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October 1970 {23rd year) - U.K.: 2 -stg - Canada: 40 cents - France: 1.20 F
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Photo Archives Laffont. Paris
TREASURES
OF
WORLD ART
ffi - /re/and
Iron Age 'Roundhead'
Curved motifs on this Irish bronze disk (2nd century A.D.) give it the appearance of a rotund human face. Thepurpose of the disk is unknown, but its non figurative and geometrical designs are typical of the Celtic "La Tne "style which reached Ireland a few centuries before the Christian Era. Decorative art in Ireland was completelyreshaped by the impact of Continental Iron Age art and particularly that of the "La Tne " culture (named fromthe famous archaeological site at Lake Neuchtel, Switzerland). "La Tne" art combined three traditions: anancient geometric art, the animal art of the steppes and motifs from classical art.
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CourierOCTOBER 1970
23RD YEAR
PUBLISHED IN 13 EDITIONS
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THE CRISIS IN DEVELOPMENT
By Malcolm S. Adiseshiah
I. THE HARSH FACTS OF THE 1960s
II. A SECOND CHANCE IN THE 1970s
THE PLIGHT OF THE PALESTINE
REFUGEE SCHOOLS
THE GOLDEN HOARD OF THE SCYTHIANS
By Alexander Kirpichnikov
MUSEUMS FOR MODERNS
By Duncan F. Cameron
UNITED WORLD COLLEGES
A new concept in international education
By Tor Sylte
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
UNESCO NEWSROOM
TREASURES OF WORLD ART
Iron Age 'Roundhead' (Ireland)
Cover
This year sees the close of theUnited Nations DevelopmentDecade of the 1960s and the
start of the Second DevelopmentDecade a crucial moment in
international co-operation foreconomic and social progress inthe developing countries. For anappraisal of the situation at thisturning point, see article page 4.Aptly symbolizing man's effortsto climb the stairway ofdevelopment, this metal sculptureIs the work of an American artist,
Kent Addison, Dean of the ArtSchool at Maryville College inSt. Louis, Missouri.
Photo Gardner Advertising Company.St. Louis
3
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The crisis in development
o THE HARSH FACTS
OF THE 1960s
October 24, 1970 marks the 25th
anniversary of the United Nations. As the world commemor
ates this event, international
co-operation for economic andsocial development in the ThirdWorld is approaching a critical juncture. Dr. Malcom S.Adiseshiah, Deputy Director-General of Unesco, sets forth
in the following pages his analysis of the situation as this
year sees the close of the U.N.Development Decade of the1960s and the start of the
Second Development Decade ofthe 1970s. Dr. Adiseshiah, who
has just completed a majorstudy on the role of education,science and culture in develop
ment entitled "Let My Country
Awake," published last monthby Unesco (see inside backcover), presents here his frankviews regarding the successes
and setbacks of the past Decadeand the action he feels is ur
gently called for to meet theproblems of tomorrow.
byMalcolm S. Adiseshiah
Deputy Director-General of Unesco
T
4
HE simplest and mostawesome expression of today's deep-rooted crisis In development is thefact that the gap in the standards ofliving of the rich one-third and thepoor two-thirds of our world is grow-'ng wider every day and in every way.
Let us take just the dollar expressionof this living differential. The richcountries have during the Development Decade of the 1960s Increas
ed their per capita income by fourper cent annually ($292), while thepoor countries have increased theirsby two per cent ($12). But these
aggregates do not tell the real story.If these trends persist, a person in theUnited States will earn $10,000 annuallyby the year 2000, while an African,Indian and Pakistani will double his
income from $100 to $200 by 2119,and an Argentinian or Uruguayan willdouble his Income from $500 to $1,000by 2009.
Our normal working tools do notseem to be able to explain and resolvethis paradox. The abstract economicmodels are unable to guide policy asbetween injecting mere physicalcapital or improving human resources,
CONTINUED PAGE 7
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Photo Harvey Shaman, Kew Gardens, N.Y.
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t)M|
^S
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CRISIS IN DEVELOPMENT (Continued)
Galbraith's air-conditioned nightmare
between balanced development orInduced growth, between, commodityagreements or competition In the openmarket.
The gap we have always had. "Thepoor are always with us." With ourcurrent dedication to development, ithas become a crisis point. But thenature and dimension of the crisis have
further changed. The daily wideningof the gap transforms a factor of inequality into a judgement of iniquity,a crisis of development into a crisisof the conscience.
Another simple expression of thecrisis is what has happened to the oneper cent target that rich countriesshould contribute at least 1 per centof their national income to development in the poor countries recommended by the World Council ofChurches in 1958 and later endorsed
by all Intergovernmental bodiesUnited Nations, Unesco, the U.N.Conferences on Trade and Development and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The tragedy is that before thisdecision was solemnly made, thetransfer of resources to the poorcountries had reached the one percent target ($8,000 million in 1961). Itbecame stagnant In 1967 at 0.68 percent and has declined to 0.64 per centin 1968. If interest and amortization
payments from the poor to the richcountries are deducted, the public aidis $6,300 million or 0.4 per cent.
In fact, if all net interest anddividend payments to the rich countriesare allowed for, the flow becomesnegative in the case of Latin America.This means that of some $600,000 million by which incomes have increasedin the rich countries during the decade,not a dollar has gone to aid the poorcountries. The present transfer hasbeen compared to the annual expenditures by the rich countries of $35,000million on liquor and $15,000 millionon cigarettes, and the mad $200,000million on armaments.
THE development crisis is
world wide, and its tentacles reach outto all lands, rich and poor. The rle ofthe family as the basic unit of societyis disintegrating everywhere, the youthrevolt being but one expression of it.Urban slums, the pollution of the airand water and the use and misuse of
science and technology are universal.
John Kenneth Galbraith whimsicallypresents another side of this hauntingcrisis in his book "The Affluent
Society":
The family which takes its mauveand cerise air-conditioned, power-steered and power-braked auto
mobile out for a tour passes throughcities that are badly paved, madehideous by litter, blighted buildings,billboards, posts for wires thatshould long since have been putunderground. They pass on intoa countryside that has been rendered invisible by commercial art.They picnic on exquisitely packagedfood from a portable ice-box by apolluted stream and go on to spendthe night at a park which is amenace to public health andmorals. Just before dozing off onan air mattress beneath a nylontent, amid the stench of decayingrefuse, they may reflect vaguelyon the curious unevenness of their
blessings.
Similarly, the family and othervaluable institutions in the poorcountries are being damaged by theprocess of development which isessentially an unhappy form of mimicry, called westernization, since air-conditioners, power-steered cars, iceboxes and nylon tents on whichWestern nations rank high have a tendency to be picked up as developmentindicators in those countries.
ALT the social level, the de
velopment picture presents equallydisturbing features, which are hiddenby the statistical aggregates that weemploy 6 per cent G.N. P., 10 physicians per 10,000, 2 cinema seats for100 people. If we look behind theseaverages, we will find that in manycountries what little growth has beenregistered is at the cost of distributional justice. In fact the countrieswith the highest growth rate have hadan unequal sharing of the benefitsamong their people.
In some of the poor countries,therefore, a kind of fatalistic social
philosophy Is spreading that the priceof economic growth is disparities Inincomes and that such concentration
of incomes In a few hands is needed
for increased savings. In actual fact,large and growing income disparitieshave not stimulated growth. Theyhave on the contrary acted as apowerful disincentive to growth andhave channelled investments in luxurygoods production, corruption, taxevasion and expatriate capital flows.
At the back of these social problemsis the lack of public participation inpolicymaking and development planning. A general norm of moderngovernment policies should surely beto decrease correlations between
ascribed characteristics such as race,sex, caste, class, religion and regionand achieved characteristics such as
position, income, power and education,preferably to zero.
The most serious aspect of thecrisis Is the failure of the developingcountries to create meaningful employment. That is the most tragic failureof the world development situation.It has been computed that in thenineteen seventies there will be
300 million young people entering thelabour market of the poor countries,for two-thirds of whom jobs do notexist and will have to be created.
The equivalent in the developedcountries will be merely replacingthose retiring.
Today, 20 per cent of the entiremale labour force in the developingworld is unemployed. This fastgrowing unemployment trend is dueto the rate of population growth andthe economic growth policies followedby the poor countries In the fifties andsixties. Increased child survival and
longevity have increased laboursupply.
High Gross National Product growthrates have not helped create adequateemployment in countries like Pakistan,Rep. of Korea and Venezuela. Infact the tragedy is that higher growthrates achieved through expanding theindustrial sector, increasing labourproductivity and using capital intensiveand labour saving techniques, madefalsely attractive by low interest andexchange rates, cheap machine importsand unrealistically high wages, havenot expanded job opportunities adequately.
