Members of the Machida-Sagami UNESCO
Association sorting miswritten and unused
postcards at the office of the National
Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan
Meguro UNESCO Short News No.174-２
Urgent Appeal for the Safeguard of Afghan Heritage
Collecting signatures to appeal for the immediate halt of destruction and
fund raising campaign to save cultural heritage started
The Taliban, Afghanistan's Islamic fundamentalist organization, gave an
order to destroy cultural assets in the country including the famous Bamiyan
Buddhist statues. Although the true extent of the destruction is not much
known as of March 10, the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in
Japan, the Japan Afghanistan Association, and other related organizations,
with the UNESCO Headquarters taking the initiative, are making every effort
to convince the Taliban to reverse their decision. A group of Diet members,
bringing 5,000 signatures and a letter from the Foreign Minister, was sent
in haste to Afghanistan. The National Federation of UNESCO Associations
in Japan is continuing its signature collecting campaign, and has also
started the fund raising campaign to save the cultural heritage common
to all human beings. We'd like you to use a signature form enclosed with
our newsletter to ask your family and friends to sign their names.
Please send your signatures to Nihon UNESCO Kyokai, 1-3-1 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku,
Tokyo (Asahi Seimei Building 12F) 〒150-0013, or fax to 03-5424-1126
Donations can be remitted to “Bamiyan Iseki Kyusai Kikin (Fund to Save
Bamiyan Heritage)” 1540286 (Ordinary account at Ebisu Branch, Daiichi
Kangyo Bank)
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Prof. Eiji Hattori, adviser to the Meguro UNESCO Association, planned and
carried out the Silk Road research expedition while he was working for
the UNESCO Headquarters. Paying attention to the fact that the flowering
of civilization took place at the crossroad of Eastern and Western civilizations,
he has been preaching the importance of exchanges between different cultures. Grieved
over the destruction that started at the very crossroad, he contributed
to us the article "There Should Be No War between Civilizations". As
it is on the front page, please read it carefully. We'd be happy if it
helps you understand the inner meaning of the problem.
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Recruitment of volunteers for unused postcard contributions, from the National
Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan.
We are much obliged to the Meguro UNESCO Association for sorting miswritten
and unused postcards. We greatly appreciate your service.
From January 2001, a great number of postcards from around the country
arrived at the Ebisu secretariat. (In just one week, the week commencing
February 19th, 118 boxes reached the secretariat.)Staff were surprised
by the quantity and thanked people who had gathered the postcards. Currently
however there are about 300
boxes of postcards still to be sorted. So we are asking neighbouring UNESCO
Associations (Tokyo and Ichikawa)if anyone could volunteer to help with
these remaining postcards. We would like to finish the job in April, and
if only one day could be offered, that would be greatly appreciated. It
would be nice if UNESCO associations could work together with this task,
so we would welcome your participation. National Federation of UNESCO Association
in Japan (Kondo)
| To Meguro UNESCO Association members
If you can spare a day (at a time convenient for you) to help sort postcard
contributions at the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan
(Ebisu 1-3-1 in Shibuya, 5 minutes from Ebisu station), please call one
of the following telephone numbers:
The general affairs department, National Federation of UNESCO Association
in Japan: 03-5424-1121 Chairperson, International Support Activity Committee:
Fumiko MIYAZAKI 03-3701-3783
The total number of postcards stands at 579,723, which has a value of 23,188,920
yen.
You can imagine this is quite a mountain of postcards! Along with other
funds raised, the money will be used for reading and writing activities
indevelopingnations
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