the C o u riejuly-augustSeptember r 1998

HigherHigher JJeremyeremy RifkinRifkin educatioeducation...n... againstagainst aa brave andand after?after? new world ProwlingProwling cybersnoopercybersnooperss Contents September 1998 51st year Published monthly in 28 languages and in Braille by the Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization. PEOPLE AND PLAC E S 31,rue François Bonvin,75732 Cedex 15 Fax:(33) (0) 1.45.68.57.45 - (33) (0) 1.45.68.57.47 e-mail:[email protected] Hopes and dreams of A l g e r i a ’s youth Dalila Ta l e b Internet:http://www.unesco.org 3 Director:René Lefort Editor in chief:Sophie Bessis Secretary, Director’s Office/Braille editions: E D I TO R I A L Annie Brachet (Tel:(33) (0) 1.45.68.47.15) Editorial staff (Paris) English edition:Roy Malkin 9 P ro g ress for whom? Federico Mayor Spanish edition:Araceli Ortiz de Urbina Sophie Boukhari Lucia Iglesias Kuntz Amy Otchet P L A N E T Seydou Amadou Oumarou Jasmina Sopova

1 0 Mutants on the menu France Bequette Translation Miguel Labarca Glenn Naumovitz WORLD OF LEARNING Art and production unit:Georges Servat Page layout and design:Eric Frogé Illustrations:Ariane Bailey (Tel:(33) (0) 1.45.68.46.90) Documentation:José Banaag (Tel:(33) (0) 1.45.68.46.85) 1 4 C o l o m b i a ’s community mothers Antoine de To u r n e m i r e Liaison with non-Headquarters editions and press: Solange Belin (Tel:33 (0) 1.45.68.46.87) Administrative Assistant: Theresa Pinck DOSSIER (Tel:(33) (0) 1 45.68.45.86) Editorial Committee René Lefort (moderator), Jérome Bindé, Milagros del Corral, 1 7 Higher education—and after? Alcino Da Costa, Babacar Fal l , Sue Wi l l i a m s Non-headquarters editions 1 8 Shaking the ivory tower Peter Scott Russian:Irina Utkina (Moscow) German:Dominique Anderes (Berne) Arabic: Fawzi Abdel Zaher (Cairo) 19 Four pillars of wisdom Guy Neave Italian:Gianluca Formichi (Rome) Hindi:Ganga Prasad Vimal (Delhi) 22 What do students want? A .M c C a t h i e / A . N. S u k a r s o n o Tamil:M.Mohammed Mustafa (Madras) Persian: Jalil Shahi (Teheran) Portuguese:Alzira Alves de Abreu () 2 4 Wa n t e d : a new deal for the univers i t i e s Miguel Angel Escotet Ur d u : Mirza Muhammad Mushir (Islamabad) Catalan:Joan Carreras i Martí () 2 6 Vision and action for the next century A.Ortiz deUrbina Malay:Sidin Ahmad Ishak (Kuala Lumpur) Swahili:Leonard J. Shuma (Dar-es-Salaam) Sl o v e n e : Aleksandra Kornhauser (Ljubljana) 2 8 Turkey:a course for the future Necla A r a t Chinese: Feng Mingxia (Beijing) Bulgarian:Dragomir Petrov (Sofia) 3 0 Bulgaria’s overdose of Russian profs Rumiana Ugarchinska Greek:Sophie Costopoulos (Athens) Sinhala:Neville Piyadigama (Colombo) Finnish:Riitta Saarinen (Helsinki) 3 1 G raduates for hire Sophie Boukhari Basque:Juxto Egaña (Donostia) Thai:Duangtip Surintatip (Bangkok) 3 3 The talent spotters Jany Lesseur Vietnamese:Ho Tien Nghi (Hanoi) Bengali:Kafil uddin Ahmad (Dhaka) Ukrainian: Volodymyr Vasiliuk (Kiev) 3 4 India’s loss,West’s gain Ethirajan A n b a s a r a n Ga l i c i a n : Xabier Senín Fernández 3 6 Morocco:full heads but empty pockets Bahia A m r a n i (Santiago de Compostela) Circulation and promotion 3 7 Tomorrow’s world elite Interview with Jacques A t t a l i Fax:(33) (0) 1 45.68.57.45 Subscriptions and customer service Michel Ravassard (Tel:(33) (0) 1.45.68.45.91) Sales and subscription agents E T H I C S Mohamed Salal El Din (Tel:(33) (0) 1 45 68 49 19) Stock management and shipping 3 8 The We b, the spider and the fly S. A . Oumarou and R. L e f o r t Pham Van Dung (Tel:(33) (0) 1.45.68.45.94) Individual articles and photographs not copyrighted may be reprinted providing the credit line reads “R e p r i n t e d from the UNE S C O Co u r i e r ” , plus date of issue, and three voucher copies are sent to the editor.Signed articles SIGNS OF THE T I M E S reprinted must bear author’s name. Non-copyright photos will be supplied on request. Unsolicited manuscripts cannot be returned unless accompanied by an B i l b a o : the Guggenheim effect Lucía Iglesias international reply coupon covering postage. Si g n e d 4 1 articles express the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of UNE S C O or those of the editors of the UNE S C O Co u r i e r . Photo captions and headlines are written by the UNE S C O Courier staff.The C O N N E X I O N S boundaries on maps published in the magazine do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by UNE S C O or the United Nations. The UNE S C O Courier is produced in microform (microfilm and/or microfiche) by: (1) UNE S C O , 7 4 4 C y b e rs n o o p e rs at larg e S o p h i e B o u k h a r i Place de Fon t e n o y , 75700 Par i s ; (2) University Microfilm s (X e r o x ) , Ann Ar b o r , Michigan 48100 U.S. A . ; (3) N.C . R . Microcard Edition, Indian Head Inc., 111 West 40th Street, New Yor k , U.S. A . ; (4) Bell and Howell Co., Old Mansfiel d TALKING TO … Ro a d , Woo s t e r , Ohio 44691, U.S. A . IMPRIMÉ EN FRANCE (Printed in France) DÉPOT LÉGAL : C1 - SEPTEMBER 1998 4 7 Je remy Rifkin: f e a rs of a brave new world Interview by Amy Otchet COMMISSION PARITAIRE N° 71844 - Diffusé par les N.M.P.P. The UNE S C O Courier (USPS 016686) is published monthly in Par i s by UNE S C O . Printed in Fra n c e . Periodicals postage paid at Champlain NY and additional mailing offices. We regret that we failed to indicate the following photo credit for the cover of the July-August Photocomposition et photogravure: Le Courrier de l’UNESCO. issue of the UNESCO Courier: © Mauro Bernasconi, Pr e g a s s o n a ,S w i t z e r l a n d Impression:Maulde & Renou ISSN 0041-5278 N°9-1998-OPI 98-574 A Co v e r : a student demonstration in Djakarta in May 1998 © Noel Quidu/Gamma, Par i s PEOPLE AND PLA C E S Hopes and dreams of Al g e r i a ’ s youth by Dalila Taleb*

How can the new generation of Algerians afford the luxury of a carefree youth?

It isn’t easy to be young in Algeria, a n Al g e r ia today, ev en the most basic as p i r a tions are no more than dreams. country where five years of violence have IWo r k i n g, t r ave l l i n g, planning for the f u t u r e , making a home–even the simple claimed nearly 100,000 lives and economic things of life are beyond the reach of upheavals are having drastic social young people whose world has been mangled by violence. And yet they consequences. In spite of everything, refuse to abandon their dreams and this impels many of them to leave the coun- today’s young Algerians refuse to abandon t ry, e ven if it means becoming illegal i m m i grants in . their hopes and dreams Like eve ryone else, young people * Member of the National People’s Assembly suffer from the political violence and

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 3 PEOPLE AND PLA C E S

4 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 PEOPLE AND PLA C E S

Because of a longstanding housing crisis, young Algerians escape from crowded apartments into the streets where they wait hopefully for a job to turn up.

A knot of bystanders in rue Didouche Mourad,one of the main thoroughfares of Algiers.

More and more Algerians live in the street, either to keep clear of violent areas or simply because they are too poor to afford lodging.

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 5 PEOPLE AND PLA C E S

Students leave the campus of Bab Ezzouar university, in the suburbs of Algiers. Their clothing indicates the different Dalila the militant paths they have chosen.

h i r t y - t w o - y e a r-old Dalila figures among the youth in ( Front of Socialist Groups) TTaleb already has a long the poorer sections of the member of the National Pe o- career of political activism c a p i t a l . The RAJ’s members p l e ’s Assembly representing behind her. The October 1988 range from girls wearing the her home town of Bejaia. I n riots in A l g i e r s, in which more veil to pop music fans, f r o m the A s s e m b l y, where she is a than 500 young people died, Islamist supporters to moder- member of the youth, s p o r t s filled her with passion to n i z e r s. And the movement and voluntary work commis- defend her country’s youth, w o r k s, despite the constraints s i o n , she has made a name for tragically left to fend for itself. and problems confronting herself as an orator who In 1993, with a group of voluntary organizations in speaks out against all kinds of f r i e n d s, she founded the Yo u t h A l g e r i a . Without losing touch violence and arbitrary beha- Action Movement (RAJ) which with the grassroots, D a l i l a viour– whoever its perpetra- Opposite page: was an overnight success. went into politics and in the tors may be. ■ for these young people in an Algiers street D a l i l a , its president, q u i c k l y 1997 parliamentary elections an evening concert provides a rare became one the most popular became an opposition FFS entertainment opportunity. Girls usually choose to stay at home.

6 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 PEOPLE AND PLA C E S from insecuri t y. M a ny now cannot m o n e y. The gove rnment pleads secu- e ven study–hundreds of schools have rity reasons for restricting the activities closed in the wo rst affected areas such of civil society. But preventing yo u n g as Blida, Medea and Chlef. Social vio- people from expressing themselves pea- lence is also soari n g . The gove rn m e n t cefully can only push them towa r d s is in many ways ineffective and daily violent forms of self-expression or eve n life has become so difficult that parents to extremism. can no longer minister to their chil- They dream of escaping a “sick life” d r e n ’s needs. Some 300,000 yo u n g which weighs even more heavily on people come onto the job market eve ry girls than boy s. In big tow n s , c o e d u c a- year in a country where there are tion has surv i ved the recent ye a rs of already more than two million unem- troubles fairly we l l . But eve rything is p l oye d . The middle class is shri n k i n g, harder for gi r l s. I t ’s hard for them to the poor are getting poorer and the go out in an evening with boy s , u n l e s s rich are getting ri c h e r. The streets of they belong to a ve ry restricted social the capital teem with young children c i r c l e . As a result of a profoundly sexist selling newspapers or cleaning car win- e d u c ation system, i t ’s hard for them to d ows–scenes which l e a rn anything at would have been youth centres except i n c o n c e i vable a few If they can’t sewing or embroi- ye a rs ago. d e ry, whereas boy s If they can’t live live normal lives, young can study computer n o rmal live s , yo u n g Algerians can s c i e n c e . And it’s hard A l g e rians can at least to escape the conser- dream about easing at least dream vatism of most A l g e- their fru s t r at i o n s of expressing rian fa m i l i e s , w h o through freedom of keep a tight rein on e x p r e s s i o n . The cur- themselves freely the lives of their few has been lifted in d a u g h t e rs. A l gi e rs , but the state of emergency is Young people dream of peace.T h e y still in force and public gat h e rings are feel alienated by the violence that b a n n e d . Tickets for the few concert s confronts them. Talk to them about staged these days are expensive . A peace and their enthusiasm is imme- black-market ticket costs 800 dinars * d i ately aroused. Young musicians have when the minimum wage is about w ritten some amazing songs about 5,000 dinars , and only about one p e a c e . O t h e rs express themselve s young person in twenty can afford to through theatre or painting. In the g o. Cinemas are closing. Film clubs Youth Action Move m e n t , by teaching h ave disappeared. Young people don’t them to help one another and show bother with youth and cultural centres s o l i d a ri t y, we have managed to get tee- a ny more because they are suspicious n a g e rs to work together, to ove r c o m e of anything to do with the authori t i e s their differences and break down the and because the courses on offer cost i nvisible wall that education and tradi-

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 7 PEOPLE AND PLA C E S

Baseball hats, anoraks and world music. The tions have built between boys and gi r l s. dreams of young Algerians are like those of many All that needs to be done is to bri n g other* 1 A young g e rian people dinar the = world$0.017 over in. ButAugust only a1998 them together and invo l ve them in a wealthy minority can afford modern consumer goods. common project. For many yo u n g people feel fru s t r ated that there is nothing they can do to bring about c h a n g e . They dream of peace, but like the On a bench in Bab El Oued. ... rest of the population they are caught Will Algeria,with all its contradictions, b e t ween the violence of Islamist extre- dreams and temptations, ever become reconciled with itself? mists and that of the gove rn m e n t . I n A l g e ri a ,s a d l y, difference is synonym o u s with intolerance. H atred between the se xe s , be t w een different ways of looking at things, b e t ween regi o n s , b e t we e n Arabs and Berbers has been boiling for d e c a d e s , t u rning A l g e ri a ’s magnific e n t d i ve rsity into an endless source of c o n fli c t .A l g e rians have barely had time to develop democratic practices. Without jobs, without being able to e nvisage a better life and without hope, young people lounge idly in the s t r e e t s – “ h u g ging the wa l l s ,” as A l g e- rians put it, nicknaming them “ h i t t i s t s ” (from the Arabic word h i t, m e a n i n g “ wa l l ” ) . The young dream, but their dreams turn into nightmares because their elders either do not know how or do not want to talk to them. ■

8 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 E D I TO R I A L Progress for whom?

t is too often forgotten that the Unive rsal Declaration of Human Rights is not only c o n c e rned with civil and political rights but also with what are known as economic Iand social ri g h t s. In the preamble to the Declarat i o n , it is stipulated that “ F r e e d o m from fear and wa n t ” is “the highest aspiration of the common people.” It is no coin- cidence that the Declaration dates from the period when the foundations of the Uni- ted Nations system were laid and the Marshall Plan was launched. At that time it wa s possible to dream; pain and precarity were conducive to utopia; it was a time when a common horizon could be redraw n . To d ay, the civilization and culture of which we are so proud will break dow n unless we can stabilize and halt population gr ow t h , n a rr ow the gap between rich and p o o r , and create decent living conditions–educat i o n , public health, wo r k , h o u s i n g – f o r the billions of people who share this beautiful planet. UNESCO believes that in order to successfully take up the challenge of pove rt y, four basic principles must be taken into account. - Development of endogenous capacities. This means giving each country, e a c h people and each person the capacity to decide for themselve s , to make their ow n Federico Mayor c h o i c e s , to exploit on their own account the natural resources around them. T h i s i m p e r at i ve has a name: c o - o p e r at i o n . It is something quite different from technical and other forms of assistance, such as they have been implemented hithert o. - Improvement of the quality of life in rural areas. I f, in peacetime, we manage to mobilize all resources, including those of the armed forces, then this quality of life will reach the point at which immigr at i o n , p ri m a rily to the pove rty belts around the big cities and then towards foreign countri e s , will disap- pear or at least diminish. If the rich countries have been incapable of - Citizenship and part i c i p at i o n , especially at the local leve l . This is where democracy is cemented and devoting 0.7 per cent of their GNP to the where the guidelines traced by gove rnments should be implemented by all citizens. It is here too that development of the most disadvantaged UNESCO envisages an extraordinary development of countries, how can we hope to bring to new jobs, new ways of taking part in working life, e s p e- cially in environmental management. fruition the common enterprise known as - Continuing and out-of-school educat i o n . This is sustainable development? i m p o rtant for its own sake, of cours e , but also for the global nexus of inform ation and communication that is indispensable in today ’s wo r l d . No one should be able to say that the train has left without them. E ve ryone must have an opport u n i t y, in the c o u rse of their live s , to climb back onto the train of educat i o n , d i g n i t y, training and d e m o c r a cy. This possibility is one of the basic principles of the culture of peace. But if the rich countries have been incapable of devoting 0.7 per cent of their GNP to the development of the most disadvantaged countri e s , h ow can we hope to b ring to fruition the common enterp rise known as sustainable development? How can this be done when, until not so long ago, d e velopment was regarded as little more than economic gr ow t h , when the idea prevailed that a country would become modern and its people would have a better life if it increased its industrial output or its rate of e l e c t ricity consumption? The inevitable corollary of that mistake is to impose models of development from the outside on the peoples who must apply them, taking no account of their specific histori c a l , cultural or psychological backgr o u n d . The most i m m e d i ate consequence of this approach is the gigantic moral and mat e rial cost paid by many countries subjected to measures of macro-economic adjustment. Pa r a d ox i- c a l l y, this sometimes leads to the bolstering of military regi m e s , the weakening of civil society and the retreat of democracy because the problems which it causes extend the repressive apparatus of the stat e . Of course the development process includes a quantitat i ve and economic compo- n e n t . B u t , as the Spanish philosopher Julián Marías once said, “nothing that is human is purely quantitat i ve ” . P r o gress does not consist of the accumulation of objects, nuclear missiles, automobiles or computers. It is indissociable from morality, from a t e l e o l o gical dimension of existence. When we ask questions about progr e s s , the firs t question is not “ h ow much or how many ? ” but “for whom?” ■

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 9 P L A N E T Mutants on

Genetically modified plants are being developed so quickly that they could become the backbone of tomorrow’s agriculture. For better or for worse?

eeding the world is one of the big challenges of the next century. FPa r a d ox i c a l l y, whereas the planet’s fa rm e rs actually produce more food than world population needs, about 800 mil- lion people are chronically undern o u ri- shed and two billion suffer from malnu- t ri t i o n , nearly all of them in the poor c o u n t ries of the South. The number of mouths to feed is expected to increase by almost 100 mil- lion annually in the next thirty ye a rs. A worldwide short fall in production is not yet the main cause of hunger, but output will have to be stepped up in the first half of the next century. The area of cropland will cert a i n l y h ave to be expanded, but a limit will quickly be reached. B i o d i ve rsity is already under threat ; d e f o r e s t ation causes Cloning plants in sterile conditions in the Dominican Republic. erosion and impove rishes soil, i rri g at i o n leads to salinization and water resources fa rm e rs alone sowed 20 s p e c i e s.” Genetic modification makes are shri n k i n g . To d ay fa rm e rs are also million hectares of genetically modifie d light of all these barri e rs. T h e o r e t i c a l l y required to respect the environment and m a i z e , s oya and cotton. Argentina and gene transfer makes all kinds of things the health of consumers. In the 1960s, have accepted genetically modifie d p o s s i b l e . Plants are already capable of the “ green revo l u t i o n ” was about maxi- organisms (GMOs), and so have China producing haemoglobin, a gr owth hor- mizing production by using massive and A u s t r a l i a . By the year 2000, g e n e t i- m o n e , and human insulin. quantities of fert i l i z e rs , pesticides and cally modified crops are expected to be The support e rs of transgenic agri c u l- other inputs. The downside of this race gr owing on 60 million hectares wo r l d- ture point to other adva n t a g e s. If a plant to boost output was that it generat e d wide–81 per cent of them in North A m e- has a gene which resists certain pests,th e r e p o l l u t i o n . ri c a , 10 per cent in is no need for it to be M a s s i ve inputs did not eliminate crop Asia and one per cent treated with a chemical l o s s e s , which are still considerable, ru n- in Europe. In the Uni- which threatens the ning in the early 1990s to 42 per cent of ted States alone, t h e y In 1998, health of the person who all the wheat , rice and maize harve s t e d will comprise a $100- United States farmers applies it and pollutes wo r l d w i d e . Would it not be best to enable billion market over the soil and wate r .It can also plants to fight diseases and pests by next decade. alone sowed be given a gene to make t h e m s e l ves? This is the proposal of the W hy this spectacu- 20 million hectares it resistant to a herbicide, transgenic revolution which is curr e n t l y lar expansion? Fa rm e rs enable it to survive cold sweeping the world of agri c u l t u r e . h ave crossed different of genetically or drought, and eve n In 1953 James Watson (USA) and va rieties and species modified maize, change its taste or nutri- Francis Crick (UK) discovered the spi- from time immemo- tional qualities. ral structure of deox y ribonucleic acid ri a l . B u t , s ays Euro- soya and cotton So are GMOs the ( D N A ) , but it was not until thirty ye a rs pean Ecology Institute key to the future of l ater that the first gene transfer wa s C h a i rman Je a n - M a ri e a griculture? Cert a i n l y m a d e , in the laborat o ry, on a tobacco Pe l t , “this painstaking work by agr o n o- n o t , s ay its detractors. F i rs t , b e c a u s e p l a n t . The first field tests were conducted mists has always taken place within the genetically modified crops favour large- in 1987 and the technique then took off. b a rri e rs between species. . . . B a rri e rs scale industrial agriculture to the detri- A decade lat e r , genetically modified s t rictly delimiting a gi ven species, ment of small fa rm e rs and the countri e s crops were gr owing on 15 million hec- without the chance of hy b ri d i z ation with of the South. If small fa rm e rs opt for tares of land around the globe. In 1998, o t h e rs , e x c e p t , p o s s i b l y, closely relat e d genetically modified seeds, their costs

10 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 P L A N E T n the menu

rise and they will have to sign contracts applied for. Small companies and the into plants is also causing concern, but there with transnational firms like Monsanto, c o u n t ries of the South stand no chance is no proof that such genes are passed from N ova rt i s , A gr E vo, D u p o n t , Pioneer or against the big transnational firm s. plants to animals and then to humans. I n R h ô n e - Poulenc and buy seeds from them Taking out a patent is highly expen- this case the gene acts as a marker in a gene e ve ry ye a r , as well as the herbicides the si ve . For it to be valid in all the rich coun- transfer process. To find out whether the plants are treated to resist. One example tri e s , an initial deposit of about $84,000 is tr a n s f e r red gene is present in the cells, th e y is Round-Up Ready, the genetically r e q u i r e d , plus a tax which increases expo- are soaked in an antibiotic solution. O n l y modified rapeseed produced by Mon- nentially during the life of the pat e n t . B y the cells which have not accepted the resis- s a n t o, which is resistant to Round-Up, a the end of last ye a r , 1,377 patents for tant gene are destroyed. For example, the herbicide made by the same firm . genetically modified plants had been Flavr Savr tomato produced in the United In addition, if we applied for at the Euro- S t ates in 1994 contains a gene to keep it become capable of pean Patent Office. firm and slow the rotting process,along with producing substances S e veral hundred of a gene resistant to kanamyc i n , which is used tasting like, vanilla or The introduction them are curr e n t l y to fight respirato r y ailments.A single muta- cocoa from plants of antibiotic- awaiting examinat i o n . tion of this gene also makes it resistant to which can stand up to Does this mean other antibiotics used to treat meningi t i s the climates of the nor- resistant genes t h at Europe has not and serious lung diseases.The resistant gene t h e rn hemisphere, fa r- been won over by m e rs in pove rt y - s t ri c- into plants GMOs? The import of ken countries may lose is causing genetically modified their meagre source of maize and rapeseed i n c o m e . Yet according concern has been authorized by to the A m e rican Bio- the technology Industry since 1997 and will O r g a n i z at i o n , things are less alarm i n g . I t this year amount to $200 million. B u t gi ves examples of technology transfers some countries have expressed doubts. such as the passing on to a research ins- A u s t ria and Luxembourg have forbidden titute in Indonesia of mat e rial to produce i m p o rts and Italy has banned gr owing of insect-resistant potatoes by tissue cul- G M O s. In A p ril 1997, the European t u r e , and the insertion of a fungi c i d a l Parliament opposed the European gene into A f rican bananas. C o m m i s s i o n ’s approval of such Since research in this field is ve ry c r o p s , d e c l a ring that “ e c o n o- c o s t l y, genetically modified plants are mic and social pressures usually pri vatized through pat e n t i n g . h ave ove rridden health M o n s a n t o, with an annual turn over of and env i r o n m e n t a l more than $6.6 billion, s ays it spent $166 c o n s i d e r at i o n s ” . million last year on GMO research, bu t The introduction of Drawing by Rousso refuses to say how many patents it antibiotic-resistant genes © Les Dossiers de l’Environnement de l’INRA n0 12, Par i s Genetic modifica t i o n : how it works

he nucleus of each cell contains single characteristic. Molecular bio- given a scorpion’s gene so that it Tchromosomes made up of genes logists cut up the genome (the can resist insects and a petunia r e s p e c t i v e l y. Cucumbers fight which govern heredity. Genes are genetic endowment) of a given spe- gene to enable it to resist herbi- disease with the help of a tobacco sequences of long molecules arran- c i e s, increase the number of genes c i d e s. Potatoes have been endowed g e n e. All kinds of things are imagi- ged in the form of a double helix and insert them into another spe- with a gene from a chicken or a n a b l e, if not immediately feasible: a and known as DNA (deoxyribonu- cies to obtain a new hereditary cha- moth to fight disease, as well as a gene from a bird with black fea- cleic acid). DNA sees that the cell racteristic coded by the transferred human gene to digest heavy thers to colour roses, a lettuce gene functions in a way specific to the D N A . This is how genetically modi- m e t a l s. A fish gene can be added to camouflage cows in green mea- species to which it belongs. A single fied organisms (GMOs) are obtai- to tomatoes to help them resist the d o w s. But beware of the hybrids gene can determine several charac- n e d . c o l d , and rice and sunflower seeds that might escape from the lab. t e r i s t i c s, but sometimes several In the laboratory, though not yet can be protein-enriched with genes Truth may turn out to be stranger genes are needed to determine a on our plates, maize has been t a ken from beans and brazil nuts than science fiction! ■

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 11 P L A N E T Appeal for the Am a z o n

an Brazilian President Fernando Henrique CCardoso keep his promise to save 25 mil- lion more hectares of Amazonian forest by the year 2000? The World Bank and the Wo r l d Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) see his pledge, made at the end of April 1998,as one of the first fruits of their June 1997 agreement to strengthen measures to protect “ n a t u r a l ” Technicians examine cloned plants (Dominican Republic). fo r e s t s ,i. e .those largely untouched by human activity. will always remain in the genetically modi- en vironment? The pollen of genetically modi- The accord aims to set up a worldwide net- fied plants and risks transmitting such resis- fied rapeseed can be blown as far as 2.5 km, work of protected areas totalling 50 million tance to the consumer. which means it can become crossed with wild hectares by 2005.It is an extension of WWF’s Another problem is how someone species like mustard.Wh at ’ s more,in rotati n g campaign to bring,by the end of the century, a l l e r gic to brazil nuts, cr o p s ,s t r ict care must be 10% of every type of forest (tropical,Boreal, for example, can know taken before sw i t c h i n g te m p e r a t e , dr y , humid) under protection from whether such a gene Have we not from rapeseed in the the pillage which is slowly eating away at the has been introduced ro t a tion that seeds do not planet’s biodiversity. into sunflower seeds to cast a basic fall on the ground durin g Only 6% of the world’s natural forests are make them more pro- h a rve s t i n g . Should the legally protected at the moment, with wide t e i n - ri c h .A rnaud A p o- precautionary seed pods be genetically regional variations–from 9% in Latin Am e r i c a t e k e r , of , principle to altered so that seeds do to 2% in Europe. But often this protection only raises another issue. not spill out? In the same exists on paper.Many forests are being dama- “Is it wise,” he asks, the winds and gone way,ge n e t i c - e n gi n e e r e d ged by pollution from oilfields or mining (legal “to insert into bananas ahead too fast? resistance to cert a i n protection does not extend underground) and a gene with the hepat i- insects can lead to the by continuing illegal activities.Eighty per cent tis B vaccine designed emergence of new of Brazil’s mahogany,for example,comes from for humans, as is being done in ? insects resistant to the arti fi cial poisons pro- protected forest areas. Can we say what the effect of such a va c- duced by these plants. H ow can they be By promising to extend protected areas, cine will be on the animals, birds and dealt with? Science does not yet have enough Br a z i l , which contains a third of all the world’s insects which eat them?” d ata to answer these questions sat i s fa c t o- tropical forests, has declared its determina- Be a r ing in mind that zero risk does not rily. tion to break with policies which have paid ex i s t , wh a t impact will GMOs have on the Another unknown is the reaction to little heed to sustainable management. genetically modified bacteria of bacteri a Now the money has to be found.Brazil has and fungi which act in my riad ways in very few means of enforcing protection and the soil, e . g . to help plants with gr ow t h “there are only 300 people to monitor all of and to fight parasites, frost and anti-pol- A m a z o n i a ,” notes W W F ’s Jean-Paul Jeanre- lution products. A gram of surface soil n a u d , who reckons that the project requires contains between 100 million and one about $75 million immediately and $10 million billion bacteria and between 1,000 and a year thereafter. 10,000 different species–and scientists The World Bank is expected to help Brazil s ay they have only inve s t i g ated a tenth of obtain contributions from the rich countries t h o s e . Noëlle Amarger of the French and the private sector. Without them, P r e s i- N ational A gronomic Research Institute dent Cardoso’s promise may be an empty one. (INRA) has written that “ d ata are lac- ■ king about the ways and circumstances in which a micro-organism introduces itself successfully into the gr o u n d , s t ay s there and performs its function.” So we cannot yet predict what will happen when a GMO is introduced, either to it Drawing by Rousso © Les Dossiers de l’Environnement de l’INRA n0 12, Par i s or to its genetic heritage in the field in

12 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 P L A N E T which it is put. Amarger concludes that able to make a free and informed choice. “once they are introduced, m i c r o - o r g a- For this, we need to wait until more is nisms can linger for many ye a rs , e ve n k n ow n . But as so often, the profit motive i n d e fin i t e l y, with no possibility of remo- is ove rriding all other considerat i o n s. ■ SO S ving them, so we should be cautious.” F rance Bequette H ave we gone ahead too fast and cast a basic precautionary principle to the wh a l e s winds? Fierce debate is going on betwe e n s u p p o rt e rs and opponents of genetic m o d i fic at i o n .To gi ve consumers a choice b e t ween consuming or rejecting food containing GMOs, clear labelling is n e c e s s a ry. This is easier said than done. Shipments of imported fa rm produce alf a century ago, whales nearly died often contain mixtures. Unless they are Hout as a species as a result of being sure of their suppliers , the big food firm s indiscriminately hunted. Th e n , in 1946, t h e will have to carry out costly and elabo- International Convention for the Regulation r ate tests. But the customer should be of Whaling was signed and its management put in the hands of the International W h a- ling Commission (IWC), which recently cele- brated its fiftieth birthday. The world’s top ten seed corporations Today whale hunting has virtually cea- Ranked according to 1996 seed sales s e d , except by the Japanese and the Nor- Company Estimated 1996 Comment w e g i a n s, who kill about 1,200 minke seed sales whales each year out of a population of (US) millions about a million. But although hunting may Pioneer Hi-Bred Intl.(USA) $1,721 Dupont now owns 20% share in Pioneer have been sharply curbed, whales are still Formerly Ciba Geigy and Sandoz in danger–from pollution. (Switzerland) $991 French co-operative;claims to be The IWC has not been able to enforce Limagrain (France) $552 the world’s largest vegetable seed totally the moratorium on whaling it intro- company duced in 1986, but the measure has Zeneca and Royal VanderHave enabled the population of great whales to Advanta-joint venture of $493 established this joint venture in 1996 i n c r e a s e. Now the Commission has take n Zeneca/Van der Have on a new task–protecting the environment (The Netherlands) Pulsar (a giant agro-industrial corporation) to safeguard whales, and by so doing to Grupo Pulsar (Mexico) approx.$400 owns Empresas La Moderna (Mexico), ensure its own surviva l . which is majority shareholder of Seminis The commission’s 40 Member States, Inc. dominated by English-speaking countries, Vegetables/flowers/turfgrass especially the United States, have realized Sakata (Japan) $403 Privately-held. Vegetables/flowers/turfgrass that passing resolutions which were mostly Takii (Japan) $396 Monsanto is a large shareholder (approx. ignored was not enough. Despite their 40%) infringements of the moratorium, Japan and Dekalb Plant Genetics (USA) $388 World’s largest supplier of sugar-beet seeds N o r way refuse to leave the commission and (25% market share) have obstructed its work, helped by several KWS (Germany) $377 Privately-held.Will not disclose financial small Caribbean states. information But all agreed at the IWC’s meeting in Cargill (USA) +$300 Muscat (Oman) in May 1998 that a dete- (estimate) riorating environment was now “the big- The top 10 companies control approximately 40% of the global commercial seed market,valued at approximately gest threat” to whales. The Commission’s $15 billion. Source:Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) s c i e n t i fic committee will give “the highest p r i o r i t y ” to research into the impact of pol- lutants and chemical contamination on w h a l e s, as well as the effect of climate change on the biological and physical habi- Corrections tat of whales and their prey. The A r c t i c , where whale meat is now so The caption on page 27 of the July-August 1998 issue should have read as fol- contaminated it has become dangerous for l ow s : S atellite image of sea surface height due to ocean curr e n t s. Strongest cur- human consumption, will be studied fir s t . rents are where there are large colour changes, e . g . around A n t a r c t i c a . In recent years, scientists have found that w h a l e s, as animals at the end of a food As a result of an editing error, Brice Lalonde was wrongly described as France’s c h a i n , have absorbed large quantities of first Environment Minister in Rémi Parmentier’s article on page 56 of the same poisonous pollutants of all kinds, i n c l u d i n g issue.As the author has pointed out to us, France’s first Environment Minister p e s t i c i d e s, chlorine compounds and heavy was Robert Poujade. Apologies to Mr.Parmentier and to readers. m e t a l s. ■

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 13 WORLD OF LEARNING Co l o m b i a ’ s

A group of needy children enjoy a trip to the beach.

For years ‘community mothers’ have been helping to bring up children in , a country plagued by violence and poverty

n the mid-1980s, the Colombian p owe rs in charge of policy concern i n g wage (about $130 a month) and the ri g h t g ove rn m e n t , a l a rmed by ve ry high the family and the protection of minors. to social security and a pension. A p a rt Ir ates of infant mortality and malnu- In 1987, the ICBF funneled 8 per cent of from food for her group (which she can t ri t i o n , launched a far-reaching pro- its funds to the community mothers and also gi ve to her own children), the ICBF gramme to protect pre-school-age chil- offered them an institutional framewo r k . p r ovides utensils and a few staple items. d r e n , with the help of the United Nat i o n s To d ay, the figure is 40 per cent. It also grants a small loan to install sepa- and the Inter-American Deve l o p m e n t The $55 million ICBF programme now r ate washing and toilet facilities for the B a n k . reaches 60 per cent of ver y needy children in children and to improve hy giene in the The first “ we l fare centres”, a l s o 1,042 towns in a country where, ac c o r d i n g k i t c h e n , the eating areas, the bedrooms k n own as h o b i s, opened in the slums of to figures provided by the United Nati o n s and the court ya r d , where the children C a l i , an industrial city of almost two mil- D e velopment Programme (UNDP), o n e spend most of their time. About a mil- lion people, in Cart a g e n a , w h o s e pe r son in five gets by on lion and a half chil- 550,000 inhabitants live mainly off the less than two dollars a d r e n , aged from two to petrochemical industry, and Guspi, a d ay. It won part i c u l a r There are s e ve n , are looked after small town in the southwest of the coun- su p p o r t with its Bi e n e s - and socialized in this t ry. They were run by vo l u n t e e rs know n t a ri n a, a powdered mix 82,000 community way before they go to as “community mothers ” who organized, of milk,pr o t e i n ,i r o n ,a n d mothers and s c h o o l , while their real on their own or with the help of NGOs, flour made from soy- m o t h e rs are out at e d u c ation and care facilities for about b e a n s , w h e at , maize or their importance wo r k . 3,000 children. The programme initially rice supplied free by the The community reached only 7 per cent of the popula- go ver nment through the is growing mo t h e r s do their best to tion concern e d . community mothers adapt their hours to K i n d e r g a rtens for the children of ne t wo r k . those of the working parents, but as a rule working mothers appeared in Colombia The “ m o t h e rs ” , who now number they look after the children between eight in in 1974. But a new educational model 82,000, are becoming increasingly impor- the morning and four in the afternoon from a rri ved in 1977 with “ n e i g h b o u r h o o d tant and are in gr e at demand by fa m i l i e s Monday to Friday.They organize their day c e n t r e s ” based on parental and commu- d i s rupted by the violence, which as of t h e m s e l ve s , guided by the ICBF’s educa- nity part i c i p at i o n . These centres soon Jan u a r y 1998 had forcibly driv en 1.1 million tional aims, which focus on making the chil- opened their doors to ve ry poor children, people (42,000 families) from their homes. dren aware of values such as solidari t y, with the help of UNICEF and the Each mother takes about fifteen chil- fr iendship and respect for differences.Ac t i - Colombian Institute for Family We l fa r e dren into her home and gets the equiva- vities are divided into three main cat e g o- ( I C B F ) , an official body with ministeri a l lent of about half the legal minimum ries–conveying general knowledge to chil-

14 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 WORLD OF LEARNING community mothers

dren through games, with an emphasis on future role and take a self-assessment e d u c ation or education for pregnant social skills; using role-playing to fa m i l i a- t e s t . Such workshops are held at inter- wo m e n . rize them in groups with real-life situati o n s , va l s , a l l owing the participants to discuss Substantial funds are needed to ru n like going shopping or visiting the doctor; their experiences and work out together all these activities. A p a rt from contri bu- and allowing the children to express them- a ny problems. These courses gi ve some tions from intern ational organizat i o n s , se l v es by talking about their personal expe- community mothers a chance to take up companies are obliged by law to chip in riences or even describing their dreams. other work and skills or be chosen for with three per cent of their total wa g e other ICBF programmes such as fa m i l y b i l l . Keeping tabs on that is not easy An apprenticeship in social skills The activities va ry according to the age of the child, with the older ones being introduced to the main school subjects if the community mother is capable of doing this. O ver the past twenty ye a rs , the mothers have managed, often with s u p p o rt of NGOs, to acquire more skills and undeniable social recognition, bu t m a ny have not managed to finish their s c h o o l i n g, and some cannot even read. “There is no official cert i f i c ate which s ays you can be a community mother,” s ays Lilia Labrador, the ICBF’s head of pre-school educat i o n , “ but they have a chance to study to secondary school gr a- d u ation level through coaching schemes recognized by the education ministry.” Before being hired, the “ m o t h e rs ” g o on a short course to prepare for their Many community mothers are recruited from among the very poor. Fighting for recognition

hough officially recruited by struggle before the mothers won thankless than they imagined, a n d Tschool parents’ associations, recognition from ICBF officials. many left soon after being recrui- community mothers are in fact Parents and mothers often argue t e d . E v e n t u a l l y, things settled drawn from the ranks of very needy about how to use ava i l a b l e d o w n , after the mothers won define even the smallest details of women who offer their services to r e s o u r c e s. Some mothers have battles for social security coverage the rules, closely monitoring time- regional ICBF offices which are accused heads of parents’ associa- and for better training and working t a b l e s, meal menus, w o r k i n g eager to expand their network tions of dipping their fingers in the c o n d i t i o n s. m e t h o d s, p u n c t u a l i t y, numbers pre- q u i c k l y, even if it means dealing k i t t y, not replacing worn-out uten- The mothers were quick to set s e n t , hygiene and budgetary mat- later with problems of quality. s i l s, being unwilling to guarantee up their own organizations to press t e r s, leaving very little to the Several h o b i s (welfare centres) are loans to improve their premises, for improvements in the pro- mothers and parents. required to make up a parents’ and charging a new recruit an g r a m m e. The ICBF was cautious at So a union soon sprung up, a s s o c i a t i o n . The mothers can entrance fee when her predecessor first about this unionization and along with an association called legally stand for election to an has left without paying back her stressed publicly that the mothers A m c o l o m b i a . G r a d u a l l y, r e g i o n a l a s s o c i a t i o n ’s committee but ICBF l o a n . were volunteers or employees of associations grew up and dialogue officials usually frown on this. I n At first there was a big turnover the parents’ associations and that developed between the two sides. the early years in some regions, among the poorest mothers. Th e y their salary was a bonus. This is how the mothers won the they even openly opposed it and were drawn more by the chance of The mothers retorted that rights they enjoy today. ■ refused to hire some women who a house improvement loan than by the ICBF could not duck its respon- Marie-Dominique were elected. It took many years of the job itself, which proved more s i b i l i t i e s, since it has chosen to de Sure m a i n

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 15 WORLD OF LEARNING h owe ver and evasion is widespread. S o fit the practical needs of the we l fare orga- money has to be scraped together where- n i z at i o n s. The houses are ve ry luxuri o u s ver it can be found. For example, p u b l i c and need costly refurbishing. S o m e t i m e s l aw 333 of December 1996 stipulat e s when a bus is needed to take some chil- Fr om t h at the proceeds of money, houses and dren somewhere, the only vehicle ava i- vehicles seized from drug smugglers by lable is a Rolls Royce Gucci. the national narcotics authority must go So the measure has its limits, but they br ain drai n to support street children. are not insuperable. Just before public But things are not so simple. S y l v i a n e l aw 333 was passed, the ICBF managed B o u r g e t e a u , r e p r e s e n t at i ve in Bogota of a to conve rt a former disco seized from to brain French watchdog on dru g s , the Observa- d rug smugglers in the chic Zona Rosa toire Geopolitique des Drogues, s ays the area of Bogota into a centre for haemo- l aw has “ n e ver been applied.” A p a rt from p h i l i a c s. And more recently, the lat e s t ga i n the inheritance tangles that arise after a n t i - d rugs publicity campaign directed at d rug seizures, the new occupants of young people was financed by money sei- houses confis c ated from drug smugglers zed by the national narcotics authori t y. he flow of thousands of experts and often get threatened or are bu r g l e d . T h e ■ Ttechnicians from developing countries to then Colombian gove rnment even admit- Antoine de To u r n e m i re rich ones is increasingly seen as a source of ted on its official website last 24 March potential for the former, rather than a loss. t h at despite the seizure of about 20,000 Thanks to new technologies, k n o w l e d g e items of propert y, only one such confis- now moves around the world very quickly. c ation had been legally confirm e d . Over the past decade, many countries, A l s o, seized property does not alway s especially in Latin A m e r i c a , have set up pro- grammes to put the knowledge of these “ l o s t ” experts to good use. E x a m p l e s i n c l u d e : - The Inter-Regional Network of Latin American and Caribbean Scientists. Its data- b a s e, created in 1994, keeps details of trai- ned citizens who have gone abroad. I t responds to the technological and scientific needs of member countries by inviting these international experts to conferences. It will, for example, be represented at the regional governmental conference on science which will be held in October in B a r i l o c h e, A r g e n t i n a . - Caldas, set up in 1991, e n c o u r a g e s Colombian experts around the world to contribute to scientific and technological progress by publicizing the results of their r e s e a r c h . It includes joint projects involving experts at home and abroad. E-mail com- munication is one of its main activities. A community centre at Cartagena. - Talven (Venezuelan Talent A b r o a d ) , launched in 1994. It targets not only scien- tists and high-tech experts but also Ve n e- zuelans active in the arts and the humani- Le a r n i n g to Be t i e s. Talven attempts to persuade them to return home not permanently, but from time to time. With financial backing from n 1972, a report by UNESCO’s of their experiences, learn to p r i vate firms and institutions, more than IInternational Commission on express themselves, to commu- between formal and non-for- 120 Venezuelans have been able to return the Development of Education n i c a t e, to question the world mal education was thus super- and make contact with colleagues by taking adopted a new approach to the and to become themselves.Thi s s e d e d . Informal learning, c o m- part in seminars and workshops. Th i s idea of education, long regar- approach formed the basis of prising activities outside exchange of experiences is contributing to ded solely as a school-centred an agreement between govern- established systems, b r i d g e s the country’s development in areas as ac t i v i t y . The report, whose title ments and funding agencies the gap between institution- diverse as A i d s, c o m p u t e r s, economics and, was Learning to Be, said that when the Declaration on Edu- centred education and the in recent months, p a r a s i t o l o g y, m o l e c u l a r education should no longer be cation for All was adopted in socio-economic and cultural b i o l o g y, waste recycling and biotechnology. defined as a specific body of 1990 at the World Conference e n v i r o n m e n t . It has proved its ■ knowledge that had to be on Education for Al l , at Jomtien, worth over the last 30 years For more information, c o n t a c t : di g e s t e d , but as a process whe- in Tha i l a n d . and is now expanding rapidly. a l a s @ u n e s c o. o r g reby people, through the var i e t y The traditional distinction ■ t a l v e n @ z z c . n e t

16 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 Higher education . .. and after?

