)

Bioethics did not arise through someaccident or sudden illumination on thepart of a clairvoyant thinker. Itsemergence can be explained byhistorical, scientific and social factors.Over the past fifty years, spectacularprogress in medical science has openedup unforeseen possibilities for scientificresearch, and has brought irrefutableimprovement in public health, whileraising unanticipated challenges interms of ethics and morals.Each new breakthrough in biology andthe health sciences, such as organgrafts, which have saved countless lives,or assisted reproduction techniques,which can solve fertility issues forcouples, has faced social andpsychological obstacles, and raisedreligious and ethical questions. Thesame is true of research on humanembryos—a particularly sensitivesubject as it touches on the origins oflife, and involves moral concepts as wellas scientific and even financialinterests—from pre-implantationgenetic diagnosis (a technique thatpermits babies to be born who are freeof incurable inherited diseases), to theuse of stem cells (which can transforminto a wide range of specialized cellsand are crucial for the future ofregenerative medicine).

Faced with the major dilemmas raised by progress in bioscience and biotechnology,

bioethics needs to provide new ethical solutions, aimed at reconciling greater acceptance

of the potential of these disciplines with a vigilance and responsibility that is crucial for

protecting the values of humanism in all circumstances.

Bioethics: unimagined challenges

1. American scientist Van R. Potter was the first touse the term “bioethics”, in an article published in1970.

SALVADOR BERGEL

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These are not isolated or limiteddiscoveries. We are witnessing a genuinebiological revolution. In just a fewdecades, scientists have managed todecode the chemical basis of heredity,the genetic code shared by all livingbeings, and to lay the foundations formolecular biology and a new genetics.This has led to genetic engineering, inother words, a ‘technoscience’ that canmanipulate and exchange genesbetween members of a single speciesand between different species. Mankindcan now manipulate and modify geneticinformation for practical purposes, andcan even act on his own biologicalnature as a species—which is certainlythe most disturbing aspect from abioethical point of view.

This progress in the life sciences hasrepercussions for the very concept ofwhat it means to be human, and raisesethical, social and legal issues that gobeyond science. This is where bioethics iscalled upon, to arrive at a fair andinsightful balance between medicalprogress and respect for human life.

Bioethics must recognize thebenefits of these scientificbreakthroughs, while remainingconstantly alert to the risks and dangersthey may present. While this progresscan lead to promising new ways oferadicating diseases that have longaffected human health, it also raisesjustifiable fears about undesirable effectsand possible misuse, such as genetic

manipulation and its variousapplications, the return of eugenicdoctrines—which now have a range ofsophisticated tools at their disposal—orexperiments on vulnerable populations.

The appearance of bioethicscoincided with the widespread outcryraised by the horrors of the SecondWorld War, a reaction that culminated inthe Universal Declaration of HumanRights in 1948. The overriding goal ofbioethics is based on this humanistprinciple, of affirming the primacy of thehuman being and defending the dignityand freedom inherent in the mere fact ofbelonging to the species, in the face ofthe shifting and constantly evolvingcontext of the life sciences.

Dialogue, consensus and tolerance

Bioethics stands as a bulwark ofhumanism both in terms of its goals aswell as its multidisciplinary nature. Toprovide appropriate solutions to newscientific challenges, for whichtraditional ethics has proven to beinsufficient, we have had to find waysfor the natural sciences and socialsciences to communicate with oneanother, each with its ownmethodologies and specific viewpoints,and to bring together different fields ofknowledge, ranging from philosophy,medicine and biology, to law, sociologyand anthropology.

Bioethics also integrates the values ofhumanism in its methods and practices,aiming to achieve consensus through aconstructive and intelligent dialoguewith all the various sectors concerned.Society is no longer content to look onpassively when faced with choices thatthreaten its survival and compromise itsmoral responsibility. Bioethics therefore

has to impose an attitude of opennessand tolerance, geared toward theadoption of standards and laws thatrespect the realities of multiculturalcommunities, with their own uniquetraditions and beliefs.

But these humanist values do morethan just encourage theoretical thought;they also apply to specific issues ineveryday life, such as problems raised byhospital practices. The field has alsoexpanded to include the socialdimensions of health, such as poverty,food and access to safe drinking water, tohealth services and drugs.

Bioethics has sparked a globalmilitancy that is helping to turn theideals of world justice into reality,through the initiatives of national ethicscommittees and hospital committees, aswell as through teaching and research. Itshould also be noted that, almostwithout exception, medical schools nowinclude bioethics in their teachingprogrammes, demonstrating its essentialrole in medical practice.

Hospital bioethics committees havebeen set up in virtually every healthservice, and there is not a single countrywithout a national bioethics committeeor an equivalent group of ad hoc experts.Codes, standards and protocolsaddressing bioethics have been adoptedeverywhere, and UNESCO considered itessential to create a forum for reflectionand debate—the International BioethicsCommittee—and to strengthen thediscipline by drawing up guidelinesbased on human rights, as set out inthree Universal Declarations.

This alliance between bioethics andhuman rights heralds a new form ofhumanism that is in tune with theexpectations and challenges of ourtimes. This renewed humanismrecognizes the biological and ethicalcomponents of human nature, whosedignity must be safeguarded here andnow, while assuming the responsibilityand the duty to protect life in all itsmanifestations, for generations to comeand ultimately, to guarantee the survivalof the species. ■

2. An example, among others is the aberrantpseudo-scientific experiments to which prisoners inthe Nazi concentration camps were subjected.

Salvador Bergel (Argentina) holds a

law degree, is a specialist in bioethics,

and occupies the UNESCO Chair in

Bioethics at the Universidad de Buenos

Aires.

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Humanism, as it appeared in theRenaissance, resulted from a merging ofrevived classical Greek thinking, with itssense of the primacy of man over theEarth, consolidating man as a beingapart from the rest of nature –separated and dominant. This vision notonly prevailed, it was reinforced by theabsolute domina tion andtransformation of nature by man.

