Peoples and cultures; the Courier in space
Peoples and cultures; the Courier in space
"Peoples and Cultures", our cover title, was chosen to highlight the idea of cultural universality and diversity which is the keynote of this number of the Unesco Courier. The issue has been prepared in view of an event which constitutes a landmark in efforts by the international community to redefine cultural relations between individuals and between nations: the World Conference on Cultural Policies ("Mondiacult") which Unesco is holding in Mexico City from 26 fuly to 6 August.
The second cover title, "The Courier in Space", refers to an exceptional event of a different, kind. French and Soviet cosmonauts, flying in a "Soyuz-T6" spacecraft, have taken with them into space a specimen cover of this issue together with 100 examples of the serigraph which illustrates it and which was specially createdfor Unesco by Victor Vasarely (Read the Courier's spacial edition). The proceeds from the sale of these works will enable Unesco to finance science scholarships for young students from the Third World.
An issue of this kind can pretend neither to deal exhaustively with all the complexities of cultural life, nor to set forth definitive solutions to world cultural problems. What we have done instead is to invite a number of writers and specialists to illustrate some of the topics that will be on the agenda of the Mexico City Conference.
Themes examined by our contributors include: the evolution of the concept of culture (Otto Klineberg); languages and cultural identity (Chingiz Aitmatov); the writer between two cultures (Tahar Ben Jelloun); the situation of women (Han Suyin); culture and power (Ngugi Wa Thiong'o and Augusto Roa Bastos); and culture and new communications technology (Russell Neuman).
However incomplete, such an overview may serve to illustrate an important point: even when the opinions expressed diverge from Unesco 's appointed mission, a striking impression emerges of what Unesco is doing in many important areas of cultural life, while the opening article by Mr. Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow shows the contribution Unesco has made and is making to changing perspectives and activities where culture is concerned.
Nevertheless, readers will inevitably find many gaps in our coverage, one of them being the evolution of scientific thinking and its relations with cultural life. We intend to remedy some of these omissions in our August-September double number which will be devoted to an examination of major problems facing the world community today.
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