Once upon a time students belonged to a small elite for whom a university degree was the passport into an educated caste which held the keys to knowledge.Today they number millions. Nearly every country in the world is offering higher education to more and more young people each year. But for what purpose? What are these students looking for? A stairway to higher social status? The guarantee of a good job? Universities and other higher education institutions must be tuned in to the demands of the job market and changing societies.Faced with new challenges, higher education still has a long way to go before it can offer students the opportunities they are seeking and which the world’s economies, in North and South alike, seem less and less able to provide.

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 17 Shaking the ivory tower

Universities have changed radically to keep pace with modern life. Now where are they heading in this high-speed age?

n the past half century higher education has ca tion marketplace.Far from arresting the advance to by Peter Scott* been transformed from a privilege conferred on mass higher educati o n ,c o n s u m e r ism has accelerate d Isocial and political elites to a mass activity avai - it in most developed countrie s .As traditional forms lable to whole populati o n s .This process began in the of social differentiation based on class,gender and eth- United States in the 1940s and 1950s, spread to nic orig in have been eroded by democrati z a tion and most of Wes t e r n Europe and many other devel o p e d by market forces, new forms based on educati o n a l c o u n t ries during the 1960s and 1970s and in the ce rt i fic a tion have become more importa n t . In many past two decades has become a global phenome- de v eloped countries the middle class and the “gr a - non.In the next half century it will accelerate,lea- du a te class” ha ve tended to coalesce. ding perhaps to the replacement of “higher educa- In much of Asia and Af r ica democrati z a tion took ti o n ” (still an elite-ish cate g o r y despite its expansion) the form of decolonizati o n . In newly independent by extended systems of “lifelong learning”. co u n t r ies the energy orig inally generated in libera- The key to this transforma tion has been the expan- tion struggles against the colonial power s was direc- sion of secondary educati o n . For example, in all but ted into a wider struggle to create fairer and more *Vice-Chancellor, tw o countries of the OECD (Organization for Eco- equal successor societies. Ed u c a tion was central to Kingston University, UK nomic Co-operation and Development) at least two- this strug g l e . The result has been a rapid increase in thirds of young people now complete upper secondary higher education enrolment–for example, in Tun i s i a ed u c at i o n , and so are eligible to enter higher educa- from barely 2,000 students at the time of indepen- ti o n . The result has been a dramatic increase in enrol- dence to more than 100,000 today.Th a t process conti- ment rates in higher educat i o n . In Chile the total nu e s . number of students has gro wn from 131,000 in 1978 Ho weve r , the relationship between democrati z a - to 235,000 in 1988 and to 343,000 in the mid-1990s. tion and the development of higher education has Ev en in the United State s , the pioneer of mass-access been less straightforward in developing countrie s . higher education where ver y high secondary educa- Despite ver y rapid rates of expansion the “m e t r o p o - tion completion rates had already been achieve d l i t a n ”i n fluences of the former colonial power s have before 1970,the student population has continued to lingered more stubbornly in higher education than at gro w, from 11 million in 1978 to 13 million in 1988 other levels of educati o n . This is partly due to the and now to more than 14 million. continued influence of associations between univer - Two forces have driv en up completion rates in sities in the British Commonwealth as well as those upper secondary education and enrolment rates in be t w een francophone univers i t i e s . higher educati o n . The first has been democrati z at i o n . Pa rtly because of these lingering “ m e t r o p o l i- As late as 1945 high levels of social, and hence edu- tan”models and partly because levels of participa- cat i o n a l , inequality persisted even in democratic coun- tion are still lower than in developed countri e s ,m a ny tri e s , and much of the world remained in the grip of African or Asian universities have remained more colonial and totalitarian power s. In North Am e ri c a , elite institutions than higher education institutions Wes t e r n Europe and Australasia democrati z a tion typi- in North America and Europe. Also, as economic cally took the form of the development of “we l fa r e conditions have wor sened in some developing coun- st at e s ” , in which there was an increase in public expen- tries,the competition between primary and higher diture on educati o n ,h o u s i n g ,health and social secu- ed u c a tion sharpened in the post-independence yea r s rity that was sustained over more than three decades as both were seen as equally important priorities. ‘Even while they teach, after the end of the Second World War . This competition was often reinforced by the inter- More recently, as renewed emphasis has been vention of the World Bank. men learn’ placed on the market even in social policy, the rise of The second force driving up higher education c o n s u m e rism has continued to fuel demands for enrolments has been the changing nature of the Seneca (‘the Younger’) increased higher education opportu n i t i e s .The older labour market.Traditional occupations have become c.4BC-65 AD idea of education as a civic entitlement has been com- c o m p a r at i vely less signific a n t , while new serv i c e pounded by newer notions of free access to the edu- o c c u p at i o n s , which often require gr a d u at e - l e ve l

18 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 A mechanical training institute skills,have become more important. become even more powerful. in Port au Prince, Haïti. Skill requirements have become more sophisti- The impact of democratization and economic cated. Jobs once done by unskilled or semi-skilled c o m p e t i t i veness on higher education has been wo r k e rs are now undertaken by technicians; a n d immense.First,the expansion of student numbers those which as recently as the 1980s were taken by has made the cost of higher education a significant technicians are now likely to be filled by graduates. element within national budgets for the first time.A The capital invested for ever y worker has more than number of important consequences has flowed from doubled in the past 20 years. Even in occupations this–the opportu n i t y , and incentive, to compare the where there is less evidence that skills contents have value of investing in different levels of educat i o n ; On the labour changed significa n t l y , un i ve r sity gra d u a tes are now increasing demands that univer sities are run as effi- market, demand em p l o yed in much larger numbers ,p a rtly to enhance ciently as possible (compromising their traditional the social status of these occupations and partly to a u t o n o my from the state–and the market); l owe r for traditional compete in a graduate-dominated labour market. unit costs as budgets have been trimmed (which occupations has Healthcare is a good example. Once doctors were the may have undermined higher education’s claim to only graduates;today, many para-medical workers represent academic excellence). Se c o n d , higher edu- become less are also trained in higher education. ca tion systems have emerged that embrace not only significant and The second form taken by the economic driver traditional universities but also non-university ins- has been the growing conviction that national suc- ti t u t i o n s .Two effects have been produced. One is that that for new cess now depends on economic competitive n e s s the ethos of the traditional university has been ero- w h i c h , in the context of a knowledge-based eco- ded; it no longer stands in glorious isolation.The service n o my, depends in turn on an adequate supply of other is that institutional differentiation has been occupations human capital. Knowledge is now seen as the key en c o u r a g e d , whether through active state planning economic resource. or in response to markets for teaching and research. requiring This analysis may be exaggerat e d ;r aw mate ri a l s The prospects for the next half century are for an graduate-level are still ver y important in national economies and the ac c e l e r a tion of both drive r s–to include access to higher global economy. But it has become pervasive–and ed u c a tion among the basic entitlements enjoyed by citi- skills has risen persuasive.The naïve and linear theories of human zens in democratic societies;and to “put knowledge to capital popular a generation ago which postulated a wor k ” in order to generate wealth and to improve the direct link between investment in education and quality of life.The prospects for higher educat i o n economic growth may have been challenged;some du r ing the same period are also relati v ely easy to pre- f o rms of higher education are now as likely to be dict–increased efficiency (which is likely to include labelled consumption as investment goods. Never- gro wing pressure to make students contrib ute more to th e l e s s , the discourse of the “K n o wledge Society” ha s the cost of their higher educati o n ) ; gre a ter accounta-

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 19 bi l i t y , although more probably in a “m a r k e t ” than a mo d e rn i z a tion depend is being challenged by what “p l a n n i n g ” mode as even the state redefines its role as Be c k ’ s French colleague Alain Touraine has terme d the purchaser of higher education servi c e s ; more dif- “new moderni t y ” in which Reason and Subject are fe r e n t i at i o n , both between and within higher educa- recombined in the form of new social movem e n t s . tion institutions, as they struggle to identify market Higher education will have not only to continue to ni c h e s ; an d – p o s s i b l y – gr o wing demands that higher sa tisfy the predictable demands for democratic entit- e d u c ation become more relevant as instru m e n t a l lement and socio-economic utility with which it is co n s i d e r a tions triumph over idealistic ones. fam i l i a r , but also to cope with the consequences of Ho weve r , the future may be more complex than the these new uncerta i n t i e s .These may include:new cur- pa s t . In the second half of the 20th century the encoun- ricula that emphasize style and images at the expense ter between higher education and society has been of skills and informat i o n ; re c at e g o ri z a tion of higher co m p a r at i v ely straightforwar d . Although dynamic, ed u c a tion as a play f u l ,e ven selfish ,a c t i v i t y ; a tighter society has presented a familiar enough fac e . It was cha- link between experience of higher education and social ra c t e r ized by a combination of bur e a u c r a tic rati o n a - es t e e m ; submergence of the univers a l , but also parti - lity and secular (and liberal) individualism.The bene- cu l a r , values characteristic of the traditional univers i t y ficence of science and technology was uncontested.Th e by anomic globalizat i o n ;t h r e ats to the scientific tra- dominant economic model was of large-scale indus- dition and methods,from the “r isk society”,from sub- tr y, or analogous organizations in the corpo r a te and je c t i v i z a tion and from demands that other knowl e d g e public sectors. Although rapidly evol v i n g , co n c e p t s traditions are accorded equal respect. and cate g o r ies like “c a r e e r ” and “p r o f e s s i o n ”r e m a i - The universities of the 21st century, therefore, ned val i d . Higher education too was familiar enough. may have to face two ways.They will have to conti- Despite the gre a t expansion of student numbers and nue to pay attention to the democrati z a tion and the its adoption of novel roles,the univer sity continued to “k n o wledge society” ag e n d a s , which are likely both be recognizable as such. Other types of higher edu- to be subsumed in a larger “lifelong learn i n g ” ca tion institution have been deeply influenced by uni- a g e n d a . Their ability to sustain current levels of ver sity values and practices. public funding and to satisfy their student-custo- In the first half of the 21st century both society mers will depend on their success in this respect.It and higher education may become problemat i c a l will not be easy.There is a danger that the essence and so contested categories. Some of these uncer- of higher education will be lost if it succumbs to tainties are already emerging.Once firm demarca- unconstrained populism. If this happens, the “q u a - tions between public and priv ate domains, wh e t h e r li t y ” of the univer sity will disappear–and with it per- in terms of the balance between the state and the haps its distinctiveness and so its utility and mar- market or between social “spaces” and individual ke t a b i l i t y . Similarly in the Knowledge Society of the d e s i r e s ; b e t ween producers and users ; b e t we e n future the univer sity will face new riv als because all ‘T hey teach in i nvestment and consumption; b e t ween work and organizations will need to become “learning orga- academies far too leisure are becoming increasingly fuzzy in the emer- ni z at i o n s ” . These riva l s ’ strength will be increased if many things, and ging post-industrial society.Wealth is being generate d the superiority of universal science is successfully far too much that by the production of “s y m b o l i c ” as well as–or more challenged. t h a n – m at e rial goods. Value is created by design, But univer sities will also have to address the new is useless’ sa l e s ,m a r k e t i n g ,se r vice rather than by prim a r y pro- agendas–of the “ d e at h ” of work (and gr a d u at e du c t i o n . Institutions of all kinds, civic and corpo r at e , ca r e e rs ? ) , of new social movements (and the erosion Johann Wolfgang are being challenged by the rise of adaptable and of individual enlightenment?), of globalization and von Goethe, flexible organizati o n s , made possible by advances in vi rt u a l i z a tion (and the undermining of academic com- Germany, 1749-1832 communications and information technology. mu n i t y ? ) ; of “a l t e rn at i ve ”k n o wledge traditions and, The force of globalization amounts to much more than round-the-clock round-the-world fina n - cial markets or an emerging interna tional division of Public current expenditure on tertiary education, expressed as a percentage la b o u r ;it is not only undermining nation states but of total public expenditure on education: also reconfigu r ing time and space to produce global 1970 1985 1995 intimacies, again with the help of the information Europe re vo l u t i o n . Social identities are no longer moulded France 17.4 12.9 16.5 by the “givens”of religion, class and gender,or by Italy 8.8 10.2 15.0 positions within the occupational struc t u r e , as they Poland 18.0 18.2 12.7 have been since the advent of the industrial revolu- South America tion in Europe two centuries ago. Instead they are Argentina 21.0 19.2 16.5 being subsumed by a process of individualizat i o n Brazil ... 19.6 ... in which life-styles rather than life-chances predo- Africa and the Middle East Côte d’Ivoire 13.8 17.1 16.1 minate. Egypt 20.4 ... 35.4 The superio r ity of science is now being undermi - Kenya 13.6 12.4 13.7 ned by the gro wth of what the German sociologis t ... 18.2 18.8 Ul r ich Beck has called the “r isk society”, in which Asia ris k s , especially environmental threats , seem to be China ... 21.8 15.1 ac c u m u l a ting faster than the benefits produced by India 24.5 15.5 13.6 social improvements and technological advan c e s .Th e Iran 12.9 10.7 22.9 in s t r umental rationality on which Wes t e r n notions of Source:UNESCO Division of Statistics, 1998

20 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 Four pillars of wisdom by Guy Neave* Four countries have left their mark on the world’s higher education systems.What contributions have they made?

seen in Argentina and many of the French-spea- king African nations. The Humboldtian model of univers i t y , so called after Wilhelm von Humboldt,a radical reformer of the Pr ussian higher education system in the early 19th ce n t u r y, is often seen as being at the orig ins of the p r e s e n t - d ay “research unive rs i t y ” committed to “a d v ancing the frontiers of know l e d g e ” .H u m b o l d t attached special importance to the freedom of senior me m b e r s of the univer sity to pursue enquiry without interference from govern m e n t . And more to the point, go ver nment should,he argued, ensure the freedom of teaching and learn i n g . Most important of all, t h e Humboldtian interpr e t a tion placed on the univer - sity the duty to conduct both teaching and research. The third model is that of the “market-driven” university, best represented by the various systems of higher education in the United States. Though deeply influenced by the Humboldtian ethic, t h e Countries with a long university United States system contained three features which tradition,like the United set it off from its European counterparts.The first Kingdom,have exported their or more than 900 yea rs , the univer sity has been was the emphasis upon “useful know l e d g e ” ; t h e model of higher education. remarkably active in “e x p o r ting itself” .T h e second,its close ties with the local community;the Fgr e at medieval unive rsities of Pa ri s , O x f o r d third,and perhaps the source of its most powerful and Prague drew on the experience of Bologna, appeal today, its close ties with the economy.The sometimes held to be the earliest univer sity of them United States was the first to develop a mass higher al l . So it is hardly surpr ising if the inspiration of some education system,more than half a century ago. fo r ms the basis of others.But no higher education sys- The fourth referential system is that of the Uni- tem is exactly the same as its neighbours. ted Kingdom. It is often cited as an outstanding For all their vari e t y ,the way most systems of higher example of a univer sity system enjoying immense ins- ed u c a tion have developed harks back to what may titutional autonomy. University independence was be seen as four referential and historical models of the once ensured by a unique system of funding by un i ve rs i t y : the Napoleonic model (France),the Hum- which gove rnments left the responsibility for dis- boldtian (Germa ny ) , the “m a r k e t - d ri ve n ” model (the t ri buting public money to the unive rsities them- United States) and the model of higher educati o n se l ve s . Br itish univer sities were well known for their eq u a ted with the United Kingdom. Until recently, attention to student personal development in addi- the so-called “S o viet model” and its deriv ati v es from tion to intellectual prowess. Important too was the a command economy might well have figured idea of residentiality as the basis of an academic amongst the ranks of these “system shaping”mo d e l s . c o m m u n i t y. Students lived on campus. A system The Napoleonic model is one of the earliest long devoted to an elite educati o n , the United King- examples of the state harnessing the univer sity to the dom was relat i vely late in reaching massific at i o n , mo d e rn i z a tion of society. It did this by maintaining doing so only in the course of the 1980s. close control over fina n c i n g ,over academic appoint- These models, in their different way s ,h ave sha- ments and the use of legal instruments to ensure ped the wor l d ’ s univers i t i e s , especially in the post- th a t national provision was similar across the nati o - 1950 perio d , when most of them were founded.Bu t nal territory. In its classic form, the “Napoleonic” the “a r c h e t y p e s ”t h e m s e l v es have also changed.Ma n y university is a powerful lever in asserting a singular of them look to developments in the wor l d ’ s largest national identity, based on the principles of formal higher education system–the United States–as a equality and merit which are themselves both defi- source of inspirati o n . Whether this will alter as today’ s ned and upheld by a powerful national administra- ve rsion of globalization sets a premium on rapid * International Association of ti o n . In addition to France, this patt e r n ranged over ch a n g e , and which will be the “ r e f e r e n t i a l ”s y s t e m s Universities such countries as and Italy, and is also to be in two decades, time alone will tell. ■

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 21 What do students Germany:

e rman students took to the streets thirt y ye a rs ago in a bid to ove rt u rn the “ b o u r- Gg e o i s ” social order. N owa d ays the mood could not be more different. G e rm a ny ’s 1.8 mil- lion-plus students are learning to live in an era of high unemployment and dwindling subsidies. “ M a ny students are under the illusion that if A student they work hard enough they’ll get a job,”sa ys Carola demonstration in S c h m i d t , a fourth year history student at Berlin’s Bonn,November 1997. Humboldt University.“But it’s not like that.Often there are just no jobs.” In the autumn of 1997,students staged a series of strikes and protests to try and focus nat i o n a l Thirty years ago, from Dakar to Mexico attention on their plight and the crisis ove r w h e l- ming Germa ny ’ s institutes of higher educati o n .T h e y City, from Paris to Berkeley, students called for more money to be spent on upgr a d i n g teaching and laboratory equipment,a comprehen- took to the streets to announce the sive review of government support for students as well as reform of the country ’s higher educat i o n coming of a new world. Students have system and moves to cut class sizes. Claudia Boege, often been in the forefront of a student representat i ve at Frankfurt ’s Unive rs i t y of Applied Science,be l i e v es that public univers i t i e s revolutions, and in several countries are facing the same difficulties as other parts of the country’s social system.The problem is, she says, have brought down seemingly “The politicians don’t have any new funding ideas.” invincible regimes. But what do they want today? This is not an easy question to answer, if only because Indonesia:

their status is by definition temporary, he future of a nation lies in the hands of the because the student population never you n g . For Indonesia, th a t is no overs t at e m e n t . TIn May 1998, it was the students who caught forms a stable and homogeneous the wor l d ’ s attention by spearheading the driv e to un s e a t the nearly godlike figure of President Suharto social group and student demands vary from his more than thirty - t wo - y ear presidency. Bu t after the jubilati o n , the students woke up to find the according to their context. The dreams ori g inal problems still there, with the economy col- of the students of 1968 in many lapsing and politics getting murkier by the day. “W h a t is the next move? Is this what you wan t ? ” countries have given way to a realism a street vendor asks a student activist.Yet without a lar- ger-than-life common enemy like the Suharto regim e , arising from the constraints of the late students have too many wants and too few resources to continue their movem e n t , in the absence of either twentieth century.Today’s students a nationwide organization or a shared agenda. want job opportunities more than For the more radical students from the Jak a rt a City Foru m , a loose gath e r ing of students from about anything else. But they have not all 100 Jak a r ta univers i t i e s , a complete dismissal of the parliament and gover nment is in order.They want a turned their back on the struggle for so-called Indonesian Peo p l e ’ s Committee to replace the establishment and set up elections as soon as pos- ideals. On this double page, we present si b l e .W h y? “Because we don’t trust all of the old ins- reports on the student situation in ti t u t i o n s , ” yells a student leader. Watching divergent desires polarize student lea- Germany and Indonesia. de r s and interest-led politicians lure student support

22 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 want? Lost illusions

The movement largely ran out of steam, le av i n g income from the state has fallen in recent yea r s and behind a trail of frustration and anxiety about the is now down to about 17 per cent in the we s t e rn fu t u r e . “The mood among students today is,‘w ell we part of the country, compared with 37 per cent 15 ca n ’ t change the process,so we had better make the ye a rs ago. A similar picture emerges in the east, most of it’,” sa ys Herbert Dieter, a political scientist where the number of students receiving gove rn- with the University of Duisenberg. ment support has dropped over the last four years Despite considerable media coverage of the from 55 per cent to about 32 per cent. s t rikes and widespread public sympat hy towa r d s As a consequence, the number of students wor - the students’ c a u s e , Dieter believes that the pro- king and studying at the same time has risen in recent blems of education in Germ a ny remain. In part i- yea rs , while the percentage of undergra d u a tes from cu l a r , he says that underfunded German univers i t i e s lo wer income families has fallen from 23 per cent in are not offering their students much hope of fin- 1982 to 13 per cent last yea r .Working while studying ding a place on an increasingly competitive job mar- also tends to exacerbate another problem facing Ger- ket.With classes so full that there is often just one man higher educati o n , which is the number of yea r s for eve ry 600 undergr a d u at e s , s t u d e n t s spent in the halls of academia.This often means that s ay they have virtually no contact with their tea- ma n y students do not take their first steps towards a chers. full-time career until they are about thirty yea r s old. If finding a job after univer sity is the key issue for Holding down a job while studying is also impor- G e rman students today, s u p p o rting themselve s tant because the lifestyle of today’s students is less during their years of study has also become a high fr ugal than that of their predecessors of three decades priority for many of them.Higher education might a g o. According to a survey of German undergr a- be free in Germany, but students still have to make duates published in May 1998,six out of ten had a ends meet to pay for the rent and other expenses. car and four out of ten had their own apartments. Students have also been demanding increased “To d ay ’ s students,” sa ys Schmidt,“like to have more go ver nment financial support. The number receiving fun and to live an easier life than those of 1968.” ■ An uncertain future

to their causes, the more down - t o - e a r th students are the preparation courses for the rigorous national uni- re t r e a ting from the political arena, to regroup and ver sity entrance exam.Pri v ate univer sities are expen- re t u r n to their classes. “My students are going back s i ve .L ower-income youths are essentially left out in to campus to consolidate while keeping an eye on the cold, without access to higher educat i o n .“ Po o r the new govern m e n t ’ s moves , ”sa ys Sudarto ,rector of students will always feel inferio r , ” sa ys Budiana.“T o Airlangga Univer sity in Surabaya. get a scholarsh i p , they must write a letter, ap p r o ved But this consolidation is far from a reality.“S p o n - by the local gove rn m e n t ,s t ating they are ‘fin a n c i a l l y taneous student unity is close to impossible when in c a p a b l e ’ . ” there is no political mainstream,” sa ys Ismail,a now- Lo wer tuition fees are a key demand,according to ap a thetic former militant. And while the remaining Bu d i a n a . “The gover nment should slash the military activists argue over competing agendas,or d i n a r y stu- budget and reallocate funds from superfluous high-tech dents have simpler desires. Ma ri j o n o ,a student from de v elopment for the sake of educating the people.” Jombang in East Java say s :“ We do not want to be Za i n a l , a student from a poor village in East Java, fooled again, either by the govern m e n t , by the Inter- co u l d n ’ t agree more.“P oor guys like me can’t afford na tional Monetary Fund or by self-acclaimed refor- to pay the tuition anym o r e . ”But even the rich students mi s t s .” no w are feeling the crun c h . The fall of the rupiah has He and others like him would prefer to see pro- tr ipled the prices of foreign textbooks. “I can’t buy ‘I have never let gress in a field closer to daily life: e d u c at i o n .“ E d u- books any longer.They are unbelievably expensive, ” my schooling interfere ca tional improvement should not be ignored. It is s ays Iwa n , a student from pri vat e l y - run Tri s a k t i the way to enhance our quality of life,” sa ys Dadang Un i ve rs i t y . with Budiana from the Indonesian Student As s o c i at i o n For Indonesia’s politically puzzled and scholasti- my education.’ for Interna tional Studies. cally troubled students, helping overt h r o w the pre- Less than 10 per cent of the total national bud g e t vious gover nment now seems a lot easier than for- Mark Twain, United States, is allocated to educati o n . Most state univer sity stu- ging their nati o n ’ s–and their own – f u t u r e . ■ 1835-1910 dents come from the middle class, which can afford Achmad N. Su k a rs o n o

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 23 Wan t e d : a new deal

Higher education must meet new demands in order to turn out well-trained professionals instead of unemployed graduates

e are living through a period of profound hi s t o r ical change, marked by an on-going Wk n owledge revo l u t i o n . Society is chan- ging far more quickly than the structures it has crea- ted and the unive rsities are lagging behind these ch a n g e s .Th e y , and the educational system in gene- r a l , continue to teach the use of static processes, forecasting models based on historical experience and the memorizing of solutions to already solved problems. Higher education systems in both North and South are in crisis,both quantitatively and qualita- t i ve l y. N aturally the developing countries are the hardest hit, both in terms of available resources and levels of student enrolment (see box page 27). Is the crisis due to a shortage of funds alone? Does the fact that the countries of the North inves t ten times more per student than those of the South mean that graduates from the former are ten times better trained? Common sense says yes . But in most cases the answer is no. Generally speaking, univer- sity education has failings all over the wor l d , in some ca s e s because it is an offspring of a wasteful society, indifferent to the resources with which that society provides them.