While this humanism has gainedground, it nevertheless began a courseof dehumanization. The atomic bombalone is a symbol of the creation of aschizophrenic civilization. The humanbeing dominated nature, using thetechnology that he created, buthumanity started to be dominated bytechnology that now defines thecharacteristics of the social system,destroying the environment andincreasing social inequality.

The uncertain future of our planetmeans that we will have to rethink the

humanist project, which, for me must bebuilt on seven pillars.

Promoting planetary politics

What the city meant to the Athenianshas, today, become the nation state formodern democracies. And citizenship –this Greek creation that indicated thecommitment of city resi dents to the city

If, nowadays, value has been transformed into price, and a tree is only worth the timber it

produces, or an animal its meat and leather, it is, according to Cristovam Buarque, because

the humanist project has lost its way over the centuries. For a new form of humanism to

emerge that is founded on ethical modernity, it must take account of the planetary

challenges we are facing.

CRISTOVAM BUARQUE

This article is an extract of a presentation given byCristovam Buarque at the Third Global Forum of theAlliance of Civilizations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, inMay 2010.

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itself - began to turn into a commitmentto the whole country.

The present planetary crisis raises theissue of our responsibility as citizens ofthe Earth. In other words, it calls for anindividual commitment to the fate ofhumankind and of the Earth. For me, thisnew humanism must be sensitive to theimportance of all human beings, to thefeeling of global solidarity.

Respecting cultural diversity

In the past, man has been contemptuousof his fellow men, as witnessed by thegenocide against indigenous peoples ofAmerica, the enslavement of Africa andall the other forms of racism andxenophobia that reveal a sense ofsuperiority. A new humanism must getrid of ethnocentrism; it must become‘acentric’ and respect cultural diversity.We must calm the conflicts betweencultures and consider their variety as anindicator of the wealth of civilization,where their interaction is more than thesum of the parts.

Caring for the environment

Humanism has been irresponsiblyarrogant with regard to nature, seeing novalue in it. It has exhausted naturalresources and undermined theecological balance to such an extent thatthe continuity of civilization isthreatened. Only human labour or a priceset by the market generate value on athreatened and worthless planet. Thevalue of trees is in its timber, that ofanimals in its meat and leather. The new humanism that I am calling forshould seek a civilization that is fullyintegrated into the environmentalbalance. Economic output should nolonger be measured only by the sum ofmaterial goods and services - GDP. Itmust also take into account any costsdue to waste resulting from theproduction process.

Guaranteeing equal opportunities

Humanism was an oasis for the dream ofequality, but capitalism widenedinequalities to such an extent thatdifferences in life expectancy nowdepend on personal income. I dream of ahumanism that ensures equalopportunities, that will act as a ladder forsocial ascent, drawing ecological lines todefine the limits on a consumption thatis depleting the environment, whileprotecting the dispossessed.

Promoting balanced production

The idea of valuing labour, instead ofland, made man the value-maker andput workers at the centre of theproduction process. However, this greatleap worked against humanism whenthe value was transformed into a pricedefined by mystical market forcesbeyond human control. Explanationsreplace justice, demands replace will,and consumer desires replace thefulfilment of needs. To build a newhumanism we must redefine the marchof nations and of humankind towardsan ecologically balanced productionprocess. And it must assign value tonon-tradable goods.

The new humanism must alsoabolish the slavery that continues toimprison man by reducing him to amere cog in the production process.

Integration through education

Humanism in the industrial erapromised a world of equal income,thanks to the economy. Capitalism saidthat the increase in production and thelaws of the market would lead to a‘trickle down’, distributing the incomefrom top to bottom of the socialpyramid; whereas in socialism, thedistribu tion would be ensured by thestate and the laws of planning.

Nowadays, under the newknowledge and human capitaleconomy, the key to economic progressand social justice must be sought inquality education for all. The challengeof the new humanism is to ensure thateach child has access to equally goodeducation, regardless of race, familyincome or place of residence. The ‘trickledown’ promised by capitalism will no

longer come from the market, butinstead from a ‘trickle up’ induced byeducation.

The long-term purpose of thisprocess will be the integration of allpeoples around the world, using allavailable techniques in a planetarynetwork.

An ethical technical modernity

The industrial process of civilization ischaracterized by the pursuit oftechnical modernity, defined by the useof up-to-date technology. This requiredthe creation of an economic rationalitythat justifies the products of cutting-edge technology and leaves behind thesocial goals, thus relegating ethicalvalues.The new humanism must use ethicalvalues as vectors that set up the socialgoals, and will see them as thefoundation of an economic rationalitythat defines all technical choices. Evenhere, techniques should be chosenaccording to ethical and aestheticstandards, not only in terms ofeconomic efficiency.

Technical modernity, defined by theoriginality of technology andhumanism, will be replaced, in the newhumanism, by an ethical modernity. Forinstance, instead of being defined bythe number of private cars incirculation, modern transportationwould be judged by its results –reduction in travel time, user comfort,punctuality, universal access.

Like Einstein trying to dialogue withGod – in whom he did not believe – tolearn how he had drawn all the detailsof the world, the new humanism mustimagine the ideal way to build acivilization that is democratic, tolerant,efficient for humanity and each humanbeing, and that respects nature. Theonly way is dialogue between peopleand between men and nature. The newhumanism will promote the dialoguebetween cultures and Mother Earth. ■

Cristovam Buarque is a Senator and

Professor at the University of Brasilia,

and was Minister of Education in 2003.

He has devoted his political career

particularly to combating illiteracy,

implementing agrarian reforms,

improving the Brazilian health system

and improving working conditions in

the country.

Nowadays, under the new

knowledge and human capital

economy, the key to economic

progress and social justice must

be sought in quality education

for all. The challenge of the new

humanism is to ensure that

each child has access to equally

good education, regardless of

race, family income or place of

residence.

Africa Week, 25 to 28 May.

