ISSN 1993-8616
2008 - Number 10
Sixty years of views on the world
© Milica Živadinović
"Cosmic’Eye". Reproduced with the kind permission of Art’Est gallery (Paris).
The UNESCO Courier is celebrating its 60th anniversary. An opportunity to explore the present while looking back at the past. A way, also, to highlight some developments in how we view and think about the world - each paper refers to an article from a back issue of the magazine.
You can read interviews with Wangari Maathai (Kenya), Martti Ahtisaari (Finland), Luc Montagnier (France), just to mention the three Nobel laureates who have contributed to this special issue, alongside other distinguished personalities.
Frozen conflicts
Former president of Finland Martti Ahtisaari was awarded the UNESCO Felix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize on 2 October, eight days before the Norwegian Nobel Committee gave him the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to broker peace in Namibia, Northern Ireland, Indonesia and the Balkans. More
Racism is a mutant
Xenophobia and racism are intellectual constructs that have taken root in the human mind over the centuries. Legal measures are proving inadequate, as they only touch the visible tip of the iceberg. An intellectual strategy is needed, in order to reach into the historical and cultural depths of these plagues, and to eliminate them from the minds of humans. More
Luc Montagnier: building up immunities
For the past ten years, Luc Montagnier, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine, has been insisting that efforts to stem the AIDS epidemic must involve a combination of prevention and a therapeutic vaccine. At first, his call for a vaccine fell on deaf ears. But, today, he has high hopes that soon a therapeutic vaccine will enable a body infected with HIV to build its own defences. More
Human Dignity in Question
Scientific progress can sometimes catch ethicists unawares. This was the case with the cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1997 and, today, with cybrids and nanotechnologies. The philosopher and anthropologist Georges Kutukdjian, author of the article “UNESCO and Bioethics”, published in our magazine in 1994, takes a look at the latest challenges for bioethics. More
Wangari Maathai: hopes and disappointments
Proud of Africa’s progress yet sceptical about governments, Wangari Maathai from Kenya, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner, believes that African leaders are largely responsible for the ills that plague the continent. Instead of complaining, they should better control the exploitation of African resources and populations. More
Madagascar: Balancing Act
Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, famous for its unusual biodiversity, may soon be known as a modern-day example of the Tragedy of the Commons. Both people and wildlife are struggling to survive as natural resources dwindle, and little time remains for the island to be salvaged from ecological disaster. More
Cultural diversity and education: what has changed since 60 years ago?
1948: the American anthropologist, Ruth Benedict, emphasises the role of culture in education and international cooperation.
2008: the French anthropologist, Cécile Duvelle, takes stock - the idea has filtered into our thinking, but is still struggling to be turned into practice. More
Education: the other global emergency
Western countries have pulled together multi-billion-dollar plans to save their banking systems from catastrophe. The same determination, says the 2009 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, Overcoming inequality: why governance matters, is needed to tackle failing education systems. More