These wage rates attract labourfrom the rural sector and in the
absence of labour intensive, export-oriented occupations result in massiveurban unemployment. The scarcity ofmiddle-level skills makes for large-scale unemployment of unskilled orsemi-skilled labour in the ratio of 1: 10
or 12. As has been pointed out, theirony of the unemployment crisis isthat there is no need for it. There is
enough unfinished business to keepeveryone employed.
YET the crisis I have tried
to portray arises out of a historic andpositive situation. One hundred countries, constituting two-thirds of thepeople of the world, have made theirchoice for development. Included inthis one hundred are 65 new nations of
Africa and Asia. "You have helped uswin our political liberation," said aChief of State to me, "now you mustwalk along with us on the long, wearybut exhilarating path of economic liberation." The work of development hasbegun: it will not be finished in a day "7or a year. This is work for this cent- /ury and beyond.
In opting in favour of development,
CONTINUED NEXT PAGE
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CRISIS IN DEVELOPMENT (Continued)
The growing spectre of unemployment
did the poor countries have a realchoice? I have constantly faced thisquestion when visiting Member States,working on their rural programmes,helping them in the planning of a training activity or in designing a researchproject.
On one such occasion, at the endof a long and weary day, when thepeople and the United Nations teamhad worked on the modalities of a
tightly scheduled renovation programme, the village leader asked mehow he could help explain and reconcile this proposed action vis--vishis fairly happy and contented fellowvillagers, whose culture, in consequence, included the wisdom: "If everthe feeling to work hard begins toovercome you, just lie down, and thefeeling will pass away."
In India, Gandhiji expressed thisthought even more brutally: "Ourpeasant earns his bread honestly," hewrote. "He knows fairly well how heshould behave towards his parents,his children and his fellow villagers.He understands the rules of morality.But he cannot write his own name.
What do you propose to do by givinghim a knowledge of letters? Will youadd one inch to his happiness?"
A
8
Lshort time ago I was againinvolved in a discussion of this fun
damental option in an Arab country,whose people have maintained theirbasic features of fierce pride andpassionate loyalty, unforgettlng hostility and confident trust, wide inequalities and an abiding religious faith.We were drawing up a detailed planto train their own geologists to takeover responsibility for exploiting themineral-laden countryside.
The social change and cultural disruption being brought about by thisand other programmes were fully andfreely debated and the conclusion towhich all In the group agreed was:"Development is here to stay; it ison us and around us; we have to livewith it and accept the changes in oursociety and culture that it brings; wehave no choice in the matter." Thisconclusion is a representative sampleof what is common to the developmentoption by the underdeveloped world:namely the resigned and passiveacceptance of change, whereas development demands planned andinduced change.
This development option of the poorcountries has come to be expressedthrough planning, which as a socialtechnique has gained universal acceptance. Such planning has often timesbeen no more than a set of mathema
tical targets or accounting techniques.
It has not comprehended the largersocial, human and Institutional prerequisites for development, which canonly be dealt with by developmentpolicy. It has been weak on theimplementation and project preparationside and has barely covered the dynamic private sector.
Even so, the record shows that thegrowth rates it generated representa break from stagnation and inertia,an increase in the productive capacityof the poor countries and a tool toinitiate wider and more complex programmes. Above all, it raised savingsand investments to levels unknown in
earlier times. Eighty-five per cent ofall their investments was from domestic
savings. Given the low income levelof the poor countries and how nearthe margin its people live, this is aproud and heroic record.
THE most spectacular
achievements have been in the field of
education. Free and universal educa
tion has been accepted in all poorcountries. The initial reluctance of
parents in rural communities to foregoearnings of child labour, itself a backwash of poverty and exploitation, hasyielded to the social prestige andeconomic value of education. Recent
ly, I was in five countries where thenet growth of the population had fallento 1 to 2 per cent in three years andwhere the reason given was universalprimary education and the absence ofilliteracy.
On a world scale, enrolments inschools and universities have tripledbetween 1950 and 1965. Two hundredmillion adults were made literate
during the period. The annual rate ofgrowth of educational expendituresbetween 1960 and 1965 has been
13 per cent in Asia, 16 per cent inAfrica and over 20 per cent in LatinAmerica. National plans for- scienceand technology are under preparation.The poor countries are devoting 5 percent of their national income to educa
tion, compared to 7 per cent by therich countries.
But this quantitative expansion ofeducation has been accompaniedby a sad qualitative deterioration.Schools and university facilities areused only for 25 per cent of the day,educational drop-outs and repetitionleading to wastage average 50 per centof those enrolled, and the curricula,techniques and streams of specializations have little relation to personaldevelopment, the environment and theemployment profile of the country.
In the health field, the achievementsamount to a miracle. Epidemics anddisease vectors have been controlled.
Mortality from plague was reducedfrom 17,000 In 1951 to 47 in 1966,cholera from 63,300 to 4,400 and smallpox from 226,000 to 12,200. Herethere has been a direct benefit to the
individual in the poor country. Lifeexpectancy at birth has been raisedvery fast.
In the five countries that I have
referred to earlier, the mortality ratefrom 0 to 5 years of age was less thantwo per thousand. In human termsthis is the most convincing demonstration of the power of applied science.All would benefit if the lawlessness ofthe world were reduced and man's
energies turned from the preparationfor war to the works of peace.
In agriculture, production barelykept pace with population growth andin many areas fell alarmingly behind.The most Important lesson that wehave learned In this decade is that
agricultural expansion and renovationare vital to the entire developmentprocess and that there is nothingautomatic in achieving such adjustment.
Instead of being a net exporter of14 million tons of cereals as it was
in the thirties, the developing worldbecame a net importer of 11 milliontons in the sixties. This led most
countries to revise their agriculturalpolicies for it was realized that therewere not enough foodstuffs for theirindustrial workers, that there was lessemployment, less Income, less savingsand less foreign exchange earnings.
EI VEN more serious was the
human aspect; there were 500 millionhungry people and in a decade therewould be 600 million more, all living onsubhuman nutritional and protein intakelevels with all their consequences onbody, mind and soul. A change wasurgently needed. Following, therefore,the focus on revised policies, a goodpart of the developing world is nowexperiencing a major breakthrough infood production, called the "GreenRevolution".
This leap forward has been possiblethrough inputs of improved varietiesof rice and wheat strains, fertilizers,irrigation, agricultural extension andeducation. In 1968-1969, India's foodoutput was about 8 million tons abovethe previous record of 89 million tonsin 1964-1965. Pakistan increased its
wheat production by 50 per cent intwo years. In non-cereal production,similar advances have been registeredin sugar, coffee, tea, etc. Prospectsfor growth, therefore, look muchbrighter now that It has been demonstrated that the peasant is like all ofus, who laughs when he is tickled,
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r*tx*
*r
A-'
-. r-
j^Bnrrr"
Photo Parlmage (C.P.), Paris
V
PIfaSr^T
^Some countries tend to measure development in terms of air-conditioners, automobiles,refrigerators and other consumer goods considered as "prestige" objects.
cries when he is hurt and responds ina normal way to costs, prices andcredit.
This agricultural breakthrough istherefore not the result of magic. It isone part of the total technology whichincludes water management, landreform and development, fertilizers,pesticides, rural roads, regional centresfor storage, marketing facilities andcredit resources, all of which mustnow move ruthlessly forward.
Further, it is important to ensurethat we do not get lost in the cloudsof the new agricultural technology andallow them to push out the smallfarmer and so Increase income dis
parities and create a new class oflandless city proletariat. In India, outof 50 million farms, 30 million arebelow 2 hectares covering, however,only 1/6 of the total farming area of130 million hectares. The small
farmer who Is caught in the viciouscircle of .fragmented holdings, insecurity of tenure, lack of creditfacilities, unsatisfactory marketing anduntimely supply of inputs, has no profitmargin to share in the new technology.
Case studies in India show that
such technology requires him to spendfour times more than he does on
manures, one-and-a-half times more on
irrigation charges, six times on improved seeds and twelve times onpesticides. So the new technology ispushing up land values and the tragicbiblical drama of Ahab the King goingdown to the vineyard of Naboth theJezreelite "to take possession of it"Is being repeated.