Jean-Marie Lehn at the launch ofthe International Year of Chemistryon 27 January.

Stéphane Hessel at thefourth University of theEarth on 2 April.

8 March, International Women's Day: Irina Bokovawith a delegation from Thailand.

Mónica González Mujica (Chile), on 26 January. Homage to Franz Liszt by the ZoltanKodaly orchestra (Hungary) on 29 July.

Mimi Barthelemy (Haiti) dedicates herlatest children's books on 21 February.

Claude Lanzmann launcheshis film Shoah in Persian on7 March, 2011

Modeste Nzapassara (Central AfricanRepublic), 27 March.

Amos Coulanges, a year after theearthquake in Haiti on 21 January.

Alasita festival, a Bolivian ritual, 24 January.

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An afternoon with someastronautson 22 March.

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In the 2008 film Kassim, The Dream,

where you were Executive Producer,

the hero is a former child soldier who

cannot forgive himself for the crimes

he committed. Who is he?

The tragic story of the young Ugandan,Kassim Ousama, is a good example. Heis a beautiful man, a great boxer whowas famous as a light middleweight inthe early 2000’s. But the demons fromhis past caught up with him, preventinghim from realizing his dream. He quit inthe middle of training for the worldchampionship. In the film you see himgo back to Uganda and visit the grave ofhis father, who was killed because of

him. Kassim has lost his self-esteem andwatches himself deteriorating fromwithin, as he tries to reconcile – not justwith the world, but with himself, withthe things he did as a child soldier.

Have many of the former child

soldiers that you met managed to

forgive themselves?

No. But I met a lot who still havenightmares. Some of those who hadcommitted atrocities had come to someform of self-forgiveness, but it was notcomplete. The most difficult part forthem is rejoining their owncommunities, where they may have

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Childsoldiers:

Recently appointed UNESCO

Goodwill Ambassador, the

American actor and

director, Forest Whitaker, is

doing his utmost to help

child soldiers. He uses every

available opportunity to

help them find a voice, to

rejoin the communities they

have been banished from, to

get an education, to forgive

themselves and regain their

self esteem.

FOREST WHITAKER interviewed by Katerina Markelova

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J Forest Whitaker at UNESCO in June, 2011.

carried out acts of violence against theirown neighbours. It’s one thing to knowthat these children were taken away andforced to kill, but a killer remains a killerin the eyes of society. How, under theseconditions, does one forgive oneself?How to heal oneself of such suffering? Itneeds the most extraordinary efforts.These young people need to findactivities that occupy them completely.Otherwise it’s hard for them to move on.

I’m convinced that educationprovides a way out for them. Education isan opening of the mind, so that peoplecan see the possibilities that are availableto each of us. Education can bringunderstanding, and then, hopefully, wecan move to a form of compassion. Andthis, hopefully, can lead us to forgiveness,which in turn leads to love – a love ofourselves and a love of others. This issomething that child soldiers continue towork through with the tools that they’vebeen given. And some are moresuccessful than others.

What do the gangs in the USA and the

civil wars in Africa have in common?

That is precisely the question I look at inthe documentary “Common Destiny”that we are working on right now. Weinterviewed a Ugandan child soldierand a member of the Blood gang in LosAngeles. We started to compare theirstories and realized that they wereextremely similar. They were bothforced into violence. And they’re bothfighting people from their ownneighbourhood, even their own family.

As a child, I grew up watching thebirth of the gangs in the United States,particularly the Crips and the Bloods inLos Angeles. I watched them as theyfirst named themselves and thenbecame international gangs. I lived inthe Blue or Crip neighbourhood, and mycousin lived in the Red or Bloodneighbourhood. My cousin joined theBloods, and if I had joined the Crips, wewould have been enemies and mighthave killed each other. In the conflictzones of Africa, where armed rebelskidnap children and turn them into

Why did you decide to support the

cause of child soldiers?

I began working with child soldiersfour or five years ago. Before that, I’dbeen campaigning against malaria inAfrica and working with organizationsdealing with physical abuse. I’ve alsoworked with gangs in the USA. I seeparallels between the child soldiers inAfrica and some of the people I haveknown in gangs.

I don’t divorce myself from the restof the world. I see these young peopleas parts of myself. I strongly believethat we are part of a single entity andthat ultimately we want to connect asone. Trying to understand and helpthese young gang members and childsoldiers is, for me, not an intellectual,or even an emotional choice. It’s aspiritual choice. It doesn’t need to beexplained or justified, it’s in the naturalorder of events. It’s the way I see theuniverse and the way I perceive God.

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soldiers, don’t young cousins becomeenemies in just the same way?

So there are similarities between thegangs and child soldiers. They bothslowly get caught up in the world ofsmuggling, trafficking drugs and arms,even if they’re not always visible.

In ‘Common Destiny’ you are going to

show the mechanisms that can bring

peace to communities torn apart by

conflict. How do you intend to do this?

We’re going to follow a number ofindividuals around the world living inconflict zones. With the support ofUNESCO, we will be following theirjourneys, their struggles, their successes.And at the same time there will beinterviews about what people feel peaceis. We will be talking to people fromgovernment and to NGOs. Thedocumentary will allow people’s voices tobe heard, while giving examples of howwe come to peace.

We haven’t yet decided whichcountries we will be going to. I’m in theprocess of doing that right now and wasin discussions earlier, here at UNESCO. I can just say that I think we will be lookingat different types of conflict, such as thoselinked to the environment, migration, andxenophobia. I think I will be working onthis project for about two years.

Do you have any other projects as a

new UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador?

I have a few. I’m going to be working on atraining process with youth on conflictresolution. We’ll help child refugees tomove back to their countries of origin,and will train others to support them ontheir return. We will also set up anInternet space, so that they can beconnected to the rest of the world andeach other.

