Det er nu 10 år siden, at den svenske udenrigsminister, Anna Lindh, blev myrdet.
Anna Lindh Foundation oprettedes snart efter af EU i samarbejde med Den arabiske Liga og skulde arbejde for dialog mellem kulturerne som en videre udvikling af Barcelona-projektet fra 1995. Dets mål var at slå de sydeuropeiske lande sammen med de nordafrikanske islamiske stater til et "Eurabia", hvor Middelhavet således vilde blive et indhav.
Første vicepræsident i EU-kommissionen, den svenske politiker Margot Wallström, var engageret i dette Eurabia-projekt og holdt åbningstalen ved EU-Middelhavsparlamentets første møde i Kairo 14. marts 2005. Hun omtalte ovennævnte pressefortiede Barcelonaproces og den påfølgende oprettelse af EU-Middelhavsparlamentet samt "Anna Lindh Fond for Dialog mellem Kulturer", som vilde få hjemsted i det Svenske Institut i Alexandria, og som Anna Lindh sikkert ville have været glad over.
Det var man derimod ikke helt ved Wallströms foredrag på Københavns Universitet, hvor hun fortalte om EU's "Plan D" for Dialog, Debat og Demokrati for at skabe tillid hos europeerne til Eurabia-projektet. Man var begyndt at forstå, at "dialog med islam" ikke havde meget med sand "dialog" at gøre, og at aftalen mellem EU og de arabiske lande, den såkaldte "europeiske-arabiske Dialog", underskrevet 1978, snarere havde været en afpresning.
Araberne kunde lukke for olien, hvis ikke de fik det, som de vilde: fri indvandring i EU for al deres overskydende arbejdskraft og diverse rettigheder i lighed med EU's "4 friheder": fri bevægelighed af varer, kapital, tjenester og personer og fremme af arabisk kultur (d.v.s. af islam med sharia etc.).
Den 13. juni 2005 kom det med al tydelighed frem, hvad "Anna Lindh Foundation" skulde bruges til. Her holdt Olaf Gerlach Hansen fra det danske Center for Kultur og Udvikling (CKU = DCCD), som hørte under udenrigsminister Per Stig Møllers auspicier, en tale på "Foundationens" konference i Rabat i Marokko. Den klarlagde, hvordan man nu 27 år efter ovennævnte "Europeiske-arabiske Dialog" vilde gennemtrumfe indholdet af de grænseløse løfter, man så letsindigt havde givet araberne, og påtvinge europèerne at makke ret.
Hermed Olaf Gerlach Hansens tale holdt ved en konference iden nyoprettede ”Anna Lindh Foundation forthe Dialogue
between the Cultures”, der er stiftet af EU og den
Arabiske Liga i fællig for at skabe et Euro-Mediterranien uden
”dem” og ”os” - men med fælles forståelse af kultur og religion.
Institionen har til huse i det Svenske Institut i Alexandria.
Fra DCCD`s hjemmeside:
Conference in Rabat, Morocco
Speech by Mr. Olaf Gerlach Hansen, Director General, DCCD (Danish Center
for Culture and Development) the 13. of june 2005 at the occasion of the
International Conference:
Fostering Dialogue among Cultures and Civilisations through Concrete
and Sustained Initiatives
Cultural strategy in use
Director General of DCCD, Olaf G. Hansen, tells about how Danidas cultural
strategy can be implemented, and which role DCCD can play.
Honourable Excellencies, Dear Partner Organisations, Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all, I want to express my gratitude to the kingdom of
Morocco and to all our partner organisations for the wonderful
work you have done to make this conference possible. We are indeed
very grateful to you.
The Danish Center for Culture and Development is co-sponsoring
this conference, because we feel a strong sense of urgency.
For a long time many have been speaking of the dangers related to
the prophesy of a “Clash between civilizations”. We can no longer
talk. It is now an urgent matter to take the dialogue between
cultures and civilizations from the philosophical level, to the
level of concrete and sustained ACTION. This is indeed the aim of
this conference. We agree on this. This is why we are supporting
this conference.