A further valuable lesson which has
been gradually learned during thedecade Is that there is no oppositionbetween agriculture and industry.Their complementary and supplementary rle was, during this period,brought out by the fact that wherethe parents work at yokes for theiroxen, gather manure, carry water,winnow grain and weave their clothand baskets all by their hands, theirchildren work in industry producingtractors, fertilizers, pumps and pipes,meal and flour, cement and silos.
The industrial growth in the poorcountries has registered an overallrate of 7 per cent compared to 6 percent for the world as a whole. This
gain has been registered despitenumerous handicaps such as shortageof foreign exchange and domesticskills, the small scale of the domesticmarkets and the trade barriers erected
by the developed countries.
But now Industrial policy in the poor
countries has come to the end of the
line and needs recasting. The possibilities of import substitution have beenlargely exhausted and the countriesface a very real danger of producinghigh cost, inefficient goods behindtheir high tariff walls. Protection inthese countries today Is simply acontribution to high-cost domesticstructures.
The infamous illustration of this
trend is that In 1965, the poor countriesspent $2,100 million of their domesticresources to manufacture cars and
automative products, which had aninternational valuation of only $800 million. This one-year waste of $1,300million, which is more than the WorldBank's 23-year total of investments inindustry, is a drastic reminder, ifreminder there must be, of the needfor a revised industrial policy basedon careful choice of technology,export-oriented manufactures andexploration of all available outlets.
The most Important external factorwhich has determined (undermined infact) the development of the poorcountries has been their share in world
trade. And here the share of these
countries has declined steadily from27 per cent in 1953 to 19 per cent in1967, and even In primary products
CONTINUED NEXT PAGE
9
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CRISIS IN DEVELOPMENT (Continued)
The dilemma of birth rates
and economic growth
10
in which they have an absolute andcomparative advantage there was adecline from 54 to 42 per cent. In factin 1967, the developing countries didnot increase their trade by even 2 percent of the total.
The ratio of their exports to GrossDomestic Product (G.D.P.) is around25 per cent, a good indicator of theirheavy reliance on world trade for theirdevelopment. Their trade and exportshave fallen steadily because of internalcauses such as reliance on singleexport items and production lags, buteven more because of falling international prices for their products andthe trade policies of the developedcountries.
In the developed countries the preference patterns of consumers, technological Innovations and officialproduction and trade policies have allmeant that while the price of theexports of the developing countriescontinue to fall, thus reducing theirshare of world trade and their exportearnings, the prices of capital goodsthe latter import rise, thus worseningtheir terms of trade. Hence, the trade
policy of the developed countries isfar more decisive than their aid policyfor the development of the poorcountries.
And so it is a pity that while U.N.Conferences for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) have laid downvery good general principles, theyhave not worked out a programme ofaction by the developed countries topromote duty-free, non-reciprocal preferential imports of primary products,manufactures and semi-manufactures
from the poor countries, the buildingup of buffer stocks and the development of compensatory finance. AtUNCTAD II in New Delhi the
developed countries were insteadpreoccupied with their domestic problems of liquidity, budgetary resourcesand balance of payments. A buoyantworld trade is surely the real answerto these real concerns.
The world development situationpresents overtones of tragedy inregard to population. No other facetcasts a darker shadow over the prospects for international developmentthan this question of the number ofmen, women and babies. And let memake it quite clear that I approachthis urgent and complex issue fromthe point of view of the sanctity of thehuman person, the dignity of man andthe rights to life, liberty and well-beingvested in him.
Control over disease vectors, as we
have seen, has diminished death rates,and for this great humanistic achievement we should all lift our hearts and
minds In thanks. The birth rates beingunchanged, the result is an unprecedented upsurge of the population ofthe developing countries which is Increasing twice as fast as that of thedeveloped countries.
The annual Increase of the poorcountries, which was 15 million in1930 to 1950, rose to 28 million in 1950to 1960 and 37 million in 1960 to 1965.
The resulting demographic trends arestaggering, the world population increasing from 3,600 million in 1970 to4,400 million In 1980 and 5,000 millionin 1985.
THE development results of
this astounding phenomenon will beseen during the decade we have justentered. They are simple facts: injurious Incomes distribution, risingland values, increasing unemployment,further lowering of low nutrition levelsand the depression of wages. Allthese will add to the crying problemsof our youth, education and the cities.
Policies to spread family planninghave been introduced in countriesrepresenting 70 per cent of the population of the developing world. Butthese programmes to bring fertilityrates into more tolerable balance with
new mortality experience, face a timeproblem as well as the physical problem of availabilities and the psychosocial resistance to make the programmes acceptable in rural areas.
In the meanwhile, two further demographic factors demand our attention.The first is the effect on the cities of
the "poor world which are rapidlyspawning a culture of poverty. In the1950s, urban population increased by50 per cent, it is now doubling andby 2000 will increase bythe impossiblepercentage of 500. One Indian citywill have over 30 million living inits slums. Given the political attentionaroused by urban slums and theneglect of rural poverty, is it morethan mere cynicism to conclude thatpoverty seems to attract more attention not only when it Is extreme butalso when it is visible?
The other is the increasing juvenes-cence of the age structure of thepopulation. Generally, over 60 percent of the population of the developing world is under 25. In one countrywhere I was recently, over 50 percent of the population was 18 yearsand under. The minority which mustfeed, clothe, educate and providemoral care for the majority is shrinking.It Is the quality, the spiritual life of thenext generation which is at stake.
A serious imbalance
in world trade is
compromising economicprogress in theThird World. Poor
countries payincreasingly higherprices for much-neededgoods and capitalequipment while theirshare of international
trade and the price oftheir exports continueto fall. Photo shows
a construction site
in Latin America.Photo Ian BerryMagnum, Paris
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1\
The crisis in development (Continued)
A SECOND CHANCE
IN THE 1970s
WW W HERE do we go from here?
As a result of the decision of the
comity of nations, we are now preparing for the Second DevelopmentDecade. This is to give us a secondchance to go on from where we standtoday. And the main outline of thetasks for the developing and developedcountries, for our village world, theworld community, as one study termsit, is emerging with startling clarity.
The developing countries are to planfor an annual Gross Domestic Product
increase of 6 to 7 per cent, with theresultant 3.5 to 4.5 per cent per capitagrowth. This GDP Indicator must besupported by a programme of incomedistribution, structural change, land
reform and an employment andpopulation policy. The agriculturalsector must increase by 4 per cent tosustain the 6 to 7 per cent rate, feedthe growing population, improve theintake of proteins and nutritionallevels, ensure growing supplies ofraw materials for Industry, insulatepressure on domestic prices and easethe strains on balance of payments.
Agricultural growth must ensure theparticipation of the small farmer in thenew technologies through the creationof special institutions such as asmall farmers' development agencywhich can help to convert the three tofive acre farm into a viable unit. If there
is an unavoidable short-fall In food
production, such as caused the twofamine years in India, the developedcountries must increase their food
assistance above the one per centtarget in order to avoid both bottlenecks to expansion and inequities Inwelfare.
Industry, which is the sheet anchorof modernization, must expand at anannual average rate of 8 to 9 per cent.There must be an appropriate expansion in the infrastructural network.
Consumption should rise at a slowerrate than GDP in order that a savings H -target of 15 to 20 per cent may beattained. New employment opportunities should be created through aplanned employment policy based on
CONTINUED NEXT PAGE
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Photos David Robison Parimage (C.P.). Paris
12
CRISIS IN DEVELOPMENT (Continued)
the surplus and scarcity status offactor supplies and using fiscal, monetary, trade and earnings incentives.
Education in all forms, which I willreturn to later, must move forward inquantity and quality calling for a 5 to6 per cent expenditure of GDP.Research and development must bepromoted, involving a further one percent. Health conditions must be fur
ther improved and a well administeredpopulation control programme ensured.
At the national level, a new institutional framework for developmentshould be created through changingattitudes, motivations, legislative reforms and social services, which areboth the end and the means of
development.
The developed countries, on theirside, should expand their own development, aiming at an annual averageof 4 (3.7-4.2) per cent of GDP growth,involving 3 per cent per capita. This istheir first task the war against theirown poverty pockets and areas ofdeprivation begins at home but itcannot stop there.
The most important contribution ofthe developed countries to the development of the Third World is "in thetrade field. They must follow up theKennedy Round by giving preferencesto Imports from the developingcountries, through eliminating, or atleast drastically reducing their tariffsand quotas. Such a move is in theirown interest as it not only ensurescomparative cost benefits, but alsoreduces the high cost agricultural products, manufactures and semi-manu
factures which exert an inflationary
pressure on their consuming public.All this should result in an increased
capacity of the developing countries toexpand their imports by one per centper annum in order to sustain the 6 to7 per cent target.
