Universality: a European vision?; The UNESCO courier: a

84 Pages·2010·8.48 MB·English

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DOUBLE ISSUE JULY/AUGUST 1992
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UNIVERSALITY:
A EUROPEAN VISION?
1205 -9208 -40.00 F
Weinvitereaderstosendus
photographstobeconsideredfor
publicationinthisfeature.Your
photoshouldshowapainting,a
sculpture,pieceofarchitectureor
anyothersubjectwhichseemsto
beanexampleofcross-
fertilizationbetweencultures.
Alternatively,youcouldsendus
picturesoftwoworksfrom
differentculturalbackgroundsin
whichyouseesomestriking
connectionorresemblance.
Pleaseaddashortcaptiontoall
photographs.
Timeless cities
1992, acrylic, ink, collage
(38 by 27 cm.)
by HenryChristiaën
"Where are these strange
city walls? In what
forgotten Acropolis? In
what unlikely Manhattan?
In what undreamed of
Babylon, buried beneath
the layers ofthe ages?" In
this imaginary urban
landscape, the French
artist Henry Christiaën
hasjuxtaposed a variety
of architectural styles and
elements, including some
that evoke the electronic
circuitry of modern
technology. He thus
reveals affinities of
structure and rhythm
between civilizations and
cultures which transcend
time and place.
4
onten
INTERVIEW
JULY/AUGUST1992
Mikis Theodorakis
describesaGreekchildhood
9 Universality:
a European vision?
Editorial byBahgatElnadiandAdel Rifaat
10 AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME Cover:
Complete(1989), mixed
media, bytheTurkishartist
11 ThetwofacesofEurope Akyavas Erol.
Backcover:
byEnriqueBarón Crespo
Volcano/Trees(1989),
aphoto-collageby
13 Themoralimperative
the USartistPatHorner.
byKarlOttoApel
18 Louderthanwords
bySamiNaïr
20 Thecommongroundofhumanity
byMahmoudHussein
68
UnescomAcr/ow 35
NEWSBRIEFS
26 CHANGING PERSPECTIVES
Greenwatch
fU Unescoinaction
27 Betweentwoworlds
WORLDHERITAGE
byTaharBenJelloun
Adreamcitybuiltonsalt
byRoyMalkin 31 Africa'slongmarch
byAhmadouKourouma
I J Anniversary
47 EasternEurope:an uphillroadtofreedom
StefanZweig
byAntoninLiehm
byGertraudSteiner
52 LatinAmerica:adifferentwayforward?
Reflections byErnestoSábato
Ziryab, masterofAndalusianmusic
byMahmoudGuettât
56 THE WHOLE AND THE PARTS
Reflections
Onesky,Oneworld
byTomKrol 57 Agoldenageofdialogue
byVassilis Vassilikos 69
f Recentrecords
61 Twogreattraditions
byIsabelleLeymaríe
byWangBin Commentary
andClaudeGlayman
67 Thefaceofastranger
82 by Federico Mayor
LETTERSTOTHEEDITOR byEmmanuelLévinas
"TheGovernmentsoftheStatespartiestothisConstitutiononbehalfoftheirpeoplesdeclare,
TheïÎNESCO "thatsincewarsbegininthemindsofmen,itisinthemindsofmenthatthedefencesofpeacemustbeconstructed...
"thatapeacebasedexclusivelyuponthepoliticalandeconomicarrangementsofgovernmentswouldnotbeapeacewhichcouldsecure
îffi^COURIER theunanimous,lastingandsinceresupportofthepeoplesoftheworld,andthatthepeacemustthereforebefounded,ifitisnottofail,
upontheIntellectualandmoralsolidarityofmankind.