My own production company ispresently making about sixdocumentaries, most of them on peaceand reconciliation. We are also making afeature film called ‘Better Angels’ with aFrench company, Studio 37, on the samesubject. This film is about a war reporterwho goes to Uganda to interview Kony,chief of the Lord’s Resistance Army,which includes child soldiers.

You are going to play that journalist,

aren’t you?

Yes, we went to Uganda a few monthsago to do some more research, tointerview some more soldiers and to

make sure that we were completelyaccurate in what we were portraying.Meanwhile we are doing a piece just oncompassion, and what compassionreally means. We’ve just started workingon a documentary about the Rwandan

cyclists who were caught up in the civilwar in the early 1990s. It’s an upliftingfilm. And we shouldn’t forget that the2012 Olympics in London will be thefirst time a Rwandan cyclist hascompeted. ■


250,000 child soldiers worldwide

According to a UN report published in 2010, almost a quarter of a millionchildren worldwide have been recruited by rebel groups and armies. Theprevious year, though, there had been some success in demobilizing childsoldiers, particularly in the Philippines, Democratic Republic of Congo, SouthernSudan, Sri Lanka and Burundi, where they were reformed and reintegrated intosociety. The UN pointed out that there are no statistics on the number ofchildren killed in conflicts around the world.

Children are easy prey for militias and other rebel organizations and can bevery useful to them. It is not hard to indoctrinate children or get them to takegreater risks than an adult, even to commit worse atrocities. Children are likelyto feel they have to do what an adult tells them to do. And they will more readilytake any drugs they are given. In the July-September 2011 issue of the UNESCOCourier, the former Congolese soldier, Serge Amisi, who went on to become anartist, gives a compelling account of his experiences.

2010 marked the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Optional Protocolto the Convention on the Rights of the Child, concerning the involvement ofchildren in armed conflicts. To date, 132 Member States have ratified theOptional Protocol, while 24 have signed it and 36 have neither signed norratified it. – J.Š.

See: ‘Serge Amisi and his Miracle Weapons’ available on line:www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco-courier/archives/ (use keywords to searchwithin the digital archive).

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more imagination than money, I madetelevision programmes that went outvery late at night and were often in thetop ten most popular programmes,rebroadcast all across Latin America.

This is not just a result of the vein ofmagical realism that runs through LatinAmerican literature, with its spiritualleader, Nobel laureate Gabriel GarcíaMárquez,1 but also of a deep conviction

I am an incurable romantic whoadmires the paper book, along withancient parchments and the cave art oflong-disappeared cultures. But that hasnot stopped me from being one of thatspecies of writer that has not hatedtelevision. For over ten years, and with

Since the turn of the 21st century we have been seeing a flurry of virtual libraries opening

on the Internet and eBooks getting off to a flying start. Are these new media likely to

dethrone King Paper, until now the unchallenged ruler of his kingdom? The Chilean

writer Antonio Skármeta, whose childhood experiences of radio started him on his career,

wagers that the ‘traditional’ book will survive the digital frenzy.

A special place for

ANTONIO SKÁRMETA

1. Colombian writer, who received the Nobel Prizein Literature in 1982.

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This article is taken from a paper presented byAntonio Skármeta at the Second UNESCO WorldForum on Culture and Cultural Industries, Focus2011, in Monza, Italy, 6 to 8 June 2011.

'Book of Psalms, by painter andsculptor, Patrick Medrano and

photographer, Katy Anderson. Thesetwo American artists work together in

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since childhood that tales that arewritten down shine more brilliantlywhen they capture the primary joy of


spoken language. This conviction didnot come to me through readingFoucault2 or anthropologists like Lévi-Strauss,3 but from living in a ruralvillage at the age of eight with mygrandmother, and, at eleven or twelve,with my friends in a neighbourhood ofBuenos Aires.

My childhood was a long love affairwith radio, and my first experience ofstories told without using any kind ofequipment. After dinner, when mygrandmother sat down to knit herendless cardigans, she would ask me tosit next to her, while she listened toepisodes of horrible melodramas withplaintive music. She was so engrossedin these radio serials that she would getcross if anyone asked her a question orif the telephone rang. And she wouldrant at the stupidity of the protagonistswho were more reluctant than her toact.

I remember one serial where,episode after episode, two crooks triedin vain to steal a million-dollar diamondring from an aristocrat. Every time theywere about to succeed, somethinghappened – the maid came into thebedroom, her husband came over tokiss her, the lady shut herself in thebathroom to take a shower. One daythey poured a sleeping draught intoher soup, and, when their victim fell tothe floor, they went about removingher ring. But it was so tight that, afterten minutes of struggling, they had toescape without the jewel. “The fools!”she said to me, beside herself, in herCroatian-tinted Spanish. Mygrandmother was a passionate woman.“All they had to do was chop off herfinger with an axe!”

Getting started as a writer

The electricity supply in the village wasprecarious. The frequent power cutsmeant that it was impossible to keepthe radio on. My grandmother used tocurse if the power cut out at the heightof the action. So she would turn to meand say, “So, Antonio, what do you thinkis happening right now?” And with a lotof gesticulating and “um’s and ah’s,” Iwould tell her the story, with completelyfantastic details, just as she liked it,straight out of my imagination. Mygrandmother would nod and continueher knitting, her eyes fixed on theceiling, as if that were where my storywas coming from.

One Saturday, when the electricitywas working and her thriller was blaringout of the radio at full volume, mygrandmother turned off the set and saidto me “Antonio, I prefer it when you tellthe story.” This, I think, was what got mestarted in my career as a writer – with nohelp whatsoever!

As you will understand, satisfyingthe appetite for fiction of a grandmotherwas a fabulous invitation to embrace thefragile condition of writer. The glowingreport handed out by my forebear formy dramatic ‘supplements’ turned out tobe more encouragement for me than aPhD in Creative writing from Harvard.

For a Chilean teenager at the time, tobe a writer obviously meant being aNorth American writer. And in New York!Climbing to the top of the Empire StateBuilding with a pretty blonde in thepalm of his hand like King Kong. There,in that great global city, was all theexcitement anyone needed. I’d have togo ‘on the road’ like Kerouac4 and theBeat poets.