The debt servicing burden of thepoor countries casts a pall on all development perspectives. It was 4,700 million dollars in 1967, forming 15 per centof their exports (in the case of Indiaand Brazil it will reach 30 per cent)and will move to 9,200 million dollars
in 1971. There is need for long-termre-scheduling and re-financing of thisintolerable millstone at the start of theSecond Decade.
I|N the aid field, the target
of one per cent of national income hasbeen agreed upon by all concerned,involving 70 to 75 per cent of the target in official government-to-government or multilateral aid, taking the formof grants and soft loans. As the Pearson Commission points out, this is nogive-away programme.
Given the form and purposes forwhich It is made available, I haveserious hesitation in even using theword "aid" in this context.
In one Member State, with a population of four-and-a-half million, foreignaid programmes have introduced20 different types of tractors (with theresult that no servicing and spare partsindustry is possible). They also pro
vide 50 per cent of the country'sinvestment, deciding the nature, rhythmand timing of its development inaccordance with their domestic production schedules and profit potential.
These problems call for better coordination of aid and Increase in the
share of official aid, in other wordsan improvement in the quantity andquality of aid. One way of doing thisis to pledge ourselves to Increase thequantity of official aid from the present$6,300 million to between $16,000 to$19,000 million by 1972-1975 and Improve Its quality.
Aid is neither a bribe nor a chari
table handout. Fundamentally, aidpolicies are based on the hard factthat we live in one shrinking world andthat every man's welfare is the concernof all his neighbours.
The centre-piece to the internationalframe for the Second DevelopmentDecade is Man, the resources herepresents and the education hedemands. Let us not forget that thepurpose of all development is Man andthat he is its motive force and maker.
The Unesco doctrine is that the
essential instrument of such development is the continuing improvementof the resources represented by thewhole population through the supplyof men and women who have been
educated, trained and harmoniouslyintegrated into the development movement.
This demands a global vision of theentire educational system and all otherinstitutions involved in the development of human resources, science,
CONTINUED PAGE 14
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SCHOOL IN THE SAND. Children In most countries know sand as something to make castles out of, but forthese children in a Sudanese village it serves as a notebook on which to write out words and sentences theyhave learned (photos above). Developing countries have increased their spending on education, but many millionsof children still lack classrooms, teachers and equipment. In contrast to the makeshift school above, youngstersin this infant school classroom (below), in an industrially developed country, are introduced to "new mathematics"concerned with theories of sets and relations which 20 years ago were reserved for research specialists.
13
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CRISIS IN DEVELOPMENT (Continued)
Towards a global concept of education
technology, information and culture.Such a vision demands breaking awayfrom traditional tests and evaluations
and applying a wider systems analysisapproach, examining fearlessly alloperational relationships in humanresources development and applying toit the principles of balanced growth.
The actual educational systems, asthey have evolved during the currentdecade, with their wastages, imbalances, irrelevancies, unused capacities,obsolescences and unemployment end-products, are knocking heavily at thedoors of the Second Decade.
I believe it is for us now to work out
new relationships between educationand society, over and above the usualeconomic constraints and manpowerbudgeting that have been imposed onus. These constraints are in truth
based on the philosophy that humandevelopment planning should be integrated with and subordinated to economic development planning.
A recent economic survey containsthe suggestion that in the interests ofincreased productivity, the developingcountries must postpone the educationthey need in favour of training and thatin order to offset the distortinginfluence of the white collar professions on the structure of education,heavy, almost exclusive, emphasisshould be placed on science-basedsubjects, engineering and what arecalled practical skills that are neededfor a mechanizing society.
The truth is the other way around.What is needed is a more differentiated
approach and, as appropriate, economic planning should be integrated inand subordinated- to the developmentof human resources. The cure to
educated unemployment is not lesseducation so that there can be justuneducated unemployment.
A
14
LS we have seen earlier,there are no short-term remedies In
the economy for the growing unemployment problem. If, however, theeconomy were integrated into the educational system, instead of the otherway around, then the educated personcould and would create his own
employment, with some support fromthe State and the private sector. Thesupply of well-educated persons isone of the most effective instruments
for enlarging employment and combating unemployment during the SecondDecade. There is need for mutual
development of education and economic strategies.
To further support this plea for thetwo-way integration of economicplanning and human resources devel
opment, I refer to recent studies byJ.S. Coleman in the U.S.A. and T. Hu-
sn, in Sweden, which show that themost important influence on studentperformance in the school is not theteacher and his qualifications (whichmust always be high for quite otherreasons), nor the equipment in thelaboratories (which must always bemodern in the interest of scientific
truth) but the dynamism or stagnationof the economic and social environ
ment in which the school is placed.
And this brings me back to thesocial rle and social demand for
education education being woveninto the development process and theschool and the adult education centre
being dynamic agents of change whensurrounded by a moving and growingsociety. But this means that the impactof education on society depends onnon-education on the other social and
economic institutions which can use
fully use the educational output andinduce a development-oriented pedagogy. In this context, we are missingspectacular development-directed opportunities through the poor use andmisuse of our mass media which is so
largely devoted to indoctrination andspurious entertainment.
Education must therefore be adaptedto each local society but equally itmust transform that society. And to dothis, education should become a lifelong learning process (instead of being,as it is, a life-long teaching andcramming process), involving the acquisition of learning skills, of the capacity to learn, so that the specifictraining for specific employment, existing, or induced, or created, can beacquired flexibly as one goes along inlife.
The central concept of life-longlearning will call for fundamental changes in educational philosophy andeducational aid and we must be prepared for them. International EducationYear 1970 inaugurated at the thresholdto' the Second Development Decade,will see the elaboration and the start
of the application of the concept innon-formal education, strategies ininnovation, the use of new techniques,methods, curricula, together with newconcepts in educational planning, ranging from systems analysis to programme budgeting.
New learning systems need to beconceived where the content and
method of instruction are relevant tothe spirit and the needs of the 1970s.The only way to search for educationalbreakthroughs Is to experiment andto evaluate those experiments to takerisks on speculative programmes; totry out new learning systems in bothin-school and out-of-school institutions;to leave aside some of the traditional
impediments of academic pedagogy,such as examination systems which
stress rote memory instead of abilityto solve development problems; tochannel today's splendid drive forparticipation into self-help and self-renewal learning patterns. In short toinnovatel But always innovation in thedirection of the liberation of talent and
Intellect, and in the direction of socialand economic justice so as to makeall development serve man.
WILL this at long last usher
in that technological revolution in education during the Second Decade,similar to those which have sweptthrough health and agriculture duringthe first? I fervently hope so.
The largest and most decisive contribution of education is in widening thehorizons of youth, in giving them thecapacity to adapt to the new humancondition, and by preparing them toshare in all innovative activities. Can
education fire their imagination at afaster rate than that at which they aresetting fire to our educational structures? We cannot, of course, orientour youth in certain directions or givethem a free area for participation, Ifall incentives are lacking, if theyobserve that we do not practise thatwhich we preach, that the society thatwe have created and dominate is
vastly different from our verbalizationof it.
We preach peace and make or condone war. We talk about equality andenjoy the fruits of inequality. We Insiston vocational education but send our
own sons and daughters for a university classics degree. We cannoteffectively plan education for a society that cannot be imagined by ouryoung generation and does not callfor their total loyalty. May not then anincreasingly heavy focus on realequality in educational opportunitieshelp form young men and women whowill transform our society?
MALCOLM S. ADISESHIAH Is Deputy Director-General of Unesco. He joined the organization in 1948 and will retire from Unesco
at the end of this year. After leaving Unesco,Dr. Adiseshiah will become Director of the
Madras Institute of Development Studies,which he is founding. The Institute willpromote the study of economic and socialdevelopment problems in Tamil Nadu and inSouthern India generally. Born in the Stateof Madras, Dr. Adiseshiah was educated inIndia and Great Britain. Before joiningUnesco, he headed the Department of Economics at the Christian College, Madras andhad been lecturer in economics at the Uni
versity of Calcutta. He launched Unesco'sfirst development aid programme and hasbeen particularly concerned with problems ofdevelopment ever since.
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Overcrowding is so serious in some schools for Palestine refugee childrenthat classes are run on a shift basis. Here, children change shifts at aprefabricated school in the Baqa'a camp near Amman, Jordan. Over220,000 school-age refugees in the Middle East attend schools run jointlyby the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and Unesco. More than83,000 children are in schools operating a double-shift system and over10,500 go to school in tents or temporary buildings.
