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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: If a dialogue of citizens has to go through information technology and the Internet I am afraid we will have to wait for a very long time until we can hear a satisfactory number of citizens, unless somebody wants to distribute computers for free all over the world. I still think that the Internet is wonderful and necessary for information technology but it is not exactly an instrument of dialogue because there is a live dimension that will always be lacking. It is the same as the difference between a live concert and a very, very good compact disc. It is not the same thing and one cannot modulate the answers, the questions and the voices on the Internet.

Mr. Picco: I should say that one of the things that Mr. Elatlian is doing is distributing computers and access to the Internet free of charge to schools around the world. Dr. Nettleford.

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