What are concrete actions?
We are interested in new actions in the MEDIA, in CULTURE and in
EDUCATION. These initiatives must, in short: - Address ignorance,
stereotypes and prejudices - Create dialogue between cultures, in
areas where common people fear a “clash of cultures”. - Have a
positive starting point: the rich cultural diversity of humankind.
The common universal values, such as e.g. defined by the World
Commission for Culture and Development when it formulated a global
ethics and subsequent declarations by UNESCO.
The following are examples - in part drawn from the background
paper - of concrete initiatives we are interested in, and which we
hope will be discussed the following days.
• MEDIA
Concrete initiatives to develop “cultural journalism” in the daily
practise of the media. I.e. changing the tradition of
traditional “news-journalism” to give a higher priority to
cultural and social portrays of the daily life, values and
concerns of common persons, the human story, which can create
identification, fascination and - intercultural understanding. -
Concrete initiatives on the use of “Images” in the media and
public spaces, which challenge the stereotypical “images” we all
carry, about people from other cultures. This will require new
experiments of using photography, film, scenography in the media
and advertising. - Concrete initiatives to develop “intercultural
competencies” in the training of new generations of journalists in
schools of journalism, in-service training etc. - Concrete
initiatives for links and exchanges between journalists, editors,
media-institutions, which encourage intercultural co-operation,
collaboration etc
• CULTURE and ART
Concrete initiatives on new models for using cultural festivals and
events to nurture dialogue. All too often major events such as the
Olympic games, Cultural Capitals etc do not use their
potential for creating dialogue. DCCD has developed one model, the
IMAGES festival, next year “Images of the Middle East”, which I
will say some more about below. - Concrete initiatives, which
focus on the problems of understanding, which arises when art and
cultural expressions from one culture is transferred to another
culture. How to counteract this through workshops, meetings,
education, the media etc. This is also called “contextualisation”
of art and culture. A concrete initiative could e.g. be an art
laboratory, where artists, educators and media-workers themselves
address the problems related to their own works in a setting,
where their work is taken to another culture. - Concrete
initiatives to strengthen management of arts and cultural
production to foster genuine dialogue and understanding. Without
strong “cultural management and administration” there will be few
sustainable activities, where art and culture is used as a tool
for dialogue. This goes in general, but not least for important
new work done by artists with very few. It is also an important
point for minority cultures, indigenous peoples, marginalized
groups etc.
• EDUCATION
Concrete initiatives to integrate citizenship education and
multicultural education in school curricula. Working with
educational planers, teacher training etc, at central and regional
levels. - Concrete initiatives for curriculum development through
new educational materials and revision of existing textbooks.
There is a lack in both North and South of updated materials that
is relevant in the context of contemporary life, culture and
society, not least the urban life of young people, in the Middle
East. - Concrete initiatives on developing School links and
exchanges as a method for advancing intercultural learning and
global ethics content in schools. School links and exchanges also
require the active involvement of the local community around the
school, e.g. through volunteer host families, twinning
arrangements etc. This requires new initiatives for partnerships
between NGOs, local and central authorities in education.
How do we make the concrete initiatives turn into realities?
We think it’s important:
• To identify whom are the core agents implementing the new
initiatives in education, communication and culture? It would
be wonderful if we after this conference can increase the number
of organisations and experts, who are the ones who will carry the
new initiatives forward after the conference. One of our major
criteria for success is the increased involvement of civil society
actors in addition to governmental and private actors. - to
indicate what will each of the partner organisations (with that I
mean UNESCO, ISESCO, ALECSO, Anna Lindh Foundation,
DCCD) do to help the core agents, i.e. those who will do the “real work”.
UNESCO has a special role and we hope that UNESCO and its
regional offices will be able to prioritise means to concrete follow up. I
will say more on what DCCD can do below. - To use our co-operation
to create an international enabling environment. We there need to
identify what should be done, which is beyond what each of us.
