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

Address by Ugné Karvelis (Lithuania)

Ms. Karvelis (interpretation from French): I should like to say a few words since Lithuania in April next year will be organizing a conference on the dialogue of civilizations. It is a conference that, in principle, is a European one with the participation of speakers from other continents. We have taken that decision for an obvious reason, which is that we believe that the Europeans among themselves did not have a great deal to say in terms of a dialogue of civilization. I should like, however, to share with you two or three points which seem very important to us in determining our thinking.

First, is what was said by Mr. Perez de Cuellar a short while ago and by President Khatami this morning, namely that before wishing to be able to know others we must go back to the old adage of our studies: know thyself. One of the workshops we will be organizing will be dedicated to the questions: what do we know of other civilizations, and, what do we know of our own civilizations and of the interpretive structures of ourselves and of the world which they provide?

Another point that also seems to be of great importance, which has just been raised by Richard Bulliet, a point we have discussed a great deal, is the nature of the definition of the word "dialogue". Indeed, this is no longer merely an issue of acquiring knowledge of other cultures and other civilizations. This knowledge will continue to be acquired by scholars and by experts in their own fields. Rather we need to go from the stage of observing the other perhaps to a stage of empathy and osmosis. Osmosis, of course, does not mean simply dropping diversity, but rather permeability, porousness to what can be received and integrated. Beyond that, obviously, one can go over the stereotypes of the problem of globalization but nevertheless we should not forget that at present the Internet is accessible to less than 2.5 per cent of the global population. Therefore once again we are involved in creating a phenomenon which is for the rich by the rich in the same way as we are further creating, through modern technology, start-ups and the riches of the rich. That perhaps is an aspect we should not lose sight of any more than the fact that 80 per cent of humanity barely has access to telecommunications.

This means that beyond the very small part of the global population which is fully absorbed in globalization and involved in it X and globalization to be true is a phenomenon of civilization X the majority of mankind is continuing to live in civilizations in the old sense of the word, which means that they search for their roots, make do with what they have and seek for that memory which expresses all tradition and whether or not they have a material patrimony. The notion of a material and an oral heritage, which is now being developed thanks to the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is extremely important. That means that we must have dialogue between civilizations and also globalization with other civilizations, since perhaps in the end they will realize that globalization is a new civilization which is being born and is being imposed on us now as a global civilization.

In conclusion I would refer to [indecipherable] on the planet homeland or Earth homeland and to that famous global village of McLuhan which has now also been left behind although we continue to use those terms.

Mr. Picco: Perhaps we should move from this very heavy contribution from the Western side of civilization, so to speak. I should like to ask Xin Ru if he would like to comment on what should, in his view, be the focus of this dialogue among civilizations and if he agrees with the presentation that Mr. Morin has just made.

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