The missing link between education and the world of work there is little difference between North and South as In the United Stat e s , for example, m a ny teachers regards quality;nor is the availability of funding the and researchers come from developing societies only basis for improving the system. which should theoretically have gi ven them a less The problem is that post-secondary training sound training than that prov i d e d by the t o d ay is diploma-dri ve n . It is based on ri gi d immense academic and financial resources of the study programmes and is changing at a rat e United States system. But this is not the case: which takes little or no account of the speed of they compete professionally and scientifically, k n owledge accumulat i o n . This is despite the fa c t ‘Just as people take off with no major problems. In many areas the t h at today ’s gr a d u ate professional needs to have one garment and put results of unive rsity training are comparable. f o l l owed a flexible curriculum and must be a Professionals move around because they need problem solve r , extremely adaptable to new pro- on another, it is jobs and want to work in the best possible working cesses and technologi e s , generously endowe d necessary to put the conditions.There are,for example, almost 30,000 with creativity and firmly inclined towards life- old university in the Af r ican Ph.Ds working in Europe and North Am e - long learn i n g, as is clear from the studies on rica, and thousands of Latin American and Asian skilled labour done by industrialized countri e s wardrobe and then professionals working in the United States. By the and from numerous OECD studies. ta k e out the new one.’ be g inning of the 1990s about a million professionals A recent study of the relationship betwe e n had emigrated to the developed countries over the higher education and the labour market observe s José Martí, Cuba, previous three decades,and the figure has increased t h at there appears to be no connexion betwe e n 1853-1895 considerably in the last five yea r s.While the number the increase in professionals’ l e vel of know l e d g e of opportunities and access to them are uneve n , and changes on the labour market. Although the

24 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 for the universi t i e s by Miguel Angel Escotet*

continue to be high in both North and South. G r a d u ate unemployment in Europe, f o r e x a m p l e , va ries between 1.4 per cent and 16.6 per cent depending on the country.W h at ’s more, m a ny gr a d u ates are working in jobs outside their field of training.The increase in gr a d u ate unem- p l oyment in the developing countries is largely due to the drastic fall in demand from the major e m p l oyer of gr a d u ates–the state–as a result of i n t e rn ational competition and new political and economic approaches.The pri vate sector is in no position to absorb the supply of surplus gr a- d u at e s. World Bank studies carried out in A s i a , the Middle East, N o rth A f rica and certain Lat i n A m e rican countries show that gr a d u ate unem- p l oyment is increasing: in Egypt it rose in barely five ye a rs from 9.6 per cent to 16 per cent; i n it went from 4 per cent to 10.3 per cent between 1981 and 1990. The picture is similar in many of the former countries of the communist bloc as a result of rapid pri vat i z at i o n . All the same, higher education cannot be held wholly responsible for gra d u a te unemployment nor for the corre l a tion that should exist between training,

*International Institute of Educational Development, Florida International University The university should not be a teacher-centred institution.

market undoubtedly demands basic skills and k n ow l e d g e , it is attaching increasing import a n c e to the emotional and psychological attitudes of future employe e s. In Belgium and Swe d e n , t wo The North-South ga p of the countries with the lowest gr a d u ate unem- p l oyment levels (2.2 per cent and 2.1 per cent r e s p e c t i ve l y ) , potential employe rs consider that n the last decade alone, the gap in although unive rsity gr a d u ates are ve ry hardwo r- Ihigher education enrolment rates has Product (GDP) than a student in the South. king and possess an excellent knowledge of their widened by 6.7% in favour of the most In absolute terms, h o w e v e r, the latter costs s p e c i a l i z at i o n , they are ill prepared for conditions developed countries. A f r i c a , the region only $651, as opposed to $6,520 for the in the real world and show few signs of creat i v i t y, with the highest annual increase in uni- f o r m e r. adaptability and flexibility. This view has been versity student numbers (7.5%), has a very On average, an investment by a poor expressed in other countri e s , including Germ a ny, low enrolment rate (2.5%), while North country of $651 in higher education Ja p a n , New Zealand, N o r way and the United A m e r i c a , which has the lowest growth in requires twice as big a sacrifice as an K i n g d o m . student numbers (1.6%) has the highest investment of $6,520 by a rich country. I n Although post-secondary education is clearly enrolment rate (77.3%). other words, the poorer the country, t h e a s s o c i ated with higher personal incomes, l owe r Perhaps the most marked disparities are higher the relative cost per student and u n e m p l oyment and gr e ater opportunities to in student costs. A student in the North the greater the national budgetary effort. climb the social ladder, u n e m p l oyment rates for costs far less in relation to Gross Domestic ■ people with higher education qualificat i o n s

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 25 study programmes and the beginning of the new century.These predictions Higher education cannot demand for labour. It is often were inaccurat e : w h at had been forecast to occur said that higher education is after 2001 actually came about in the late 1980s be held wholly responsible failing to provide training in and early 1990s. for graduate unemployment the activities required by the It can be said,ho we ve r ,t h at professional training ma r k e t , but the market is often over the coming ye a rs will focus on areas such as nor for the gap between incapable of adequately anti- high-tech electronics,in f o rm a tion technology,aq u a - training and market ci p a ting the type of professio- cu l t u r e ,a gr o - e n e r g y , biotechnology and energy phy- nals it is going to need. si c s .Jobs in informa tion and communication systems expectations A survey conducted in will require new qualific ations which will have to F l o rida (USA) among mul- be continually update d . The service sector will expe- t i n ationals in the high-tech rience spectacular gro wth in the field of leisure and and services sectors revealed companies that re c r e a tion because of the reduction in working hours. were unable to identify the professional qualities New professions in the human sciences such as t h at would be required within ten ye a rs and, i n “ l u d i c a d o l o g y ” , i n c o rp o r ating , p e d a- m a ny cases, within five ye a rs.This is not surp ri- g o g y, i n f o rm ation science and the technology of s i n g, in view of the spectacular rise of the Inter- e d u c at i o n , p l ay and creativity progr a m m e s , w i l l net between 1994 and 1998 which caught many replace the old single-discipline approach. h a r d ware and software firms unawa r e s. It is in In short, the gre a t occupational change looming i n f o rm ation technology that redundancies and ahead will call for increased interdisciplinarit y ,re v i - high unemployment levels are occurri n g, b e c a u s e ta l i z a tion of the disciplines related to ethics and aes- systems are constantly changing and because of thetics and sweeping changes in the attitudes of tea- s t r at e gic mergers between the major companies. ch e r s and students:for the professional of the future, Another example of the difficulty of making education will be a lifelong process,and education reliable predictions concerns those made by the and work will go hand in hand. European Community and the US Gove rn m e n t The gre a t challenge will thus be to create a stable regarding the types of jobs that would be needed at relationship between higher education and society Vision and action for the next century Challenges await a World Conference on Higher Education in the 21st century, convened by UNESCO in Paris from 5 to 9 October

s world mobilization in favour of higher edu- not as a burden on state bud g e t s , but as a long-term c ation justified while millions of adults and investment that is beneficial to economic competi- Ichildren are illiterate and lack access to basic ti ve n e s s , cultural development and social cohesion, ‘I am beginning to e d u c ation? Is it reasonable to be concerned with as well as playing a major role in training prim a r y and the development of unive rsities in regions where secondary school teachers. suspect all elaborate p ove rt y, sickness and hunger are rife? T h e s e The World Bank and other institutions cast and special systems of questions need to be asked since organizat i o n s doubt on the economic cost-effectiveness of uni- ed u c a t i o n . They seem such as the World Bank are urging deve l o p i n g ve rsities and their efficiency as vehicles of social c o u n t ries to invest in pri m a ry and secondary c h a n g e . This criticism is not totally unfounded. to me to be built upon e d u c ation on the grounds that they offer a better The goal of the world conference is to put for- the supposition that r e t u rn and contri bute more to social equality ward substantial measures of unive rsity reform every child is a kind of than higher educat i o n . UNESCO believe s , h owe- (redefinition of their mission, o p e r ations and ve r , t h at neglect of higher education could funding) via action plans designed to enable idiot who must be d e p ri ve the countries of the South of an essential higher education to play a central role in taught to think.’ tool for their development and for strengthening c o n t e m p o r a ry society. their autonomy. The conference is the result of a long process Anne Sullivan Macy, United UNESCO has therefore decided to convene a of intern ational consultation and refle x i o n . B e t- States, 1866-1936 world conference on higher educati o n . By doing so ween November 1996 and A p ril 1998, H ava n a , it is inviting countries to regard higher educat i o n D a k a r , To k yo, Pa l e rmo and Beirut hosted regi o-

26 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 through strate g ic alliances with the production sys- content should be geared to what learn e rs “ m u s t tem designed to promote parti c i p a tion by all sectors k n ow ” and not to what teachers “ k n ow ” o r of the economy in the unive rs i t y ’s basic and applied “think they know ” . This will force teachers into a research programmes and by production-sector spe- p e rmanent renewal of theori e s , techniques and cialists in university teaching. p r o c e s s e s , keeping up with knowledge produced The problems of the unive rsity are also those both inside and outside the unive rs i t y. H i g h e r of society, and so are the responsibilities. T h i s e d u c ation is evolving towards a model in which raises the question of the unive rs i t y ’s specific cul- l e c t u r e rs and students will be permanent lear- t u r e , especially the teacher-student relat i o n s h i p. n e rs and where curricula will be drawn up on Planning is currently based above all on the tea- the basis of innovat i o n , fresh knowledge and the ching staff, which is more corp o r atist than aca- l atest teaching and learning technologi e s. A b ove d e m i c. P hysical spaces, s a l a ry scales, c u rri c u l a , all the unive rsity must teach people to think, t o s t ructures and timetables are more closely geared use common sense and to gi ve free rein to the to the needs of the teacher than of teaching. T h i s c r e at i ve imagi n at i o n . ■ is the case all over the wo r l d . More serious still,this teacher-centred culture is giving way to one that is even more dangerous for the s u rv i val of univer sity educati o n : an administrati o n - centred culture.This would mean an education sys- Tertiary education :gross enrolment ratio* (%) tem dominated by bur e a u c r a ts and the kind of mana- 1970 1985 1995 gement structures which would place an institution Europe whose function is to produce and disseminate know- France 18.8 29.8 51 ledge on the same footing as a detergent factory or Italy 16.7 25.5 41.4 a multinational travel agency. Poland 13.2 17.1 24.9 But no strategy for change can work unless South America Argentina 13.4 35.7 41.8** higher education adapts to the challenge of the *** k n owledge explosion. It is vital that cours e Brazil 4.7 10.5 11.5 Africa and Middle East Côte d’Ivoire 1.0 2.6 4.6*** Egypt 6.9 18.1 20.3 Kenya 0.8 1.2 ... nal conferences which examined trends in higher Tunisia 2.6 5.5 12.9 e d u c ation worldwide and defined local needs. Asia D u ring the same period a wide range of nongo- China 0.1 2.9 5.3 ve rnmental organizations active in educat i o n India 4.9 6.0 6.5 took part in debates on specific themes. T h e i r Iran 2.9 4.1 16.6 p u rpose was to gather the opinions of all concer- *Total enrolment in tertiary education regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population in the five-year age-group following on from the secondary-school leaving age ned in order to prepare a declaration and a plan **1996 of action focusing on four key areas: r e l e va n c e , ***Estimation q u a l i t y, i n t e rn ational co-operat i o n , and manage- Source:UNESCO Division of Statistics, 1998 ment and funding.

Accountable to society Unemployment and higher education Country Economically Unemployment Graduates A framework for pri o rity action proposes, active population rate (%) among the through concrete means, a “new unive rsity com- unemployed (%) p a c t ” to redefine the relations between higher Europe e d u c ation and the stat e , civil society and the eco- Austria 3 870 200 4.1 3.8 n o my. It insists on the democratic nature of Ireland 1 494 400 11.9 3.9 higher learning and its critical and future-ori e n- Italy 22 849 000 12.1 6 Poland 17 076 000 12.3 2.4 ted function, and the need for it to be accoun- Portugal 4 811 169 7.2 5.2 table to society. It opens for discussion questions United Kingdom 28 552 360 8.2 10.7 of funding and notes the importance of public s u p p o rt for higher educat i o n , as well as relat i o n s Colombia 6 190 206 11.9 17.8 with the state including institutional autonomy Mexico 35 580 746 3.7 17.8 and academic freedom. Such a pact should help Peru 6 561 004 7 7 t r a n s f o rm the higher education institutions of the North America t we n t y - f i rst century into centres of excellence Canada 15 145 400 9.7 10.2 and of the advance of knowledge which respond United States 133 943 000 5.4 18 to gr owing student demand and the specific eco- Africa and the Middle East nomic and cultural needs of each regi o n . In short Tunisia 2 360 600 16.2 1.3 it sees higher education as playing a key role in Asia Bangladesh 56 014 000 2.5 11 measures designed to promote sustainable and Japan 67 110 000 3.4 14.3 equitable deve l o p m e n t . ■ Korea, Republic of 21 188 000 2.0 35 All figures from 1996,except Tunisia (1989). Araceli Ortiz de Urbina Source: Yearbook of Labour Statistics 1997,ILO, Geneva

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 27 Turkey: a course for t

Specialization, proliferating courses, regionalization and privatization are key trends in Turkey’s changing university system

The University of Istanbul became a modern institution in 1933.

hange is in the air as the 1998-1999 Tu r- nigh impossible to pass the exams without pri- kish academic year begi n s. The focus is vate tuition, which became a big part of the edu- Con the entrance exams, reputedly so c ation system, draining candidat e s ’ resources and tough that students often have to retake them swa l l owing up eve ry year the equivalent of 40 per t wo or three times before passing, or else gi ve cent of the national higher education bu d g e t . u p, with the luckiest going off to study abroad. The “ s u rv i vo rs ” of this rigorous selection The selection process up to now has been in process have no problem getting jobs afterwa r d s , t wo stages. In the first exam, with a more than 50 but the fact remains that of 100 children ente- per cent failure rat e , c a n d i d ates had to get 20 ring pri m a ry school, only 11 reach unive rsity and points before they could go on to the second, only 17 per cent of them leave with a degr e e . which determined which unive rsity they went to. This ye a r , h owe ve r , things will be much easier Students who got 105 of the 120 possible points due to a switch from a two-stage exam to a single in this exam won the right to take an extra-mural o n e . But no one is expecting any miracles. Tu r- d e gr e e . So they had to stick at it. It was also we l l key has a long way to go before it reaches its goal of a 35 per cent enrolment rate in higher educa- t i o n . Turkey in figures Yet Turkish higher education has come a long way since 1923, when the republic was proclai- Area: 780,576 sq.km. m e d . Then the country had only 5,000 schools, Population (1990 census): 61.8 million with 360,000 pupils and 12,000 teachers. We s- Urban population: 70.9% t e rn-style schools had begun to appear in the Economically active population (1996): 29 million eighteenth century, but education had remained GDP (1996): $187.4 billion largely in the hands of clerical and Koranic ins- Government education budget (1994): 3.3% of GDP titutions which refused to train students to be Illiteracy (1995): 17.7% open-minded and think for themselve s. I n d e e d they were one of the reasons for the collapse of Children in school-aged 12 to 17 (1991): 43.1% the Ottoman Empire. When the modern - m i n d e d Children in post-secondary education (1993): 19.6% Kemal A t atürk came to powe r , the education sys- (Source: L’Etat du Monde, 1998) tem was drastically reform e d . The country ’s

28 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 the future by Necla Arat*

oldest unive rs i t y, I s t a n bul Darülfünun, a bastion a good reputat i o n , help the gove rnment avoid the of conservatism which shied away from the o u t flow of curr e n cy caused by a wholesale depar- s c i e n c e s , was turned into a modern secular insti- ture of young people to study abroad. They are tute of higher education in 1933 and renamed also a ray of light for hundreds of thousands of I s t a n bul Unive rs i t y. high-school gr a d u ates who cannot get into stat e - It openly welcomed Jewish academics fle e i n g run unive rs i t i e s.The snag is that tuition fees are the Nazi exterm i n ation and completely transfor- ve ry high, e ven though the gove rnment subsi- med itself. A t at ü r k ’s passion for science encou- dizes up to 40 per cent of the cost for some stu- raged the founding of other unive rsities along the d e n t s. same lines, notably the Istanbul Technical Uni- As well as being pri vat i z e d , higher educat i o n ve rsity (ITU) in 1944 and the Unive rsity of has also been regi o n a l i z e d . In A t at ü r k ’s day, t h e Ankara two ye a rs lat e r. The second big educa- goal was to set up a secondary school in each tional reform came in 1946, when unive rs i t i e s p r ov i n c e . The aim today is a unive rsity in each won an independence which, despite poor wo r- o n e . This has produced many institutions whose king conditions, made them the envy of many existence owes more to electoral politics than u n i ve rsities in the We s t .Two other major reform s academic considerat i o n s , along with abnorm a l i- f o l l owe d , in 1961 and 1981. ties like faculties with only one teacher. G r a- The number of unive rsities had meanwhile d u ates from these unive rsities find jobs, but not gr own to twe n t y - s e ve n , each with its own sta- the best ones. tutes and way of operat i n g . This hasty and ill- The labour market is increasingly deman- thought-out expansion caused many problems, d i n g . Although education is divided up into four especially in harmonizing cours e s. The army s t a g e s – u n d e r gr a d u at e , gr a d u ate and masters cited the chaotic situation in education to justify (each requiring from two to four ye a rs of study), its seizure of power in 1980 and and then a doctorate–the only qua- cut back unive rsity autonomy, c a u- l i f i c ations employe rs are really sing many lecturers to flee abroad. interested in are master’s degr e e s * University of Istanbul The higher education law of 1981 More and more or doctorat e s. i nvo l ved co-ordinating and stan- higher But the number of subjects on dardizing the stru c t u r e s , duties and offer at each stage is gr owing all responsibilities of all institutes of education the time. More than a dozen new higher education and linking them institutions d e gree courses were offered in to each other. All were to be at t a- 1997 alone and drew a large num- ched to unive rsities and a new are springing up ber of students, though this gi ve s council for higher educat i o n no real indication of whether the ( YOK) was put in charge of plan- c o u rses teach skills which enable ning and co-ordinating the reform s. The YO K students to get jobs afterwa r d s. They may be was ve ry controve rsial at the begi n n i n g, but it more of a fallback for students who failed to get still exists today, though with different powe rs into the unive rsity of their choice because they since the mid-1990s. did not score well enough in the entry exam. Some schools, k n own as “other educat i o n a l U n i ve rsity places are in demand, so exam results i n s t i t u t i o n s ” , do not come under YOK bu t d e t e rmine which students go where. va rious gove rnment ministri e s. For example, o n e S p e c i a l i z ation and the proliferation of cours e s which teaches “health sciences” is attached to are the broad trends. This is particularly true of the health ministry. Another teaches “ i n t e rn a l p ri vate courses at master’s leve l , where no fewe r s e c u rity serv i c e s ” i nvolving military colleges and than 16 new subjects have been created in the the police academy. past academic ye a r , including wo m e n ’s studies, More and more higher education institutions r o b o t i c s , aerospace studies, s e i s m o l o g y, fa m i l y are spri n ging up, largely due to pri vat i z at i o n .T h e medicine and gerontology. f i rst pri vate unive rsities were founded in the At this rat e ,Turkey will have plenty of expert s 1960s but closed a decade later because of at the start of the new millennium. But there are ‘W anting to change p o o r l y - c o n s t ructed courses and degrees of little still big problems to sort out. More than two - the university is like va l u e . The 1981 reform law allowed only chari- thirds of the country ’s 1,400,000 students are table foundations to set up pri vate unive rs i t i e s. m a l e , which is not surp rising since a fifth of Tu r- trying to shake up a By 1988, 32 of the 33 existing unive rsities we r e kish women are illiterat e . A l s o, the average time ce m e t e r y .’ s t at e - ru n . To d ay there are 72 unive rs i t i e s , 18 of a Turk spends in school is still only betwe e n them pri vat e l y - o p e r at e d . In Istanbu l , there are three and six ye a rs. ■ José Ortega y Gasset, six state unive rs i t i e s , but 12 pri vate ones. Spain,1883-1955 The pri vate institutions, which generally have with Abbas Güçlü