This could e.g. include a) Joint point of references/secretariat
which can help initiatives avoid overlap and instead strengthen
synergies. b) Financial incentives/pool of financial means in
focal areas c) Follow up meetings and conferences.
After the conference we would like that:
• The experts at this conference act as facilitators for getting concrete
initiatives of the ground - The partners after the
conference seek to implement the final document, and meet no later
than e.g. in September 05 to agree on a plan of supporting
appropriate follow-up - After the first year a focused conference
is organised which take stock of how the implementation proceeds.
We would be happy to co-host this conference to take place at the
occasion of the Images of the Middle East cultural festival in
Denmark in August-September 2006.
Now, what will DCCD contribute with?
a) A long-term commitment to follow up
We have a long-term commitment to working with the content of the
conference. We are right now seeking to establish the following
initiatives: - Media: partnership with the international NGO
“International Media Support” on the challenges in media with a
very broad range of media institutions in the Arab world,
internationally and in our country. - Culture: partnership on an
International Danish-Arab Culture Network focusing on the
challenges for contemporary production of art and culture. -
Education: collaboration with organisations addressing this. -
Creating an enabling environment: The Rabat initiative, working
with UNESCO, ISESCO, ALECSO, Anna Lindh Foundation.
We thank the partners for a very constructive co-operation,
which give good prospects for the future.
b) A major international cultural festival “Images of the Middle
East” next year, which can be used to test new initiatives for
dialogue Next year in Denmark we organise “Images of the Middle
East” - a major international cultural festival, with HRH Prince
Joachim as the patron. It will be the largest of its kind in the
world with a focus on the Middle East. It will: - Include music,
theatre, dance, film, literature, visual art, photography, design,
architecture, publications as well as a major program in
schools/education and a program with the media, both TV, radio and
interactive media. More than 400 artists, journalists and
educators from the Middle East will take part. - Take place in all
the major cities in Denmark, and - Coincide with a major focus of
the National Broadcasting TV, Radio and interactive media on the
Middle East during these two months. - Co-organised by DCCDE with
hundreds of cultural institutions, NGOs, local and national
authorities in Denmark/Europe, in co-operation with partners
throughout the Middle East region at all levels and genres. -
Based on previous experiences, we expect a major international
media-interest
The overall aim of the festival is dialogue. The focus is
contemporary culture and identity. It is the intention to present
the rich cultures of the entire region from Mahgreb, the Middle
East proper, and the Golf/Iran.
DCCD sees a very close link between the “Images of the Middle
East” (IoME) festival and the RABAT conference. IoME will be used
as a platform to test out NEW CONCRETE INITIATIVES discussed in
Rabat, such as in: - Media (twinnings, co-productions etc) -
Education (school links and exchanges, new educational materials)
• Art (laboratory for artists) - Experimental projects, such as:
* Photography/images in the public space to raise questions and open dialogue
* Theatre for intercultural dialogue * Popular music and cultural events as
instrument for creating new dialogue
All this will be a very concrete ACTION, which within only one
year, could be a wonderful symbol of concrete action. It can also
provide a space for discussing the lessons learned with developing
new initiatives, both the failures and the successes.
We therefore hope that “Images of the Middle East” can be used as
first milestone in the follow up of the Rabat Conference.
CONCLUSION
As I said in the introduction, for a long time many have been speaking
of the dangers related to the prophesy of a “Clash between civilisations”.
Taking the Dialogue between Cultures and Civilisations from the
philosophical level, to the level of concrete and sustained
ACTION, is not only an exercise in creating intercultural
understanding.
It is also a serious attempt to create solutions based on
DIALOGUE, instead of VIOLENCE and CONFLICT. This is actually an
alternative security policy. To do this we need a long term
enabling environment, which requires broad based international
co-operation between many institutions.
We are taking an important step in this direction at this
conference.