"Forthesereasons,theStatesparties...areagreedanddeterminedtodevelopandtoincreasethemeansofcommunicationbetween
theirpeoples andto employthese means forthe purposesofmutual understandingand atruerand more perfectknowledgeofeach
45thyear Publishedmonthly other'slives(cid:9)»
in33languagesandinBraille Extractfrom thePreambletotheConstitutionofUnesco, London, 16November1945
T E R V I E W
MIKIS THEODORAKIS
describes A GREEK CHILDHOOD
Noonewhohasheardthe
wonderful bouzoukimelodies
written bytheGreekcomposer
Tellussomethingaboutyourearlylife.
MikisTheodorakisforZorba
I was born on 29July 1925 on the island
of Chios, opposite the native village of my
theGreekorhistheme music
mother on the mainland of Asia Minor, in
what is now Turkey. My father was from
fortwoothernotedfilms, Z Crete. He had volunteered to serve in the
firstBalkanWar, inwhich hewas wounded,
and ÉtatdeSiège,will ever and had then entered the civil service. When
the Greek army occupied Smyrna, he was
forgetthem.Theodorakishas postedtothesmalltownofBourla,wherehe
met my mother. She came from averypoor
infusedthesoul and spiritof family. Her father was a farmer during the
winter and went out fishing in the summer.
Her brother, who had had an education,
theGreekpeopleintoall his
later became a Director in the Ministry of
EconomicAffairs.Myfamilythereforecame
musical works. Heisalsoa
from the lower middle class of government
:''&4£5
officialswho instilled a sense ofdisciplinein
militantwhotoday, asa theirchildren.
I was born after the military defeat
memberofhiscountry's whichGreecesufferedfollowingtheTurkish
revolution of Kemal Ataturk. It was a real
parliament, continuesa tragedy for the country. I think that Greece
lost its soul when it lost Ionia. Greece and
Turkey have been in conflict with one ano¬
struggleforfreedom and
ther over long periods of their history. The
first Greek nationalist revolution was
justicewhich beganwhen he
directed againstthe Ottomans, in 1821. And
Crete remained under Turkish domination
joinedthewartimeresistance until1912. the home and source of inspiration of a
Many of our relatives, on both my famous naive painter, Theophilos. It was a
asateenagerandhastaken father's and my mother's sides, were victims wonderful experience to live there in the
of these confrontations and made great middle of the olive groves, the orange trees
him morethanonceto prison sacrifices.Myfatherusedtosaythatourtwo and the flowers, overlooking the sea. I
familieshadshedariverofblood.Itherefore remember that there was a boat which used
grewupinanatmosphereofpatrioticstories to sail past twice a week. The impression
or into exile. Herehe looks
and the stirring revolutionary songs known whichthatwhiteboatontheblueseahasleft
asRizitika,whichhad avery greatinfluence onmeislikeawound,likethemarkofascar
backonthecircumstances
onme. left by a moment of exhilaration. I really
believethatIhavetried,ineverythingI have
thatgaverisetohismusical Even so, you have memories ofa happy composed, torecreate thatbeauty andredis¬
childhood. cover those images engraved in my memory
vocation and hispolitical Yes. We had a country house, where we likeachildhooddream.
