UNESCO Comes to Cardiff

Talking of UNESCO,(see last blog) the annual UK UNESCO conference was held in Cardiff at the weekend, graced by the presence of the Director-General, Koichiro Matsuura, who gave the keynote speech. The conference was preceded the evening before by a reception in the Welsh Senedd, or Parliament, building in Cardiff Bay and by a dinner at the National Museum of Wales. The latter proved not altogether propitious surroundings for a dinner - the vast echoing marble hall of the museum providing plenty of space but doing little for the acoustics - so that it became more than an effort to discern what your dinner companion was saying across the large round tables. Nevertheless both food and wine were excellent.

Indeed perhaps it was perhaps this excellence coupled with the poverty of the acoustics that made Sir Emyr Jones Parry, the UK's UN ambassador, who was giving the address, chide the audience that it was slow in picking up some of his intended jokes. On the other hand it could have been because he is a rather better ambassador than he is a comic. Or maybe again again it might have been that we were simply an earnest audience not given to easy frivolity.

In this we may be taking our lead from Mr Matsuura himself who in public at least gives the impression that red hot pokers would not persuade him to attempt a joke. His keynote speech was thus well reasoned and delivered in a deliberate and most earnest fashion. He argued carefully and thoughtfully, as indeed Sir Emyr had also done, the need for reform at the UN, while explaining the relevance of UNESCO to the wider world.

UNESCO is of course a catalyst. Its financial resources are minute but it serves to galvanise mostly voluntary efforts towards common goals throughout the 180 countries that it works in. Its goal is to construct the idea of peace in people's minds - as an alternative to conflict and war - and to do that through the intellectual processes of education, culture, the various sciences, communication and information.

What will the world look like in the future? Hopefully we shall be better educated, with technology used to more productive ends; we shall be better informed and by recognising and respecting each other's cultures we shall come closer together. The future is overpredicted and underimagined said Chris Jofeh, director of Arup's who sponsored the conference, quoting one of a team of Arup futurologists. He gave us a remarkable address on the 'drivers of change.' It is true, we can't predict the future, but we can imagine a better, more just and more peaceful world. And by working with and through UNESCO we can help to bring that about.