Meguro UNESCO Short News
Sever the Chain of Hatred
By Eiji Hattori
Now the world is covered with a huge “negative will”, which Freud called
thanatos (death instinct).
Terrorism must be punished severely. What is more important, however,
is to investigate the causes of terrorism, otherwise it would be impossible
to eradicate terrorism. Even worse, there would be danger of its further
escalation.
90 %, the percentage of those supporting the U.S. President, who immediately
declared “vengeance”, was actually a threatening figure. It was the
phenomenon of people falling into a homogeneous state of mind in their
fury, losing their control of themselves for a while. We had seen such
a phenomenon in the past, too. We should recall Germany or Japan the night
before World War II. We should ask ourselves what was the outcome.
“Wanted, dead or alive.”
“Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
These words would be suitable for cowboy movies; they are not the words
of reason. They are the words of anger, the words of revenge. And nothing
is further removed from the spirit of Christianity than “revenge or vengeance”.
Vengeance invites vengeance. Hatred creates hatred.
Revenge war has already started against Afghanistan, a country of extreme
poverty, which has already run out of food because of the three-year drought
and winter is now close at hand too. More than two million refugees are
going to flee over the mountains with nothing but clothes on their backs. However,
the most miserable are the people of abject poverty, who cannot even become
refugees. Five million innocent people are already on the verge of starvation. Most
of them are mothers and children. When Mr. Bush blockaded the border and
cried out saying, “We will cut off the supply of food to the Taliban,”
didn’t the image of those people, the victims of the warfare continuing
for twenty years, cross his mind? Is the world that shed tears for six
thousand irreplaceable lives lost in the World Trade Center going to do
nothing but watch several hundred times as many lives in imminent danger
of being taken? If so, is it because they are heathens? Or is it because
they are poor?
Fortunately, reason seems to have revived in the United States ten days
after that atrocity. “Imagine” by John Lennon is again on air, and there
are more people taking part in peace meetings every day. People are now
discussing why the United States is hated. One of the reasons they have
pointed out is “its failed policy towards the Middle East”, which, I
believe, is certainly correct. The focus of this incident is not on Afghanistan
but on Palestine. In the endless struggle for the Holy Land ”Jerusalem”,
the United States, in the minds of the Arabs, has overlapped with Israel. The
discussion, however, must be thorough enough to reconsider the 1,300- year
history of civilization. Mr. Bush carelessly mentioned a taboo word, “Crusade”. That
symbolizes a biased view of the history of civilization on the part of
Westerners in general. In the eyes of Muslims the Crusades were the invaders
who assaulted them in the eleventh century. The very war against those
invaders was Jihad, the holy war.
The United States should look squarely at Islam’s “resentment”.
In the past three hundred years the West has looked down on Islam as if
they were secondary human beings. In fact, if it had not been for the
twelfth-century renaissance in Arabia, there would not have been modern
Europe. Their contribution, however, has been erased from history books. Islam’s
resentment against the West for having treated them unfairly is deep-seated. Terrorism
does not arise from poverty but from “unfairness”. The United States,
who takes pride in being the leader of the world, should realize that. And
it should, first of all, change its self-righteous attitude of considering
globalization as Americanization, American justice as the world’s justice.
The Bush administration that has ignored the international society, defending
solely its own country with nuclear armaments, withdrawing from the Kyoto
Protocol, pulling out of the World Conference against racism, is now asking
for cooperation from the international society. The magnitude of the shock
was that great. Now the United States needs the United Nations that it
has slighted. In the arena of the United Nations, through discussions
between countries of different cultures and different civilizations, reason
will certainly be brought back.
Needless to say, we must not approve terrorism. And we must not identify
terrorism with Islam. If there are worldwide underworld networks, we must
resolutely fight against them. The attitude Prime Minister Koizumi took
can be appreciated to a certain extent for the reason that he made Japan’s
line of international cooperation in that context clear. We must, however,
make further consideration. We must realize that this is a new type of
war - that the terrorists are risking their lives, advocating one cause. They
showed us that they could shake a big nuclear power with one swing of a
knife.
The Taliban will collapse, and Osama bin Laden’s last moment will come
before long. However, if revenge attacks take many guiltless lives, he
will be looked on as a martyr. While terrorism is an invisible vengeance,
vengeance war is an act of terrorism by visible nations. What is threatening
is that it can create innumerable potential terrorists.