Being a writer who learned to loveliterature without any material – exceptperhaps the human voice and thesilence of the desert – it didn’t muchmatter in which airport stories landed.For me, the problem that literatureposes lies not so much in what media isused, but in the lack of readers. If I singthe praises of the paper book, it isbecause, until now it has been thevehicle that enabled me to find readersin over thirty languages. But that is alsothe case for the films based on mynovels, and even the operas made fromthem.

So I am not afraid oftransformations. On the contrary, Iwelcome them. I use them. I know thatthe letters my postman will deliver toPablo Neruda will provoke the sameemotion, whatever medium or surfacethey are presented on, be it a book,iPad, eBook, film or even a theatre play.

Literature is much more than

information

When I looked at the statistics on thenumber of people reading electronicbooks I noticed that, up to now, themarket for them in my own language,Castillian, is disproportionately far lessthan that in English.

But I would like to put forward thefollowing idea – that the medium ofpaper when used in literature, in otherwords the book, is so sophisticated anobject, at least in the field of art, that itwill always hold its place alongside thenew media. And I even wonder if it willnot do so to its own advantage, for onevery good reason – the screen hasbecome the basic working tool formankind.

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Wherever we are, most of theworking day is spent between the moreor less strident flashes – according tothe quality of the machine – ofcomputers. The electronic world isabove all associated with work. Itintensifies our vision, and absorbs ourattention. It controls us.

Of course the computer also offers aspecial place for communicationbetween individuals who feelconnected when they are using it. But itis interesting that the most popularform of expression between surfers onthe internet is the abbreviated, concise,minimalist message. That ofinformation. Twitter.

whole days burning our retinas on themovements of the stock market, andthen, in the evening, watch a superbfilm where the beaches of Tahiti areportrayed in three dimensions, with thebeauties painted by Gauguin. But whatwe really want is to be on thesebeaches, admiring the skin, enjoyingthe breeze, swimming in the warmcobalt waters of the sea, and not leftwith a substitute.

A sensible cohabitation between

media

In any discussion of the future of thebook, we need to remember that thestory carried by the paper – fromancient parchments to modern print –has created prestigious spaces forcommunication, such as bookshops,national and local libraries and bookclubs, and that these forms ofpublication have joined with other arts,transforming the printed and boundstory into an object like no other – with

2. Michel Foucault, [1926-1984], French philosopherand Professor at the Collège de France.3. Claude Lévi-Strauss [1908-2009], Frenchanthropologist and member of the Académiefrançaise.4. Jack Kerouac [1922-1969], American writer, isbest known for his novel On the Road. He belongedto the Beat Generation (beatniks), young writersand poets revolting against a society that theyconsidered to be materialistic and superficial. 5. Pablo Neruda [1904-1973], Chilean poet, Nobellaureate in Literature, 1971. In his novel, BurningPatience, Skármeta tells the story of Mario Jimenez,the postman on Isla Negra in Chile, where his onlyclient is Pablo Neruda, who went there to write inpeace and quiet.

I know that the letters my

postman will deliver to Pablo

Neruda will provoke the same

emotion, whatever medium or

surface they are presented on, be

it a book, iPad, eBook, film or

even a theatre play.

its graphic design, its illustrations, itscovers, and the people who flockaround them in public spaces.

The publication of a good bookrapidly evokes collective admiration – itis a cultural event. I doubt whether theghost-like publication of a story in theprivate solitude of digital space everpossessed the same enthusiastic graceas the birth of a book printed on paper.

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But that is exactly the point.Literature is so much more thaninformation. A scientific document is amine of information, and that is all thattextbooks are – information that has tobe understood, learned, mastered andapplied.

Literature is far removed from thesepragmatic criteria. It is the pleasure ofwords, conjuring images that transportthe soul to places that the language ofscience has not yet codified. To be briefbut clear, creative literature, whethernarrative or poetry, belongs more to thedomain of pleasure than of work.

I think that this psychological factor– avoidance of the other – will protectthe book from the voracity ofinformation. From those who provide itand those who ask for it. Obviously wecan buy a DVD and watch the latest filmto win an award at Cannes on a screenat home. But we continue to go to thecinema. We are apparently religiousenough that our intimate conversationswith God take place through prayer. Butwe go to temples and churches andtake part in the rituals. We can obviouslyspeak words of love to a loved one bytelephone or by email – but we seekthem out so that our kiss can transportus beyond their lips. We can spend

K "Blinking Transcendent" by American artist, Ruth Lantz


When we sit at home in front of theTV, we have a whole range ofprogrammes to choose from, in severallanguages. By zapping we can go allover the world. But our initial inclinationis always towards local news, towardsthe intimacy and sense of belonginginspired by faces close at hand and theevents of our own country, whichprovide the subject matter for oureveryday conversations and discussions.

I do not see how the electronic bookcould acquire this aura of admiringsimultaneity and collective attentionoffered by the solid structure of thepublications industry and its networks ofdistribution, from bookshops tonewspapers. What I am trying to say isthat the publication of a book usingexisting methods is a cultural event thatputs the extravagant imagination born ofthe writer’s fantasy onto the collectiveagenda of the people.

I wager that there will be a widecohabitation of many media – the digitalmedia will remain the faithful allies ofresearch, information, the ‘work’ of the

intellect, the ‘solitary’ contact with a story.And print on paper will remain a specialplace for the non-utilitarian imagination,the combination of the arts that findexpression in the book as object.

Meanwhile, the noble task that thoseinstitutions concerned with universalculture have set out upon – the creationof virtual libraries – deserves the highestforms of praise. By making all themagnificent knowledge of mankindavailable to people, since stories werefirst written down, is an event that wewelcome with joy, as it means that thisinformation will be distributed and willinfluence the existence of millions ofpeople, who will, as a result, becomebetter informed, more sensitive and,consequently, more free.

