A necessary year

These weeks, opening ceremonies of the European Year for Intercultural Dialogue are being held in different European capitals. On February 12 it was the turn of Rome. “A necessary year – claimed Jan Figel, European Commissioner for Education, training, culture and multilingualism, presenting the initiative – dialogue between cultures is a characteristic of European integration”. “We need to learn to live together”, claimed the Commissioner. “This means fully living one’s identity, in the respect of the other, for mutual enrichment. We should go beyond mere tolerance to the benefit of cultural mixture”. Rome’s meeting was attended by various representatives of the European cultural world who reiterated the need for dialogue between cultures, which can occur also through the language of literature, music, and art. For information: www.dialogue2008.eu.  The fear of the other. “After September 11, Europe witnessed growing concern of the stranger. This is why the Year of Cultural Dialogue is extremely important. We need to get to know one another in Europe. We need to establish real and true exchanges between cultures and peoples, and to respect each other”, said Virgilio Dastoli, director of the European Commission Delegation in Italy, in his opening address. “Dialogue between cultures doesn’t only pertain to EU environment. It can become the road to follow in the promotion of cultural interchange and for more effective neighbourhood policy. The life of EU institutions is also part of Community patrimony. They represent our legislative patrimony, thus they are part and parcel of European juridical culture”.Greater globalization. Predrag Matvejevic’, President of the International Committee of the Mediterranean Laboratory Foundation, addressed the issue of intercultural exchange between the Balkans and the Mediterranean regions. “The Balkans – he said – are the cradle of European culture, but they also produce more history than they can consume. It’s an exceeding region, which often becomes excessive.”. “Today we can no longer speak of one single globalization. There are several globalizations. There isn’t just one, Western-based globalization. Others have been born, for example in the far East, in China”. Mr.Matvejevic believes that “national cultures, also those of my Balkans, aren’t ready for globalization, since many challenges are external. In my opinion, we should cultivate and defend local and national realities, bearers of identity. Although it must be said that not all local realities convey true values”. An only theoretical availability. “Theoretically, we’re all willing to engange in dialogue with others and meet diversity. However, this happens only provided that other cultures are physically distant from us. This is why they are viewed as exotic..”, stigmatized Iraqi writer Younis Tawkik, who has been living in Italy for 22 years where he arrived from Mosul (Ninive), after having been “struck” by Dante’s Divine Comedy, which a Catholic priest taught him in school. “When, through immigration, other cultures arrive in our homes, we are unprepared. A series of problems thus spark off. This is our experience with Islam and with the Muslim communities present in most European cities. However – he concluded – I am sure that unless cultures, but also religions, become a common ground for meeting and confrontation, not even the political realm will reach this objective”. Seeking values. “Since I was a girl I learned about Europe on television and through the works of many artists, poets and musicians especially”. These are the childhood recollections of Ornela Vorpsi, young Albanian writer, photographer, painter and video-artist, who conveyed her own intercultural experience. “When I grew up, and the borders were open, I came to Western Europe seeking values. I lived in Italy, Paris and Berlin. But in the West I also tried to create an art for art, that is, a cultural expression that isn’t aimed at politics, at supporting the regime, as was the case in Albania during Communist rule. Once it was said that religion is peoples’ opium. Today I’d rather say that true opium is distraction, consumerist entertainment. This age needs real things; ideals, cultural exchange and mutual understanding. Also because often cultures, poetry and art are further ahead than politics”.Dialogue with music. Also music can be an extraordinary tool for dialogue. The claim was made by the President of the “Women in music” foundation Patricia Adkins Chiti. “For the past thirty years – she explained – I have been chairing a foundation which deals with women’s contribution to artistic creation. We bring together music composers from different Countries. We consider this is another way of producing intercultural dialogue, since music represents the form of expression of a People’s feeling. We aren’t theorizers of dialogue. We turn it into our concrete experience”.