Now is the time we should sever the chain of hatred. I recall people who
got together in London that was being bombed by the German Forces in the
middle of World War II. They asked themselves why such a miserable war
had taken place, and they came to the following introspective conclusion.
“We knew too little of each other’s culture. Ignorance causes prejudice,
and prejudice causes hatred. Wars begin in the minds of men.” This sincere
introspection of reason was the starting point of UNESCO.
Japan should realize that, in the state of emergency where a false step
would lead to a war between civilizations, it has a big role that could
make its
“ existence” recognized. As the only country among the advanced nations,
who neither belongs to Hebraic-Christian nations nor to Islamic nations,
who, as such, can keep the same distance from either side, Japan should
work as an intermediary to promote “dialogue between civilizations”,
explaining to both sides the importance of cultural diversity as well as
respect for different cultures. That, combined with its devotion to humanitarian
support for refugees inside and outside Afghanistan, is the way this country
can really contribute to the world.
Eiji Hattori: Professor of Reitaku University, Board member of International
Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations,
former Director of the Public Relations Division of UNESCO, Advisor to
Meguro UNESCO.
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"UNESCO Activities in Asia"
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Date: 10/5/2001 6:30pm to 8:00pm Speaker: Mr. Noboru Noguchi
Director General of National Federation of UNESCO Associations
in Japan,
Former Head officer at Beijing Office of UNESCO Association
and
Professor at Bunkyo Women's University
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Prof. Noguchi emphasized that the one of the activities of UNESCO is
to protect the World Heritage, showing, through a fiber scope, the figure
of Suzaku (a bird appeared in Japanese legends) discovered inside the ancient
tomb of KITORA and pointing out that its archetype is found in the mural
paintings of the ancient tomb of Koukuri in North Korea. He was the head
of the Beijing office of UNESCO and was engaged in various activities for
education, science and communications in five East Asian countries: China,
Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea and Japan. He explained to us some of
their activities, including the East Asia Child Art Festival, the Juvenile
Painting Contest of the Year of Peace in Macao, opening UNESCO lectures
about engineering at Seika University, protection of the ecosystem of Jiuzhaigou
in Sichuan, the restoration and maintenance of the World Heritage (i.e.
Haming Palace in Changan, ruins of Turfan, Thousand-Buddha Grottoes, Longmen
Grottoes) and so on.
Because some of the participants take part in a Korean language course,
Prof. Noguchi referred to Pyongyang and the ancient tomb of Koukuri, where
he visited with Director-General Matsuura or Painter Ikuo Hirayama.
At the end of his speech, he introduced to us a movement to collect and
protect works of art brought from Afghanistan and to be returned when peace
is reestablished. He emphasized that the UNESCO activities of protecting
each country's cultural property as a World Heritage will contribute to
achieving peace.
SEPTEMBER REPORT: Youth Activity Committee
Event of September 24th - Cooking Gathering
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The second gathering since the "RETREAT" was held for the
occasion of SHOKUYOKU-NO AKI-TAKENAWA (a good appetite for the full autumn).
It started at one o'clock in the afternoon at the Meguro Citizens' Centre,
and food was classified into four groups; Yemen, Korea, Japan and Dessert.
Yemeni dish is like a curry made from chicken. "Takkimuchi",
five hot Korean dishes, made from chicken, vegetables and "toubanjya",
and the Japanese group contained "niku-jyaga" and "inari-zushi".
The group in charge of dessert made crepes. We enjoyed a buffet along with
an explanation about the dishes from a representative of each country.
At the end, each member was 'obliged' to have one pettit chou a la creme.
This was however in the form of 'Russian roulette'! Japanese hot mustard
'wasabi' was hidden in five of the pettit chou a la creme. A tough outcome
for some unlucky people! With everybody helping out, we finished the gathering
by clearing up and putting things in order. Thirty people had attended,
including foreign students, and we had a really enjoyable time. The next
session is scheduled to be a study about peace. The continued participation
by the young members is very much appreciated.
(Reporter: Kimi Imahata from Youth Activity Committee)
*The next meeting is to be held on Dec. 1 (Sat.) from 2:00
at Nakameguro Seishounen Plaza.
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