Antonio Skármeta, is a Chilean writer

of Croatian descent. Between 1973 and

1989, he lived in exile, first in Argentina

then Germany, a country to which he

returned in 2000 as ambassador to

Chile. His novels include The Dancer

and the Thief (Norton, 2008), Burning

Patience (Pantheon, 1987), and I Dreamt

the Snow was Burning (Readers

International, 1985). His illustrated

children’s book, The Composition

(Groundwood Books, 2000), won him

the 2003 UNESCO Prize for Children’s

and Young People’s Literature in the

Service of Tolerance.

If the printed book is to survivealongside the almost instantaneouspublication offered by the Internet andthe eBook, large bookstores and placeswhere books are sold have to becomemore appealing. When someone likes abook, they often think it would make agood present. And a printed book is theperfect choice. We are already familiarwith these large, communal spaces –cinema has not killed off theatre,television has not meant the end ofcinema, any more than the excellentquality of reproductions has not sunkmuseums and their originals... And thereis another aspect, which I have detectedas I move through various differentlanguages and continents – peoplehave a longing for intimacy, to be closeto the artist and the work of art, a wishto flee all the ear-splitting braying, to bein real life, at the heart of events. Thereis a desire to by-pass the intermediaries.This might be a minor trend now, but itis on the increase.

Those who say that the book offers amore intimate and less mediatized formof communication with the reader areright – there is no need to click on amouse to plunge in. May our dearestdream be this intimacy with art, withthe artist and with the reflected silencethat comes from entering the world ofcreation and coming away with theinspiration to approach life with greaterjoy and a bit more spice!

Today the printed book is still themost intimate medium, the leastephemeral, the most concrete, the mostsensual, the most visionary and eventhe one that gives off the mostmarvellous aroma – that of blessed inkspread onto the page. ■

L The Open Book, temporary installation by Lithuanian sculptor Saulius Valius, exhibited at UNESCO inJanuary 2004

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Print on paper will remain a

special place for the non-

utilitarian imagination, the

combination of the arts that find

expression in the book as object.


How did you meet Prudence?

It was a friend from New York who toldme about her. I started writing to theKing George VI School for children withdisabilities that Prudence attends inBulawayo, Zimbabwe. The Headmistresssent me some footage of the bandperforming along with a three-pagetext of Prudence recounting her lifestory. It was so heart wrenching. What

ROGER ROSS WILLIAMS interviewed by Cathy Nolan

Prudence Mabhena does not have legs, but music has given her wings. Through singing,

this 22-year-old Zimbabwean has overcome several obstacles that hindered her journey:

a congenital disease, amputation of both legs, family rejection, discrimination, poverty.

Together with seven other young people who shared a similar fate, she founded the group

Liyana (‘It’s raining’ in Ndebele), which inspired American film director, Roger Ross Williams

to produce the 2010 Oscar-winning short film, “Music by Prudence.” He tells us about his

encounter with Prudence that changed his life.

drama! Yet, such hope at the same time!I then decided to make my firstindependent documentary.

By Christmas Day 2008, a fewmonths later, I was already inZimbabwe. There, I followed and filmedPrudence for two weeks. When Ireturned to the United States andwatched the footage, I thought tomyself, “I have discovered a true star.”

Was Prudence cooperative with you?

Prudence took a little bit of convincing.She didn’t really believe that I wouldshow up, since she was used to a life ofbetrayal and disappointment. So, shewas amazed to see me.

Our first meeting was very intenseand emotionally charged. Never beforehad Prudence been asked to talk aboutwhat had happened to her. It was like a

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The Flight of Prudence


psychotherapy session. The words justpoured out of her. She was in tears. I wasin tears. The cameraman was in tears. Iknew then it would be one of the mostimportant stories of my life.

I was determined to make it all theway, but met with many roadblocks.Filming in Zimbabwe is a physicalchallenge. We were never safe from apower outage, so we had to be sure thatcameras and projectors wereconsistently charged. And to makematters worse, it’s literally not allowedto film in Zimbabwe. It’s lucky that Iwasn’t arrested or shot during theelection, which was a very violentperiod. Several times we almost gotthrown out, and I had to talk my wayout of it at the immigration office. But,we were in Prudence’s world, a schoolfor disabled children. We weren’t doinganything political, and the governmentknew that.

How did the film change Prudence’s

life?

Prudence was already a star in hercommunity, performing concerts allover town. But, she wasn’t known in therest of her country. Now, she’s certainlyone of the most famous women inZimbabwe. When she arrived back in

the country after the film received anOscar, she couldn’t imagine what toexpect. When the plane landed, she sawhundreds of people, dozens of mediafrom all over Africa, and the mayor ofBulawayo waiting to welcome her. Asshe was carried off the plane, her fatherwas at the foot of its steps on his knees,tears streaming down his face, andbegging for forgiveness.

At this time, the mayor declared,“Prudence Mabhena has taught all of usin Zimbabwe that disability does notmean inability, and we must change ourattitude towards the disabled.” Thenewspapers resonated this idea, andpraised Prudence for putting hercountry on the map. One notableheadline read, “Prudence brings Oscargold to Zimbabwe.” I don’t know if thepolitical mentality towards people withdisabilities will change, but one thing issure: Prudence has touched the heartsof many.

What attracted you to this subject?

I often think about outsiders and peoplewho are left behind, forgotten. I identifywith being a minority, I always have.Mainly because I’ve usually been anoutsider, myself. So Prudence’s storystruck a personal chord with me. I was

abandoned by my father too, althoughnot to the same extent as Prudence.Every one of us feels admiration forpeople who succeed in triumphingabove their suffering. Prudence did it.And today, she is sending her messageloud and clear through her song, ‘Nevergive up’. She was always determinedand convinced that life would one dayget better. She believes you have to gothrough the hard times to appreciateyour gifts in life.

