UNESCO enshrines mankind’s spiritual needs into law

(Part 2 of a series on the 32nd UNESCO General Conference)

PARIS – Our UNESCO education commissioners: Sr. Luz of Assumption; Brother Dizon, the new CHED director, and Dr. Carole Guerrero, Bureau of Non-Formal Education director have left Paris as the Commission on Education concluded by October 4 while Communication commissioners: Dr. Florangel Braid and Mel Velarde, NEXTEL president and Social Science Commissioner Professor Jose David Lapuz arrived to join the next Communication, Social Science commission sessions which were simultaneously held in Salle I and Salle XII. Meantime, Congressman Edmundito Reyes sat in the major session of UNESCO Partnership with Parliamentarians. The sessions lasted until 9 in the evening from Monday to Saturday for less than three weeks. Full month conferences were held in the past until the September 11 event cut down the program budget of UNESCO.

The Falling Leaves Of Autumn

Soon after, our sentimental historian and avid Rizalista, Professor Jose David Lapuz bid me adieu: "I cannot leave without saying goodbye ‘Sec-Gen’. Goodbye to the lovely memories of our frequent interventions in the halls of UNESCO.

Goodbye to beautiful Paris. The golden autumn leaves are falling and the chestnuts scatter about. The bonding, we commissioners, have as we sip our café au lait in the sidewalk fronting the Ecole Militar and the Eiffel Tower.

The wonderful ouster (huitres) and French entrecote (rib steak) dinner at La Cupole hosted by Mel Velarde where, in spite of his busy schedule as leader of G77, Ambassador Villaroel joined us with Permdel specialist Diana Ongpin-Recto.

The subway metro ride reminded me of the late night Turner movies "The Last Metro" with Catherine Deneuve and "Chanel" with Katherine Hepburn.

Our weekend trip to Normandy to visit the great impressionist artist Paul Monet brought us to his one and a half hectare house and garden. The pink house where he kept his studio is intact with a huge collection of Japanese prints which entertained so many important visitors. I even had a drink of eau minerale in his blue and yellow kitchen. Monet’s paradise of flowers in Giverny brought out what he called the lumiere (luminosity) of the land. We should treasure all these memories. Memory is what gives man a taste of immortality."

A Dynamic Social Contract For The New Millennium Development Goal

With the light interventions Professor Lapuz made, the Assistant Director General for Social Science (MOST) Pierre Saleh noted his suggestion with much interest. (I quote Professor from the transcribed records of the documentation team) "…my eminent confreres what is needed is a novel and dynamic social contract for the New Millennium stating what efforts are needed for the Social Sciences to respond to the challenges presented by Social and Human development in both developed and developing societies.

We need a clearer expression of what it means to be philosophically literate. How do we introduce to the overcrowded classrooms and out-of-school youth the use of humanities and the social sciences? Shall we say that the bridge to the social and human sciences is also the bridge to international peace, meaningful human rights, sustainable development and vibrant democracy?

What is probably needed is to have an International Conference-Declaration and Paradigm for Action for the Human and Social Sciences.

Philosophy should occupy a central, pivotal place in the learning of man. It is not just a collection of ideas, thoughts and ideologies. It lies at the very heart of what makes a Homo sapiens. A thinking human being. A human human being in the memorable words of the Philippines’ National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal.

Is it possible, Mr. Chairman, that all our humanities, religions, philosophies, arts and system of beliefs, have plunged to abysmal death? No, by Heavens, No! And we have UNESCO to thank for that."

President Toledo: I’d Like To Be Known As President Of Education

Two presidents volunteered to address the General Conference during the last week of sessions — President Toledo of Peru and President Jacques Chirac of France.

One of the 16 children of a Peruvian farm couple, President Toledo was born on the Andes mountains. Unfortunately, seven of his siblings died.

"I am very honored to address this noble assembly of UNESCO member statesmen. I have the honor of guiding the destiny of my nation. I owe all these opportunities to education — my teachers in Peru, my teachers in Stanford, Harvard, my stay in the World Bank. This president will not fail because I am the first president to be elected from among the indigenous tribal people."

