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The Arab-Japanese Experience, a Cross-Regional Dialogue

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The Arab-Japanese Experience, a Cross-Regional Dialogue DDIALOGUEIALOGUE Cultural Diversity and Globalization The Arab-Japanese Experience Proceedings of the International Symposium Cultural Diversity and Globalization The Arab-Japanese Experience a Cross-Regional Dialogue 6-7 May 2004 UNESCO, Paris Table of contents Preface .........................................................................................................................9 Welcoming Address by Mr Koïchiro Matsuura .......................................................13 Address by Mrs Atsuko Toyama ...............................................................................15 Address by H. E. Mr Musa Bin Jaafar Bin Hassan .................................................19 Address by H. E. Mr Teiichi Sato ............................................................................23 Session 1: Sharing the Experience: Modernization in Japan and the Arab World ..............................................27 Introduction ..............................................................................................................29 Modernization and National Traditions of Scientifi c Research Abstract of presentation by Roshdi Rashed ....................................31 Towards a Dialogue between a Japanese Historian of Science and Arabs Abstract of presentation by Shigeru Nakayama .............................39 The Modernization of Egypt in the Nineteenth Century Abstract of presentation by Pascal Crozet ......................................47 Sharing Modernity : Japan and the Arab World Abstract of presentation by Burhan Ghalioun ...............................55 Cultural Diversity and Modernization: For a Cross-Regional Dialogue Said Al-Kitani ..................................................................................65 Illustrations ............................................................................................................ 71 Session 2: Exploring the Common Goal: Sustaining Cultural Diversity ..........................................................................83 Introduction ..............................................................................................................85 Globalization, Cultural Diversity and Japanese Culture: For the Development of a Multicultural World Abstract of presentation by Tamotsu Aoki .....................................89 Managing Cultural Diversity: From Preservation to Advocacy Abstract of presentation by Abdelmalek Mansour Hassan ............95 Japan, the Arab Countries and Cultural Diversity Bassam Tayara ............................................................................... 103 Between Tolerance and Intolerance: How Can we Achieve Cultural Pluralism with Muslims? Masanori Naito .............................................................................. 109 Methodological Cosmopolitanism: How to Maintain Cultural Diversity despite Economic and Cultural Globalization? Abstract of presentation by Hans-Georg Soeffner ......................113 Session 3: New Avenues to Promote Intercultural Dialogue ..............119 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 121 Cultural Diversity and Dialogue: An Interface Katérina Stenou .............................................................................123 Another Culture of Dialogue Toshiaki Kozakaï ...........................................................................127 Epistemology of Intercultural Dialogue Ghassan Salamé ............................................................................ 131 A Real Dialogue for Peace Hisae Nakanishi ............................................................................137 Arab-Japanese Dialogue Suhail K. Shuhaiber ...................................................................... 141 Literary Intercultural Connections: From the Tale of the Coconut Tree to the Shadow of the Haiku Waciny Laredj .................................................................................145 Special Event: “The Brush and the Word: A Dialogue between Two Calligraphers” ...................................................153 Hassan Massoudy (Iraq) and Shingaï Tanaka (Japan) ..........................................154 Closing Addresses .............................................................................................157 Address by Mr Seiichi Kondo ...............................................................................159 Address by H. E. Mr Abdulrazzak Al-Nafi si ....................................................... 161 Final communiqué ............................................................................................163 Preface The symposium on “Cultural Diversity and Globalization: the Arab-Japanese Experience, a Cross-Regional Dialogue”, organized on 6 - 7 May 2004 at UNESCO in Paris with the purpose of promoting dialogue and cooperation between the Arab world and Japan, gave its participants an opportunity to lay the groundwork for thinking about the key concepts enshrined in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity adopted by the General Conference at its 31st session, on 2 November 2001. This innovative, unfamiliar view of the world demands an initial tour of the boundaries of its fi eld of investigation. Sharing experiences, exploring the notion of cultural diversity in the face of globalization, and defi ning an epistemology of intercultural dialogue: these were the avenues that it was hoped would lead to discussions from which a Theory of Dialogue might result, a theory whose application would make the idea of intercultural dialogue a reality. The fi rst object was to show that experiences could be shared between two regions apparently worlds apart in culture and geography but whose histories can in fact readily be compared. Both in Japan and in the Arab world, the encounter with the West was a violent affair; but the two worlds reacted in different ways. Moving quickly into the modernity of the third millennium, Japan exemplifi es success. The Arab world, despite spectacular progress, is still searching for its role in the world. Within a single country, different aspects of culture may be more or less open to other cultures according to circumstances: in the case of women’s role in society, and the wearing of the veil, the situation in Arab countries is not as uniform as it appears. The adoption of Western science and technology did not occur in the same way: it was an alien knowledge and technology that began to be transferred to the Arab world at the start of the nineteenth century, whereas in the last quarter of that century Japan set about mastering the knowledge and technology of aliens. A century later, however – since the events of 11 September 2001 – the image of the Arab world has darkened, and a hostile prejudice has become widespread in the West, not least thanks to its media, and fosters a confl ation of the Arab world with fundamentalism and terrorism. Japan’s success is truly astonishing; but for the causes of this “miracle” we need to look beyond Japanese culture, which resembles many others in being dynamic and open to the contingent processes of borrowing and consolidating what it has acquired, and in moulding the spirit of the men and women who make up a social human capital on which the country can rely in all circumstances. The causes of this unprecedented process of development are to be found in the political, military and institutional reforms, the industrialization and railway-building which began right from the start of Japan’s transformation in the Meiji era, on 8 November 1867. Culture, traditions and religions clearly cannot explain a region’s or a country’s successes or setbacks in terms of social progress, economic power, development, or modernization. At times they can slow the pace of change, or quicken it: ways of living and thinking, or religions, vary in their ability to withstand the shock of encountering another civilization. There could be forms of modernization not involving “modernity”, as Descartes understood it in the seventeenth century: the taming and ownership of nature. “Modernity” recalls notions of innovation, the ordered accumulation of 9 knowledge, technological mastery, the creation of a new social and intellectual order. Modernity is a way of living in the world as autonomous beings; and Japan is a living example of such a modernity with its own cultural core, unlike the various other, peripheral instances of modernization which remain under the tutelage of the Western world. The sharing of experiences in relation to these two regions has brought out a diffi culty which it would be as well to avoid when applying the idea of cultural diversity. Though culture and development are inseparable, culture alone cannot wholly explain the fl owering or stunting of a process of modernization. And that is why cultural diversity, understood as the common heritage of humanity, must be accompanied by the notion of sustainability in its various aspects, including political, ecological, aesthetic, economic, and jurisprudential sustainability. Giving cultural diversity its due must be conducive to peace within countries, between regions, and throughout the world. In the history of humanity, globalization had already appeared in many forms before the one recognized today. This symposium was not, therefore, just one more debate seeking to analyse the current process of globalization, its marginalizing of certain cultures, its hallmark internationalization of the
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