were surrounded by aunts and uncles form¬ I also remember evenings we spentwith
commitment. ing onebigfamily. This househadalso been my father, stretched out on the ground
gazing at the stars. He knew a lot about the the gramophone. Moments like those have likeabird. I climbed atree and flungmyself
stars and he explainedthem to meand made meantalottomethroughoutmylife! into theairandalmostbrokemyneck.Then
me follow them, telling me their names and My uncle also gave me a set of record¬ Ididitagain,becauseIwassurethatIwould
theirhistory. ings of operatic arias, which for a long time be ableto fly. One day, I wanted to take off
Another of those childhood memories made me afraid of opera. I think that this from the top of a three-metre-high wall,
that leave an indelible mark on you came wasprobablybecause, forachildofmy age, becauseIthoughtthatIwouldbeabletofly
from my uncle.Justbeforehe was posted to there was something frightening about the downtothebeachbelow.Iwasjustaboutto
Alexandria as consul, he came back to the voices of those famous tenors and prima jump when my grandfather suddenly came
villagetogetmarriedandbroughtmeagram¬ donnas. I was sixty before I made up my out of nowhere and tried to catch me and
ophoneasapresent,togetherwithrecordsof mind to tackle opera. The music I heard on stop mefromhurtingmyself. Ifellontop of
Greek classical and popular music and of that gramophone in my childhood certainly him and he lost his balance. I broke my
jazz,whichwasthenatitsheight. Iwas only contributed to developing my tastes for a wrist, but the old man broke his leg. There
four years old and there I was discovering longtimetocome. was utter panic all around me. Everybody
music! We used to hold social evenings at was obsessed with my wrist, but nobody
which young people danced the Charleston Whatsortofchildwereyouf botheredaboutmygrandfather.Hewasvery
and the foxtrot and I was put in charge of I had some crazy ideas. I wanted to fly embittered, and started to refuse his food. It
was this,coupledwiththeafter-effectsofhis books, that I found out what a musical square. I was already very tall and thin and
brokenleg,thateventuallyruinedhishealth. scorewas. Myfatherexplainedtomethat people tended to look atme, withmy lanky
He died not long afterwards. That was the thatwashowmusicwaswritten,andgave frame, as if I was a bit of an oddity. In the
first time I had seen a dead person and I memyfirstlesson.Therewasaverygood end, I shut myselfup in the house and, as a
didn'trealizewhatitwasallabout. choir at school, conducted by a teacher result,Imadeconsiderableprogresswithmy
who was also a violinist. Every morning music. In the house opposite, there was a
How didyour musicalvocation come to weusedtosingahymnbyHaydn,witha beautiful girl with green eyes and I fell
youf solo part which I must have sung well, madly in love with her. All alone in my
Theperiod from 1928 to 1930was avery since the teacher regularly invited people room, I watched the girl, who couldn't see
stormy one in Greece. There was one to come and listen to it. One day, he me, and composed a large number of songs
government after another, which meant that offered me aviolin, which I boughtfrom on my violin. I taught them to my mother,
civil servants didn'thaveavery easy time of him. Ithenwentto theacademyofmusic who had a beautiful voice and sang well. In
it. Myfatherwas from Creteandwas there¬
fore a liberal and a supporter of Venizelos.
He was not only my father's idol, but was
actually a relative. When he became prime
minister, my father was appointed Vice-
Governor ofEpirus. It was averypoor and
backward region, where the children were
dirtyandwentbarefoot. Iwastheonlychild Opposite page,
tohaveapairofshoes,butIwassoashamed AnthonyQuinndancinga
that I used to take them off. ThenVenizelos
sirtaklinafamousscene
was deposed and my father was transferred
fromthefilm
to a less highly rated and above all less well
ZorbatheGreek, based on
paid post in Cephalonia, which was very
thenovel byNikos
hardforus.
Kazantzakis,withmusicby
The cultural atmosphere in Cephalonia
MikisTheodorakis(left).
was completely different from that in
Epirus. The island had never been occupied
by the Ottomans and the influence of the
Venetians,andlateroftheBritish,could still
be perceived, even in the waypeople spoke.
The music played on the island was more
Western in style. It was there that I heard a
philharmonic orchestra for the first time. It
used to play on the main square and when¬
ever I went by I was transfixed, spellbound
with admiration. I was very impressed with
the conductor. When I asked my mother
what he was doing, her reply was: "That
man is suffering". For me too that music
meantsuffering.
