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• Culture and Civilizations
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International
Conference on CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Address by the
President of the Republic of Poland Distinguished
President of the Republic of Lithuania, Dialogue
among civilisations is a process, which gives shape to the 21 century. The
Vilnius Conference is an attempt to
reflect on this challenge, and an
important contribution to the global debate initiated by the United Nations.
It is my privilege and a great satisfaction
to be a co-patron of this initiative. I wish to thank the President of
the Republic of Lithuania for the invitation. In my view, this is yet another
friendly gesture from a well-wishing neighbour,
a sign of close partnership between
Poland and Lithuania. May I also thank the Director General
of UNESCO for his presence among us, lending a very special
significance to the Vilnius
Conference. I wish to thank all the participants assembled in this room,
luminaries of science and
culture, people of good will and of great commitment. You represent many countries, many historical experiences,
many points of view. This meeting is a phenomenon in itself. Dialogue among
civilisations is taking here a more concrete shape, and develops
in a real-life contact between people. Ladies
and Gentlemen! The
world's history is a history of many civilisations, of their progress and
their inter-relations. Today this is an accepted truth which sets the tone of
our epoch. But it was not always so. In our thinking about the world,
we managed – to a large extent – to overcome two clichés. The
first one consisted in
overemphasising economic factors at
the expense of cultural ones. Today, we have distanced ourselves
from this method of explaining the world. This is not only caused by
the fact that political systems,
which relied on such a model,
broke down and collapsed.
It is also because we can see how many phenomena and processes of the
contemporary world need to be explained on the grounds of culture, customs;
and to what extent people's attitudes may impact the condition of
economy.
Admittedly
economy has a great influence on our life: globalisation is an evidence
of that. But in our individual and collective choices we also refer to
spiritual values, often without
even realising it. The sense of identity and of belonging
is very important in this respect. It is fulfilled in a civilisation,
since – to quote Samuel
Huntington – „Civilisations are the biggest “we” within which we feel
culturally at home as distinguished from
all the other “thems” out there”. The
other fallacy that we abandon consists in treating our own civilisation
as the hub of the universe. More than ever do we realise that
this is a multipolar and polyphonic world,
which is a mosaic of various cultures and historical traditions. This
intellectual break-through is a
particularly valid experience for
the Western civilisation. For
many centuries, it flourished in the conviction of being a universal one.
Based on these grounds, it developed a
sense of its mission, fallacious as
it often was, and justified its domination
over other cultures. Revision of this mode of thinking was
a difficult and painful exercise,
but a purifying one. It proceeded gradually. Historical developments,
such as decolonisation were of primordial importance here. Also,
reflection of great thinkers and
luminaries of science, such as
Oswald Spengler, Arnold Toynbee or
Fernand Braudel has shed a new light. Today, the Western civilisation views
other civilisations as partners and
interlocutors. It is able to define the pillars of its own uniqueness and
identity, realising at the same time, how much it owes to other cultures. Also, the civilisation of the West knows
now how to define the cornerstones of human universality, such as fundamental
moral values, entire output of the world culture and human rights. Ladies
and Gentlemen! In
the contemporary world, even the
greatest civilisations, ones most
centred on their own identity, cannot develop in isolation. State-of-the-art
information technologies, development of telecommunications, global economic
processes, migrations – all of them result in broader and more frequent
meetings of civilisations, embracing bigger groups of people. With the growing
global interdependence, separate autonomous phenomena
are declining. For this reason, dialogue among civilisations is more
than just a humanistic proposition, it is more than curiosity
of the exoticness or diversity. It is a necessity, and the world of the
21st century makes us realise this more acutely than ever. We
must seek what we have in common – codes of understanding. We must learn how
to be a unity in a plurality.
At the same time, we must increase
our sensitivity so as to respect someone else's identity, the need to
differentiate oneself, and different views on the world around and on life.
Only then shall we be able to avoid problems, disappointments and dangers
which globalisation has in store. If globalisation is only limited
to its technical, economic and media manifestations, and if it does not
produce genuine partnership between cultures
and people, it will be of no avail. If a free movement of ideas,
commodities, lifestyles is not equally vested in all societies, barriers will
rise condemning many people to exclusion. Sense of unfulfilment, lack of
understanding or inferiority complex may pose
a substantial threat to the world's stability; they may fuel
nationalism, tribalism, xenophobia. Dialogue among civilisations must involve
our abilities to speak and to listen; to
contribute and to benefit from the others. Globalisation provokes anxiety
and resistance because it may eventually lead to destruction of
traditional ways of thinking, systems of values,
deep-rooted cultures. But it may also open an opportunity
for development and constructive changes, it may lead to the formation
of such an identity among
individuals and communities, which will be more open,
and less inclined to prioritise one's own views only. Personally,
I do not believe in
insurmountable cultural barriers. I do not subscribe to the point of view under which there are boundaries
between civilisations, which were formed by a century-long tradition,
never to disappear. Time and culture are powerful stabilisers but they
may equally forcefully promote changes. Clash of civilisations is therefore
not predetermined. The mosaic world of the 21st century
is not free from anxiety but there
are also premises to look into the
future with optimism. Ladies
and Gentlemen! The
venue of our meeting is symbolic. The colourful past of Vilnius provides
an excellent example of dialogue among
cultures. It is a place, which for centuries saw amicable cohabitation
of people of various nations, religions and customs. Here civilisational
influences of the West and East
overlapped. Here was a crossing point of ideas, commercial routes and material
culture. This all represents the heritage
of the contemporary Vilnius, and
from here a message is sent that
in a polyphonic global civilisation, we
do not need to build the new order
for the new century from scratch. Let us draw on experience gathered
on a local scale, let us benefit from
positive developments from the past. Such
models can be also found in the
history of the whole Central and
Eastern Europe. Over four hundred years ago, this region gave birth to a
unique phenomenon in the history,
i.e.the Commonwealth of Two
Nations: Poland and Lithuania. A peacefully built federation of two states
in reality was able to accommodate
more than just two nationalities:
not only the Poles and the Lithuanians,
but also the Ruthenians, Germans, Jews, Tartars and Armenians.
This was a meeting point of the Western culture and of the Orthodox and
Islamic influences. Much has changed from those days of yore, many wars and
conflicts swept the region, many nation states were formed since. But the
memory of that common existence is still alive in our minds. Perhaps
it is this memory, combined with
good sense and responsibility that
helped us now to recover the way to
reconciliation and partnership. It should be remembered that upon the collapse of communism,
when the ice of Yalta melted, there
were reasons to fear the revival of
ethnical and civilisation clashes from
the first half of the 20th century. However, we opted for good
neighbourhood, openness, co-operation. The friendship of Poland and Lithuania
may be an inspiring example here, and
likewise excellent Polish-German relations, Polish-Ukrainian partnership,
or the developing Polish-Russian dialogue. The entire Central Europe
with so many historical and cultural threads woven
into its heritage, is today an area
of stability, security, co-operation.
It enters the structures of the united Europe, while also remaining
open to dialogue with the East, with
other civilisations. This is our contribution in the forming
of the world in the 21st century,
the world of interdependence and
mutual understanding. Today
Vilnius sends an important signal to the whole international community. I am
convinced that the Vilnius conference will contribute to the building of
openness, confidence and co-operation among great communities of the
contemporary world. I trust that it will go down as an important event in the
Year of Dialogue Among Civilisations. I wish you interesting and fruitful
debate. ***** |
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