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 29 Bulgaria’s overdose of Russian profs

Since the Soviet collapse, the demand for Russian courses in Bulgarian schools has plummeted, leaving many teachers jobless

n the early 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin wal l So fia , a sound two- y ear cur- and communist regim e s ,B u l g a r ians could hardly riculum has neve rt h e l e s s Iim a g ine what lay round the corne r . Ap a r t from helped many of them earn the need for economic reform, they had to face swee - an English teaching degre e . ping changes in ways of thinking and learn i n g .“ We One expert says , “in the end had to rewrite all our textbooks,from prim a r y school it was the right choice, to univer sity level , ” sa ys a history teacher at the uni- because nowad a ys the Rus- In Sofia,many former Russian teachers have become booksellers. ve rsity of Sofia .The first thing to be done was to sian-English combinat i o n purge the national education system of the dead is one of the most highly sought-after.” weight of ideology and of compulsory Russian classes. T h at was then. Four ye a rs ago the Bulgari a n The history of Russian language teaching in Bul- was voted back into power and the g a ria goes back to 1878, when the Czar’s arm i e s retraining courses were abolished.The succeeding freed the country from the Ottoman yok e . As a token go vern m e n t , which has been in power for a ye a r ,i s of gra titude to the “l i b e r a ting brothers” from Russia, ha ving a hard time managing a cumbersome legacy. it was decided that Russian would be taught in secon- Hostages to the education system reform ,w h i c h da r y schools. Under the communist regim e , Ru s - itself has been buffeted by political squabbles and sian became compulsory in pri m a ry schools, a n d ch a n g ing gove rn m e n t s ,m a ny teachers have left tea- was even taught in kindergarte n s .By the late 1980s, ching altogether for business careers. c o u rses were being taught entirely in Russian in Sv etla Djivreteva has started raising silkwo rm s. tw enty secondary schools, and Bulgaria had 4,000 “It was n ’ t exactly my calling in life,”she say s ,“ but I Russian teachers. had to make a living somehow.”A gra d u a te of the uni- In 1992, the wind of democratic reform swep t ve rsity of Veliko Ta rn ovo near her home village of through the education system. Marxism and com- Dr a g a n o vo in Bulgaria ’ s heartl a n d , she started out p u l s o ry Russian disappeared from studying to be a Russian teacher. Bu t cu r ric u l a . But the decision was taken by the time she finished the reform s without much thought for the conse- In 1992, the wind had been implemented. S vetla deci- qu e n c e s , especially for teachers. of democrat i c ded to follow her husband to Ruse, a School number 133 in Sofia, to wn near the north e r n border,but fai - where 1,300 students start learni n g reform swept led to find a job there. “I had to teach Russian in the first year of the pri- th r ough the Bu l g a r ian literature in a village twen t y - ma r y level , is the only holdover from five kilometres from home,”she says .“I the old system. It receives so many education system got up at five- t h i r ty in the morning to ‘Education is not requests for admission that only one ca tch the bus . In winter there was n ’ t merely a means for in four applicants can be enrolled.“W e have sixteen an y wood to heat the school and the children tried to earning a living or an Russian teachers , but many colleagues had to be wr ite with their gloves on.” re t r a i n e d . I know of quite a few who went back to uni- After a ye a r ,S vetla was sacked and replaced by instrument for the ver sity to learn English or to become prim a r y school a friend of the prin c i p a l . She moved back into her acquisition of wealth. te a c h e r s. Ot h e r s left to sell books on the sidewal k , ” pa r e n t s ’ home near her alma mate r , where she enrol- It is an initiation into explains the pri n c i p a l ,L y u b ov Micheva. led on a prim a r y school teacher training course .W i t h Two thousand Russian teachers found them- her new diploma in her pocket,she is currently unem- the life of the spirit, a se l v es without a job after the reform, sa ys Letelina pl o yed but has her eye on a job in the village school. training of the human K ru m ova, a specialist on the issue at the ministry of In the meantime, Sv etla survi v es by going each soul in the pursuit of e d u c at i o n . In 1993 she started a programme to month to the nearby silk mill where she is giv en a large retrain “ h i g h - risk gr o u p s ” , including jobless Rus- jar of silkworm s .This thankless job brings in 100,000 truth and the practice sian teachers. “But the amount of money required l e va (slightly over $50) a month. She wants to go of virtue.’ tu r ned out to be exorbitant, so we soon gave up on back to teaching, but in the meantime all she can do the idea and asked the people concerned to manage is wait and raise wo rm s. ■ Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, on their own , ” sa ys Krum o va. At the univer sity of Rumiana Ugarch i n s k a India, 1900-1990

30 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 Graduates for hire Mobile, talented students are increasingly numerous and sought-after players on the international job market

usiness follows gr a d u at e s. For the coun- t ries that host them, t o d ay ’s high-flying Bforeign students hold the keys to tomor- r ow ’s successful deals, because when they return home they will probably become influential deci- sion makers in politics and bu s i n e s s. M e a n w h i l e , they provide the countries where they study with hefty tuition and lodging fees. According to the non-gove rnmental organizat i o n A university library in Beijing. More and more Chinese are leaving their country to study. E d u c ation Intern ational (EI), each year foreign students bring in $7 billion to the US economy, b e t ween $1.7 and $2 billion to the United King- The second most frequented host country is d o m , $750 million to Australia and $730 million F r a n c e , with 140,000 foreign students in 1996. Young people to Canada. “In A u s t r a l i a , the Royal Melbourn e Although France has a strong, long-standing tradi- Institute of Technology and Monash Unive rs i t y tion of welcoming foreigners , its market share is believe that are considered among the top 500 service expor- dropping, according to a 1996 study by SFERE, a studying abroad t e rs.” French organization which monitors the export of ed u c a tional resources.In Germa n y,Au s t r a l i a , Jap a n is almost always and the United Kingdom,on the other hand,fo r e i g n a passport to 1.5 million student enrolment has increased. students abro a d Af r ica south of the Sahara and a number of As i a n employment I n t e rn ational student flows have increased at the countries send the highest proportion of their stu- same pace as worldwide demand for higher edu- dent populations abroad: over 10 per cent. In terms c ation in the past few ye a rs. In 1980, a p p r ox i- of numbers,however, China is the biggest “expor- m ately 900,000 young people left home to study t e r ” , with 130,000 expat ri ate students, twice as a b r o a d . To d ay the figure is 1.5 million, a n d , m a ny as Japan and the Republic of Korea, w h i c h e x p e rts say, the upward trend is likely to conti- come next.Young people from Asia account for n u e . N i n e t y - f i ve per cent of students studying nearly half of all students abroad. outside their home countries head for the indus- Why do more and more young people, usually t rially developed nat i o n s.T h r e e - q u a rt e rs of them acting on advice from their fam i l i e s , decide to study go to eight countri e s , and the trend is mov i n g outside their home countries? First of all,because t owards still gr e ater concentrat i o n . By far the rightly (the usual case) or wrongly (sometimes for most popular destination is the United Stat e s , snobbish reasons), they believe that the quality of where the number of foreign students has increa- higher education is better abroad. Ot h e r , more spe- sed almost six-fold in thirty ye a rs , rising from c i fic fa c t o rs may also come into play. F l ows bet- 82,000 in 1964-65 to 458,000 in 1996-97. “ I t ’s ween European countries account for a quarter of n e ver been so high,” although the number has worldwide student flow s.They are part of a gr o- flattened out in the past five ye a rs , s ays Todd M. wing trend and a political movement towards regio - D av i s , director of research at the Institute of nal integra tion which are reflected in univer sity stu- I n t e rn ational Education (IIE) in New Yo r k .T h e dent exchange programmes such as the European figures may be impressive , but foreign students U n i o n ’s Erasmus scheme. In other parts of the account for only 3.2 per cent of the total in the world, restrictive measures encourage some com- United States–three times less than in Germ a ny, munities to look elsewhere.For example,“the Malay- France and the United Kingdom. sian government has quotas on the number of eth-

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 31 The 10 countries with the highest number of foreign students enrolled The largest number of foreign students by country in institutions of higher education: of origin, in the 50 major host countries: Host country Year Total number China 115 871 of foreign students Korea,Republic of 69 736 Japan 62 324 United States 1995/96 453 787 Germany 45 432 France 1993/94 170 574 Greece 43 941 Germany 1993/94 146 126 Malaysia 41 159 United Kingdom 1993/94 128 550 India 39 626 Russian Federation 1994/95 73 172 Turkey 37 629 Japan 1993/94 50 801 Italy 36 515 Australia 1993 42 215 Morocco 34 908 Canada 1993/94 35 451 France 32 411 Belgium 1993/94 35 236 Canada 28 280 Switzerland 1993/94 25 307 United States 27 749

Source: UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1997. nic Chinese allowed in its unive rs i t i e s ,” e x p l a i n s Often ill-equipped or transformed into bat t l e- Ro b e r t Lawr e n c e , director of LD & A, an Au s t r a l i a n grounds during political confli c t s , they are deser- company which carried out a survey on Asian stu- ted by the best teachers. dent movements in 1997. In poor countri e s ,c a n d i- Young people believe that studying abroad is da tes for emigra tion regard the univer sity as an open almost always a passport to employ m e n t .“ T h at ’s door to an Eldorado in the West.Everywhere, the especially true when the recruiter has also stu- brightest hopefuls apply to elite institutions which died outside his or her country. When he or she ha ve fiercely competitive selection procedures, su c h p e r c e i ves the intern ational student as equal to as Yale,Harvard and Columbia on the east coast of the domestic one, the ove rseas degree still makes the United States, Stanford and Berkeley in Cali- the applicant stand out,” s ays Law r e n c e . Fa m i- fo rn i a , Oxford and Cambridge in England,the Ecole l i e s , which usually foot the bill for their children’s Polytechnique and the School of Advanced Com- e d u c at i o n , do not hesitate to make the inve s t- mercial Studies (HEC) in France,and McGill Uni- m e n t . In the English-speaking wo r l d , tuition fees versity in Canada. can run as high as $27,000 in the United Stat e s A m e rican unive rsities are a powerful magnet and $15,000 in the United Kingdom. Unlike the for several reasons, including the use of English s i t u ation in European countries such as France, as a world language, the persistence of the A m e- where access to most institutions of higher lear- rican dream and, a b ove all, quality of educat i o n . ning is inexpensive , the poorest applicants are “ T h at ’s where you find the most four-star pro- a u t o m atically screened out on financial gr o u n d s. gr a m m e s ,” s ays Denis Lévy, h o n o r a ry president They have access only if they are outstanding, i n of the Intern ational A s s o c i ation of Unive rs i t y which case they obtain grants and scholars h i p s P r o f e s s o rs and Lecturers. “ For example, S t a n- from their gove rn m e n t s , from intern ational orga- ford is the best place to study European law. n i z ations and pri vate foundat i o n s. Schools like that have unlimited mat e ri a l r e s o u r c e s. They subscribe to eve ry t h i n g, use the l atest inform ation technology to the full and offer A valuable export outstanding working conditions.” U n i ve rsities in The outflow of students is a serious loss for the the developing countries cannot measure up. “ e x p o rt i n g ” c o u n t ri e s. According to UNESCO, 30,000 A f rican gr a d u at e s , as well as many A s i a n and Latin Am e r ican ones, ma y have settled outside their home continents. Among the reasons which make them hesitate to return home are their fears of sa ying goodbye to a high standard of living in the host As i a n s in demand c o u n t ry (including access to health care, q u a l i t y education for their children and high salaries) and ost expatriate students are from of running into a professional dead-end at home. MAsian countries. In spite of the crisis, as higher than that of the Fr e n c h . A c c o r- “The conditions of scientific work are difficult in they are also the most sought-after. ding to the Institute of International Edu- de v eloping countrie s , ” sa y Jacques and An n e - M a ri e Europe and North America are vying to cation (USA), Asia provides 57% of all Gaillard of France’s ORSTOM research centre. attract them but Canada and, e s p e c i a l l y, foreign students in the US, ahead of “The research is not origi n a l , bur e a u c r a tic controls the United States win the competition Europe (15%) and Latin America (11%). put a brake on initiati ve , equipment is hard to acquire hands down. A 1997 study by A u s t r a l i a ’s Most are from Japan (45,531), followed by and maintain,access to information is limited. . . .” LD & A company shows that 88% of A s i a n China (42,503), the Republic of Ko r e a There may also be political obstacles. In the lat e students believe the US offers the best ( 3 7 , 1 3 0 ) , India (30,641) and Ta i wa n 1980s, China began to realize that expatriate stu- educational services, followed by the UK. ( 3 0 , 4 8 7 ) . Business is the Asians’ favourite dents were not return i n g . Despite measures to lure In non-English-speaking Europe, t h e y m a j o r, followed by engineering and the young graduates back home,such as the allocation regard the quality of the German system s c i e n c e s. ■ of housing and research budgets and the freedom to travel, between 1978 and 1994 only 70,000 out of

32 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 230,000 students who had left China to study abroad cially A s i a n s. It has opened inform ation offices in returned,according to official figures. some forty countries and makes it easy for The example of the Republic of Korea show s foreign students to obtain a visa. According to t h at an authori t a rian regime is no obstacle if the E I , Canada and the United Kingdom have done e c o n o my is thri v i n g . In the early 1960s, m a ny the same. Ja p a n ’s ministry of education has deci- Koreans remained abroad after graduation,80 per ded to accept 100,000 foreign students by 2000, cent of them in the United State s .But in the 1980s, but in 1996 such students only numbered tw o-thirds of those who had earned doctorates from 52,000 and numbers may fa l l , according to A k i r a Am e r ican univer sities went back home within three N i n o m i ya , a professor at the unive rsity of Hiro- yea r s of receiving their degre e s .Generally speaking, s h i m a . Reasons include the high cost of living in the “little dragons” of southeast Asia boast the Ja p a n , the language barri e r , the rigorous admis- highest percentages of returning students–at least sions process and the near-impossibility for forei- until the recent economic crisis blew up. g n e rs of finding work on the local market. Whether they return home or not,foreign stu- dents are a profitable investment for the host coun- t ry. When they become decision makers in their For host countries, home countries,they control access to markets. If a profitable import they settle down where they studied, they often pro- France has a ver y ambiguous policy.According to a vide energy and fresh ideas. recent study,“the current paradox consists of a drop T h at lesson has not been lost on the United in the percentage of foreign students and gro wing dif- States,where the Immigration and Nationality Act ficulties in hosting them and, at the same time, a Am e n d m e n t , which entered into force in 1968, fac i - desire to be more present on the interna tional edu- litates the immigration of qualified personnel and c ation market.” The French are uneasy about the where several foundations offer grants to the most structure of the foreign student population,which promising students.Tod a y, pri v ate companies even re fl ects their country’ s history. Ov er half come from pay some foreign students’tuition fees to make up former colonies in Africa, countries with “limited for the shortage of skilled perso n n e l , especially in the economic potential,” according to SFERE.But the field of information technology. Most of the scien- French are also aware that they cannot afford to tists living in the United States were born abroad and give up too much ground on the international stu- over one-third of Silicon Va l l e y ’s engi n e e rs and dent market, especially in a world where, ac c o r d i n g re s e a r c h e r s are immigrants from Tai wa n ,s a y Jac q u e s to EI, “ e m p l oye rs seek qualified employees who and Anne-Marie Gaillard. th ri v e in foreign environments and understand mul- But Australia probably has the most aggr e s- ticultural contexts.” ■ s i ve policy for attracting foreign students, e s p e- Sophie Boukhari The talent spotters

In search of that precious raw material–intelligence– multinationals are skimming the cream of the student crop

ithout by-passing their own departm e n t s control engineer in a laborat o ry in the tow n of human resources, big companies are where he was born . “I studied engi n e e ring in Wincreasingly recruiting employe e s Pa ris at the Ecole Po l y t e c h n i q u e ,” he say s. “ T h e n through intern ational head-hunting agencies. I did a master’s degree in quality-control mana- Lafarge,a French multinational specializing in the gement at the Centre for Higher Industrial Stu- ma n u f acture of construction mate ri a l s , spent months d i e s , and later obtained a diploma in finance at looking for an engineer to supervise quality control, the National A rts and Crafts Centre. I answe r e d the organization and management of laborat o ry a press adve rtisement and shortly afterwards wa s ‘T he teacher who can staff and customer relations for its Cameroonian contacted by A f ri c S e a r c h , where I was selected be replaced by s u b s i d i a ry. E ventually it contacted A f ri c S e a r c h , from among twenty other candidates after a which specializes in spotting talented Af r icans trai- number of tests and interv i e w s. I think that what a machine deserves to ned in the West and putting them in touch with firms most helped me to get the job was the fact that I be .’ established in Africa. had worked to pay my way while I was a stu- One of their recent recruits is a young Came- d e n t .” Burrhus Frederic Skinner, r o o n i a n , G a b riel Bekemen, was hired in Pa ri s “When multinational companies operating in United States, 1904-1990 just after gr a d u at i n g . To d ay he is a quality- A f rica want someone with technical qualifica-

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 33 tions that are unavailable locally, they look elsew- best way of getting to know an individual’s abili- h e r e ,” explains Je a n - P i e rre Kwe d i , a consultant t i e s. If trainees’ p r o files match the firm ’s requi- and partner at A f ri c S e a r c h . “They are looking r e m e n t s , they are hired more or less on the spot. for sound training as provided by the unive rs i t i e s This explains why big firms are tending to and higher education institutes, but they also make exchange agreements with unive rsities and want candidates to ori gi n ate from the country in other higher education institutions. P h i l i p s , a question or at least be A f ri c a n , since they will Dutch multinational with 250,000 staff spread adapt more easily to a social, economic and cul- out over five continents, takes on 20,000 new tural context which they know we l l .” e m p l oyees eve ry ye a r. Of these, 20 per cent are young gr a d u ates who will work mainly in r e s e a r c h , technical deve l o p m e n t , i n f o rm at i o n Diplomas aren’t everything technology or electronics and product marketing For other companies, n ationality or experi e n c e and sales. “ M a ny of our staff come from the trai- make little difference. Guido Tommei is respon- ning forums and programmes we organize with sible for staff recruitment for A f rica at Schlum- leading unive rsities in all world regions where we b e r g e r , a multinational company which offers do bu s i n e s s , for example IMD Unive rsity in s e rvices and know h ow to major oil companies. S w i t z e r l a n d , the London in Bri- “ We pri m a rily recruit recent young gr a d u at e s ,” t a i n , Supelec in France and the Rotterdam he say s , “regardless of nationality and or expe- School of A d vanced Studies in the Netherlands,” ri e n c e , who are prepared to work in tough condi- explains Yan Lave n a n , P h i l i p s ’ General Manager tions and adapt to different situat i o n s.” for Human Resources. Pascal Devoulon of Alexandre T i c, a French But diplomas aren’t eve ry t h i n g . C h a r l e s - e m p l oyment agency which forms part of an H e n ri Dumond, president of Michel Pa g e , a lea- i n t e rn ational netwo r k , sets a high pri o rity on per- ding European employment agency, w h i c h sonal initiat i ve . “Unsolicited job applicat i o n s r e c ruits 2,000 employees eve ry ye a r , is conv i n c e d r e c e i ve more attention than many people think,” t h at initial experience is extremely important in he say s. “In our company we place such applica- r e c ruiting a young pers o n . “Academic know l e d g e tions on file and summon candidates when we is ve ry import a n t ,” he say s , “ but so is general r e c e i ve a request that matches their qualifica- b a c k gr o u n d . Technical skills or diplomas from t i o n s.” p r e s t i gious schools have their place but we also Besides the usual methods like press adve rt i- take into account the candidat e ’s pers o n a l i t y, s e m e n t s , unsolicited applications and contact a d a p t a b i l i t y, k n owledge of languages and wo r k over the Intern e t , m a ny firms find that trainee- as a trainee.” ■ ships for students or recent gr a d u ates are the Jany Lesseur India’s loss, West’s gain

For many in India, a diploma from the North represents a passport to financial and social success

t is a familiar sight to the residents of Madras in A m e rican unive rs i t i e s ,” s ays an official at the and other big Indian cities. Oblivious of the United States Embassy in New Delhi. Iscorching sun, scores of young people stand Though India has more than 260 unive rs i- in long queues outside the United States consu- t i e s , c o m p rising nearly 8,200 colleges, it has l ate waiting for their turn to be interv i e we d . often been claimed that the standard of higher M a ny of them are students wishing to go to their e d u c ation has not kept pace with change. “ T h e r e dreamland for higher studies, if possible for a is no point in doing research in India. The lack of b right future too. While some of them manage u p - t o - d ate facilities and funding forces students to get visas, o t h e rs fail to convince the consulat e to come to the United Stat e s ,” s ays V i rul A c h a- o f f i c i a l s. rya , a researcher at New York Unive rs i t y. A c a d e- Three decades ago it was regarded as an mics point out that the educational system in exceptional achievement for an Indian to study India was set up during the British era and only a b r o a d . To d ay, the phenomenon is much more minor changes have been made to it since then. widespread and hundreds of students leave India M o r e ove r , in the post-independence peri o d , looking for higher qualific ations and greener pas- emphasis was laid on the humanities at the tures in North A m e rica and in Europe. “ E ve ry expense of other disciplines. E d u c ational institu- year the US consulates in India gi ve visas to t i o n s , most of them stat e - a i d e d , suffered heav i l y nearly 1,500 students to pursue higher studies from federal budget cutbacks over the ye a rs , a n d

34 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 according to A c h a rya there has been complete s t a g n ation in higher research since the 1970s. “Most Indian colleges do not even have the I n t e rn e t ,” he say s. Helped by their predecessors , Indian students carefully select which institution to apply to, for a place in a reputed college or unive rsity assures them of a lucrati v e job after their course . Ma n y of them are recruited at campus interviews conduc- ted by multinational companies. For those who decide to return home, a well-paid job could be hard to fin d , as few companies in India offer high s a l a ri e s. “I came here to do my studies in com- p u t e rs and I got a job the day after the cours e was ove r ,” s ays Raj Lokaiya n , a computer-profes- sional turned businessman living in New Yo r k .“ I am sure in India I would have had to wait for m o n t h s , m aybe ye a rs , to find a suitable job.”

