I have been to Egypt five or six times, spending a couple of months there in total. I also managed programs that funded Egyptian researchers for many years. Thus I am no expert on the country, but I have seen enough to wonder about the Egyptian government's attitudes relevant to cultural diversity and cultural heritage. I find a lot of concern for ancient Egypt and very little oriented to sharing contemporary culture with foreign visitors. Alexandria exhibits interest in its Ptolemaic and Roman periods, but I find the rich Islamic and Coptic histories of Egypt to be less well represented. The modern influence of France and England and the pre-Nasser period do not seem at all well represented.
The concern may be relevant to the candidacy of Farouk Hosny, long time Minister of Culture of Egypt, for the post of Director General of UNESCO. Do the actions of his Ministry over more than two decades indicate that Hosny would be a strong defender of modern cultural diversity and of the diverse aspects of cultural heritage?
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment