I congratulate Mark Donfried to put culture on the agenda.
Right at this moment we must be aware that people need perspectives which make life worth living, in spite of material break downs and misfortune. Our struggle to pass through a period with serious difficulties should be the opportunity to look at what is really important, what makes the difference in life.
The turmoil of the recent breakdowns in the Mediterranean countries is putting the question of new thinking and new governance on the agenda. The potential for artistic expression to cross cultural barriers is evidence to all those who are themselves open minded towards all expressions wherever they come from.
The first decade of the 21first century has brought a lot of changes in the world. In these first months of 2011, people’s fight for freedom exploded in many regions. Networks helped these, hopefully peaceful, revolutions to happen. Oppression is no longer tolerated; a new area started with the worldwide information and communication technologies. Therefore a new way of governance has to come. With respect of the cultures and beliefs of each human being, democracy has to prove it’s real value.
Cultural Diplomacy can help to promote a new thinking, based on the knowledge of each other, gathering people from different cultures and generations, professional backgrounds and civilizations, to meet, not only in the virtual world of the « Net », but as real persons with their individual aura.
Cultural Diplomacy should help us to be ahead of the changes, to anticipate upcoming conflicts, in order to better prepare the right solutions. This should however not remain the dream of some privileged, but help to initiate future leaders in a changing world, as well as all citizens.
Culture and its diversity are tools for a new way of political action, promoting contacts between generations, nations and continents.
The language of arts and music may succeed, where words and figures failed and politicians are not really aware of the potential of the language of Arts and Music.
Culture can make the difference, by telling us which proposals should be set into force to reconcile people with themselves, to build peace now that the economy is weak, the finances broke down, the political structures are to be questioned.
The goal intercultural diplomacy aims at, is to make aware of the power of music, to connect musicians and executives, artists and managers, to think about how the change can happen.
Culture should make the difference, establish the link from one person to the other. All together we should aim at making of the diversity the wealth, of the well being of people the achievement and the success of our society. What definition we give to culture, how we deal with the tremendous diversity offered to us nowadays, those are questions to philosophers and intellectuals.
The most frequent question put to politicians is financing, freedom of expression and mobility among many other questions linked to some kind of regulation. Do we need regulation to enable the successful development of the last decades to continue?
The language of Art and Music as the umbrella of human activities should be considered as the basic knowledge of existence. How to realize this in people’s daily life that is the fundamental question. And this is a political question on the top level.
Let’s come to the EU now at a glance, as common cultural policy within the European Union is « work in progress », supported by rather few and very decent lobbies. In comparison with environmental policies, I dare say that the strong and in the media well promoted action of lobbyists like the « Greenpeace » movement was a strong guidance to decision makers.
Governments changed during the last decades of the last century their attitudes, making of environmental concerns truly political programs; sustainability became an ideological basic attitude for many decisions in the EU.
This was not the case for Culture. The EU has not sufficiently regarded par.4 of the article 151 of the Maastricht Treaty, saying: « The Community shall take cultural aspects into account in its action under other provisions of this Treaty, in particular in order to respect and to promote the diversity of its cultures ».
Diversity has not really been taken in account while the Community enlarged to 27 Member states. What do the citizens really know about each other? Extremely poor knowledge of history and of the cultural background of neighboring countries prevents from a better understanding each other. Not enough attention was paid to the cultures of migrating people, within the 27 member states and from third countries.
With the Lisbon Treaty, Culture has made a step forward. The former article 151 became 167 with a shift from the unanimous decision-making to majority voting. However, as there is still no common regulation in the cultural policy area, the Qualified Majority voting rule will apply principally to decisions concerning the funding programs.
In addition to the specific article on culture, the Lisbon treaty refers several more times to culture. In the Preamble culture is added to the religious and humanist inheritance of Europe.
Article three of the Preamble adds a new paragraph saying that the EU shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity and shall ensure that Europe’s cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced. In article 6 dealing with the areas of the Union’s competence, the Treaty reiterates that culture is one of these areas.
Article 300 mentions cultural actors as members of civil society and mandatory representatives in the economic and social committee. This makes quite a change to the Constitution submitted in 2004, and rejected by the referendums in several countries.
The progress made since 2004 is to be considered as the awareness of the heads of State that diversity needs investment and dialogue. No doubt the programs initiated by the European Commission contributed to open the space and to cross barriers. The Year of intercultural Dialogue in 2008 had a very positive effect.
The words on which the heads of state agreed however needed to be followed by actions, and those need finances. The overall view of the European budget tells us that the expenditure on cultural programs is corresponding to about 1 cent per capita. An initiative to increase it to 70 cent per inhabitant failed in 2005. The budget was shortened to less than 34 million Euros per year.
At this very moment the financial perspectives for the upcoming years from 2013 to 2020 are on the agenda. Again the European Cultural Foundation, one of the main European cultural lobbyists, launched an initiative calling for citizen’s votes, in order to increase the budget. The « Culture Action Europe » created a network called « we are more » looking for support.
The main cultural programs like the European Capital of Culture, the youth orchestra, intercultural dialogue, among many others have shown the real influence, cultural activities may have on citizen’s lives. At the time being, the Commission is evaluating these programs, citizens are asked to express their opinion.
Ongoing misunderstanding about the value of culture for the society as a whole seems to stumble on confusing culture with events. The programs of the European Capital of Culture are filled up with mega performances, one full year with fireworks of the most valuable meetings or even not so valuable and there is no doubt, that the label given to a city stimulates investment in many activities.
The main question however is, what is left, after the programs have been accomplished, the money spent and the professionals, who have run the agenda, gone for their next job. Where is the sustainability, how can this great program launched by the Greek Minister Melina Mercouri be improved to make it become a lasting benefit to all the citizens. How can the network of the capitals become a real tool for cultural development?
The change has to be made in recognizing culture as part of basic humans needs, food for the brain, oxygen for the feelings, and screen against intolerance.
Common European programs for education are mainly focused on employability. For sure unemployment is the most unbearable social wound of these decades. Yet, we should notice that in the cultural industries there was growth and many jobs have been created. Arts and Music stimulate creativity in other activities.
The most successful part of European Cultural policy has been achieved in the audiovisual sector. 755 mio € are allocated from 2007 to 2013 for filmmakers. 75% of the income of cinemas however comes out of American films.
Two decades ahead of the Unesco convention, the French-Canadian reaction to the « General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade » the commercial rules of the Gatt, was the cultural exception, introducing quotas to protect their national audiovisual production. This was in the late eighties the fight against Macdonaldisation, not preventing however Mc Donald to spread all over the world.
The quotas helped for sure the European audiovisual sector to expand and to improve financing and production of the European film industry, strongly linked to local and national tradition. The reason why European citizens prefer American films is to be questioned.
By the way, so many well-known composers of Film music are however of European origin. Could there be a link to the diversity and the richness of European music in the past centuries? I’m sure there is!
Do we need regulation at a European level? Certainly not for establishing some kind of European cultural mix. Not Multi Kulti, but cultural pluralism, as diversity is the European identity. There is an urgent need for increased facilities for mobility, cross border initiatives, facilities for travelling with music instruments, recognition of the special situation of artists concerning social security and pensions, protection of authors rights.
The guaranty for freedom of speech is not a reality in all the member states of the EU. There is a lot to improve and to achieve, and these problems are not concerning the ministers of culture, they have to be dealt with at the level of the departments of foreign affairs, social and health and justice. This is not a financial question; it is a question of feeling concerned by some 10 million people who are professional artists in the EU.
Music leads us to the statement, that before there was language, there was the sound of music. It is proven that our brain has specialized areas for music. Researchers from the « brains music and sound » called « Brams » research units at McGuill University in Montreal have a closer look on the interaction between the brain and music.
May be music was first, communication was made by sounds, the « singing Neanderthaler »(Steven Mithen: the singing Neanderthals. The origin of music, language, mind and body) has been our real ancestor. The communication by sound existed 2 million years before words were outspoken. The oldest instrument was a flute carved in animal bones 35.000 years ago when the Homo sapiens moved from the African continent. Some other archeological discoveries might be mentioned, but my purpose is not the relationship to arts in archeology, but rather the conclusion of the researchers telling us that the brain is much more active in more areas when practicing music. It makes us recognize rhythm and able to reproduce it.
Babies do recognize at a very early stage the sound of the voice of their mother. Music is a biological phenomenon. For sure music has a lot of influence on learning, stimulating memory and developing communication in the brain cells.
Music also has an influence on social behavior. A long term study by Hans Günter Bastian in Berlin Kreuzberg*, a district with high immigrate population in Berlin has compared the behavior, school results, the amount of violence and social communication between classes of the same age and with the same social background.
Children with daily musical practice playing an instrument in the school orchestra had better school results, there was less violence in these school classes, and in general a positive outcome. The Kodaly Method in Hungary has proven the same results, half a century ago.
Could a conclusion be that music makes people better? That is a bit too short as a statement; we all know the power of music, when it is a tool for manipulation. Dictatorship and totalitarianism have used it as a means of power and repression.
Composers highlighted the expression of freedom, justice and humanity. Some revolutions started after an opera: in Brussels, when Auber’s opera La Muette de Portici was performed, in 1830, in Italy Verdi’s Choir Va Pensiero, 1842, from his Opera Nabucco was the song for freedom for Italians under Austrian occupation.