A golden highway to Silicon Valley Whereas in the early 1970s large numbers of Indian students went to the United States to study medicine, the most popular subject today is inform ation technology, f o l l owed by bu s i n e s s a d m i n i s t r at i o n . According to India A b r o a d, a n ethnic Indian weekly published in the United S t at e s , there are nearly 35,000 Indian computer professionals in Californ i a ’s Silicon Valley alone. An Indian student at Oxford. “Some of them have started their own companies and are doing ve ry we l l ,” s ays Niraj Tri ve d i , a j o u rnalist working with the magazine. Indian students who go to the US and tic cut in the number of scholarships in Bri t a i n . Europe are not necessarily ri c h . Most hail from They were the obvious alternat i v e because of the ‘Life at university, wi t h middle-class fa m i l i e s , which seek higher social language and the higher level of educat i o n . A l l its intellectual and s t atus by sending their children abroad. It is the same, a 1997 UNESCO study noted that in c o n c l u s i v e impossible for a middle-income group fa m i l y India only ranked seventh among the countri e s with a yearly income of $3,600 to send their chil- sending students abroad, well behind such smal- discussions at a dren abroad for studies which cost at least ler countries as the Republic of Korea and postgraduate level is $5,000 a ye a r. H e r e , the low-interest educat i o n a l M a l ay s i a . on the whole a bad loans (up to $15,000) offered by Indian banks Indian students wishing to study abroad fa c e come in handy. Studies in India cost ve ry little, m a ny hurdles since visa restrictions have been training for the real since most of the institutions are gove rn m e n t - tightened by the US and Europe since the early wo r l d . Only men of f u n d e d , causing some to denounce the brain 1 9 9 0 s. Some of them opt for less expensive uni- very strong character drain caused when students use the nat i o n ’s ve rsities in Australia or Russia. “The number of resources for their initial studies and then students coming to the US has dropped in the surmount this m i gr ate to other countries lat e r. last few ye a rs ,” s ays V i rul A c h a rya . “ H owe ve r , i f ha n d i c a p .’ In the past, B ritish unive rsities at t r a c t e d they want higher qualific ations they have to come m a ny Indian students because of historical links to the US or Europe as Indian unive rsities lag Paul Chambers, United b e t ween the two countri e s. A m e rican unive rs i- far behind.” ■ Kingdom,1904-1982 ties took over in the early 1970s following a dras- E t h i rajan A n b a ra s a n

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 35 Full heads but empty pocket s

Thousands of young Moroccan graduates are jobless. So far their protests have got them nowhere

of Morocco set up a National Council of Youth and the Future (CNJA), on which all the country’ s eco- nomic players are represented, and asked the new body to find solutions to the thorny problem. I n 1993 the council’s diagnosis of the situation led to the passage of a law that exempts companies from p aying employe rs ’ social security contri butions if they hire gr a d u ates as trainees at a modest salary r a n ging from 1,600 to 2,600 dirhams ($166 to $ 2 7 0 ) . In 1994, a job promotion fund was set up to help young graduates start their own companies and obtain loans. These measures were unsuccessful, so a “ youth training and employ m e n t ” p r o gr a m m e was set up in October 1997. The goal is to place 20,000 recent unive rsity gr a d u ates in pri vat e companies eve ry ye a r. The firms that hire them are entitled to all the advantages granted by the l aws of 1993 and 1994, and in addition, half the Unemployed graduates demonstrate in Rabat on 22 April 1998. s a l a ries paid to the new recruits are reimbu rs e d . The programme has a 1,710-million-dirham ($176-million) budget spread out over four yea r s. F u rt h e rm o r e , ten “job inform ation and ori e n t a- t the end of the academic year in June 1998, tion centres” h ave opened where employe rs and some 4,000 people with postgr a d u at e p r o s p e c t i ve employe rs can meet, and soon there A d e grees and 18,000 other unive rsity gr a- will be twice as many. But in 1997 they helped duates arrived on Morocco’s labour market.Many only a thousand or so gr a d u ates find wo r k . of them are likely to join the 200,000 graduates of None of these measures has solved the problem. institutions of higher learning who are already loo- Is it because liberal arts and law school graduates king for work and have beleaguered every govern- account for 60 to 70 per cent of the associat i o n ’s ment in Rabat since the early 1990s. me m b e r ship while science gra d u at e s The problem actually dates back to make up only 20 per cent? In any the eighties.The structural adjustment In June 1998, c a s e , jobless gr a d u ates were on the p r o gramme implemented then at the 4,000 people with mo ve again when a new govern m e n t urging of international financial ins- was formed in May 1998. Du r ing his titutions helped restore financial sta- po s t g ra d u a t e f i rst television appearance, t h e b i l i t y, but at the cost of severe belt- de g r ees and g ove rnment spokesman and minis- tightening measures by the state. ter of employment announced that The result has been that the num- 18,000 grad u a t e s the new team’s priority was to bring ber of gove rn m e n t - c r e ated jobs has with first degree s d own unemploy m e n t , and that his plummeted from 28,000 a year in the de p a r tment alone was going to create early 1980s to 12,000 a year in the arrived on 187 jobs. Much to his surp ri s e , past decade.The priv ate sector, wh i c h Mo ro c c o ’ s labour un e m p l o yed gra d u a tes immediate l y e m p l oys 90 per cent of Morocco’s held a sit-in in front of his ministry’s wo r k f o r c e , c r e ates only 100,000 to ma r ke t headquarters. Since then,they have 200,000 jobs a year,while the unem- besieged the employment and fina n c e pl o yment rate stands at 18 per cent,according to offi- mi n i s t r y by turns , while jobless agronomists have tur- cial figures. ned their attention to the agriculture ministry. ‘T he essential thing in As early as 1990, the casualties of budget cut- U n e m p l oyed gr a d u ates also blocked the gates of backs began fighting back.In 1991 they decided to parliament while the deputies inside discussed the teaching is to teach put pressure on the authorities by forming an Unem- 1999 finance law. what it is to know.’ p l oyed Unive rsity Graduat e s ’ A s s o c i at i o n , w h i c h The gover nment is counting on economic reco- n ow has 120 branches throughout the country. ver y to settle the problem, at least parti a l l y .In theory, Simone Weil,1909-1943, Jobless univer sity gra d u a tes know how to make their each additional point of growth represents 20,000 France. voices heard better than other unemployed people, new jobs,so graduates still have reason to hope. ■ and the response was not long in coming.The King Bahia Amrani

36 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 Jacques Attali: Tomorrow’s world elite After reporting on the state of his country’s university system, the French expert fears the rise of a two-tier system, with quality higher education reserved exclusively for the elite

◗ Is there really a crisis in higher education? companies more readily agree to accept training I dislike the word “ c ri s i s ” . Although the pro- p r o grammes that lead to diplomas. At the same blems differ from country to country, h i g h e r t i m e , eve r y unive rsity gr a d u ate should have lear- e d u c ation all over the world is going through a ned at least four things there:ho w to be a good citi- p e riod characterized by the gr owth of the stu- zen,how to communicate,create and criticize.In a dent populat i o n , an increase in unit costs, a n d country like France, there is still room for impro- the difficulty of gearing courses to the gr a d u at e s ’ vement in that regard. E d u c ation does not stress need to find jobs that match their training. T h e the importance of those four concepts enough. Co m - entire world is facing a hard choice between pure mu n i c a ting means knowing how to use a computer, market logi c, where unive rsities would compete but it also means knowing how to speak at least two with each other like bu s i n e s s e s , and the curr e n t foreign languages,which is rare.The skills needed for system dominated by the public unive rs i t y critical discussion are also far from widespread. bu r e a u c r a cy. L a s t l y, the planetary deve l o p m e n t of the unive rsity system has not reduced inequa- ◗ What does it mean to be a citizen? lities as it was supposed to do, but has actually F i rst of all, it means knowing the law, o n e ’s helped to exacerbate them. duties and one’s ri g h t s. But it also means lear- Jacques Attali ning how to live in society, to make decisions, t o ◗ In what way? p a rt i c i p at e . Student life itself should be a firs t - There are two mechanisms at work that attract the hand experience in learning about democracy. best students,regardless of their nationality, to the best unive rs i t i e s ,p ri m a rily Am e r ican ones. Not only ◗ Your comments suggest that democracy is will the elites of the South continue streaming to having rather a rough time worldwide, with the countries of the North , especially English-spea- inequalities increasing. But is higher education king ones,but univer sites are going to create “n o m a d becoming more democratic in the wealthy ca m p u s e s ” in the client countrie s . Like companies, countries? brands such as Harvard and Stanford will be expor- It is becoming a mass phenomenon without ted with their standards of quality to Singapore and becoming more democrat i c. In the rich countri e s New Delhi. Because of this pri vat i z at i o n , we will there is what might be called “cultural insider no longer be able to speak of the North as such, but d e a l i n g ” .This means that children whose parents of autonomous unive rsity systems. H a rvard and are unive rsity gr a d u ates not only possess what Higher education Oxford will lend their labels to the unive rsities of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu calls “ c u l- the South.The major universities will function like tural capital”, but have another essential adva n- is becoming vacuum pumps,sucking up the best students. tage as we l l : access to networks enabling them a mass to find out how to acquire the best educat i o n . ◗ Is this trend unavoidable? This phenomenon is wo rsening in societies that phenomenon It must be resisted by creating transnational ins- are increasingly fragmented into communities titutions capable of combating the introduction living side by side but cut off from each other. without of market logic into higher educat i o n . The pri c e To d ay only a small number of people have access becoming more to pay for that is the setting up of mechanisms to to genuine higher educat i o n . In many parts of monitor the quality of public serv i c e . Public uni- the world we are witnessing a lengthening of the democratic ve rsities must agree to submit to assessments p ri m a ry education period and the virtual disap- made by outside bodies. Europe should set up pearance of secondary educat i o n ; p ri m a ry and an assessment agency that would make unive rs i- higher education meet up with each other. A n d ties permanently open to scru t i ny and have them higher education is splitting in two : “ l owe r sanctioned if they do not comply with the stan- h i g h e r ” e d u c at i o n , available to eve ryo n e , g o e s dards set for them. more or less from the last ye a rs of high school to the master’s degr e e . Access to true higher edu- ◗ What criteria would those assessments be c at i o n – p o s t gr a d u ate studies–requires member- based on? Should the aim of higher education ship of certain social and cultural circles. T h at is be to train producers or citizens? h ow inequalities persist behind a semblance of It has to do both, of course.The ties between uni- d e m o c r a cy. ■ ver sities and business must be strengthened so that Interview by Sophie Bessis

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 37 E T H I C S The web,the spider

Will censorship on the Internet forbid the unacceptable or just silence troublesome voices? What grip can be held on a communications tool designed to be free from control?

skull rotates on the black screen. The picture of a baby flanked by A H i t l e r ’s moustache or a photo- montage of A rnold Schwarzenegger wiel- ding a sword with Ingrid Bergman at his f e e t , both of them naked, file past. T h i s s o rt of thing may amuse some people, but it is no laughing matter when sites on bomb-making, child prostitution and the superi o rity of the white race appear. The Intern e t , the outcome of a successful m a rriage between telecommunicat i o n s and inform ation technology, is posing unprecedented inform ation control pro- blems which gove rn m e n t s , s e rvice prov i- d e rs , e d u c at o rs and families are fin d i n g hard to solve .

Messages travel without leaving a tra c e A newspaper has an editorial team and a p rinting plant, a television network has n e w s c a s t e rs , studios and transmitters. I n other wo r d s , traditional media are identi- fiable and have a physical or mat e ri a l component that the authorities can call to account when they consider that the l aw has been broken.They can prosecute a journ a l i s t , shut down a newspaper or c o n fis c ate a transmitter. The media are also attached to a terri t o ry. Their mes- How can we prevent children from accessing violent sites, without restricting freedom of expression? sages may cross borders , but their activi- ties come under the jurisdiction of at a c c o u n t .T h at would require a unive rs a l In The Netherlands,the authorities have least one country. ag reement based on a common set of ethics, no intention of passing repressive laws . In s - The Internet is another matter alto- or at least a lowest common denominator. tead they are encouraging service provi d e r s g e t h e r. F i rst of all, there are countless But that is far from the case.The Nether- to clean up their act by eliminating paedo- t r a n s m i t t e rs of inform at i o n . A hundred l a n d s , C h i n a , Z a m b i a , the United Stat e s , phile and racist sites from their servers. In million people have access to the Inter- Cuba and France, to name just a few coun- January 1996 Dutch Internet service pro- n e t , and any one of them can not only tries,have radically different and even irre- v i d e rs created a foundation in charge of send electronic mail and take part in chat concilable views on what is and what is not tracking down undesirable sites. La w enfor- f o rums bu t , with a little electronic tinke- permissible on the Internet. cement officials step in only when the author ri n g, t u rn their personal computer into a I n t e rnet service prov i d e rs and some of the incriminating pages refuses to com- s e rvice provider that others can tap into. o r g a n i z ations campaigning to “clean up pl y .But Renee Zwart , a member of the foun- In a way, t h at person then becomes “ v i r- the We b ” point to an assault on morality. da tion who believes censorship is a “m e d i e - t u a l ” . His or her message can travel along The fierce competition among serv i c e val instru m e n t ” ,s ays her organization does so many routes that when it reaches its p r ov i d e rs has led many of them to culti- not attack freedom of expression. d e s t i n at i o n , the ori ginal source can no vate a wholesome image on issues such M a ny companies supply their clients longer be traced. as paedophilia, which strikes a chord in with tools to screen out porn o gr a p h i c L e gi t i m ate or not, the monitoring of public opinion, out of fear of being consi- and racist sites. S e veral such progr a m s contents must take this new situation into dered purveyo r s of “ s m u t ” . are on the market, including Cyber

38 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 E T H I C S and the fly

ri g h t s.The experiment is “ i n c o n c l u s i ve ” . some of the publicat i o n ’s articles on line. M o r e ove r , “it is relat i vely easy to outs- To d ay, opponents of monolithic regi m e s m a rt these progr a m s , e ven for a begi n- can use the Internet to set up areas of n e r ,” s ays Je a n - Paul Cloutier, an inde- freedom that are forbidden in their ow n pendent World Wide Web pioneer in c o u n t ries and can reach an intern at i o n a l Quebec and editor of Chroniques de Cybé- audience that would be difficult to obtain ri e, an on-line inform ation and commen- o t h e r w i s e . C e n s o rs around the world are t a ry magazine about the inform at i o n coming up against this phenomenon h i g h way s. because “ right now the Internet is the Go ver nment restrictions can be enforced only area of freedom outside all political in the name of morality, but above all they c o n t r o l ,” s ays Lyonnel T h o u venot of are used to prevent the use of the Internet for R e p o rt e rs without Frontiers. “subversive” ends. In China, for example, In liberal democracies, where most In t e r net users must register with the police e f f o rts to ban mat e rial on the Intern e t and agree not to use the medium for “anti- are focused on sites with paedophile and g ove rnment activities”. W h at ’s more, t h e racist content, the first attempt to control go vern m e n t , which has ever y modem-own e r the Web dates back to 1995. T h at is when on file , has monitored all traffic since 1996. the US Congress passed the Communi- “For example,it is now against the law for c ation Decency A c t , which aimed to a businessman to use the Internet to obtain s e verely punish the transmission of stock market information considered stra- “ s h o c k i n g ” and “ i n d e c e n t ” m at e ri a l t e gi c,” sa ys Christophe Tro n c h e , a member through computer networks in the name of the French section of Citadel, an organi- of the protection of children. Under the zation that campaigns for the upholding of t e rms of the law, v i o l at o rs could fa c e individual freedom on the Interne t . In Cuba, fines of up to $250,000 and two - year pri- the regulation commis- son sentences. A ye a r s i o n , which approve s l ater the act was ru l e d requests for Intern e t Government unconstitutional and access, is entirely made restrictions are s t ruck down by the up of representatives of Supreme Court . In the the justice, interior and used above all name of freedom of ar med forces ministrie s . e x p r e s s i o n , n e o - n a z i In countries like to prevent the use sites have also been China and Cuba,mo n i - of the Internet for a l l owed to continue in t o ring cy b e rspace is the United States and easier because “the tele- “subversive” ends to flourish in Den- co m m u n i c a tions opera- m a r k . to r s belong to the state , ” Cloutier explains. In Germ a ny last May, a Munich court But monitoring is less straightforward when c o nvicted Felix Somm, the former local the site is offered by a server located out- manager of the service provider Compu- Pat r o l , C Y B E R s i t t e r , N e t N a n ny and side the country. T h at is the case, f o r Se r ve, of spreading porno g raphic mat e ri a l S u r f wat c h . They offer a list of we b s i t e s e x a m p l e , in A l g e ri a , where Internet users over the Internet through newsgr o u p s , or forums with a reputation for contai- have access to a site created by “dissident handing down a suspended two - year pri- ning mat e rial considered offensive and a o f f i c e rs ” in the armed forces. “The A l g e- son sentence and fining him 100,000 list of key words that are judged obscene. rian gove rnment doesn’t like our site’s m a r k s.The conviction has been appealed. The connexion is interrupted wheneve r content. ...We use the Web as an opportu- The judicial authorities in Germ a ny are a user tries to log on to one of these sites n i t y,” s ays the site’s anonymous we b m a s- also uncompromising when it comes to or as soon as a forbidden word appears ter. neo-nazi propaganda or far-left on-line on screen.The Electronic Frontier Fo u n- The Internet can be used as an alter- magazines such as Ra d i k a l , which is accu- d at i o n , an A m e rican organization dedi- n at i ve to censored traditional media, sed of being an apologist for violence. A c ated to a radical defence of freedom of especially the printed wo r d . In Nove m- Dutch server offers the peri o d i c a l , w h i c h speech on the Intern e t , is totally in line ber 1997 the French organization Repor- is also banned from newsstands. Ho weve r , with its country ’s laws and tradition.T h e t e rs without Frontiers , which defends Cloutier say s , “few states have laws speci- f o u n d ation argues that although these freedom of the press, t ried using the fically pertaining to the Intern e t . . . .E ve ry- p r o grams screen out indecent content, I n t e rnet to gi ve a new lease of life to the thing depends on how existing laws on they also block access to many political M a u ritanian newspaper M a u ritanie Nou- freedom of expression are applied, on the and social sites, including pages devo t e d ve l l e, whose publication had been sus- m a r gin of manoeuvre one has to cri t i c i z e to fighting Aids and promoting wo m e n ’s pended for seven months, by putting the gove rn m e n t , on the national defin i-

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 39 E T H I C S

would be able to read. In fa c t , eve r y stat e f e a rs that these massive , r e p e at e d , c r o s s - border electronic exchanges,which escape Putting all control, will limit their powers and pri- vileges in the age of globalization.Some of these power s are legit i m a te if they help com- a price ba t money-laundering or the spread of pae- do p h i l i a .O t h e r s are obsolete.The gro wth of electronic trade requires total protection of on life pa yment methods,which themselves depend on secure encry p t i o n . But most expert s ag ree that the Internet must move out of its present pri m i t i ve stage, in which scholars and “ p l u g g e d - i n ” individuals exchange i n f o rm at i o n , and become an instrument of mass commercial communicat i o n ,w h e t h e r he current spate of lawsuits brought by it is used by companies between themselves , Tc a n c e r- s t r i c ken smokers or their rela- by producers,or by consumers. tives in the United States has taken the O r g a n i z ations that defend freedom of debate on smoking onto new ethical expression on the Interne t , such as the Am e - g r o u n d s. As lawyers for incriminated rican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and tobacco companies point out, the decision the Electronic Frontier Fou n d a tion (EFF), to smoke is an individual choice. I t States remain attached to their privileges.... are fighting for the total availability of encryp - becomes a matter of public interest, s a y tion technology,especially Pretty Good Pri- their opponents, when governments have tions of content that could endanger stat e vac y (PGP).This software may be avai l a b l e to foot the medical bills for treating s e c u ri t y. . . .” to all Internet users in the United Stat e s , tobacco evils. The matter becomes even more com- but only in a ver sion that is also in the pos- In the US legal system, it is not enough plicated if encryption is session of law enforce- to prove a wrong. You have to “ q u a n t i f y ” taken into account.The ment officials.In France, the damages. This is where the law gets main way in which the The matter en c r yption is done with t r i c k y, according to Tom Pursell, s e n i o r flow of inform ation on special permission from counsel for the Attorney General of Minne- the Internet is control- becomes even the gove rnment so that s o t a , which on 8 May 1998 settled one of led is by states refusing more complicated the police can read the the biggest tobacco lawsuits, involving 11 to make encry p t i o n in f o rm at i o n . American and British companies. technology totally avai- if encryption is There’s no escaping “With epidemiologists testifying as to l a b l e . E n c ryption tech- taken into account on e ’ s roots.The military which diseases and conditions are caused nology is based on a kind designed the Intern e t by smoking,” says Pursell. “we went of lock that can be ope- because they wanted a through Medicaid [public medical system ned by a key known only to the two corres- c o m m u n i c ations network with so many for the poor] payment files from 1976 to pondents and makes it possible to read mes- r a m i fic ations that the system wo u l d n ’t be 1996 to calculate what we consider a sages that were sent in code. Ending that paralysed by destroying one of its parts . Ju s t c o n s e r vative figure–$1.3 billion.” monopoly would technically mean ending try keeping tabs on that. ■ “Junk science! Bad data!” roared the ce n s o r ship on the Internet because anyon e defence lawyers, quick to find holes in the would be able to send or receive an encryp - Seydou Amadou Oumarou a c c o u n t i n g . For example, what about the ted message that no unauthorized pers o n and René Lefort money the state had raised in excise taxes on cigarette packs? More importantly, t h e industry was prepared to argue that it had, in fact, saved the medical system $2 billion in nursing home costs, as smokers die pre- maturely and need less long-term care. Dubious se r v e r s The court found it “abhorrent and hor- rendously contrary to public policy that a nternet service providers have illegal information or even by party should, in whatever guise, claim that Iproliferated at a breathtaking criminals: • protection of information; the killing of individuals should be used as p a c e. There were 213 in 1981, • national security (terrorism or • protection of privacy (unau- a defence or a factor in mitigating 1,000 in 1984,100,000 in 1989, instructions for making bombs thorized communication of per- d a m a g e s,” and rejected the so-called a million in 1992 and 9.5 million or illegal drugs); sonal data,e-mail harrassment); “death benefit” defence on 24 Ja n u a r y in 1996.Between mid-1995 and • protection of minors (violence • protection of one’s good 1 9 9 8 . “ The judge was hopelessly biased,” m i d - 1 9 9 6 , five million servers and pornography); name (libel,illegal comparative says Michael Yo r k , who represented were created. • protection of human dignity advertising); tobacco giant Philip Morris, “and made it a The European Union has iden- (racial discrimination and inci- protection of intellectual pro- point to disregard the facts.” All the same, ti fi ed the following areas where tement to racial hatred); perty (unauthorized distribution the defence agreed to settle out of court the Internet can be abused by • economic security (fraud, in s - of copyright material, such as for more than $6 billion. ■ the transmission of harmful or tructions on credit card piracy); software and music). ■

40 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 SIGNS OF THE T I M E S : the Guggenheim effect

The Guggenheim Museum has become Bilbao’s leading tourist attraction.