Photo UNRWA
In the crowded refugee
camps of the Middle East, third generation Palestine Arab refugee children,born to parents who were themselvesborn in these same camps, are nowbeginning to learn to walk. Each yearmore than 55,000 children are born torefugee parents and these new births,coupled with a fresh influx of refugeesfollowing the Six-Day War of 1967,have swelled the original figureof some 900,000 Palestine Arabs
displaced by the war of 1948 and cared for by the United Nations Reliefand Works Agency (UNRWA) to over1 ,400,000.
UNRWA was established in 1949 by
THE PLIGHT
OF THE PALESTINE
REFUGEE SCHOOLS
the United Nations to provide therefugees with food, shelter, clothingand health, welfare and educationalservices.
Today approximately 700,000 of therefugee population are under the ageof 18 and as a consequence the burden of the educational effort is
constantly expanding. It now swallowsup nearly 43 percent of UNRWA'sresources annually only slightly lessthan is expended on rood, clothingand shelter.
In the educational field Unesco has
an important role to play. It assumestechnical responsibility for the broad
educational programme and providesthe higher directing staff and a numberof experts who advise on the planningand execution of the programme as awhole and on the teaching of specificsubjects.
The joint UNRWA-Unesco educationprogramme now reaches some 297,000children of whom over 220,000 aretaught In the 480 UNRWA-Unescoprimary and first-level secondaryschools that have been established In
Jordan, the Lebanon, Syria and theGaza Strip.
All the refugee children receive sixyears schooling between the ages of
CONTINUED NEXT PAGE
15
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Right, mountain-top view of Baqa'a, a "city-camp" forPalestine refugees, near Amman, Jordan. The largestof UNRWA's six emergency camps, it houses over40,000 people. Below right, prefabricated hutsprovided by UNRWA have done much to improveliving conditions at Baqa'a. Below, a tentedcamp at Djeener, also in Jordan.
16
REFUGEE SCHOOLS (Continued)
6 and 12 and those with a satisfac
tory scholastic record continue for afurther three years in the first-levelsecondary schools. By a system ofpayments to government and privateschools some 64,000 refugee pupilsreceive additional upper secondaryeducation.
The refugees are hungry for education. Many of the schools are overcrowded and double shifts of pupilsare not uncommon.
But formal education In itself Is not
enough. An important feature of theUNRWA-Unesco programme is thetechnical and semi-professional training provided at 12 special centres.The courses, generally lasting twoyears, cover a wide range of occupational training, turning out plumbers,draughtsmen, hairdressers, laboratoryassistants, instructors, etc.
An Indication of the educational
effort being made is the fact that lastyear over 7,000 candidates in the GazaStrip alone sat for their U.A.R. matriculation examination. It was the first
time that examinations of this type hadbeen held since the Strip was occupied In 1967.
The holding of these examinationsinvolved Unesco in delicate negotiations and arrangements to collect theexamination papers from Cairo andreturn the candidates' papers therefor marking. More than 5,000 of thecandidates were successful and in
February and March this year just over
a thousand of them set out on the
200 mile journey to Cairo, in fiveconvoys co-ordinated and supervisedby the Red Cross, to begin coursesin universities and other higher learning institutions.
UNRWA is financed by voluntarycontributions from governments anddonations from voluntary organizationsand private individuals and, therefore,cannot count on a regular and steadilyincreasing income to meet its growing needs. The rapid rise in therefugee school population alone hasadded some $5 million to the cost ofthe UNRWA-Unesco education programme since the 1966-1967 schoolyear.
Clearly the need for an expandingeducational effort will continue to exist
so long as the problem of the refugeesremains unsettled, yet owing to shortage of funds the UNRWA programmeis in danger. The impact of anysubstantial reduction in the Agency'sservices will almost certainly fallheavily on the education and trainingprogramme, despite the tragic implications which this will have for the
future of the refugee children.
As UNRWA's Commissioner-Gen
eral, Mr. Laurence Michelmore, toldthe U.N. General Assembly in 1969,"If education and training were to becurtailed, the horizon of the refugeeswould be even more limited and a
valuable form of technical assistance
to the Arab world would be lost."
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The golden hoardof the Scythians byAlexander Kirpichnikov
ALEXANDER KIRPICHNIKOV of the SovietUnion is a historian who has become well
known in his country for his books and studieson archaeology and the history of art.
Photos C V. Chuprynin, Archaeology Institute, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Kiev
In 1969, an archaeological expedition ledby Prof. A. Leskov excavated a Scythiantomb in the Kakhovka district of southern
Ukraine which had escaped the attentionsof grave-robbers. It contained theskeleton of a Scythian warrior, 520 goldobjects and countless other objectsof great historical value. The tomb isconsidered to be the richest 5th centuryB.C. Scythian burial ever discovered.Above, detail of one end of a massive,
gold torque necklet; the enameldecorations retain their colour to this
day. Below, three of the many tinygold plaques that adorned the warrior'squiver, depicting a deer, a wild boarand a hunting-dog.
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THE air traffic director of Moscow's Sheremetievairport looked askance at the two young men who stood In front of him, travel-stained and red-eyed from lack of sleep. But there was an air of urgencyand determination about archaelogist Vasili Bidzilya and police lieutenant Vladimir Kapstov that lent authority to their demand for an immediate priorityflight to Leningrad for themselves and the battered suitcase which theyrefused to put down even for a second.
A glance Inside the suitcase was enough for the airport official. Withinminutes the two men and their precious cargo were in the air and threehours later they were unpacking their treasures beneath the- astounded gazeof the Director of the Hermitage Museum, Dr. Boris Piotrovsky, whose eyeswidened as, one after another, gold-rimmed vases, a gold and silver bowl,two drinking horns embellished with gold and silver, three silver vessels anda bundle containing hundreds of small gold discs were placed on his desk.
CONTINUED PAGE 21
Thieves who rifled the "Gaimonov"
tomb near Balki in southern Ukraine
failed to find this magnificent gold andsilver loving-cup (below and detailback cover), and the gold sheep's headthat adoms the tip of a silver rhytonor drinking horn, above. Unearthed bya young Ukrainian archaeologistVasili Bidzilya in the summer of 1969,during a routine check of some burialmounds threatened with obliteration bya vast irrigation scheme, the loving-cupis a veritable archaeologist's encyclopaediaof Scythian life, dress, habits andcustoms "written" in gold and silverby a master craftsman of the4th century B.C.
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Photos APN
20
The Scythians were great lovers of thedecorative arts, and by a curious quirkof history they have preserved for usin their tombs remarkable examples ofGreek craftsmanship. From theChertomlyk tombs in the Rostov areacame this gold plate, above, depictingscenes from the life of the Greek
hero Achilles, which once embellisheda Scythian quiver. Right, a gold facingfor a scabbard showing scenes ofbattle between Greeks and Scythians.
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THE SCYTHIANS (Continued)
Faces of silver, garments of gold
It was a moment of unhoped fortriumph. Early In 1969, young archaeologist Vasili Bidzilya had been detailed to supervise the excavation of someScythian burial mounds, near theUkrainian village of Balki on the leftbank of the lower Dnieper, some100 miles north west of the Crimean
peninsular. The mounds were threatened by the approach of the NorthRogachik irrigation canal system andthe excavation was thought to be merely a matter of routine. Vasili Bidzilyacould hardly have anticipated that hewould stumble across a treasure-trove
that would make his name famous.
Most of the objects found In the"Gaimonov tomb", as it is now designated, are unique specimens, althoughthey bear a close affinity with thetreasures found earlier at the famous
Scythian burial mounds of Chertomlyk,Solokha and Kul Oba.
The Scythians were a nomadicpeople who established their kingdomIn the area of the Black Sea, the lowerreaches of the Dnieper and the Donand in the Crimea. They were skilledhorsemen and maintained their empirefrom the 9th century B.C. until the3rd century B.C. when they were gradually replaced by the Sarmatians.
Soviet academician Boris Rybakovhas described the discovery of theGaimonov tomb as "a great achievement that will give fresh Impetus tothe whole study of Scythian culture."
Perhaps the most interesting findis a gold and silver loving-cup onwhich a bas relief depicts scenes ofmilitary and diplomatic events in Scythian life. On one side of the cup areseen two long-haired, bearded, seatedfigures. They wear caftans of a patterned material, narrow trousers andpointed boots secured at the anklesby leather thongs. One Scythianwears a sword belt, on which hishand rests. The other holds a quiverfull of arrows while a bow and bow
case lie beside him. Each man has one
hand upraised and holding a whip.