I was still at primary school when the
Metropolitan ofCephalonia came to inspect
my class and asked the other children and
me to sing the national anthem, so that he inPatras,buttheviolinteacherthereusedto the evenings, after supper, when my father
couldjudgewhatourvoiceswerelike. After hitmeeverytimeIplayedafalsenote.Even¬ askeduswhatwehadbeendoingduringthe
that, twenty of us were chosen to sing can¬ tuallyI leftandwentonstudyingbymyself. day, we used to sing our songs for him. He
ticles in a small local church on Good As a result, when I was about twelve, I in turn started singing and later on my
Friday. The tunes were very old and beau¬ wrotemyfirstsongstothewordsofclassical brotherjoinedin,sothatweformedafamily
tiful two ofthem were in modal form and poems I took from my schoolbooks. The quartet which I accompanied on the guitar
onewas tonal. Ijoinedthe churchchoirjust melodies are beautiful, perhaps the most or violin, while also singing myself. My
to be able to keep on hearing them. About beautiful I have ever written. There are fatherbeganto invite his friends, alongwith
ten years ago, I used those three canticles in about seventy ofthem altogether and I plan the prefects and sub-prefects and a whole
my third symphony, in memory of those to publish them. I shall dedicate them to small world of civil servants, to come and
timesIshallneverforget. schoolchildren, since they were written listen to us. It was like having a job, since I
After Cephalonia, we were sent to whenIwasaschoolchildmyself. had to prepare a concert every evening for
Patras, which was a more affluent middle- We leftPatras for a poorer town further myfather'sguests.
classtown,althoughitwas notsuchapretty south. It was summer and in the afternoons The following year, we changed towns
place. Itwas there,whenI was buyingsome everybody strolled about on the main yet again. I was more and more onmyown
and I spent a lot oftime reading. My father helistenedtomeplaythepiano.Theupshot image of a hideous monster for me. But
had a library of more than 1,600 books, was that he offered me a scholarship to the when I started talking to these people and
whichfolloweduswhereverwewent. conservatory, which I was due to enter in learnt that they had been the first to rise
Later on, in Tripolis, I started to learn 1943.ButI amjumpingthegun. Beforethat, against the occupying forces, it made me
the piano and harmony. We couldn't afford therewas anotherimportantstageinmylife, think. When I came out of prison, I joined
to buy a piano and there were only three in when I joined the resistance and discovered theresistance.
the entire town. I practised the scales on the Marxism. I was entrusted with the first resistance
piano of a rich American, who allowed me It was wartime. We were deeply reli¬ cell at school. I had to explain my ideas and
to study at his house on Sunday mornings gious and fervent worshippers. The love of justify the proposals I put forward. I there¬
whenpeoplewereatmass. ButIhadto stop Christ, Christian charity and religious feel¬ fore had to read about Marxism and brief
playing as soon as he got back. For the first ing catered for a real need when we had to myselfonthe ideologywithwhichwewere
time in my life, I felt a sense of hatred for face up to the violence surrounding us and goingtofighttheenemy.
rich people who could afford a piano but
who didn't use it, whereas I really needed a
piano but was deprived of the opportunity.
IfI became aMarxist, itwas because ofthat
piano, which to my eyes was the embodi¬ «*-^
ment of social injustice. I eventually hired a
harmonium, which I found very useful. But
all these setbacks taught me to write music
frommemory,withoutanyinstruments, and
I was therefore later able to go on com¬
posinginexileandprison
Whereandwhendidyoudecidetodevote
yourselftomusicf
At Tripolis, in the Péloponnèse, which
was apoor regionwhere life was very hard.
Manypeople emigrated to theUnited States
or went to seek their fortunes in Athens. I
decided to become a musician, although I
was fairly good at mathematics and liked
handling abstractions. My parents and my
mathsteacherhopedthatIwouldgoinfora
glamorous profession, like architecture.