And your film shows that outcasts

can have extraordinary gifts to share.Disabled children, especially indeveloping countries – and particularlygirls – are the last anyone will payschool fees for, or anything else. They’reat the bottom of the pecking order. And yet, every disabled child who isabandoned and cast off representsbudding potential. They could grow upto be singers, writers or even thepresident of the United States.

What has Prudence been doing since

the Oscars?

I connected her with Human RightsWatch and several NGOs who supportpeople with disabilities. She has beentraining, to travel around the world, asan advocate for this cause.

What kind of impact did meeting

Prudence have on you?

An enormous impact. Getting close toPrudence made me realise that thethings I complained about wereactually insignificant. Prudence, shenever complains. It put my life intoperspective. I’m much more thankful forwhat I have and all that has gone rightfor me. And of course, meetingPrudence has had a profound effect onmy career. I’m not just speaking aboutthe Oscar. I mean, this film has given mywork a whole new dimension: it’sbecome an opportunity to do somegood in the world. Hopefully, it willinspire countries, families andeverybody to fully appreciate peoplewith disabilities. ■

Visit the website of Prudence Mabhena:www.musicbyprudence.com/

J Roger Ross Williams in the UNESCO Courieroffices in December 2010

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Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize, 2010 for Plaza deMayo GrandmothersThe Félix Houphouët-Boigny PeacePrize for 2010 was awarded on 14September 2011, in a ceremony atUNESCO HQ, to The Grandmothers ofthe Plaza de Mayo, a non-governmental organization, based inArgentina which was represented byEstela de Carlotto, President of theorganization. The Prize, whichconsisted of a cheque for US$ 150,000,a gold medal and a peace diploma,was awarded by Irina Bokava,Director-General of UNESCO, in thepresence of several Heads of Stateand of Government: CristinaFernández de Kirchner (Argentina);Alassane Dramane Ouattara (Côted’Ivoire); Blaise Compaoré (BurkinaFaso); Abdoulaye Wade (Senegal);Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz

(Mauritania); Pascal Irénée Koupaki(Benin) and Brigi Rafini (Niger).

UNESCO chose theorganization in recognition of itstireless battle for over thirty yearsin favour of human rights, justiceand peace. It was founded in1977 to locate the biologicalfamilies of children kidnappedduring the political repression ofthe military dictatorship inArgentina.

The Félix Houphouët-BoignyPeace Prize created in 1989 andawarded by UNESCO annually,honours people, institutions andorganizations that havecontributed significantly to thepromotion, research, preservationor maintaining of peace. ■

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Russian singerAlsouAbramovanamed UNESCO Artistfor PeaceIn recognition of her commitment tohelp the world’s most vulnerablepeople, 28-year-old Russian singerAlsou Abramova, was named UNESCOArtist for Peace on 7 July at aceremony at UNESCO headquarters.

Her ‘Radouga’ [Rainbow]Foundation helps restore schools andhospitals, build churches andmosques. The musician also supportsseveral orphanages.

In her new role, Alsou will devoteeven more attention to education andmedical aid for children, as well asbuilding orphanages.

Born in Tatarstan, she wonrecognition on the Russian musicalscene when she was 15 with her firstalbum, Alsou. A year later she waschosen to represent Russia at theEurovision Song Contest in Stockholm(Sweden), where she won secondplace.

Singer, songwriter, pianist andactor, Alsou joins the list ofdistinguished Artists for Peace, thatincludes Céline Dion (Canada),Franghiz Ali-Zadeh (Azerbaijan) andMarcel Khalifé (Lebanon). The title isawarded to internationally renownedpersonalities who lend a particularresonance to the messages ofUNESCO. ■

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Humanism in the digital age‘Is the new humanism the response tothe scientific and cultural challengesof our time?’ This is the theme of aconference organized by thePermanent Delegation of Spain toUNESCO at the Organization’sheadquarters on 14 and 15 November2011. The thirty participants willinclude the Spanish Minister ofCulture, Ángeles González-Sinde,Chilean writer, Jorge Edwards, Italian

writer, Roberto Toscano, Frenchphilosophers Julia Kristeva and Roger-Pol Droit, Spanish philosophers AdelaCortina and Víctor Gómez Pin, theSenegalese writer, Fatou Diome, aswell as other jurists, journalists,scientists and experts. ■

For further information contact:[email protected]: (+ 33 1) 4568 3385.

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Promoting peace through sport

HerbieHancock is appointedUNESCOGoodwillAmbassadorHerbie Hancock, the prominent USjazz musician, was named as aGoodwill Ambassador by theDirector-General of UNESCO, IrinaBokova, in a ceremony on 22 July,2011 at UNESCO HQ, for hisdedication to the promotion ofpeace through dialogue, culture andthe arts.

“I watch the news, I vote, I haveopinions about the world I am livingin. I am living in this world just likeeverybody else […] I want to justifymy life and the only justification ishow you have fought the battle toserve humanity,” said HerbieHancock in an interview during theceremony.

Now aged 71, the jazz musicianwas born in Chicago, Illinois, andstarted with a classical musiceducation from the age of seven. Heis now in the fifth decade of hisprofessional career, with an AcademyAward for his film score to RoundMidnight and 14 Grammy Awards. Inaddition to being recognized as alegendary pianist and composer,Herbie Hancock has been an integralpart of every popular musicmovement since the 1960’s. ■

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The first football match in which theMálaga Club wore UNESCO jerseyswas against the Qatari Al-RayyanSports Club, on 20 July 2011, in theMarbella Football Centre.

This game was held after theDirector-General of UNESCO, IrinaBokova, and the President of theMálaga Football Club (Málaga CF),Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani, hadsigned a four-year agreement at thePicasso Museum in Malaga, Spain,on 1 June 2011, to promote peacethrough sport, the internet andsocial media.

