Cultural Exchange is Effective Protection Against Societal Problems - Dr. Al Kuwari

Rome, September 20 (QNA) - HE Dr. Hamad bin Abdul Aziz Al Kuwari, Advisor at the Emiri Diwan and Qatar's Candidate to the Post of the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has stressed that true cultural exchange is the most effective protective measure for any internal domestic or international societal problems. This came Monday in a lecture HE Dr. Al Kuwari delivered at the University of Rome Tor Vergata on the occasion of receiving Honorary Doctorate in the field of Cutural Heritage. "With this in mind, I placed cultural understanding at the forefront of my UNESCO campaign, but I did not reach this conclusion by simply examining global reality, instead I drew it primarily from my own personal experience within the ever-changing world around me," he said. Cultural diversity is an incredibly important added value to human civilization and leads to an overall balance which constitutes an essential factor for rapprochement, which decreases differentiation between people, he said adding that when culture is used as a divisive weapon, it is far more dangerous than any other weapon because its use in a nefarious manner destroys the will for peace building. "I worked throughout my career to embrace culture as an ideal way to bring people together and shorten the distances between human civilizations during my time as the Minister of Information, and later on as the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage in my wonderful homeland of Qatar," Dr. Al Kuwari said. "Based upon my personal experience in the field of education, I believe that the important curricula and study of ongoing technological developments allow for the bridging of the large distances between continents, to the extent that the world is becoming a global village. This connectivity is what makes the development of educational curricula extremely important in the modern day," he added. I acknowledge that there is a praiseworthy global trend towards reviewing educational curricula to further meet the needs of ethnically diverse communities and the aspirations of various nations. I would like to point out that the UNESCO, in collaboration with Edgar Morin and a team of experts, developed the guidelines to the aptly-titled "Seven complex lessons in education for the future," and that the international agenda has focused the role of curricula in the achievement of equality and continuous education. I also praise Qatars role in this field, and namely the outstanding projects of providing education for children in poorer regions of the world without distinction of gender, race, religion or other... through the initiatives of "Education Above All", "World Innovation Summit for Education" WISE, and "Educate a Child". By this last Program more than 10 million children will go to school in the poorest regions by the end of 2016. HE Advisor at the Emiri Diwan and the State of Qatar's candidate to the Post of the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Dr. Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, said that the complex problems facing the world today are a result of the decline of the critical mind where there is a dominance of the "dormant mind" stage of human development, which should be the core focus of the educational curriculum since a great deal of people no longer think of their convictions and reality in a critical way, but instead, blindly accept reality and surrender to those who think on their behalf, instead of creating their own unique destiny. "We have to directly address the role of culture as a strategic initiative for the future of human relationships because over these last few years, we have seen the continuous reckless war waged by the descendants of extremism and the followers of blind hatred and sacred ignorance. We have also seen how terrorism has destroyed the evidence of human civilization and its rich heritage in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Timbuktu. It is imperative that we realize that the main purpose of terrorism lays not just in the counting of more deaths, but also in the erasing of the collective memory of humankind. These ignorant groups and individuals literally want to kill who we are," HE Dr. Al Kuwari said. He pointed to Italys brave stance in the field of 'heritage protection'. "Established in Turin, a new center will train experts in cultural "heritage protection", which will help prevent violations and serve in the fight against the smuggling of cultural artifacts which has become more prevalent and recently drawn the attention of the entire worlds public opinion," he said. Pointing to the role of faiths and civilizations in the in spreading peace and love, HE Dr. Al Kuwari said: "The Arab-Islamic civilization, like other civilizations, contributed to global peace-building through science and knowledge with our deep history in medicine, philosophy and other sciences. Arab civilizations, as a whole, have provided profound additions to the symbolic wealth of knowledge possessed by all of humanity." HE Dr. Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari extended thanks to the University of Rome Tor Vergata for granting him the Honorary Doctorate. "This recognition comes at a historic and distinctive moment in my career, and also, along the path of current history," he said. The function was attended by a number of the university's faculty, alumni and students along with a number of Italian scholars and officials. HE Qatar's Ambassador to Italy Abdulaziz bin Ahmed Al Malki and ambassadors of the GCC states also attended the event. (END)