5 - 11 April 2001
Issue No.528
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 5 - 11 April 2001 Issue No.528 |
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Plain Talk
The mere mention of the word "globalisation" triggers a whole range of responses. The concept and "practice" of globalisation emerged out of the GATT agreement. I remember the controversy that blew up over what came to be called l'exception culturelle, raised by the French. President Mitterand vehemently criticised the inclusion of culture in the agreement, saying that this would be trying to achieve what communism failed at. There is no such a thing, he added, as the globalisation of culture.
More recently globalisation has been the object of violent protests, with critics arguing that the word should really be replaced by "Americanisation" and that the peoples of the Third World are being victimised already.
In response, UNESCO formed a committee headed by De Quellar, its honorary members including Prince Hassan Ibn Talal of Jordan as well as 13 members from Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Dr Laila Takla represented the Arab World. The result of the discussions came in the form of a report, "Our Creative Diversity" which was published in 1995, which calls for the preservation and strengthening of national cultures.
UNESCO convened in a subsequent conference in Stockholm to discuss cultural policies, from 30 March to 2 April, 1998. Egypt contributed an 18-member delegation, headed by Mohamed Ghoneim, first under-secretary of the Ministry of Culture. The conference resulted in a number of recommendations aiming to make culture one of the basic elements of development. The conference also called for a follow-up in different countries.
The Egyptian National Committee of UNESCO cooperated with the Arab League to this end, convening in Cairo from 31 March to 2 April, in which "a strategy for Arab culture" was discussed. A survey of the report "Our Creative Diversity" -- submitted by myself as a member of the Stockholm delegation -- was followed by a commentary of Dr Takla's. Milad Hanna, Ahmed Abu Zeid, Mona El-Hadidi, Sami Khashaba, Mohamed El-Sayed Said, Hala Mustafa, Hoda Wasfi and Ahmed Fouad Selim all submitted papers on themes ranging the future Arab culture to the clash of civilisations and culture vs. democracy.
It would be difficult, indeed impossible to adequately present the participants' contributions. I will concentrate on Sami Khashaba's paper. As a result of previous discussions and agreements, Khashaba contended, the Arab mind in general and the Egyptian mind in particular should be aware of three basic facts: that Arab culture belongs to a group of peoples who, though forming one nation, have separate local features as a result of historical, geographical, political and economic factors; that this wide geographical area includes many diverse cultures, some based on ethnic roots, others on religions or ideological beliefs; and that most Arab countries deal with these cultures in two ways, either complete tolerance of daily practices and rites, or attempts at increased social integration through wide-ranging official dissemination of the Arabic language and its proper use. Ethnic cultures are those of Kurds, Nubians, Africans and Berbers, while cultures emanating from religion include the Christian denominations.
Khashaba arrives at an important conclusion: apart from a few exceptions there was never what one might call a crisis of pluralism or diversity based on ethnic or minority feeling in the Arab World. What little discontent exists in rooted in dictatorial, non-democratic modes of government or in adverse interventions on the part of foreign powers.
Khashaba finally hazards a quick review of some definitions used in modern and contemporary literature, like culture, cultural tools, etc. And while enlightening in their own right, these appendices throw Khashaba's arguments and contentions into sharp relief.
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