However,Iwentonstudyingclassicalmusic
and composing. I started writing piano
pieces at a timewhen I knewa girlwho had
a piano and played Schumann and Bee¬
thoven. We used to give concerts to which theugliness oftheworld atthattime. Read¬ Was this a sudden change ofattitude of
we invited the town's leading citizens. This ing the Gospel was itself a form of resis¬ yours? By that time, your only interest was
was during the occupation, when our only tance, but it was not enough. We had to do music, yet there you were becoming a
diversions were poetry and philosophy. We something. We had to react. On 25 March memberofthepoliticalresistance.
translated classical authors such as Aristotle, 1942, we organized a demonstration against No,thechangewasnotallthatsudden.It
Plato andHomerinto modernGreek.There theItaliansinTripolis.TheNationalLibera¬ istruethatIwasstillinterestedinmusic,but
was also the cinema, which only showed tionFront,whichhadbeensetupinAthens wewere spurred onbydeeplyheldpatriotic
Germanfilms,althoughwesometimesgotto andwas communist-inspired, sentrepresen¬ feelings. We suffered terribly during the
seesplendidmusicalfilmsinsteadofmilitary tatives to help us. During the demonstra¬ occupation. The country was divided bet¬
propaganda. For example, I saw German tion, we were surrounded by the Italians. I ween the Germans, the Italians and the Bul¬
films which endedwiththe finalefromBee¬ gotintoafightandapparentlystruckanIta¬ garians. There was talk of torture and the
thoven's ninth symphony, which had an lian officer. Along with other demonstra¬ populationwas reducedtofamine.The Ger¬
absolutely stunning effect on me. I was so tors, I was arrested and beaten and was mans surrounded Athens for four months
shaken that I actually fell ill and ran a high takento abarracks,whereweweretortured and 300,000 people died of hunger. My
temperature. Intheend,Itoldmyfatherand inanattempttoforceustorevealthenames family had always been very nationalistic
the maths teacherthat all I was interested in of our leaders. I was then thrown into and it was only natural, therefore, that I
wasmusic. prison, where I met the first resistance shouldjointheresistance.
In 1942, my father went to see the fighters,whowerecommunists.Iwasthena At that period, I gave a public concert,
directoroftheAthensconservatorywithmy member ofthe nationalist youth movement attended by Italian officers, who were sur¬
music. The director asked to meet me and I formed by Metaxas and we abhorred com¬ prised to find a young musician and com¬
went to his home, where we had a talk and munism. The very word conjured up the poser in front ofthem. From then onwards,
Thera, Greece. into action. Even so, we managed to resist
forthirty-three days, afterwhich the British
occupiedthecountry.
The party, which was still quite strong,
continued to organize demonstrations for
two more years. Then the communists fell
into the trap ofreacting to provocation and
civilwarbroke out. Afresharmycomposed
of70,000militants,including 15,000women,
was mobilized.Thiswas awell-trainedarmy
setup withthe help ofthe countries ofEas¬
ternEurope.Its strengthsurprisedthenatio¬
nalists and it managed to take control of
almostthewholeofGreece!ThentheAmer¬
icans landed with a full-scale battle-fleet,
rebuilt the national army and supplied it
with an exceptional array of equipment and
facilities. They hunted down the partisans,
made massive arrests and deported whole
villages to unpopulated islands, whereupon
Yugoslavia closed its borders to the fleeing
partisans, who took refuge inAlbania, Cze¬
choslovakia,Bulgaria,Romaniaandeventhe
SovietUnion.
I was arrested for the first time in 1947.
Thentherewas achange ofgovernmentand
I was granted an amnesty. I returned to
Athens, but had immediately to go into
hiding. I was arrested again and sent into
exile on the island of Ikaria, interned on
Macronisos with other political prisoners,
taken to a military unit and tortured for
several days before being sent to hospital,
and then brought back to Macronisos. At
the end of the war, I was just like a ghost,
walkingoncrutches.