A joint commission withrepresentatives of UNESCO and

Málaga CF will develop initiatives toreach these objectives. La Academia,the training centre for Malaga CF’syouth team, serves as a practicallaboratory for the agreement, toinspire young people with a newunderstanding of peace. Theinternet and social media will also beused to promote UNESCO’s valuesconcerning intercultural dialogueand the importance of education. Atpresent, 15 teams of youngfootballers aged 6 to 19 (i.e. 500players in total) are trained there. ■

See the Málaga Club website:www.malagacf.com/?home


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UNESCO and Japan come to the aid of PakistanThe tragic severe floods in Pakistanhas triggered UNESCO to launch, inJuly 2011, a major project incooperation with the Government ofJapan with the aim of upgrading theflood forecasting and early warningsystems of Pakistan, and to conductrisk mapping of flood plains alongthe Indus River. The project will beimplemented by UNESCO (ScienceSector ) in close collaboration withthe Japan International CooperationAgency (JICA) and in coordinationwith the Government of Pakistan.

The project will benefit from thetechnical expertise of the InternationalCentre for Water Hazard and RiskManagement under the auspices ofUNESCO (ICHARM), which developeda concise flood-runoff analysis systemas a toolkit for more effective andefficient flood forecasting indeveloping countries.

Pakistan suffered its most severefloods in living history in 2010. Thefloods began in late July 2010, in theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjaband Baluchistan regions of Pakistan. ■

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Migration and Climate Change Edited by Étienne Piguet, Antoine

Pécoud and Paul de Guchteneire

Migration and Climate Change provides thefirst authoritative overview of therelationship between climate change andmigration, bringing together both casestudies and syntheses from different parts ofthe world. It discusses policy responses, normative issues and criticalperspectives from the point of view of human rights, international law,political science, and ethics, and addresses the concepts, notions andmethods most suited to confronting this complex issue. ■ 2011

History of HumanityVolume VII: The Twentieth CenturyEdited by Sarvepalli Gopal and

Sergei L. Tikhvinsky

The product of almost fifteen years ofintense effort, the seven-volume Historyof Humanity is a radically new work thatsheds light on hitherto unknownhistorical events, in the light of new factsand methods of historiographical investigation.This major undertaking required an International Commission and theco-operation of some 450 distinguished specialists from all over theworld. The seventh volume is devoted to the history of the 20thcentury. ■ 2008

Investing in Cultural Diversity andIntercultural Dialogue

This report analyzes all aspects of culturaldiversity, which has emerged as a keyconcern of the international community inrecent decades, and maps out newapproaches to monitoring and shaping thechanges that are taking place. It highlights,in particular, the interrelated challenges ofcultural diversity and intercultural dialogue and the way in which stronghomogenizing forces are matched by persistent diversifying trends. Thereport proposes a series of ten policy-oriented recommendations, for theattention of States, intergovernmental and non-governmentalorganizations, international and regional bodies, national institutionsand the private sector on how to invest in cultural diversity. ■ 2009

www.unesco.org/publishing

Human Rights: Questions andAnswers By Leah Levin with cartoons by Plantu

Human Rights: Questions and Answers providesclear, concise and up-to-date information onhuman rights standards, mechanisms for theirpromotion and protection, organizationsworking for human rights, and majorinternational events. It also includes reflections on the mainchallenges to human rights. First published in 1981, it has been updatedseveral times and translated into over 30 languages. This revised editionreflects substantial recent developments in the field of human rights. Thepublication is one of UNESCO’s contributions to the International Year ofHuman Rights Learning (2009) and the World Programme for HumanRights Education, launched in 2005. It is a useful guide for anyoneinterested in the subject and aims to contribute to a universal culture ofhuman rights. ■ 2009

The UNESCO Universal Declarationon Bioethics and Human Rights Background, principles andapplicationEdited by Henk A. M. J. ten Have

and Michèle S. Jean.

In October 2005, UNESCO Member Statesadopted by acclamation the Universal Declaration on Bioethics andHuman Rights. For the first time in the history of bioethics, some 190countries committed themselves and the international community torespect and apply fundamental ethical principles related to medicine,the life sciences and associated technologies. ■ 2009

Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right Who Owes What to the Very Poor?Edited by Thomas Pogge

Collected here are fifteen cutting-edge essays byleading academics about the severe poverty thattoday afflicts billions of human lives. The essaysseek to explain why freedom from poverty is ahuman right and what duties this right createsfor the affluent. Addressing even the mostcomplex aspects of human rights in clear language, thesediscussions are accessible to specialists and lay readers alike. ■ 2007

Migration and Human Rights The United Nations Convention on MigrantWorkers' RightsEdited by Paul de Guchteneire, Antoine

Pécoud and Ryszard Cholewinski

The International Convention on MigrantWorkers' Rights is one of the UN's main humanrights treaties. It sets a standard in terms ofaccess to human rights for migrant workersand their families. Yet hardly more than 40states have ratified it and no major developed country hasdone so. Although migrant labour is essential in the world economy,the human aspect of migration - and especially migrants' rights -remains a neglected dimension of globalization. ■ 2009

Introducing Democracy: 80 Questions and Answers By David Beetham and Kevin

Boyle with cartoons by Plantu

What is democracy? What is therelation between democracy andindividual rights? Is majority rulealways democratic? How candemocracy be maintained andimproved?

This revised edition also takes into account new challenges facingour societies, from international terrorism to the HIV and AIDSpandemic. ■ 2009

The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity

celebrates its 10th anniversary

Detail from theposter for theUNESCOUniversalDeclaration onCultural Diversity. ©

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The UNESCO Universal Declaration on CulturalDiversity, adopted on 2 November 2001, raises culturaldiversity to the level of "the common heritage ofhumanity [...] as necessary for humankind asbiodiversity is for nature" and makes its defence anethical imperative indissociable from respect for thedignity of the individual.

humanism, a new idea-unesco courier

Documents

new holistic humanism

new delhi

new ideawhere

new york

purpose ofthe new humanism

acrisis of humanism

o c t o b e r d e c

directorgeneral of unesco