Life looked grim as the industrial heart of this image as a grey city with nothing to offer but its financial status as the headquarters Basque city ground to a halt. But an ambitious of Spain’s leading banks and the country’s second biggest stock market in terms of tur- new cultural policy may be just what the no ver . In short, it embarked on a revol u t i o n doctor ordered which is still only in its early stages. With support from the European U n i o n , the Spanish and Basque gove rn- i l b a o ’s Guggenheim Museum st e e l works and shipyar d s , Bilbao might have m e n t s , the regional council and pri vat e c e l e b r ates its first annive rs a ry in become a backward-looking city immerse d e n t e rp ri s e , a wide range of initiat i ve s BO c t o b e r. In the year since the in nostalgi a .I n s t e a d , at a time when Seville were launched to transform industri a l d o o rs first opened, the gigantic glass and was inaugurating Spain’s first high-speed Bilbao into a city of culture and serv i c e s titanium building designed by Califor- train and smartening itself up to celebrate its with the aid of noted architects from all nian architect Frank O. G e h ry has at t r a c- U n i ve rsal Exposition, Barcelona was sta- over the wo r l d . Façades were cleaned, ted more visitors than the population of ging its Olympic Games and wa s p o rt facilities were renovat e d , the airp o rt the city which it has helped to place chosen as the Council of Europe’s “Cultu- was modern i z e d , an eighteen-year motor- firmly on the world cultural map. ral Capital of Europe”, this port on the way construction plan got under way and In the early 1990s, fo l l o wing the decline Atlantic coast of north e r n Spain decided to drainage schemes were drawn up to of its heavy industry and the shut-down of look to the future and discard its traditional enable the ri ver Nervión to be used for

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 41 SIGNS OF THE T I M E S

r e c r e ational sailing.The whole operat i o n v i s i t o rs said they wanted to come again. will cost around $1,500 million. The Guggenheim effect was born . One major project was to provide Bil- The last gre a t museum built in the twen - The tomb bao with a metro. This idea, in abeya n c e tieth century stands in what was once a since the 1970s, was executed by the Bri- waterfront area littered with empty contai- tish architect Norman Fo s t e r , w h o s e ners. It is currently hosting (until 22 Octo- that lost its f u t u ristic semi-circular fa n - s h a p e d ber) an exhibition of 5,000 ye a rs of Chi- entrances to the first line were immedia- nese art, from neolithic times to the modern tely dubbed “fo s t e ri t o s”– “little Fo s- er a . Bilbao is the only European city to hold he a d t e rs”–by the Bilbainos. The metro has the show. On its 10,000 square metres of helped soak up the traffic snarls that pla- exhibition space–nineteen galleries on three gued this city of 370,000 inhabitants–a f l o o rs–sculptures and seri graphs by the million counting the subu r b s. Basque artist Cristina Iglesias are also on n 27 November 1996, thieves behea- The Guggenheim Museum is the keys- view (until Jan u a r y 1999). One of the rooms, Oded a stone statue from a tomb of the tone of this vast progr a m m e . It was give n 130 metres long and 30 metres wide,is easily Song Dynasty (960-1279) in Gongyi, a city the go-ahead after a marathon series of mee- spacious enough to accommodate a foot- in China’s central Henan Province. Sold by a tings at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Fou n - ball matc h . The museum also comprises an peddler to a Hong Kong businessman for da tion in New York with the Basque autho- auditorium, a library, a restaurant serving 6,500 yuan ($812), the head changed rit i e s , represented at the highest level by the re g ional specialities and a bookshop contai- hands three more times before fetching head of the autonomous government.The ning the latest books on contemporary pain- 25,000 yuan in Hong Ko n g . f o u n d at i o n ’s administrat o rs , who wa n t e d ting. It looked like just another case of cultural to create a new European museum,in addi- But the Bilbao Guggenheim is some- t r a f f i c k i n g , a plague for developing coun- tion to those in Berlin and Venice,to show thing more than an art museum. Its cha- tries rich in antiquities but lacking the their celebrated collection of modern and ra c t e r istic silhouette has been a backdrop for means to protect them. In China, t o m b - r a i- co n t e m p o r a r y art, chose Bilbao after Seville, TV commercials and pop gro u p s – S m a s h i n g ding is on the rise, with gangs smuggling M a d ri d ,Vienna and Salzburg turned the Pumpkins launched their latest disc there, relics from the mainland to Hong Ko n g , o p p o rtunity dow n . The project has been and Simple Minds used the gallery as a set- where middlemen spirit them off mostly to totally funded by the Basques. The city ting for their videoclip G l i t t e r b a l l. C o u t u- the US and UK. While the trade’s extent a u t h o rities provided the land–a disused riers Carolina Herrera and Paco Rabanne remains a mystery, Chinese police and cus- industrial site in the port district,the auto- have transformed the central atrium into a toms officers uncovered more than 14,000 nomous gove rnment and the prov i n c i a l cat w alk to present their collections. For the smuggled relics in 1997. a u t h o rities coughed up first time in ye a rs ,d a m p, The story of the Gongyi head took an $154 million,and eighty grey Bilbao is becoming unexpected turn. The Hong Kong police p ri vate companies pled- k n own to the world for were on the track of the object, when it ged to make a contribu- The Museum was something other than suddenly disappeared—leading the Chi- tion of one kind or ano- t e rr o rist violence and nese to turn to Interpol for the first time. t h e r. In return , t h e inaugurated on 18 kidnapping. “ This is one more aspect of China’s foundation promised to October 1997 in the H ow are the Bilbai- openness to the international community,” put its collections at the n o s , whose city once says Lyndel Prott of UNESCO’s Cultural m u s e u m ’s disposal, t o presence of King Juan only received a bri e f Heritage Division, “and it couldn’t have handle management and Carlos and a 10,000- w rite-up in the touri s t ended better.” a d m i n i s t r ation and to g u i d e s , reacting to this While only about 12% of stolen relics organize exhibitions.Th e strong crowd newly acquired reputa- reported to Interpol are recovered, the Gon- Bilbao Guggenheim has tion? At first they we r e gyi piece was found in July 1997. It wa s also assembled its ow n sceptical about the about to come under the hammer of a San collection of wo r k s , largely by contempo- whole thing, r e m e m b e rs journalist Fe l i x Francisco auction house for $600,000. rary artists.Paintings by Willem De Koo- L i n a r e s.Then they gradually realized that But before a stolen relic can be recove- ning, Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschen- it was serious and today they are deligh- r e d , the international conventions require berg can be seen alongside works by t e d . “A familiar sight elsewhere, such as a the claimants to prove that it has actually i m p o rtant Basque artists such as T x o m i n Japanese tourist taking photos, was some- been stolen. This is not always easy. In this Badiola, Eduardo Chillida and Prudencio thing quite new here!” s ays Linares, w h o c a s e, the Chinese proved their point with Irazabal. notes that it’s still virtually impossible to photographs of the intact statue originally The museum was inaugurated on 18 find a restaurant open on a Sunday eve- t a ken to classify the tomb as a monument. October 1997 in the presence of King n i n g . To d a y, the relic is safe in Chinese hands, o n Juan Carlos and a 10,000-strong crow d . Angel Gago, S e c r e t a ry-General of the its way back to the shoulders of the now In the first month, it attracted 100,000 B i s c ay Hotels A s s o c i at i o n , thinks that famous Song statue. ■ v i s i t o rs , becoming Spain’s third most there has definitely been a boost to tou- popular museum, after the Prado and the ri s m . “Until not so long ago the prov i n c e Reina Sofia in Madri d . After eight mainly attracted business people,” h e m o n t h s , 700,000 entries had been regi s- s ay s. “They came during the week for tered (the most optimistic forecasts had trade exhibitions. From Monday to Fri- predicted 400,000 visitors in the firs t d ay there was a decent rate of room t we l ve months), a quarter of whom we r e o c c u p at i o n , but on Sat u r d ay and Sunday v i s i t o rs to Spain. According to data col- the place was deserted”–especially since lected by the museum, 86 per cent of the m a ny locals leave the city during we e-

42 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 SIGNS OF THE T I M E S kends for nearby beaches. To d ay the i t ’s a ve ry peaceful place. Bilbao was a annual rate of hotel-room occupation is grey city like . . . well . . . M a n c h e s t e r around 42 per cent. “ We are wo rried by p e r h a p s. N ow it’s white, l u m i n o u s.”W h at talk of building four or five new hotels s u rp rises her most is that “people have which could not be absorbed in the adopted the Guggenheim Museum, t h e y i m m e d i ate future, and increased capacity d o n ’t see it as the property of gentlemen would force us to lower pri c e s ,s o m e t h i n g in New York but as something of their we want to avo i d ,” s ays Gago. The tou- ow n . The most encouraging thing is that rists who visit Bilbao today are relat i ve l y young people are the chief admirers.” well off, and Gago points out that “ t h e And she adds: “When yo u ’re inside the hotels and restaurants which have bene- bu i l d i n g, the light, and the spirals of the fited most are the fifteen or twenty feat u- architecture almost make you forget its red in the tourist guides, whereas all told c o n t e n t s. You would almost be willing to the city has 8,000 cat e ring establish- visit it if it was empty. The Guggenheim m e n t s.” has made Bilbao a much more at t r a c t i ve Gago believes that anyone who drops in c i t y. You can see it from many parts of on Bilbao today is a candidate for a return t ow n . You walk along a street and sud- v i s i t .“ D o n ’t forget,” he denly there is this gr e at say s .“W e have the Gehry titanium-clad moun- Mu s e u m , Fos t e r ’ s metro, tain in front of yo u . I t Santiago Calat r ava ’s ‘Suddenly there is p l ays tricks on yo u .” bri d g e , the area around this great titanium-clad Meanwhile other the Palace of Congre s s e s projects are fuelling the designed by César Pel l i , mountain on-going Bilbao revol u - an Argentinian architect in front of you’ t i o n . “In the next three living in New Yo r k , i n or four yea r s the city will other words works by five totally change,” s ay s or six wor l d - f amous architects within a few Gu i l l e r mo Fern a n d e z , a Bilbao city official. kilometres of each other.” In a few months’time the Euskalduna Pal a c e In her book T x o ri bu ru ( “ L i n n e t of Congresses and Music will be inaugura- Head”) the Bilbao writer and illustrat o r t e d . Likened by its architects, Fe d e ri c o Asun Balzola describes her city as it wa s S o riano and Maria Dolores Pa l a c i o s , to a in the 1940s. “These were ye a rs of iron ship under construction;its role will be to and we lived at Bilbao, also a city of iron, put Bilbao on the intern ational opera, a lways we t , gleaming and black because concert and congress circuits. it was always raining. . . . The green sha- Meanwhile the Gehry Museum, t h e d ows of umbrellas stained the streets and younger brother of Frank Lloyd W ri g h t ’s houses blackened by smoke from the fa c- building on New Yo r k ’s Fifth Ave n u e , h a s t o ri e s. . . . Bilbao was a replica of Coke- already taken its place in the annals of t ow n , the imagi n a ry industrial town des- t we n t i e t h - c e n t u ry architecture. O u t s i d e c ribed by Dickens in Hard Ti m e s.” To d ay the bu i l d i n g, beside the lines of visitors , Balzola smiles as she describes her city’s the people of Bilbao look on with a mix- new image. “The district where I spent ture of astonishment and incredulity. ■ my childhood has changed beyond belief. Lucía Iglesias Then it was a noisy industrial area, t o d ay 10,000 square metres of exhibition space. Sixty years of art-loving

he Guggenheim Foundation was n e ’s throw from Central Pa r k . I n tion of modern and contemporary quarters is in New Yo r k , the delibe- Tset up in New York in 1937 to pro- Ve n i c e, the Venier dei Leoni p a l a c e a r t , comprising expressionist, rate absence of a nerve-centre mote contemporary art and manage is the home of the collection of c u b i s t ,f u t u r i s t i c ,d a d a i s t ,n e o p l a s t i c helps it to save costs when moun- the collection belonging to the Swiss- Peggy Guggenheim, S o l o m o n ’s and surrealist works signed by ting temporary exhibitions, t o born patron of the arts Solomon R. n i e c e, who by the time of her death artists including Vasily Kandinsky. increase its income from sponsor- Guggenheim.It administers two mu- in 1979 had assembled an outstan- Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, S a l- ship and to keep its works moving seums in New Yor k , one in Ven i c e ,on e ding collection of abstract and sur- vador Dalí, Alberto Giacometti, a r o u n d . The Guggenheim system in Berlin,and now one in Bilbao. realist art. Marc Chagall and René Magritte. has been described, by some admi- In 1943 the foundation commis- The Guggenheim collection has What makes the Guggenheim r i n g l y, by others grudgingly, as a sioned architect Frank Lloyd W r i g h t regularly been enriched by fresh Foundation special is its desire to “ f r a n c h i s e ” m u s e u m . to design its spiral-shaped first acquisitions and donations. W i t h form a network of museums and ■ New York museum, which was ope- some 10,000 works, it is the worl- exhibition centres in different parts ned in 1958 on Fifth A v e n u e, a sto- d ’s most important private collec- of the world. Although its head-

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 43 C O N N E X I O N S Cybersnoopers on the prowl

In the digital age, how can privacy be protected without infringing people’s freedom to trade via Internet?

‘ o one shall be subjected to arbitr duals are priv ate companies collecting per- such inform ation and circulate it. C a n a- interference with his priva c y, fam i l y , sonal data on tens of millions of people. d a ’s commissioner for the Protection of Nhome or correspondence.... Eve- Simon Davies, the British head of Privacy P ri vate Life, B ruce Phillips, noted in ryone has the right to the protection of the I n t e rn at i o n a l , a human rights wat c h d o g 1996 that surfing the Web was a bit like l aw against such interference or at t a c k s.” gro u p , sa ys ever y citizen of an industria l i z e d p l aying stri p - p o k e r: you start by taking This may not be the best-known article of co u n t r y appears today in about 200 different off your tie and before you know where the Univer sal Declaration of Human Rights, data bases. Such mines of information are you are, your trousers have disappeared. but the gro wing invasion of priva c y by digi- c e n t r a l i z e d , sifted through and corre l at e d In other wo r d s , “ a n o nymity is not the tal technology and the Internet is bringing to produce very detailed profiles of consu- rule on the Intern e t , still less is the idea it to the fore. t h at you don’t leave any traces behind A number of opinion polls among yo u .” This wa rning by France’s Commis- I n t e rnet users show that protection of Protection of personal sion on Data Processing and Freedoms d ata about their personal lives has (CNIL) applies to a broad range of prac- become a major concern .The inventor of data has become a tices designed to tap into the secrets of the World Wide Web himself, Tim Ber- I n t e rnet users. Most websites include n e rs - L e e , said recently he was wo rri e d major concern among some kind of questionnaire to fill in. T h e about the consequences for pri vate life of Internet users US Federal Trade Commission says 85 use of the Intern e t . C y b e rspace expert s , per cent of 1,400 commercial sites it loo- consumer advo c ates and human ri g h t s ked at in March 1998 gathered pers o n a l d e f e n d e rs all wa rn that the “ b i g - b r o t h e- me r s.The files are then resold to all kinds of i n f o rm ation in this way. A medical clinic, ri z at i o n ” of society is steadily adva n c i n g . firms , which use them to sharpen their mar- for example, i nvited consumers to sub- And the political police are no longer the keting strate gi e s , assess the economic relia- mit their name, postal and e-mail only ones invo l ve d , nor even the main bility of customers and adjust to specific addresses and insurance company and to p e rp e t r at o rs of it, at least in the We s t e rn commercial demands. make comments about their health pro- d e m o c r a c i e s. The Internet is an ideal tool for this b l e m s. Some on-line services require These days,the most skilful manipula- meticulous task of cat e g o rizing the popu- such details before they will gi ve access tors of new information and communica- l at i o n . It is an extraordinary source of to their site. tions technology to build up files on indivi- d ata as well as a practical way to handle Internet users can lie to get past these

UNE S C O calls Infoethics me e t i n g

he worldwide spread of new several hundred people, i n c l u d i n g p r o c e e d s, we need to develop ways of using personal data, Tinformation technologies and some 30 leading international world citizenship and governance encouragement of “ f r e e ” s o f t wa r e the emergence of an associated invi- ex p e r t s ,in Monte Carlo from October which guarantee access to quality and open (“non-proprietary”) stan- sible economy which ignores natio- 1 - 3 . public information and call for new dards to foster intellectual innova- nal frontiers and laws underline the “ C y b e r s o c i e t y ” has made the tools of government. Factors in a tion and cooperation, and develop- urgency of political regulation and world a single country of which we fairer and more democratic infor- ment of the World Wide We b ’s an ethical vision of the “global infor- are all destined to be citizens, a s mation society include free access cultural and linguistic diversity. mation society.” With this in mind, long as we have effective access to to public and government informa- These topics will be the focus of UNE S C O is organizing the second Info- i n f o r m a t i o n . As economic, fin a n c i a l t i o n , serious study of how priva c y discussions in Monte Carlo. ■ Ethics congress, bringing together and technological globalization can be protected in the face of new ht t p : / / w w w. u n e s c o. o rg / w e b w o r l d

44 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 C O N N E X I O N S

Professor Philip Agre of the University of California at San Diego has sounded the alarm about systems that threaten private life. qu e s t i o n s .A study by the Univer sity of Geor- their opinions are. The CNIL also notes l e ave no traces behind yo u . The truth is gi a , in the United Stat e s , s h owed that 40 th a t the gath e r ing and use of e-mail for com- r ather different. Some sites place spying per cent did so when the questions got too mercial ends is a basic problem. devices, or “cookies”, on your computer’s detailed.But “most people are very naïve,” To make matters worse,the Internet is hard driv e the moment you log on to them, s ays Alain We b e r , an Internet expert with a world of invisible tracks. You get the so they can tell which pages of the site you the French League for Human Rights. impression when you surf the web that you h ave looked at , when you looked, and for “They wo u l d n ’t be so free with the infor- mation if they knew how it could be used.” A US banker in Mary l a n d , for example, recently obtained a list of cancer patients, ma tched them with his customers and then Web s i t e of the month a u t o m atically rejected loan applicat i o n s from those who were ill. h t t p : / / w w w. f a o. o rg D ata seekers on the Internet stop at n o t h i n g . The US Federal Trade Commis- rom its Headquarters in the Eternal City comes the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) web- sion is concerned about the “ t r o u b l i n g ” Fs i t e. Rated “ e x c e p t i o n a l ” by the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which placed it among the top 1% of practices of commercial websites aimed at 65,000 sites profil e d , it is available in English, Fr e n c h , Spanish and A r a b i c , and provides answers to c h i l d r e n : nine out of 10 of them extract everything you always wanted to know about food (as well as agriculture, fis h e r i e s, forestry and information from these young people and more) but were unable to ask. f e wer than a quarter suggest asking As well as extensive statistical data covering 210 countries and territories, it provides access to p e rmission from their parents before early warning systems on food and agriculture emergencies and prevention systems for animal and providing it. plant pests and diseases. A mapping system for information on food insecurity and vulnerability is in Me a n w h i l e , cyb e r sleuths use many tools the pipeline. and monitoring programmes to record peo- ple’s movements around cyberspace.Data Participate in a number of ongoing e-mail conferences or in this year’s Food for all f u n d - r a i s i n g banks like DejaNews index all messages in c a m p a i g n . Search or browse through more than 3,000 of the most recent and relevant pictures in on-line discussion gro u p s .An yone can type FAO ’s photo library. Currently featured: tropical fruit. Did you know that the 4 most traded fruits are in the name of a person,click on “profile” p i n e a p p l e s, m a n g o e s, avocados and papayas, imports of which totalled $2.2 billion in 1996 alone? and get their e-mail address and all the mes- If you live in an area where the Internet is not yet ava i l a b l e, do not despair: FAO distributes CD- sages they have sent to the gro u p , which will ROMS with similar information. ■ pr o vide informa tion about their tastes, ab o u t ho w they spend their leisure time and what