By fashioning their hands andfaces in silver and their garments ingold the craftsman has achieved aluminous, vital effect. He has giventheir faces a solemn, pensive expression as though they were praying ortaking an oath. For sheer artistrythese are probably the finest portraits
of Scythians in existence and the loving-cup is clearly the handiwork of amaster craftsman who was a skilled
sculptor with the eye and attention todetail of an ethnographer.
Unfortunately, the other side of thecup is badly defaced, but two seatedfigures can be made out. They arebeardless and each has one armstretched out towards the other. One
of them has a goblet resting on hisknee. To their right a kneeling manshields his face with one hand and
with the other proffers something tohis seated lord. To the left a figure isto be seen drinking from a wine-skin.
With its six figures, who judging bytheir accoutrements must have been
personages of considerable eminence,this bas relief gives a fascinatingglimpse of a long-vanished world andprovides invaluable details of Scythianweaponry and dress.
Vasili Bidzilya ended his investigation of the burial mounds by tacklingthe largest kurgan, a man-made hillockover a grave, on which a watch toweris sometimes placed. The kurgan inquestion measures some 30 feet inheight by 250 feet in diameter and issurrounded by 70 smaller mounds,some of which had been opened upearlier. Working under Bidzilya's supervision, miners from the Zaporozheiron ore centre took 2 1/2 months toremove half the earth mound on top ofthe kurgan which was enclosed by alow circular wall or kerb.
On the western slope of the moundthey found traces of a funeral feastbones of sheep and horses, fragmentsof broken amphorae, bridles andarrow heads. At the base of the
mound were two entrances leading toan underground chamber 25 feet belowthe base of the mound. The excav
ators also found an entrance made
centuries ago by grave-robbers.
A careful inspection of the wallsof the vault revealed a niche contain
ing fragments of the alabaster facing ofa sarcophagus. A little farther on thekitchen area was found with a selec
tion of cooking utensils includingbronze tongs for extracting pieces ofmeat, a cauldron, a cooking pot, a tray,a dish, a small bucket, a sieve forstraining wine, several clay amphoraeand a ladle for drawing wine. Lying
across the threshold of the kitchen
was the skeleton of a guard with hislance and bow and arrows beside him.
When the plunderers of the pasthad entered the tomb this area wasapparently blocked by earth, which hadfallen on the grave of a woman inwhich were found her leg bones andthe remains of a pair of high leatherboots adorned with 43 gold triangular-shaped plates.
Then, suddenly, one of the searchers stumbled on a patch of softerearth. A glint of gold set them diggingfuriously and the cache which hadbaffled the grave-robbers at last yielded up its treasure, including the loving-cup described above. For eighteenhours on end the exultant searchers
examined, catalogued and photographed the treasure that had lain undisturbed in the earth for 24 centuries.
The excavation of the Gaimonovtomb has not yet been completed.Three more burial mounds, Including the central one, have been foundand are being Investigated.
A museum Is to be erected on thesite of these discoveries and copies ofthe most valuable objects will be puton display. The earth mound over thekurgan is to be replaced and theancient white stone kerbing that surrounds It is to be restored. Rising likea pyramid out of the flat expanse ofthe plain, the mound will continue tomark the last resting place of Scythian warriors, a tomb which for theirdescendants has provided a windowlooking back on to the mysteries ofthe past.
FROZEN TOMBSOF SIBERIA
Near the point where the bordersof Russia, China and Mongoliaconverge lie the frozen burialbarrows of Pazyryk. Unlike theBlack Sea Scythian mounds whichwere topped with earth, the Pazyrykbarrows were covered with greatboulders. Rain seeped through theboulders, was turned into ice by thesavage Siberian winter and converted the tombs into huge undergroundrefrigerators. Although the tombswere rifled by robbers in search ofgold, for 2,500 years a vast rangeof articles remained ice-encrusted
beneath the soil in virtually pristinecondition. Uncovered by Sovietanthropologist and archaeologistSergei Rudenko in 1947-1949, theygive us a picture of a horsebreedingpeople living much like the Scythiansof the Black Sea area. The fasci
nating story of these tombs and theIron Age horsemen buried in themis told in Sergei Rudenko's book"Frozen Tombs of Siberia", recentlytranslated into English for the firsttime by Dr. M. W. Thompson (seeBookshelf, page 34).
21
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Museums
for modernsby Duncan F. Cameron
WHEN a child from the city
on his first country holiday collectsstones and mushrooms, a butterfly, adead toad, leaves and flowers, we maydismiss it as childish curiosity. Butnotice how he takes his treasures to
a private place; see how he arrangesand re-arranges his collection. See hisreal distress, not just when an unthinking parent throws out his preciousfinds, but also when a well-meaningmother tidies up the childish array,destroying the spatial relationships hehas painstakingly established. It isnot only through his collection butalso through its structure as a modelof a new reality, that he seeks understanding.
Similarly, consider the compulsiveordering and arranging of objects inthe private quarters of the aged, asthey strive to maintain faith in a realitylong past. View, In this light, theapparent chaos and random displayof objects in the private room of ateenage girl or boy. See their frequent restructuring of the "collection",and the uncertainty of those yearsexpressed in the need for a flexiblemodel which can be manipulated tosuit the whims of the moment as their
search for an identity a place in thescheme of things goes on. This iswhat collecting is all about.
The museum, I suggest, has a socialfunction today which has been inherent since the first collector, at somepoint distant In time, gathered objectsaround him, arranged and re-arrangedthem striving through their contemplation to come to some deeper understanding of his world. In other terms,the social function has been constant.
The arbitrary sampling of a realityperceived, and the organizing or structuring of a model of that reality, has
22
DUNCAN F. CAMERON is National Directorof the Canadian Conference of the Arts, anational association of Canada's majororganizations in the arts, and Co-ordinator ofthe International Sub-committee on the Pub
lic and Modern Art, of the International Council of Museums. A museologist and culturalresources consultant, Mr. Cameron has written widely in these fields. His article isbased on a study he presented *c a recentUnesco international symposium on "Museums in the Contemporary World."
been one of man's ways of comingto terms with his environment.
First, let us consider the traditional
museum in these terms. Second, letus look at the innovations of the lasttwenty years and more which wereintended to give the traditional museum relevance in the world of today'saudience and to democratize the
museum. Finally let us speculate onthe museum as Everyman's public yetprivate environment for a personaladventure in self-discovery and thesearch for identity in a world of constant change which is so easily perceived as chaos.
The traditional museum, and by thisis meant the so-called public museumof the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, may have had any ofmany origins. Rarely was it a museumcreated in the public interest andplanned from its beginnings to servea mass audience. More often it was
a private, and possibly a highly artistic or individualistic collection, openedto the public.
It may have been a private house,modest or grand, opened to the publicby virtue of its history, its contents,its past inhabitants, or failure to findany other use for it. It may have beena scholarly collection, the by-productof research or exploration, opened tothe public by the political pressuresfor democratization which, thoughnaive, were present even a centuryago.
The museum, before becomingpublic, was the domain of its privateowner, a university, a church, asociety, or some other persons orbody which had neither created themuseum, nor organized it for effectiveuse of any kind, by a mass audience.Even If it had been effective in its
private rle as a collection or museum,it was unlikely to be effective in itsnew public rle. I know, in fact, ofno instances where a private museumbecame, in reality, a public museum.I know only of private museums whichbecame open to the public. The difference is important.
Where the private museum is opento the public the visitor is told, "This
Is someone else's collection some
one else's model of their realitywhich you may examine." When, onthe other hand, the museum is a publicmuseum, the visitor is told, "This isyour museum. This Is your collection.Here is a sampling of a reality and aview of the world which should have
meaning for you."
How often does the visitor find himself in an alien environment In thetraditional "public" museum? Howoften does he retreat to the worldoutside our museum where he can findin that familiar chaos more of relevance than was made accessible to
him within? And when he does linger,how often is he finding, not meaningful relationships with his day-to-dayworld, not understanding or revelation,but rather re-enforcement for his fan
tasy world which he can artfully contrive from our offerings?
The museum, as distinct from othermedia of communication, depends primarily on things on real thingsrather than on words or mages orsymbols or replicas. The nouns ofthe museum language are objects; therelationships between objects are theverbs. The adverbs and adjectives ofthe language are the supplementarymedia of print, graphic, sound, film,colour and form in the object environment, and so forth. This being thecase the prime requirement for theorganization and administration of amuseum is the person or persons whoknow most about the things whichconstitute the collection, or who knowbest how to assemble and build theneeded collection.
