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Round Table: Dialogue among Civilizations United Nations, New York, 5 September 2000 Provisional verbatim transcription

Address by Vaina Vike-Freiberga

President Vike-Freiberga (interpretation from French): Today I will make a few brief comments on the main subject of concern today, the two basic concepts in question, that of civilization and of dialogue.

(spoke in English)

I should like to start by offering a very plain and simple definition of what civilization means to me. I take it to be everything that makes man different from an animal. I take civilization to be everything that makes humankind truly human. We are biological beings for whom civilization offers an opportunity to transcend the animality which we have inherited from the long eons of biological evolution. Man may be a naked ape, may be a bipedal, a reptile with an over-developed cerebral cortex carrying in its mid-brain the very same instincts of devouring, destroying and survival that one finds among the lowest of reptiles on this planet.

But at the same time, man ? and when I say "man", of course I mean mankind since English lacks the all-including lexical item for mankind ? is a creature endowed with a brain that is totally unique on our planet that allows it to write a new programme for each new life, each new generation. But instead of starting from scratch as the animals do, we have the privilege, the endowment, of being able to inherit from countless past generations all the wisdom, experience, knowledge and understanding that they have been able to accumulate.

That knowledge is what I mean by civilization and by definition it cannot be equal, it cannot be identical in every part of the world. We are finite beings limited not just by our biology but by our time, our place, our experience and the particular events of history that have shaped the fate of our nation. Each of our nations has known its joys and its sorrows, its moments of glory and its moments of humiliation. All of us as human beings have known joy and sorrow. We share aspirations. We share the same hopes for tomorrow.

In dialogue for civilizations as I see it, it is incumbent upon us to tell our view of the world, to present it to others in as simple and as plain a manner as we can, but more important still, it behoves us to be there and to listen to the other. To listen not just with an open mind but with an open heart and with an open spirit. Each of us in our culture, in our nation, in our civilization, has tried to distill, to retain what we feel is the most valuable contribution that we as human beings, as a nation, can make to the world. These contributions are as different as we are who sit here today; as different in physical appearance, in gender, in government, in conviction and in religion, but we are all united by our one common trait, that of belonging to the family of mankind.

Just as each individual makes a unique contribution to their people and their nation, so each nation makes a unique contribution to the community that is the world and I am happy at this opportunity of sharing with you today the idea that now, this present moment, at the dawn of a new millennium, we have a chance to rethink and to reaffirm the necessity, the importance, of listening to each other, of hearing what the other has to say, and of showing respect and appreciation for the achievements that they have to offer and hope that they in their turn will do the same for us.

With this new millennium stretching ahead of us we are given a wonderful opportunity to use the tool that is the United Nations to help us to redefine what we mean by civilization; to help us to redefine what we mean by mankind and to help us to progress and to evolve in the very essence of what is an ongoing and an open process. If civilization is the accumulation of wisdom from ages past, it is also the opportunity for us to contribute ideas, innovations, things that have never been seen before. It is our opportunity to offer something new. It is our opportunity to do things in a different way without renouncing our past, without renouncing our heritage, without giving up on the values that we have held dear. The new millennium offers us the challenge of developing new values to which we can all subscribe, of finding and distilling that which is truly human and which will not cause us to oppose each other but in which we can recognize that we are all part of the same family, the same brotherhood and sisterhood of man.

Mr. Matsuura: I now have the honour of giving the floor to His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar.

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