Download - Российский комитет Программы ЮНЕСКО ...

Message from Grigory Ordzhonikidze,
Executive Secretary of the Commission
of the Russian Federation for UNESCO,
to the participants of the 2 nd International Conference
“Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace”
I cordially greet the organizers and participants of the 2 nd International
Conference “Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace”.
The topic of the first conference held three years ago has proved its relevance:
the rapid processes of building a global society, on the one hand, increase the
unification of cultures, and on the other hand, offer opportunities for preserving
and developing cultural diversity, in particular in such a universal, cross-border
field as cyberspace.
I believe that a way to eliminate this dialectic contradiction can be found in
preventing the negative effects of globalization, in the collaborative search
for ways to achieve sustainable development for everybody, in harmonizing
relations among nations and civilizations, encouraging cultural diversity and
identity of the peoples of our planet. UNESCO as the world’s most influential
organization can and should make a serious contribution in these activities. It
is no coincidence that this organization has developed the concept of “World
culture” built upon the idea of forming a new type of international relations,
based on tolerance, non-violence, respect for human rights, mutual respect of
cultures, traditions and religions.
The problem of linguistic and cultural diversity preservation is topical for
all countries, particularly for such multinational ones as Russia populated
by over 180 peoples speaking more than 100 languages. No wonder that in
2008 here, on the Yakut land, where the climate is harsh, but people are kind
and responsive to current problems of mankind, an international conference
which became a contribution to the International Year of Languages,
adopted a document of great importance known as “Lena resolution.” What
is extremely valuable about this appeal to the world is that it offers ways
to implement some of the recommendations of the World Summit on the
Information Society, and launches initiatives to provide universal access
to information and knowledge, in particular the idea of holding a world
summit on linguistic diversity in cyberspace under the aegis of UNESCO
and MAAYA Network.
11