Music as the medium for commercial purpose has become a very sophisticated way to stimulate consumerism. In our daily lives music is omnipresent, not always for the best. Silence is sometimes missing in a crucial way.
Ancient Greece has considered music as the most important subject in education, even before mathematics.
Why does music have today such a low standard in education programs? Learning an instrument still is considered as a privilege for elites, however we know which results are coming out of generalized practice of music.
This should not be considered as a way to music learning, it should be considered as a way to the full use of the capacities of our brain and all those special areas stimulated by music.
Lord Yehudi Menuhin, in a remarkable speech before the European Parliament in 1995 said the following: It has been my experience that through music, and particularly through singing and dance, we can give the child a fulfillment of the sense of existence, of being, of giving, of saying something which is irreplaceable, which brings together the rhythm of the heart, the sound of the lungs…. these are the basic elements which no child should be without.
Yehudi Menuhin created a special foundation called Mus E with schools in some 12 European countries focused on migrant children, with the aim of bringing children with different cultural backgrounds together by singing and dancing.
So did Daniel Barenboim who launched in Berlin a Kindergarten where musicians of the famous Berliner Philharmoniker are explaining to the children how they produce the beautiful sounds with their instrument.
I could quote many other famous musicians from the past and the present having launched extraordinary projects to bring people together. José Antonio Abreu started El Stistema 37 Years ago. Children beginning at the age of three learning classical music.
Their background of a life in the favelas of big cities, with extreme poverty and violence was totally changed by playing music. When a child can play an instrument he or she is no longer poor.
Those great musicians have been well aware about how much our society needs education looking further than employability, by promoting the role cultural techniques have to play in educational programs, by training not only the brain, but also the senses, how to listen to music, how to look at nature or at a painting, how to smell and to taste.
But this is by far not the opinion of the Qatari Moslem Scholar who pronounced the following: I quote
Listening to music and singing is a sin and cause for the sickening of the heart. Some try to mislead Muslims and say that music is food for the soul. Others try to promote it as some sort of culture and even establish institutes to teach it. How can today’s singing which is always associated with other sins like the consumption of alcohol be food for the soul? It is not true that some Islamic scriptures permitted singing.
This was in Qatar at the beginning of the year 2010.
Diversity of cultures, was put under protection by the Unesco convention, the complete title of which is:” Convention on the protection and the promotion of the diversity of cultural expression. »
Is the ban of music to be accepted as an expression of cultural diversity? The global village the world has become certainly has the need to know what diversity is. Cultural Diplomacy should prepare ways how to deal with tolerance, intercultural dialogue and globalization, and what about culture for the decades ahead.
Our lives have totally changed with the Internet. Music and literature are world wide accessible, Never before it was so easy to have free and worldwide access to culture and information. The precious tools at our disposal are however totally useless if people loose their capacities of expression, if life becomes virtual.
The world has become a global village. Nowadays globalization liquidates distances, but there has been no consciousness of the fragility of the human condition. Comfort lies in the local, whereas success lies in the global. So far Ulrich Beck, a German Sociologist.
Are we on our way to the virtual life in closed small space, as it seems to happen in some places in the world? Is it the way backwards to the nation state?
As a minister of education I was facing linguistic problems of four year old children in preprimary school. Asking the teachers if this could have to do with our complicated multilingual system in Luxembourg,
I was told no, not only children of immigrants had high deficits in their capacity of speaking, this was not linked to the use of the mother tongue or a foreign language, it was just lack of training the voice and the vocabulary of the small child, the brain and the voice not sufficiently stimulated.
The high frequency of concentration deficit among children is one more alarming problem. I am convinced performing music at an early stage could prevent many deficits.
And again I quote Yehudi Menuhin who said the following: We are in constant balance, a balance between emotions. We live in a world where the stars and the sun and the earth, everything is moving, and we are only here in peace because there is a balance, an equilibrium between all the moving parts that have to be adjusted according to each momentary new position of the elements in the equation.
Motion and human emotion are inseparable. Therefore, the sense of wanting to establish this harmony, this sense of dependence on each other, has been very strong during my whole life. As a boy, I hoped- I had the childish idea- that if I played the Chaconne of Bach beautifully enough- I could bring peace. Well I have not succeeded but I am still concerned with harmony and with the idea of dynamic balance of reciprocity of equilibrium, of complementarity.
Bach and Menuhin’s violin may seem from a different planet to composers of contemporary classical music. With John Cage, there came a total change in the language of music. In 1952 he was asked to write a manifesto on music. He wrote :
Nothing is accomplished by writing a piece of music
» » » » hearing » » » »
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Our ears are now in excellent condition.
Follows a blank sheet op paper with the title:
Silence.
Thank you for your patience.