PERMANENT COMMISSION FOR MEDITERRANEAN INTERCULTURAL SYNOPSIS OF THE MARCH 7 SESSION
On the seventh day of the month of March, 1998 the first meeting of the Standing Commission on Interculturality takes place in Bari, organized by Prof. Luigi Ambrosi, President of the Community of the Mediterranean Universities (CMU) and set up by the CMU Board.
List of the participants enclosed.
During his opening speech Prof. Ambrosi illustrates the rationale and the aims of the Commission. In his words: Faced with the escalation of violence in the Mediterranean area, intellectuals are more and more required to take decisive steps to counteract the situation. The participants are therefore asked whether or not they think there are absolute conditions which decree incompatibility among the basic principles underlying the single Mediterranean cultures which may prevent the creation of an intercultural society which, even recognizing the ethnic and cultural peculiarities of each and every country, can lead to cooperation and peaceful coexistence amongst the peoples of the Mediterranean Basin.
Prof. Ambrosi’s opening speech enclosed.
All the participants agree with Prof. Ambrosi’s proposal and express their conviction that there are no absolute conditions which decree incompatibility and hinder the creation of a Mediterranean intercultural society. Therefore they also agree with the proposal of involving the Universities and the Cultural Centres of each Mediterranean Country in view of accelerating the process of intercultural awareness.
The discussion on this topic sees the active participation of all the delegates.
In short at the end of the discussion the following elements and proposals emerged:
A) the need for organizing higher education, above all in the Universities, focusing on the values of the person as well as on the intercultural processes. University students, as recognized and emphasized by all the participants, are the most appropriate "tool" to create the foundations of an intercultural dialogue. For this aim to be achieved better and unbiased understanding of the individual cultures is required freed from the still frequent manipulation.
Universities cannot confine themselves to providing only a specialized education. Quite the contrary, they have to become places where global education is provided which may enable students to be acquainted with the role that each and every culture played and may still be able to play in the education of the Mediterranean Man. Hence the necessity of revisiting and rewriting some textbooks, above all those of Mediterranean History.
Other actions that, as wished, could be set in motion are as follows:
- implementation of optional training courses focusing on the in-depth study of the Mediterranean cultures;
- setting up of undergraduate courses in "Sciences and Techniques of Mediterranean Interculturality";
- setting up of specific doctorate and master courses;
- transfer of the debate on interculturality to the political level;
- publication of a monograph on the "Peculiarities of the Mediterranean" to be disseminated in all the Universities as a basis for organizing the relevant courses.
As wished, these initiatives should accelerate the process of recognition of the degrees awarded by the Universities at the various levels, a process pursued in cooperation with supranational organizations such as UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the European Union).
B) the enhancement of mutual cultural relations should also rely on more advanced communication technologies.
Therefore mass media (radio, TV, newspapers) have to be made more aware of and involved in the activities of the Commission. In the near future a WEB site will be set up and a periodical on interculturality issued. All the members of the Commission as well as all the intellectuals of the Mediterranean are therefore invited to submit their proposals and projects on the topic of interculturality.
The involvement of mass media is expected to lead to a progressive integration, without prevarication, of the apparently diverse aspects of the diverse ethnic and sociocultural attitudes.
C) the need to conduct research and comparative studies of the different cultures focusing on those shared cultural elements which may lay the foundations of a peaceful coexistence based on dialogue, mutuality and solidarity.
To this purpose the Commission deems it to be useful to establish relationships with the organizations that, at various levels, operate in the field of peace-keeping.
At the end of the meeting the President undertakes to include the topic of Mediterranean interculturality in the agenda of the next CMU General Meeting and states CMU’s availability to act as a "focal-point" in receiving, transmitting and circulating the information and the proposals received in all the Mediterranean Universities. In addition the President deems it to be useful to begin to examine and explore in the near future the actual potentials in terms of intercultural cooperation in such fields as religion, history, sociology, environment, economy, etc.