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 45 C O N N E X I O N S ho w long. If you visit a site devoted to sado- logy adviser Ira Magaziner has even threa- ma s o c h i s m , for example, you reveal aspects tened to go to the World Trade Organiza- of your character you would not admit to tion (WTO) about it.At the same time,he your closest friend.A survey last year by an insists that the US is just as concerned to The battle A m e rican NGO, the Electronic Pri va cy protect the priva c y of its citizens as European I n f o rm ation Centre (EPIC),sh o wed that a go ver nments are.And all studies show that q u a rter of the 100 most popular sites on Internet commerce cannot succeed unless of the Web use cookies to obtain profiles of co n s u m e r s can count on informa tion about their users.When you next visit them,they themselves being kept confidential. can present you with adver tising tailored to Behind such skirmishing lies the fam i l i a r the bug your interests, or even send you without difference of approach between the US and your knowledge programmes like Java E u r o p e . The former trusts the market to Ap p l e t s , which can reconfigure a site accor- so l v e the trickiest problems, while the latt e r ding to each visitor’s tastes. prefers to set up public-sector bodies to do The range and power of new technolo- s o. Though the A m e rican authorities are gies are creating a formidable “s u r vei l l a n c e well aware of the need to reassure Internet e c o n o my,” s ays Dav i e s. So strengthening us e rs , they are also sympathetic to the argu- s the third millennium draws near, t h e protection of the right to priva c y is an urgent ments of direct marketing and financial lob- Aentire world is threatened by the mil- matter. The European Union directive on b y i s t s , who think the solution lies less in lennium bug, an unprecedented computer “the protection of individuals with regard to imposed regulation than professional self- phenomenon that could have effects as the processing of personal data and on the r e g u l ation through codes of conduct and wide-ranging as erasing maps to minefie l d s free movement of such data ” is a step in this the development of encryption technology and a recession more severe than the one direction. and ways of erasing individual tracks left in caused by the 1973 oil price hike. Under the directive, which comes into cyberspace. Computers were programmed to indicate effect on 25 October 1998,the processing of EPIC assessed the effectiveness of self- dates with just two characters–98 for da ta about ethnic origi n s , political opinions, re g u l a tion by looking at the websites of firms 1998–to save memory. At zero hour on 1 r e l i gious and philosophical beliefs, t r a d e which were members of the Direct Marke- January 2000 their clocks could turn back a union members h i p, health and sex life, i s ting A s s o c i ation (DMA), which opposes century to the year 1900. The consequences prohibited except where a ny legi s l at i ve interfe- could be unfortunate–an elevator could there are special exem p - re n c e . It concluded that abruptly come to a halt between flo o r s – o r tions or derogat i o n s. The power of new “the DMA’s efforts to disastrous–the computers that help operate Mo r e o ver , in each of the promote pri va cy prac- a nuclear power plant’s cooling system or European Union’s fif- technologies is creating tices is having little manage air traffic could stop running. teen Member Stat e s , a impact on its new mem- To avoid such scenarios, programs must special authority is to a formidable b e rs ,e ven after repeate d be modifie d , tested and harmonized. Th o s e protect individual’s ‘surveillance economy’ assurances from the operations are technically simple, but they rights and freedoms with DMA that this approach require an exhaustive review of hundreds regard to the processing is effective.” of millions of applications in every area of personal data.It is to guarantee citizens The Federal Trade Commission came to from banking to manufacturing and health- the right to be informed, to have access to the same conclusion after a wide-rangi n g c a r e. data concerning them and the right to cor- su r vey published in June 1998. It said that This painstaking task requires implemen- rect it, and to erase data whose processing “the industry’ s efforts to encourage vol u n t a r y ting major projects, hiring highly skilled does not comply with the provisions of the adoption of the most basic fair informat i o n w o r kers and purchasing new hardwa r e, l e a- d i r e c t i ve .A rticle 25 states the principle that practice prin c i p l e – n o t i c e – h a ve fallen far short ding the world’s largest companies to make the transfer of personal data to third coun- of what is needed to protect consumers.” substantial investments. But for many busi- t ries may only take place if the receiving Pressure from consumers and from n e s s e s, especially small- and medium-sized countries offer a level of protection that is Europe may force firms to change their f i r m s, it is apparently already too late to “a d e q u at e ” within the meaning of EU legis - mode of operation. If it does not, we may tackle the problem. lat i o n . “If the European plan succeeds,”say s lose not only the freedom to buy and sell According to upper-end estimates, on a Davies in the American monthly magazine but also our personal freedom.“The adven t planetary scale the operation will cost one W i r e d, “ e ve ry country on earth will soon of the surveillance society will bring with it trillion dollars, but the tab could soar even adhere to a global priva c y code. If it fa i l s ,t h e a new era of social control,” warns Davies. higher as the deadline nears and unexpec- United States and Europe could end up in “The two have always existed hand in hand.” ted snags crop up, especially since the cor- the throes of an ugly trade war over the inter- ■ rections made to programs themselves national transfer of personal information.” Sophie Boukhari cause new problems. In a globalized economy where infor- The millennium bug has mobilized armies m ation about consumers is the new gold Websites of computer programmers in the United mi n e , the stakes are huge, in volving no more S t a t e s, Canada and the United Kingdom, and no less than the future of all banking ht t p : / / w w w. p r i v a c y. o r g but the problem has drawn scant attention and trade transactions, especially electro- ht t p : / / w w w. e p i c. o r g in other industrialized countries, such as nic.The United States has already gone on ht t p : / / w w w. c n i l . f r Fr a n c e. M e a n w h i l e, Asia is crippled by its the offensive by accusing Europe of using ht t p : / / w w w 2 . e c h o. l u : l e g a l / e n / d a t a p r ot/di rec - banking crisis and the developing countries p ri va cy protection laws to erect barri e rs ti v / d i re c t i v. h t m l are too poor to afford to modify their com- around the valuable European market of puter systems. ■ 370 million people. White House techno-

46 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 T A L K I N G T O . . . Jer emy Rifki n : fears of a brave new world Will wars be fought for the control of genes in the 21st century? Jeremy Rifkin fears the worst and explains why

■ What is the Biotech Century? gene therapy to cure or prevent human Our futurists have too narro wly defined the disease, you raise the question as to who twe n t y - fi rst century as the informa tion age. should decide what is a “good”or “bad” In fact, a far more profound shift is taking gene.Are we heading into a new age of place in the global economy. C o m p u t e rs eugenics? and genes are beginning to fuse into a single Yes, but it doesn’t bear any resemblance to po werful technological and economic force w h at we saw in Nazi Germ a ny. The new th a t is laying the foundation for the biotech eugenics is not social eugenics. It is banal century. Computers are increasingly being and friendly. It is commercial and market- used to decipher,manage and organize the d ri ve n . S o o n , p r o s p e c t i ve parents will be vast genetic inform ation that is the raw able to programme the biological future of resource of the new global economy.Al r e a d y their unborn children.They will feel pressure mu l t i n a tional corpo r a tions are creating gia n t to rid their children of “undesirable traits”. life-science complexes from which to fas h i o n If you knew you were going to pass on a a bio-industrial world. gene for leukemia, wouldn’t you like to eli- There are tremendous short- t e r m bene- mi n a te that from the sperm or the egg? An d Jeremy Rifkin,economist and activist. fits–new plants and animals,new pharma- w h at about obesity or near-sightedness? ceuticals and energy sources. But it is naive Once we begin this journe y , there is really no to believe that these benefits come with no place to stop. Chilling eugenics issues will In contrast, the soft path would mean co s t s .The envi r o n m e n t a l , social and ethical arise as we begin to see our children as the using the same genetic sciences to create a im p l i c a tions of this science are chilling.Wi l l ultimate shopping experience. so p h i s t i c a ted and sustainable organic agri- the creation of cloned,chimeric and trans- We already see this happening. In the cu l t u r e . The rule of thumb we ought to apply genic species mean the end of nature? Will 19 8 0 s , the Genetech and Eli Lilly compa- is clear: do no harm . S e c o n d l y, a lway s the mass release of genetically engineered nies were awarded patents to market a choose the path that is least likely to foreclose organisms into our biosphere mean genetic new genetically engineered gr owth hor- op p o r tunities for those not yet here and the pollution and irr e ve rsible damage to the mone to the few thousand children suffe- one that is most able to sustain relati o n s h i p s biosphere in the twen t y - fi rst century? Wh a t ring from dwa r fism in the United Stat e s. instead of draining them. are the risks of making a “perfect”baby? By 1991, the hormone had become one of the best selling pharmaceutical dru g s ■ Who is behind this new age of genetic ■ But how does this differ from our long- in the country. Cl e a r l y , do c t o r s were pres- commerce? standing struggle to redesign nature? cr ibing the drug to children who were just Giant life-science companies are manœu- It is true that we have been engi n e e ri n g s h o rter than their peers. The companies vering to control genetic commerce in the na ture since the dawn of the Neolithic revo- are now pushing doctors to redefine nor- twe n t y - fi rst century.The mergers and acqui- lution in agric u l t u r e , but the new gene-spli- mal shortness as an “ i l l n e s s ” . sitions going on in the life science industry cing technologies are qualitati v ely different. riv al those in the telecommunicat i o n s ,c o m- In classical breeding, it is only possible to ■ Some critics have branded you as an puter and entertainment sectors.The gia n t cross close relatives in the biological king- alarmist–they consider your views to be chemical companies are beginning to sell d o m . To d ay, h owe ve r , we are no longer anti-science.These critics go too far, but off their chemical divisions to concentrate constrained by these biological boundarie s . at some level,do you feel that we should solely on the life sciences.They are making For example, scientists have taken the gene restrain this new genetic science? the shift from the petrochemical age to the t h at emits light in a fir e fly and injected it I believe that genetic science is invaluable; age of genetic commerce. Genes will be the into the genetic code of a tobacco plant, the question is not the science but the tech- p ri m a ry raw mat e rial of the coming cen- which when fully gr ow n ,g l ows twen t y - f o u r n o l o gical application of that science. We tu r y just as oil, metals and minerals were in ho u r s a day.We have not seen that in evol u - must choose between a hard path and a soft the colonial and industrial era. ti o n . Genetically engineered plants,mi c r o - pa th to the twen t y - fi rst century.In the case The name of the game is pate n t s . In the organisms and animals bring greater risks. of agri c u l t u r e , for example, the hard pat h next ten yea rs , we will have isolated virtu a l l y would lead to genetically engineered plants, all 60,000 genes that make up the blueprin t ■ In discussions surrounding the use of environmental risks and health problems. for the human race.Virtually every one of

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 47 T A L K I N G T O . . . those genes will be the intellectual property the company. of these life science companies for at least Imagine the case of a chimpanzee with twenty years. one human gene in its genetic code. T h e The whole idea of patenting genes is a pa tent office would now consider that entire s c a m . Under US and European stat u t e s , chimpanzee to be an inve n t i o n . This is a you have to prove that you have inve n t e d gross violation of the mandate of the US something that is nove l , non-obvious and Patent Office and its statutes.We are now u s e f u l . So consider the example of a che- challenging this in the US patent system. mist in the nineteenth century isolat i n g helium which is not obvious and certainly ■ How can you effectively try to counter u s e f u l . N ow that chemist can patent the this trend given the tremendous finan- technique used to isolate helium but not cial stakes involved? the element.Th at ’ s because helium is not an I have joined with the distinguished cell bio- invention but rather a discovery of nature. l o gist Dr. S t u a rt Newman of New Yo r k But in 1987, the US Patent Office issued Medical College.We have submitted a pate n t a simple paragraph saying that it was possible to the US Patent Office containing thirt y to patent any genetically modified life form claims covering all the human-animal chi- except a human being after birth.The only meras (human-chimpanzee chimeras, reason for excluding patents on humans is human-pig and other combinations) for that the US Constitution forbids slavery. medical purposes. As of now, there are no existing patents on this kind of chimera. ■ But aren’t you oversimplifying the issue. If we are granted this pat e n t , we will The patents don’t really cover the genes. claim a “genetic conservan cy ” to forbid any They are awarded to companies and researcher from crossing human-animal res e a rc h e r s to legally protect the bo u n d a r ies with embryonic cells for twen t y A biologist shows a genetically altered mouse which methods invented to isolate or use them. ye a rs so that countries can have the time to emits green light in the dark. They are actually patenting the genes.Th e r e d e b ate this issue and hopefully pass the are patents on thousands of human and ani- appropriate legislation to outlaw all trans- their natural res o u r ces from exploitation. mal genes.For example,Myriad Genetics genic organisms.We are also seriously consi- How would you advise them? has isolated a gene that causes breast cancer, d e ring whether to test the patent stat u t e s Two positions are being championed. I think especially in Ashkenazi women (of Eastern in the European Union. both are inappropriat e . One position is that European Jewish origi n ) . The company has of the life-science companies.The other is a patent on that gene–it is their inve n t i o n .I f ■ The US and the World Trade Orga n i z a t i o n th a t of many of the developing countries who a ny woman in the world goes for a scree- in particular have been pressuring deve- are sayi n g , “L o o k , these are our resources, ning for that breast cancer gene, pa r t of the loping countries like India into adopting just as oil is in the Middle East.We should be fee that she pays is in the form of a royalty to the US model of patent laws to prot e c t co m p e n s at e d .O t h e r w i s e , it is biopiracy.” But how do you ever compensate for the bl u e p r ints of life? Secondly,who do you com- p e n s ate? Indigenous knowledge and resources cross all tribal and national boun- da ri e s . For example Merck and Company Alarmist or seer? ha ve an absurd relationship with Costa Rica. They giv e a local non-profit institute a million d o l l a rs for access to all the country ’s ri c h ctivism has been a way of w o r k f o r c e, society and the envi- lash against science. genetic dive rs i t y.Who does this institute A life for Jeremy Rifkin, b o r n r o n m e n t . One of his internatio- “I was raised as a reformed re p r e s e n t ? in the US state of Colorado in nal bestsellers The End of Work Je w ,”Rifkin says.“I culturally iden- The gene pool should not be reduced 1 9 4 3 . The founder and president ( P u t n a m ,1 9 9 5 ) , is widely credi- tify with that but I am not reli- to commercial exploitation by either gover n- of the Foundation on Economic ted for shaping today’s debate g i o u s. For me, visiting the Nazi ments or companies.I am hoping that gene- Trends in Wa s h i n g t o n , D. C . , h e on corporate downsizing and concentration camp at Dachau as ti c a l l y - r ich countries like India will take the has testified before numerous t e c h n o l o g y ’s role in displacing a young man proved to be a defi- lead in developing a third way in which we congressional committees on the workforce. ning experience. . . . We all want keep the gene pool open–as we did with subjects ranging from germ In his latest book,The Biotech to make sure that such things Antarctica–by covenant and treat y. If this warfare threats to the labeling Century: Harnessing the Gene and never happen again.But we also doesn’t happen, we are going to have gene of genetically engineered foods. Remaking the World (Ta r c h e r / P u t - have to understand that they can wars in the twenty-first century as we had He has also been a consultant n a m ,1 9 9 8 ) , Rifkin focuses on the and do happen in ways we don’t wa rs over oil, metals and minerals in the to numerous heads of state and negative implications of new suspect. That is why I have spent i n d u s t rial era. This commercial competi- o f f i c i a l s, and has lectured at genetic technologies which he so much time focusing on how tion and conflict over own e r ship and control more than 300 universities in a feels have been largely ignored in eugenicism is now becoming com- of the gene pool will further divide the haves dozen countries. Rifkin is per- public debates.The result is a frigh- mercial and market - d r i v e n . If there and the have-nots. haps best known for writing 14 tening view of a “ b i o - i n d u s t r i a l is an enemy,it is all of us who,for books examining the impact of w o r l d ” and an explanation of good reasons, want healthy ■ If this is such an important issue, why has scientific and technological genetic commerce which has been babies.” ■ there been so little public debate? Is the changes on the economy, t h e criticized as an unfounded back- media to blame? For the most part, the science and bus i n e s s

48 The UNESCO Courier - September 1998 T A L K I N G T O . . . j o u rnalists have treated the issue anecdo- tists do not really believe in the demo- tally, reporting on a new food crop here or c r atic process. We saw the same thing a medical breakthrough there.Some of the with petrochemical pollution and nuclear science writ e r s have a cozy relationship with e n e r g y. Gl o s s a r y the molecular biologists and the biotech Bi o t e c h n o l o g y : any technique that uses living ■ companies which they don’t want to jeo- Is there a link between this arrogance organisms or substances from those orga- p a r d i z e . They also don’t feel confident in and the growing disregard for the idea nisms to make or modify products, p l a n t s ch a l l e n g ing the scientists. But more impor- that a species has an essential nature or or animals, or to develop micro-organisms ta n t l y ,the media have not yet understood the an intrinsic value? for specific uses, such as fermentation and larger context because they have focused so Yes , this is crit i c a l . Living beings are no lon- waste treatment. closely on the information revolution.But ger perceived as birds and bees but as once the context shifts to the broader eco- bundles of genetic inform at i o n . All living Ch i m e ra : an organism comprising cells of two nomic arena of genetic commerce,all of the beings are drained of their substance and or more distinct genomes, resulting from issues we have discussed will be on the public life becomes a code to be deciphered.Th e r e experimental manipulation. agenda. is no longer any question of sacredness or sp e c i a l n e s s .Ho w could there be when there Cl o n e : a group of organisms of identical gene- ■ Is the industry trying to hinder this are no longer any recognizable biologi c a l tic make - u p, produced by some kind of debate? boundaries to respect? In this new way of asexual reproduction. There is no conspiracy.Its just that the com- thinking about evo l u t i o n ,s t ructure is aban- E u g e n i c s : study of the possibility of impro- mercial floo d g a tes are opening ver y quickly doned. Everything is pure process. So you ving the human gene pool.Historically asso- and the biotech business leaders are just can mix and matc h , and cross anything you ciated with some extreme political tenden- trying to make as much money as they can want in the biological kingdom. cies and with encouragement of breeding by and advance their portfolios as fast as pos- The laws of nature are being rewritten to those presumed to have favourable genes s i b l e . They don’t even see the broader co n f o r m with our latest manipulation of the and discouragement of breeding by those c o n t e x t . The last thing they want is to be na tural wor l d . The old Darwinian notion of presumed to have unfavourable genes. s l owed down by debat e . the “ s u rv i val of the fit t e s t ” They want to believe there is being replaced by the “s u r - Genetic engineering: technologies used to will be no problems. The most chilling vival of the best informed”. isolate genes from an organism, m a n i p u- At a deeper leve l , t h e r e Human beings, the best late them and insert them in another orga- is a new libert a rian streak prospect of all is “i n f o rm a tion processors ”i n nism. which insists that the mar- the biological kingdom,are ket should be the final arbi- letting the n ow advancing the evo l u- Genome: the total genetic material within a t r at o r. This way you can marketplace and t i o n a ry process by repro- cell or individual. avoid a debate and just gramming nature using Germ-line therap y : attempts to prevent gene- assume that the marketplace consumers decide genetic engineering tools. tic disease by transplanting genes into will decide as to what kind of This new cosmology the future human sperm,egg or embryonic cells.The technology should be used o f f e rs the ultimate justifi- resulting changes would be passed on to and how.To me, the most c ation for a hard-pat h the patient’s offspring. chilling prospect of all is letting the mar- sc i e n c e . It assures us that we are followi n g ketplace and consumers decide the future the natural order of things and simply Recombinant DNA: the product resulting ev olution of our species and other creatu r e s . m oving in the same direction as nat u r e from genetic engineering techniques to com- has already set out for us. In the next step bine pieces of DNA from different indivi- ■ But how do you explain the vehemence on this pat h , molecular biologists wo n ’t duals or species. with which scientists respond to anyone speak of genetic engi n e e ri n g, which is too questioning their work? c o l d . Instead they will consider humans Tra n s g e n i c : describing an organism whose There is a certain arrogance in science,es p e - and other creatures as unfinished wo r k s normal genome has been altered by intro- cially when a particular science is coming of of art . Biotechnology will be seen as duction of a gene by a manipulative tech- ag e . We saw this with the chemists and phy- p owerful “ a rtistic tools” a l l owing us to nique,often involving introduction of DNA sicists and now we see it with the biologis t s . finish the canva s. from a different species. This arrogance is rooted in the old Baco- US patent: a grant issued by the US Pa t e n t nian science which is based on power .Ba c o n ■ After a frightening outlook for the next and Trademark Office (a federal government called nature a “common little harlot.She is century, your book ends with “the rest is entity within the Department of Commerce) w i l d . We must tame, s q u e e z e , mould and up to us”.This is frustrating.What can that gives the patent owner the right to shape her,” he said.“Knowledge is power. we do? We can be the masters of our destiny.” It would be absurd to lay out bluepri n t s exclude all others from making, using or M a ny microbiologi s t s – but not all of as to what should be done. I n s t e a d , I selling a patented invention within the US t h e m – find it exciting to be able to control h ave made a diagnosis of two different for a specified term (generally 17 years). d e s t i ny, to be able to be God. They are p aths for the next century. It is up to the Laws of nature, physical phenomena and the only ones who can not only decipher public and the next generation in part i- abstract ideas cannot be patented. the code of life, but administer it. T h e y cular to politicize and argue, c h a l l e n g e Scientific reference:The Penguin Dictionary b e l i e ve that if we were capable of unders- and express their views in the streets, i n of Biology (Penguin Books, 1996). tanding their wo r k , we would be in the court s , the media, and so on. favour of it. But for them being inform e d When gr e at technological and com- means knowing it as they do and accep- mercial revolutions sweep over civiliza- ting their moral view of it. These scien- t i o n s , there is always a window of oppor-

September 1998 -The UNESCO Courier 49 T A L K I N G T O . . .

tunity to deal with the changing powe r have the sway needed for a soft path to r e l ationships and ask what we wa n t . the biotech century? We have to see past the myths that I am saying that there is no public opinion science is value-free and technology is yet. Once the focus shifts to genetic com- n e u t r a l . If you start with the idea that the m e r c e , d e b ate will escalate exponen- life science corp o r ate agenda is simply tially–not just on the part of activists bu t the next stage in evo l u t i o n – t h at just also within industry.This is not just big cor- because we can do something means that porations against the citizens–there will be we should or will do it–then there is no a push and pull in the marketplace. point in having a debat e . In agri c u l t u r e , for example, there will By recognizing the power of the new be a major battle between organic pro- t e c h n o l o gi e s , we should ask: is that appli- d u c e rs and distri bu t o rs and the biotech c ation an appropri ate use of power? Is companies for consumers. The same will t h at power manageable or uncontrol- be seen with medicine and health. T h e lable? Is that power going to potentially p h a rmaceutical companies are going to foreclose our options or the options of push hard path drugs (which I don’t those not yet born ? n e c e s s a rily oppose) and further down the line somatic and germ-line therapy. O n ■ Aren’t you being rather optimistic? Don’t the other side, the insurance companies you think that the lack of debate reflects will push to use the same science to pro- a serious flaw in society’s institutions? duce sophisticated preve n t i ve health care I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist. r ather than paying for expensive dru g s I don’t know if this generation will do the and therapies to heal the sick. right thing. But I am hopeful that it will. It can create different avenues for change ■ Does UNESCO have a role to play in the instead of relying on the institutions of debate? society which maintain and represent the It would be interesting if UNESCO could s t atus quo. pr o vide a galvanizing place so that the non- H owe ve r , activism is not just about g ove rnmental organizations could have shouting from the rooftops. Our passion more sway. UNESCO doesn’t necessari l y and intuition have to be built into an ha ve to take a position but through the Inter- intellectual framewo r k .We must not only na tional Bioethics Committee it could offer h ave a basis for discussion but an alter- a forum to debate the complexities of these ■ n at i ve vision. issues. “This complete disregard for life angers me, but Interview by Amy Otchet nothing shocks me,” Rifkin exclaimed when he saw a ■ Do you believe that public opinion will photo of this mouse with a human ear. ✂ I WISH TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE UNESCO COURIER

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D O S S I E R : The long struggle for human rights Hard-won victories around the world Problems and pitfalls Economic and social rights: a mixed reception Why do we need an international criminal court? A new generation of activists

F E AT U R E S : Curbing the greenhouse effect The debate on legalizing drugs How today's press sees tomorrow's world Interview with Spanish novelist Manuel Vázquez Montalbán

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