Athens Greece, June 2021
Audrey
Azoulay, Director General, UNESCO
Dear Madam Azoulay, Greetings
from Greece.
Recently, and by
invitation I heard your comprehensive Belfer Center interview. Not only was I surprised
but I was also disappointed that not even once did I hear the word philosophy. Philosophy does deserve a place
at the heavenly table. A once common slogan was there
is no Humanity without philosophy! I believe you yourself once said, philosophy
is a bastion against the narrowing of opinion and of minds. When Ban
Ki-moon UN Secretary General placed education first with civic education at the
forefront and called for global citizenship, UNESCO recommended a Strategy for
Philosophy and inaugurated a World Philosophy Day. It proclaimed there is no UNESCO without
philosophy! But does UNESCO have any philosophers?
Your Belfer Center presentation
with a focus on cultural diplomacy however, was impressive, explicit, famously
detailed and provided a sense of optimism to the background of existential
problems for your all too important agenda. On behalf of the World
Philosophical Forum (WPF), Athens I wish you Godspeed on our road to a better
imagined world. Your predecessor Irina Bokova strongly supported the kick-off
of the WPF in 2009 and in continuum. Let me also say as a midterm octogenarian
you reminded me of my youthful enchantment in listening to French girls
speaking English. Igor Kondrashin, President, WPF recently presented his Memorandum
to Humanity.
With perseverance you
continue to engage in reasoned and the seasoned dialogue of diplomacy to find
solutions to challenges beyond our control as well as to educate and enlighten
citizens and to equip them to fight, stupidity, prejudice and social dementia.
Although UNESCO once promoted the concept of Global citizenship to reflect the
thinking of Socrates, not one country (including Greece) adopted it. He also gave us an interesting and simple dichotomy
for order-disorder, system-chaos, creativity- destruction in stones, bricks,
tiles, disorderly scattered on the ground or arranged in a functional erected dwelling.
Let me add that the European
Center Peace and Development, (ECPD) Belgrade whose current President, Federico
Mayor is one of your predecessors has interests in diplomacy including cultural,
protection of ethnic cultures, restoration of churches in Kosovo and mosques in
the Republic of Srpska and the interface of civilizations. Within that context I
have spoken on the Inscriptions of Argos:
Birth of cultural heritage protection. The Inscription is a decree etched
in marble relating to making amends and for settling claims between two Cretan
cities of asymmetrical power. I have also connected the said institution to
Asia where it now has an outreach professor in Islamic thought and philosophy. UNESCO-Greece
awards the Melina Mercouri International Prize for Safeguarding and Management
of Cultural Landscapes. One suggestion would be to encourage Greek UNESCO to
move in these directions. Using a wave –particle model to heal wounds from the
League of Nations, to the United Nations and in the third wave, World
Government. Cultural diversity is essential to all social, political and
economic processes, including the healing of humanity.
Dag Hammarskjold once said that the United Nations was created to save humanity from hell for which I would say and from social dementia on earth. Neither hell nor social dementia provide enlightenment, an olive branch to wave or culture to inspire but only an enlarging button to be pressed by accident or intent. With one misstep with nuclear weapons evolution can unravel and human consciousness and culture disintegrate. Delay on dealing with climate change will further disrupt physiological homeostasis and biological immunity. Artificial intelligence can be a boon to doom or help in the reduction of coming uncertainties. These problems are interrelated and one mix leads to greater inequality and social dementia. The denial of a complex problem or the promotion of an oversimplified solution is a disservice to mankind.
Professor Dr. Jeffrey Levett
Vice President, World Philosophical Forum
International Gusi Peace Prize Laureate
ASPHER BLOG https://www.aspher.org/articles,4,119.html
https://wsimag.com/economy-and-politics/66077-springtime-begins-in-saken
1821: freedom or death: History, drama of ceaseless struggle, 16 April 2021, Jeffrey Levett, wsimag