STANDING COMMISSION ON INTERCULTURALITY
BARI - MARCH 7, 1998
PARTICIPANTS
Prof. Luigi AMBROSI - Italy
Prof. Khaled FOUAD ALLAM - Italy
Arch. Michele CAPASSO - Italy
Prof.ssa ARCIDIACONO - Italy
Dott. Domenico FAZIO - Italy
Prof. Giuseppe PAPAGNO -.Italy
Prof.ssa Giovanna TRISOLINI - Italy
Prof.ssa Emel DOGRAMACI - Turkey
Prof. Hassan ARFAOUI -France
Prof. Mohamed KNIDIRI - Morocco
Prof. Ronald G. SULTANA - Malta
Dott. Jean Claude PETIT - France
Prof. Sotirios VARNALIDIS - Greece
Prof. Shlomo SIMONSOHN - Israel
Prof. Jalloul JE’RIBI - Tunisia
Dr. Mohammed EL SAYED SELIM - Egypt
Dr. Emmanuel AGIUS - Malta
Prof. Rafael PINILLA - Spain
Prof. Josep TRILLA - Spain
Prof. Giorgio OTRANTO - Italy
Prof. Antonio BALDASSARRE - Italy
Prof. Filippo CASAMASSIMA - Italy
Prof. Mauro CIVITA - Italy
Prof. Raffaele COPPOLA - Italy
Prof. Gaetano DAMMACCO - Italy
Prof. AntonGiulio dè ROBERTIS - Italy
Dott.ssa Alessandra DI BENEDETTA - Italy
Prof. Carlo DI BENEDETTA - Italy
Prof. Giovanni DOTOLI - Italy
Prof. Italo GARZIA - Italy
Prof. Franco LOSURDO - Italy
Prof. Marco MAESTRO - Italy
Padre Salvatore MANNA - Italy
Prof. Marcello MONTANARI - Italy
Prof. Cosimo NOTARSTEFANO - Italy
Prof.ssa Anna PORTOGHESE - Italy
Dott. Pasquale SATALINO - Italy
Prof. Francesco SIDOTI - Italy
Prof. Silvio SUPPA - Italy
PERMANENT COMMISSION
FOR
MEDITERRANEAN INTERCULTURAL EXCHANGE
Bari - HOTEL SHERATON
MARCH 7, 1998
9:00 a.m.
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT
Faced with the escalation of violence in the Mediterranean area, the slaughter in Algeria, the dangers of chemical and bacteriological warfare, the failure to respect even the most elementary values of the person, how is the world of intellectuals of the Mediterranean countries reacting? What do they think? Is it really true that nothing can be done?
These are the questions that the Community of Mediterranean Universities (CUM) is at present asking, in the name of its 165 member Universities. The CUM intends at least to try to denounce the existing situations and to find elements which may combine to create the possibility of constructive dialogue among the many religious and ethnic groups which coexist in the splendid Mediterranean lands.
These are the reasons that have led the Council of the CUM to promote this meeting in the hope of creating, by means of the Universities, the intellectuals of all religious or ethnic origins, a cultural movement inspired by respect for the other person, his needs and aspirations. This would derive from a firm operative conviction that the present behaviour of some individuals and groups, often motivated by hate and violence, must be changed.
Such a change, far from easy to achieve, must necessarily start from a preliminary assessment: realization that on the cultural plane, in all its multiple aspects, religious, ethical, social,
economic, etc., there are no absolute conditions which decree incompatibility among the basic principles underlying the single Mediterranean cultures.
Once this issue has been positively solved, and is clearly backed up by a weight of argument, a pathway can be taken toward growth, marked by progressive in-depth research in the single sectors combining to make up the variegated expressions of human life.
This is why for the first meeting we have not considered it desirable to draw up an agenda, as we had been asked. It is incumbent on all of us to find, together with the many friends who will surely join us in the course of our endeavours, the many meeting-points between our different ethnic origins, so as to be able to speak out together through a common cultural voice, and, hopefully, to find a general consensus and mode of operation.
The passage from a multicultural condition, constituted simply by a list of the traditions, norms and behaviour of the various Mediterranean ethnic groups, to a true Mediterranean intercultural cohabitation in which and for which interethnic attention and cooperation become possible, will certainly be difficult. There are, however, in our view, sufficient elements for trying to take this path which must inevitably develop from the religious, ethical and behavioural bases of the great Mediterranean civilizations.
Certainly, the differences among the various Mediterranean ethnic groups are undeniable but do not necessarily create impenetrable barriers; in fact, differences which, as in this case, do not result in absolute incompatibility, can constitute cultural enrichment, as we will be able to observe in the course of our analyses. Indeed, they can be used positively because, as one of our important scholars, Franco Casavola (Studium n.5, 1997, page 645) has observed on the question of European unity, "the sense of difference must not induce separation but on the contrary, stimulate curiosity and appreciation of the richness of each human being, in the sense of his intelligence, his temperament, talents, vocations, in whom genetic heritage and experience interact to form a unique, unrepeatable compound" and further, that "the sense of difference, considered on the plane of human groups, means respecting the cultures, languages, traditions, rules of each historical, national and regional organism, compatibly with evolutionary, not involutionary, processes having a wider bearing."
The three monotheistic religions of the Mediterranean themselves point to the human duty to respect others, to attend to and serve their needs. These principles underlie the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights, which in this very year celebrates its 50th anniversary.
They are the principles deriving from man’s duty to respect, attend to and serve the needs of others.
This commitment may be have different levels of development (from respect, through attention, to service) but it must be perceived as a moral commitment by all people in the Mediterranean.
prof. Luigi Ambrosi