@More than fifty years have passed since UNESCO was established as a result of people's self-examination of the World War II. Japan has celebrated the 50th anniversary of joining UNESCO. Unfortunately the 20th Century turned out to be the gcentury of wars.h The 21st Century started with the hope of constructing gcultures for peace.h The hope, however, was sadly betrayed and the world became the site of wars again despite the United Nationsf calling for the gyear of communication among civilizations.h @In reality, the human being has moved away from true peace at the beginning of the 21st Century. In a sense we are experiencing the same pain as we had half a century ago. The only difference is that it was then a dispute among nations and now it is partly a dispute among races and religions. A gdialogue among civilizationsh must be urgently established. Although we all talk about gpeaceh and gloveh, differences exist among races and religions as to what the words mean. It is highly hoped that people try to be more tolerant and come close to the UNESCO concept of these words. It is my firm belief that peace can only be realized on the earth when the principles based on different ideals compromise with the UNESCO principles and all people accept the compromise. This problem is connected not only with religious beliefs but also with how widely basic education is spread among people. @In our world of the Terakoya movement of spreading basic education among people we are inclined to think, gthe purpose of basic education is to secure basic human rights through learning reading, writing and calculating abilities.h But it is only a part of the purpose. The more important part is geducation of attitudes for living together,h or, in other words, geducation of the mind to love peace.h The purpose of basic education should be, besides teaching how to read, write and calculate, to bring up people who can communicate with people of different civilizations. I believe that it is the responsibility of UNESCO to arrange an environment where people can receive education based on UNESCO principles regardless of the level of literacy. I'd like to find such philosophy spread among educators, religious leaders, ideologists, intellectuals, and politicians as well as among parents who are in the midst of rearing children. @I hope that my first dream of the year is to see, besides wild horses wandering around the wilderness, as many gseeds of peaceh sowed and sprouting. I should not forget, of course, to add on my dream list seeing the United States returning to UNESCO. |
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