Ibecamesomethingofacelebrityamongthe and send me to Athens! That's how I came
occupation authorities, since Tripolis was a to leave for Athens. Only a few days later, Evenso,youcontinuedtocomposeduring
small town where everybody knew every¬ thecolonelwaskilledinbattle. thisturbulentperiod?
body else. The head of the Italian garrison In 1944, 1 was arrested by the Gestapo. I think that it was during these difficult
was a terrifying colonel whose excesses put ThentheGermanspulledoutandtherewasa years that I wrote my most important
the fear of death in us. One evening, when breathing-space which the communist works. I alsorecopiedthescoresofthe great
people were taking their evening stroll on patriotic front used to its advantage. After classical composers and studied them from
themainsquare,hesuddenlycameuptome, that, theBritisharrivedandwere atonetime beginning to end. This was how I analysed
tookme by the shoulder and started singing infavouroftheformationofagovernmentof Beethoven's nine symphonies. I don't think
La donna è mobile! People looked at us in national unity under Papandreou, but soon that anybody has ever composed anything
amazement. Then, all ofa sudden, his mood urgedconfrontationwiththecommunists. quite so all-encompassing. My own compo¬
changedandhepushedmeallthewaytothe Papandreou was caught between two sitionswereconfiscatedatMacronisos, butI
hospital that was requisitioned for Italian fires and eventuallyresigned,whereuponwe had committed them to memory and was
soldiers and had me searched. Since they organized a demonstration against the Bri¬ abletoreconstitutethemafterwards.
found nothing on me, he ordered me to tish in Athens, in the course of which the In 1949, I was able to return to my
report to his office the next morning. When police killed seventy demontrators in father's village in Crete. It was a horrifying
I entered, he got up, gave a military salute ConstitutionSquare.Thepartisansthenrose experience: all my cousins who had been in
and said: "I hail the patriot and hate the upinmassagainsttheBritish,whohadcome the national army were there and they, like
communist!" He then told me that the withheavyweaponsandwarships.Thecom¬ me, had been wounded. Some of them had
Italianswereduetowithdrawfromthetown munist party was reluctant to put its most had arms orlegs amputated.Webelonged to
on the followingdayandhanditoverto the seasoned fighters in the front line and with¬ the same family, yetwe had torn each other
Germans, who had demanded a list of drew them fromAthens. Instead,we reserv¬ apartandhadalllostoutintheend. Itwas a
twenty resistance fighters to be executed. So ists, who were students in the daytime and lesson I would never forget. In a sense, it
in order to save my life he had to arrest me soldiers after lectures had ended, were sent markedtheendofmychildhood. O
Editorial
i
Ihe quest for universality is a response to a long-standing
human aspiration. It may have begun long ago with the sages,
prophets and mystics who sought a single divine principle which
would release the sacred from confinement within purely local,
tribal or national boundaries and make it accessible to people
everywhere. In so doing, they created a potential link between
each individual conscience and humanity as a whole.
The philosophers ofthe Enlightenment gave another meaning
to the quest when they removed its sacred dimension. They
regarded the principle of universality as inherent in human
nature and applicable to all people, whatever their religion or
community, by virtue of their status as members ofthe species.
This attitude, which seems unexceptionable today, was actually
a radical new departure at that time.
How far has Europe served ornotably through the slave
trade and colonialismbetrayed this vision of universality in the
last few centuries? Now that all other societies have been
confronted with it through European influence, how and at what
cost can they incorporate it into their mental and cultural
landscape?
These are some ofthe questions raised in this issue, which
has been inspired by an international meeting that was
organized by the European Parliament at Strasbourg on 21 and
22 November 1991 on the theme of "Universal culture and
Europea dialogue of civilizations". The authors of the articles
published on the following pages all took part in the meeting. In
our choice of contributions we have tried to give an idea of the
wide range of responses aroused by this important question. We
only regret that for reasons of space we have been unable to
publish texts by the other participants at the Strasbourg
meeting, who all contributed to a debate of high intellectual
*
calibre.
Bahgat Elnadi and Adel Rifaat
" -
Thedouble-faced
headofthe Roman
godJanus
onaterracotta
votivestele
10
(Rome, 1stcentury
BC).