These experts, the curators, are ofnecessity at the core of all museumorganization. Without them and theirexpertise the objects of the collectioncannot be encoded with the objectiveand precise messages which arerequired if the collection is to becomethe meaningful sample of a realityreferred to above. It is the knowledgeof the curator, his researches and hisInsight, which permit the museum toso present the object that it can speakfor itself.
Only the non-museums of thetwentieth century the exhibit and
CONTINUED PAGE 24
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Photo Mike Peters, Twickenham, U.K.
Unlike the traditional museum,
often rigidly didactic in presentingits collections, the modern "creative"museum seeks to put the visitorinto direct contact with what it has
to offer and help him find in theseobjects meaningful relationshipswith his day-to-day world. Whereaschildren have no difficulty inmaking contact with objects, thuslighting a spark of wonder andcuriosity (photo above), adults haveoften become accustomed to regardthe label as a more important
source of information than the
object itself (left).
23
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MUSEUMS FOR MODERNS (Continued)
The curator 'Jack-of-all-trades'
Photo Bruce Davidson Magnum, Paris
24
demonstration centres without research
collections or resources for originalresearch in their fields of interest are
free of this dependency on the curator.They of course must assume aparasitic rle, being indirectly dependent on those museums which docollect, research and publish and doprovide curatorial expertise. Butmore of the new, non-museums later.For the moment it is important toconsider the effect which this primedependence on the curator has hadon the organization and administrationof museums.
Since the curator was the authority,and because there was usually noother staff available, the curatorbecame not only the collector andresearcher, but also the interpreter.It was he who designed the exhibition,who determined the exhibition programme, who produced the interpretative label and prepared messages forother supplementary media. It wasthe curator who selected and arrangedthe objects for public display and Itwas often the curator who also gavethe guided tour and the lecture. Whoelse? Was he not the authority?
Of course he was, but he was firsta scholar, and was being asked tobecome a designer, an educator and
therefore the interpreter. With rareexceptions he was untrained for theserles. In attempting to fill them hehad to fall back on what he knew
best which was the private languageof his scholarly discipline. Thegalleries became elaborate, three-dimensional expressions of nineteenth century systems of the classification of knowledge. The interpretation of the collections, rather thanrelating to the experience of thevisitor, or to his values, related onlyto the compulsive and obsessionalattempts of scholars of that time tofind understanding through encyclopaedic exercises in the structuringof knowledge.
In fairness it must be said that the
curator did not ask to be givenresponsibilities for which he was unprepared. Nor would it be fair to saythat all of them did not want to reach
their mass audiences. They simplydid not know how to go about it. Thesituation was compounded by the factsthat exhibition design, educationthrough the exhibit medium, and othermuseum skills recognized today, eitherdid not exist or were not recognizedduring the first century of the periodunder discussion.
In discussing the curatorial lite and
its effect on museum organization andadministration, it should be noted that
references to systematics, the obsessional ordering of knowledge, or themanifestation of curatorshlp as a three-dimensional textbook, are not directedtowards museums of natural historyor of science and technology alone.
The history museum and the artmuseum, including the museum ofcontemporary art, fall prey to the sameills as the others. Private codes are
in use in these museums as In the
others. The criteria for the selection
and organization of works of art orfor determining objects of historicalsignificance constitute a mystiquewhich may be even more threateningand baffling to the visitor than thatwhich he encountered in the scienceexhibit.
This situation has persisted throughthe reluctance of the public to protestit and the willingness of, governingbodies to support It. Both have beenin awe of the mystique of curatorship,both have been unprepared to admitthat the content of the museum is
meaningless and lacks personalrelevance. Thus, for many, themuseum is a fantasy playground, anunreal world offering escapist adventure.
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FINGERTIP
DISCOVERIES
Visiting a museum filled with exhibitsmarked "do not touch" or locked
up in showcases is often a frustratingexperience for children. They needto touch objects, to handle and explorethem from every angle (photo left), fnmuseums which cater to this need,playing or working with exhibits offerschildren a "discovery in learning"
and an exciting experience. Right,introduction to a new dimension in
sculpture an Alexander Calder mobile.
For others It becomes, after minimal
experience, a threatening environment in which the frustration of
attempting to understand or to findmeaning in the incomprehensible leadsto anxiety. For a few, the upper-middle class with higher education andtherefore some key to the secretcodes, it becomes a domain with classand status connotations. It is this
segment of society which has, in thepast at least, tended to support thetraditional museum as describedabove.
The last two decades, however,have produced new forces and newattitudes towards the democratization
of cultural resources and have broughtchange. But since conferences arestill being held to discuss the rle ofthe museum In society, it would appearthat the changes of the recent pasthave been insufficient.
If there Is one sentiment which has
been pervasive in the museum reformmovement of the past twenty yearsit is a desire to be both wanted and
useful. Several trends are apparent:
M An open and uncommitted searchfor the rle of the museum in society.
An argument for the museum as anintegral part of the public educationsystem, yet to be fully appreciated(financed) or exploited.
The development of popular pro
grammes, sponsored by museums butnot growing out of fundamental orcore programmes of the museum.
The rejection of traditional museumfunctions (collecting and identification,conservation, original research, publication), and of the curator, in favourof public exhibition and interpretationlargely dependent on media other thanthe museum collections.
The development of children'smuseums as a separate and qualitatively different institution thoughcontained within the existing museumorganization.
The development of special museums for the blind, the handicapped,the poor, the oppressed, or for whatare often called "the culturally deprived minorities."
While all of this has been in
progress (erroneously designated the"museum revolution"), there have concurrently been both reactionary movements within the museum world and,from without, an increasing publicdemand for and use of museums (the"museum explosion"). There hasbeen pressure from both the publicand government for democratization.The picture is by no means clear.
I would suggest, first of all, that thereforms have been well intentioned
but have been effected In the absence
of any real understanding of eitherthe nature of the very evident publichunger today or of past failures tosatisfy the public appetite. The openand uncommitted search for the social
rle or function of the museum is a
long-standing need.
The argument that the museum isproperly a part of the formal educationsystem is, in my view, indefensible.The museum, like the playground, theconcert hall, the theatre or the publicpark must remain a private environment for personal experience nomatter how greatly it may be sharedwith others.
The museum's move towards inte
gration with the educational system,I suspect, is primarily a result of thefact that education in our society isestablished; accepted, and was virtually immune from any general publicattack or criticism in the 1940s or the1950s. Alliance with the education
establishment meant money, status,and above all, an unquestioned socialusefulness. That, I believe, was theattraction.
The objection, of course, is not thatmuseums are not educational. It isthat the museum achieves its edu
cational goals through a process aliento the traditional school system.Current innovation and research in
education may bring the two closertogether, but that does not justify theill-founded alliances of the past.
CONTINUED NEXT PAGE
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MUSEUMS FOR MODERNS (Continued)
The creative museum adventure in self-discovery
The development of museum sponsored activities which are peripheralto the essential programme of themuseum is not new. The 1950s and
1960s however produced a proliferationof supplementary activities and somemuseums, while remaining basicallyunchanged, surrounded themselveswith: concert series, art and craft
classes, women's organizations, attractive programmes of social events,luncheon clubs for men, lecture seriesand study groups, film and theatreprogrammes, guided tours of foreigncountries, bazaars, auctions andfashion shows.
A
26
LLL this might be commended were it true that these activities
grew out of the museum's basic function and social usefulness. The more
common pattern, I fear, has been forthe museum to become a recreation
centre, a social club, a school, acollege or a market place because itdid not know how to be a museum.
The defence that these added
attractions are necessary for fundraising or for the involvement of newaudiences, or that they bring depthand relevance to the traditional
museum programme is weak. It is anadmission that the museum, as amuseum, has been unable to winpublic support, to create involvement,to provide depth and relevance.
One of the most visible trends inthe "museum revolution" in North
America has been the creation of non-
museums, by which I mean exhibitand activity centres concerned withpublic education through the mediumof the exhibit, but without dependenceon collections of original materials.
There are centres of science and
technology, for example, which dependalmost entirely on audio-visual presentations and apparatus which demonstrates principles or processes.Health museums are similar in that
they rely .primarily on the model orreplica. Some natural science museums, especially those with industrialsponsorship, tend to rely more andmore on audio-visual and graphicmedia and less on collections of
original materials.
There is no criticism of this development Implied here, but it must beremembered that an exhibit centre, nomatter how effective, is not a museum,unless its primary medium is theobject, the collection, the sample ofreality, referred to earlier.
One regrettable aspect of the development of the new exhibit centresis that they are frequently called
museums, and thus prompt comparisons potentially as misleading ascomparisons between television andfilm or between film and theatre.
