No.208 2004.7.14
Reiko Kato, President of the Meguro UNESCO Association
The season bringing gardenias and hydrangeas has also brought us good news.
On May 22, Meguro UNESCO Association successfully held its 51st General Assembly as well as the Inaugural Meeting for Specified Non-profit Organization. We received many words of encouragement from not only members of the Association but also the Mayor and Superintendent of Education of Meguro City, members of Meguro City Council and some advisors. Fifty years have passed since the founding of the Association and a commemorative 50th anniversary party will be held on October 2, Saturday. We are planning to invite Ms. Yoshino Oishi as a guest speaker. She has been active as a documentary photographer focusing on peace and human dignity. All of us in the committees and the secretariat of the Association are keeping ourselves happily busy in the preparation.
The Japanese Federation of UNESCO Associations has published “30 Questions about UNESCO.” It is meant to be an introductory booklet for understanding UNESCO. Its preamble reads in part “human beings have reached the level of today’s development of cultural abundance and variety by meeting different and foreign cultures and influencing each other. No other time than now has called more for tolerance of accepting those who are different from ourselves, modesty of respecting others and learning from them, and the spirit of living together peacefully on this small planet in the universe. In other words, the construction of ‘cultures of peace’, or co-existence of multi-cultures, which is the ultimate ideal of UNESCO, is demanded now more strongly than ever.”Speaking of co-existence of multi-cultures, the Meguro UNESCO Association is scheduled to participate in a class at the Nakatomi Primary School of Ota-ku on June 18. The participants from the Association include Iranians, Thais and Koreans in addition to Japanese coordinators.
One other piece of good news is about a Christian church and a Buddhist temple in Meguro City. As the Kakinokizaka Church is going to undergo earthquake protection construction for half a year, the Bethel Kindergarten attached to the church needed a temporary campus during that period. They looked all over the place and finally the Ryugenji Buddhist Temple at Nakane-cho agreed to let them use its premises for the Christian kindergarten. This Buddhist temple is known for its contribution to society; in fact, after the War it looked after war orphans and other children who needed help. This time the priest persuaded the financial supporters of the temple that it was the duty of a religious organization to contribute to the local society.
The construction of “Cultures of Peace,” an ideal of UNESCO, can only materialize when it is practiced. While disasters caused by opposition between races and religions are rampant in the world, this episode shows a case of broad-mindedness overcoming differences in religious doctrines. Is it the Japanese culture, known for its religious tolerance, that brought about this cooperation? In any case, let me praise both sides for their courage. It is my pleasure to introduce this episode to you.
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