He passionately commended UNESCO for putting together the Convention For Multi-Cultural Diversity. "This will help remove the problems of marginalization. The exclusion of people is a potential danger to democracy. The Convention for Multi-Cultural Diversity humanizes globalization. I am a defender and fighter for democracy. Peru’s compact on governance focused on thirty-six projects.

As president, my first decision is to divert the military budget into education. Country leaders are misdirected to buy weapons. Why waste meager funds on war? With humility and fortitude I say it is a leader’s duty to spend more for schools, hospitals, museums and training centers" concluded the Peruvian president.

President Chirac: A Universal Conscience Is Emerging

That UNESCO was set up as a United Nations agency after two world wars to renew peace for mankind was recalled by President Jacques Chirac. Today the UNESCO Convention for Multi-Cultural Diversity is the enshrinement of each cultural heritage into law. This preserves a people’s unique identity. This convention, he stated, would encourage the expression in arts and crafts especially of the minority population.

UNESCO’s persistence to develop the legal guidelines for Bio-Ethics will discourage the traffic of selling human body parts and the use of women’s bodies to produce babies for others. These efforts he said must reconcile various mores, philosophy and religions of various nations. Still there is an urgent need to set up the legal rules to protect man.

Unesco’s Essential Partnership With Parliamentarians Noted By Congressman Edmundito Reyes

n 1997, UNESCO signed a cooperation agreement with the Inter-Parliamentary UNION (IPU) in which UNESCO recognizes that IPU complements and supports the UNESCO activities in the fields of education, sciences, culture and communication as contained in the 2002-2007 UNESCO Medium Term Strategy.

By virtue of its worldwide membership, the IPU is in a position to help through an institutional mechanism: the creation of network of Parliamentary Focal Points IPU/UNESCO in charge of relations with National Commission. UNESCO thus can provide international expertise in certain key areas in which parliamentarians are called upon to legislate or ratify convention.

At Salle IV more than 200 parliamentarians including Congressional Education Committee Chairman, Congressman Edmundito Reyes gathered together with a panel of IPU Secretary General Anders Johnsson, Assistant Director General for External Relations and Cooperation Ahmed Sayyad, Francoise Riviere, ADG Executive Director of Director-General Koichiro Matsuura, Thai lady Parliamentarian Lolita Lerksamran, Botswana National Commission Secretary General Mrs. Motlotle and me as the Philippine National Commission Secretary-General. Mrs. Motlotle and I were part of the UNESCO Ottawa Declaration representing America, the fourth since the November 2000 Declaration of Sao Paolo; the December 2002 Declaration of Dar-es-Salaam and the January 2003 Helsinki Declaration. I proposed to explore the idea of a Declaration for Parliamentary on the Asia Pacific region.

Meantime, Congressman Reyes intervened as follows: "I envision a strong and pro-active UNESCO and International Parliamentary Union (IPU) relationship. This can begin with World Heritage Sites. A Heritage Site should be DELISTED, and removed from the list, if a member nation fails to comply with a UNESCO blueprint for conservation.

A blueprint may be designed from the wealth of best practices that UNESCO has in several places in the world. We can be guided by what the Senator from France earlier said, that to conserve a Heritage Site effectively, a holistic approach must be used: laws, rules and regulations must be put in place; new bodies must be created to oversee the conservation of the site; money must be allocated yearly and very important, different agencies of government and private sector must join hands and cross over "sacred ground" to work with one another. The cooperation must be "forced" because no one government agency can completely be responsible for any one site. As the French Senator said, and from our own experience in the Philippines, several ministries or departments such as Tourism, Health, Labor, Education, Environment, Science and Finance may be involved. Also, this cooperative effort will become a showcase of inter-agency cooperation so sorely lacking in the government of developing countries. This lack of cooperation is ironic because meager government budgets can otherwise be maximized by this type of inter-agency cooperation."

Meantime, UNESCO and IPU put together a "Guide to Parliamentary Practise", a detailed 29-page document. The call for global alliances of the United Nations System is most essential in these critical times to be set in law.

(For more information and reactions, please e-mail at exec@obmontessori.edu.ph)