Even more regrettable has been thetoo common practice of publicizing theexhibit centre, not in terms of its ownspecial values, but in terms of itsbreak from the "musty, dusty" museumtradition. Museums may have broughtsuch negative comparison uponthemselves but the solution is not to
compete with the exhibit centre on itsterms but seek excellence In the
museum's own terms.
The exhibit centres arc popular, anddo appear to meet a real need ininformal education, especially in thehighly industrialized urban complexes.But there is danger in the temptationto imitate success for its own sake.
That danger is real for the manymuseums which have to compete forpublic funds in a political popularitycontest.
Something must be said of theeffects of the trends already discussedon museum organization and administration. The most important effecthas been that greater status has beengained by non-curatorial personnel,and there has become the possibilityof a power-balance within the museumorganization.
The designers, educators and administrators gained control of a largershare of budget and of programmeand became more powerful in theorganization. Conservators and otherhighly skilled technical staff, registrars,and librarians, demanded and got newstatus and recognition.
I know of one museum where the
business suit or tailored dress was
once the mark of the curator. Female
clerical staff tended to wear smocks
and technicians and skilled tradesmen
wore white laboratory coats. Thewhite coat, however, seemed to be asymbol of the scientist or scholar forthe visiting public. Soon curatorsdonned the white coat and the
technicians and tradesmen were givenbuff-coloured coats. Female clericalstaff then abandoned their smocks
and while some blossomed, fashionably dressed, others adopted thewhite coat.
One might have expected thecurators, or at least the director, nextto appear in a white coat with purplehem, but the silly game neveradvanced to that stage. Curatorsreturned to business suits and tailored
dresses. The point of the ancedoteis simply that the game of status andthe power struggle is both real andtransparent, and bears all the marksof insecure and defensive behaviour
in the face of change.
The administration and organization
of museums was also affected duringthis period by the establishment ofeither new departments or the growthof offices which had previously beenIn the background. Some museumsset up public relations departmentsand television offices. Education de
partments grew enormously. Membership secretariats and offices for theplanning of special programmes wereenlarged. Design departments, whichin some instances had previously beenno more than carpenter's shopsbecame design studios with large,well-qualified staffs. The term "extension" was often used to designatedepartments responsible for the widerange of activities supplementing themuseum programme. The lowly bookkeeper's office became the Department of Administration.
The overall effect has been one of
confusion and at times open dispute.Good public relations and publicity,massive education programmes forschoolchildren and appealing, if irrelevant, adult programmes have allappeared to be necessary to winpublic support and to get public fundsfrom government. In some casesthese have been at the expense ofthe essential museum functions, andthe curators have justifiably rebelled.The enlarged organizations for administration have sometimes exceeded
need and become stifling bureaucracies. The desire for popularity hasoften led to evaluations of success in
which gross attendance statisticswere given more weight than thequality of the experience being enjoyedby the visitor.
IN summary, the organiza
tion and administration of museums
changed In two principle ways. First,the non-curatorial staff of the museum
began to share with the curatorialstaff the direction of the institution,although a harmonious balance of power was seldom achieved. Second,the administration concerned itself to
an Increasing degree with its publicand the building of an audience.
In my view this concern too oftenrelated to the institution's emotional
need for acceptance or to the competition for public funds, and related toorarely to the public's need for themuseum as a unique learning environment. The exceptions are thosemuseums created not for a mass,broad-spectrum audience, but forchildren and for certain minoritygroups.
Although children's museums existedin some centres long before the postwar period under discussion, and somehad won an enviable reputation, the
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EXPLORING
THE WORLD
BEHIND A MASK
These three imaginatively designed maskswere among 200 works recently displayed at theMuseum of Man In Paris in an exhibition concerned with
African art. But they were not made by Africanartists. The exhibition demonstrated the outstandingsuccess of an educational experiment in which theCantini Museum in Marseille collaborated with manyschools in the Provence region of south-eastern France.In this French museum, collections of modern artand temporary exhibitions are used as study anddiscussion material by children and students aged from5 to 20. This year, the children showed concretely'and in highly individualistic ways how their knowledgehas been enriched by a museum exhibition of Africanart, combined with their lessons on Africa. Using allkinds of materials, children produced original worksthat reflected their personal interpretation of Africanart. These masks, for example, were fashioned by15 and 16-year-olds, using nails and sieves (left), straw,buttons and odds and ends of leather (below) andcores from rolls of paper (below left). The experimentshowed how museums can open a meaningfuldialogue and participate directly in educational andcommunity activities. It also illustrates how the beautyof a work of art in a museum can become the link
between children of today and peoples ofanother age and culture.
Photos courtesy DanieleGlraudy, curator Musesdes Beaux-Arts, Marseille- Atelier de Reprographie, Marseile
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by Tor Sylte
UNITED WORLD
COLLEGESa new concept in international education
28
wV W ILL there ever be such a
person as International Man or International Woman? Someone whose
attitudes and beliefs are not enclosed
by national or racial boundaries? Someone for whom words like "foreign"or "alien" have been defused of
menace? Someone whose . values
have been formed specifically by theinternational education he or she has
received? These are good questionsto ask in International Education Year.
Some answers may perhaps befound in a new and major experimentIn international education The United
World Colleges and at the first ofthese colleges at St. Donat's Castle inWales which was opened in 1962.
I went to the London headquarters
TOR SYLTE, Norwegian writer and journalist. Is foreign editor of the daily newspaper' Verdens Gang", published in Oslo.
of the project and to the college inWales to see and hear for myself.
The aims of the project were outlined to me in London by an Irishman,Robert Blackburn, who was the firstDirector of Studies of the college andnow as Chief Executive Officer of the
project, works for Lord Mountbatten,the President of the International
Council of the United World Colleges.
Robert Blackburn told me that the
United World College of the Atlanticwas the first of a number of such
colleges all based on a simple belief:that international education is no
longer an expensive luxury but mustbe made general In this century forthe sake of survival. The project aimsto use education to unite not divide
nations, to break down barriers, tocreate new forms of international
education.
The plan is to set up a chain ofinternational colleges In Europe andin other continents which will enter
young men and women of high ability
for their last two years of secondaryschool. In these schools the organizers hope that students will discover,by living and studying together,common ideals based on service and
loyalty to the International community.The intention is that they should thenreturn to their own countries, welcoming International diversity, convincedthat International problems must besettled by reason and discussion; notby force.
This is an Idealistic aim but if such
colleges could turn out each yearseveral thousand able and carefullyselected students, their influencecould be of lasting International value.Half a dozen such Colleges could havea major impact by the turn of thecentury.
There are special practical needstoday for International education atpre-university age which make thisproject of particular interest in International Education Year. The inter
national business community is
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A 13th century Welshfortress, St Donat's Castle(left) is the setting forthe modern campus ofAtlantic College, a newexperiment in internationaleducation. It is the first
link in a proposed chainof international schools
United World
Colleges to beestablished in different
parts of the world. AtlanticCollege provides two finalyears of secondaryeducation to 300 students
boys and girls aged15 to 19 from 36
countries and every walkof life. Its programme isa working example ofinternational education and
co-operation. Right,mealtime in the ancient
banqueting hall ofSt Donat's, which has
been extensively restored.Similar United World
Colleges are soon to beset up in the Fed. Rep.of Germany, Canadaand Singapore.
growing rapidly; increasing numbersof international civil servants and
diplomats are moving around the worldwith their families and have greatdifficulty getting suitable education fortheir children. They want to givetheir children secondary educationin the country in which they arebased but university education athome. The existing national educational systems cannot meet theseneeds. Also, international organizations and businesses desperately needstaff with a genuinely internationaloutlook and training.
From what I saw, I believe that the
United World Colleges can help meetthese idealistic and practical needs.
The first United World College Is ina fabulous setting a modern collegecampus based on a 13th century castlewhich was owned and extensivelymodernized by the American millionaireand newspaper owner, William Randolph Hearst It was purchased bya prominent French internationalist,Antoine Besse, who donated it to thecollege. Now it stands, spectacularand secure, a medieval fortresssurrounded by ultra modern dormitoryblocks and academic buildings.Terraced Elizabethan gardens leaddown to the rough and dangerouswaters of the Bristol Channel.
At St. Donat's the first experimentalphase of the United World Collegesproject has now been completed. BySeptember 1969 the first college wasat full strength with some 300 studentsfrom more than 36 countries. The
United Kingdom provided one quarterof the students, followed by large
groups from the Fed. Rep. of Germany,U.S.A., Canada end Scandinavia.Most o