CULTURE &HERITAGE
HRH Prince El Hassan
Message to the Roundtable - Religion, Culture, Nation and Constitution:
Multiple Identities in Modern Societies
Berlin, Germany, 11- 12 April,
2002
'Religion,
culture, nation and constitution: multiple identities in modern societies.'
I
regret that I could not be here in person today to talk with you; but I welcome
this opportunity to share some of my thoughts with this distinguished gathering
at a time when we all wish to construct a safe House of World Cultures. May I
say that I greatly admire the projects and activities undertaken by the House
in Berlin and I hope that this forum may prove a model for imitation elsewhere
in the world.
There
is much one could say today about definitions of 'religion', 'culture', 'nation'
and 'constitution', not to mention 'identity', 'modern' and 'society'. However,
my task, as I see it, is not to limit definitions but to speak about the
broader meaning of the title given to this meeting.
Globalisation
is a fact: it is a fact we must face squarely. Yet facing facts should not, as
we know, mean that we may become resigned to the idea of one blandly homogenous
world dominated by one cultural outlook. A major challenge in the last few
years has been to bring together the centrist voices in every culture and
society - not only against the extremism which we see threatening all
civilisation, but also for a viable future in - as I often say - 'one world of
ten thousand cultures'.
Some
have striven for many years to meet this challenge, seeing that Samuel
Huntington's proposed 'clash of civilisations', if it becomes a reality,
threatens the survival of us all. But while success and modernity continue to
be measured in secular material terms, the majority of the global population
continues to be left out in the cold. At the last meeting of the Club of Rome,
over which I have the honour to preside, it was agreed to produce a publication
entitled The Limits to Poverty. Poverty now is not only about hunger and low
income but also about lack of information, lack of training and expertise, and
lack of opportunity and say in one's own future. Addressing poverty effectively
means information-gathering and concrete proposals to address the needs and
wants of the people on the ground.
Aid
is therefore not the complete answer to the problems we face today. Aid given
only in the interests of political expediency does not provide help where it is
most needed. Aid given without requirements for transparency and accountability
in its implementation all too often has very little of the desired effect. We
hear a lot about the democratic deficit. What about the credibility deficit?
Globalisation
carries with it the suggestion that one culture is coming inevitably to
dominate all others: and the culture in question is seen to be a Western
secular materialism alien to many peoples. Humanitarian objectives can only
succeed by engaging with the values of people, who are not unchanging
abstracts, and who rely on a sense of cultural and traditional security, including
religious culture, for their identity - their 'soft security'. Economics are
necessary; but economics are subject to political whim, and politics are driven
by expediency. For some time I have spoken in terms of moving away from
econopolitics or petropolitics to seek anthropolitics: politics as it relates
to the welfare of the individual human being. The Israeli advisor to
governments, Yehezkel Dror, writes similarly of a necessary move from
'statecraft' to 'humankindcraft', from 'raison d'état' to 'raison d'humanité'.
In
the Middle East at the moment there are terrible grievances and urgent needs.
Israel's need for security has to be recognised at the same time as Palestine's
need for justice; and security and justice must be reconciled with an eye to the
situation on the ground as it will be in ten and twenty years' time. There is a
very urgent need now to work for that future, to visualise a successful and
prosperous Middle East and work towards it. After all, there is vast potential
in Western Asia for peace, productivity, stability, trade and investment - to
the good of all world communities.
A
necessary condition for regional cooperation in Western Asia is surely the
resolution of the Israel/Palestine situation, which, like a black hole, is
presently sucking all other considerations into its horizon and prevents
forward movement. But compliance with international norms means that all
nations and actors comply at all times with those norms, not just when and as
they feel it is useful to their own political agenda. If any worldwide code of
conduct is to be implemented and if poverty is to be abolished, an
international culture of compliance is a prerequisite.
At
the same time, it has to be recognised that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is
one element in the wider region of the 'arc of crisis', stretching from the
north-west of the African continent across Western Asia and into Central Asia,
where 40% and 70% respectively of the world's reserves of oil and natural gas
occur. It cannot be emphasised too strongly that we need to promote greater
understanding of the shared values between peoples in order to create a culture
of peace instead of mere survival in the 'arc of crisis'. I spoke to the
Bundestag a few weeks ago and I said then that intercultural dialogue,
interfaith dialogue, international dialogue are incomplete without
intracultural, intrafaith and intranational dialogue.
This
means a return to the idea of the common good in policymaking: ethical
leadership working alongside ethical media and educational programmes to
enhance commonalities and respect differences.
On
the subject of the media influence today, let me say that building confidence
between adherents of faiths and cultures requires some trust based on personal
experience. Education and media provide information but no personal contact.
The Gallup poll in the Arab countries indicated that all is not well with the
US image in the Arab world; and what about the Arab image in America, or the US
image in Europe? Creative exchange between people as exemplified by the House
of Culture example is one way to promote better images: but it has to be more
widespread. The media are voracious and they require scriptwriters.
It
was distressing to read in the New York Times a few days ago of the destruction
of archives and machinery at the offices of a Ramallah broadcasting station
located in the al-Quds university Institute of Modern Media. The al-Quds
Educational Television, as it was called, broadcast information for public
education, better understanding of health issues and environmental awareness.
