Plain talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

The recent UNESCO conference on this question, which convened in Stockholm, came out with some interesting results. Its main declaration, under the title "Revised Draft Action Plan on Cultural Policies for Development," comes up with some important points which, in my opinion, reflect the ambivalent situation of culture.

I shall quote just one item from over 60 which seem to reflect the dilemma we are facing.

"Today's emerging trends, particularly globalisation, link cultures ever more closely and enrich the inter-action between them, but they may also be harmful to our creative diversity and to cultural pluralism; they make mutual respect all the more imperative."

The other items also reflect the difficult situation faced by the Third World. Certainly the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the bloody events in former Yugoslavia contribute to this, and the chauvinism which is currently all the rage in the bits and pieces of these two former countries are efforts to retrieve identities lost under totalitarian systems.

Cultural prejudices are nothing new. Here in Egypt we have been through them, not least the historical competition between Britain and France in the educational and cultural fields. They reflect the ever existing clash between Anglo-Saxon and Latin cultures. Egypt has benefited from this competition and managed to quaff from both cultures. What is more we have no feeling of inferiority towards either cultures, which makes us shrug our shoulders to the so-called cultural invasion.

Egyptians are not searching for identity; they are affirming their identity. This is reflected in the great efforts expended on the conservation of monuments, be they Pharaonic, Coptic or Islamic.

In a recent meeting of the National Council for Culture, Arts, Literature and Information a report was submitted about the preservation of historical Cairo. It is a comprehensive report which can be used as an introduction to this great city. Cairo was founded in the year 969.

The report deplores certain maltreatments of Old Cairo and is critical of the process of urbanisation and the erection of modern buildings which clash with the old buildings. It is only recently that monuments other than the Pharaonic have featured in the preservation programmes. Quite a number of houses in historic Cairo have been renovated and have become tourist attractions. But, there is no doubt that, by and large, the Islamic monuments have not attracted as much international attention as the Pharaonic ones.

Of course there are a great many problems that stand in the way of the process of preservation, which the report of the Council recognises. Chief among them is the fact that historic Cairo remains primarily a residential area, home to many thousands of citizens, many of whom also make a living in the districts in which they live. Apart from the damage to the monuments as a result of drainage and water seepage day to day life itself constitutes an obstacle in the way of any preservation work. This is why the report proposes, among other things, the creation of a special bureaucracy for historic Cairo which should be composed of representatives of a number of ministries as well as experts in Coptic and Islamic archeology. The report also recognises the important role that can be played by NGOs in spreading awareness about the importance of safeguarding the incomparable architectural heritage of the area.

What was significant in the Council meeting, which I had the pleasure of attending, was the presence of the governor of Cairo, who intelligently commented on the report and vowed to carry out the proposals.