In 1997 it embarked on a joint project with Israeli educational television to
produce a Palestinian-Israeli version of 'Sesame Street'. The building and
equipment of this organisation have now been destroyed by Israeli soldiers by
throwing them out of the four-storey building.
Any
global proposal, to be globally legitimate, must be related to the religious,
cultural and legal traditions of our many diverse peoples. Such globalisation
would then not be perceived as a western or American imposition on the rest of
humankind but as 'universalisation' - a way to acknowledge the sharing of
values while remaining faithful to a community's roots. By the same token, each
tradition will discover that the challenges which human beings have faced for
centuries, and continue to face today, have been tackled in more or less
similar ways. The realisation of our similarities is important: in doing so,
civil societies might be inclined to accept the other as a brother sharing the
same human destiny and not as a potential enemy or barbarian. Hence I would
stress the importance to our common future of the House of World Cultures
dialogues and similar endeavours.
I
suggest that when we talk about global values, we are talking about redefining
many concepts in more humanitarian terms, including the concepts of poverty and
wealth. To provide that redefinition there is a clear and central role for
increased and sustained dialogue between and within cultures. My hope for the
countries of the developing world is that all countries of the world may
finally realise the importance of engagement so that they may become involved
in interactive and contributive conversations which relate to the building of
their own futures.
In
this context it is a pleasure for me to be able to announce the recent
institution of a long-held dream of mine - a Parliament of Cultures in
Istanbul, with a secretariat in Bilkent University. The Parliament is to
provide a forum for international dialogue at a cultural level rather than only
in an economic or political context. It is intended to help build the bridges
of understanding in terms of cultural values which are so sadly lacking in
today's international relations. It will provide a space in which disagreements
and agreements alike can be aired concerning the attitudes and desires of
populations and groups around the globe.
It
is now my hope to establish a European Parliament with an Asian contingent to
balance the Asian Parliament in Istanbul with its European contingent. Surely
Berlin is an ideal location for such an institution.
I
would ask too why in today's world we cannot form a non-denominational
International Peace Corps with the task of peacebuilding rather than merely
peace-keeping? Why can the defences of peace not be built in peacetime? Islam
is a religion which emphasises the importance of looking ahead. Indeed, the
idea of a Muslim Peace Corps has been mooted before. The emphasis has to be
upon workable actions, not just words.
Here
and now, perhaps, values of justice and restraint are what we most need to
promote in our efforts to stave off disaster. Yet, to avoid future conflicts,
governments and individuals should be preparing at the same time with great
creativity and determination for medium term cooperative building programmes,
increased communications and raising of credibility between cultures, and a
tight focus on human concerns and lacks, towards the final goal of long-term
peace and prosperity.
9th May 2002
The recent remarks by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
and others, at the ongoing UN Summit For Children, concerning the dramatic lack
of attention to the cause of children, resonate particularly strongly with the
present authors, who spent much time for several years recommending appropriate
government measures on precisely the topics of children, the vulnerable and the
dispossessed.
The report,
entitled Winning the Human Race?, was
welcomed by the UN itself in the 1980s, and produced by the Independent
Commission on International Humanitarian Issues. It was formally presented to
the World Body at the 42nd Session of the General Assembly in
December 1987, and was unanimously accepted, a resolution being passed calling
for the establishment of a New International Humanitarian Order. The report was published the following year.
It includes sections on ‘The Protection of Children’, ‘The Urban Young’,
‘Street Children’, ‘Refugees and Displaced Persons’ and ‘The Disappeared’.
Members of the 27-strong Commission included Susanna Agnelli, Talal bin Abdul
Aziz al Saud, Robert McNamara, David Owen, Sadako Ogata, Léopold Sédar Senghor,
Desmond Tutu, Simone Veil and Gough Whitlam; and it was chaired by ourselves
while we held the positions, respectively, of Crown Prince of Jordan and UN High
Commissioner for Refugees.
Despite the
international background of the Commission, its cooperation with the UN and its
Agencies, and, indeed, the high individual status of its members, the
recommendations simply were not taken up. Children continued to suffer. In
1998, the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by 191 state
parties, rendering the rights of children legally binding, but their rights are
still not upheld. Yet one cannot blame this on the world’s ignorance when the
specific research and recommendations dating back to the eighties are still not
put into practice.
Children need
more than paperwork. Our research indicated that innovative means are required
to safeguard their future. Reporting, monitoring and enforcement procedures
require international participation. States must be obliged to comply with the
instruments of the Convention. Otherwise, as we have always warned in our
recommendations, timidity and ineffectiveness will continue to prompt justified
criticisms.
Our report
opened by citing H. G. Wells: ‘If the universe is non-ethical by our present
standards, we must reconsider those standards and reconstruct our ethics.’ The
eminent theologian Hans Küng recently suggested that it is time for the
Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities. As has been repeatedly
emphasised, until we act for an
international culture of compliance with human rights legislation – without
reinventing the wheel each time – all our good intentions towards children and
other vulnerable groups will remain no more than just unconnected slogans.
HRH Prince El
Hassan bin Talal
HH Prince
Sadruddin Aga Khan